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PEARLS. 
I’ve known, too, a good many 
Idlers, who said. 
I’ve a right to my living, 
The world owes me bread 1 
A right ? lazy lubber! 
A thousand times, Ho ! 
’Tis his, and his only, 
Who hoes Ms own roio 1 
-Alice Carey. 
A dew-drop, falling on the wild sea’s wave, 
Exclaim’d in fear, 11 1 perish in this grave;” 
But in a shell received, that drop of dew 
IJnto a pearl of marvellous beauty grew; 
And, happy, now the grave did magnify 
Which thrust it forth, as it had fear’d, to die; 
Until again, “I perish quite,” it said, 
Torn by rude diver from its ocean bed; 
Oh, unbelieving I so it came to gleam 
Chief jewel in a monarch’s diadem. 
Blessings. 
Save our blessings, Master, save 
From the blight of thankless eye; 
Teach us for all joys to crave 
Benedictions pure and high. 
Own them given, endure them gone, 
Shrink from their hardening touch, yet prize them won; 
Prize them as rich odors, meet 
For love to lavish on His sacred feet; 
Prize them as sparkles bright 
Of heavenly dew, from yon o’erflowing well «f light. 
Life. 
Success is like climbing a mountain, 
’Tis hard work to reach the tip top ; • 
Who would catch the bright gems of the fountain, 
Must watch for the water to drop. 
Duties. 
Say not, then, thou hast no duties; 
Friendless outcasts on thee call, 
And the sick and the afflicted, 
And the children, more than all. 
“ Oh, my friend, rise up and follow 
Where the han d of God shall lead; 
He has brought thee through affliction, 
But to fit thee for his need. 
Strength sublime may rise from weakness, 
Groans be turned to songs of praise; 
Hor are life’s divinest labors 
Only told by length of days. 
And pious souls there are who view 
The world through goggles colored blue; 
And others who have never seen, 
Except through goggles colored green. 
jamjiauiou. 
The Habit of Reading.— I have no time to read, is 
the common complaint, and especially of women, 
whose occupations are such as to prevent continuous 
book perusal. They, seem to think, because they can¬ 
not devote as much attention to hooks as they are 
compelled to devote to their avocations, that they can¬ 
not read anything. But this is a great mistake. It 
isn’t the books we finish at a sitting which always do 
us the most good. Those we devour in the odd mo¬ 
ments, half a dozen pages at a time, often give us 
more satisfaction, and are more thoroughly digested 
than those we make a particular effort to read. The 
men who have made their mark in the world have 
generally been the men who have in boyhood formed 
the habit of reading .at every available moment, 
whether for five minutes or five hours. 
It is the habit of reading rather than the time at our 
command that helps us on the road to learning. Many 
of the most cultivated persons, whose names have 
been famous as students, have given only two. or 
three hours a day to their books. If we make use of 
spare minutes in the,midst of our work and read a lit¬ 
tle, if hut a page or paragraph, we shall find our brain 
quickened and our toil lightened by just so much in¬ 
creased satisfaction as the book gives us. Nothing 
helps along the monotonous daily round so much as 
fresh and striking thoughts, to be considered while our 
bands are busy. A new idoa from, a new volume is 
like oil which reduces the friction of the machinery of 
life. What we remember from brief glimpses into 
books often serves as a stimulus to action, and be¬ 
comes one of the most precious deposits in the treasury 
of our recollection. All knowledge is made up of 
small parts, which would seem insignificant in them¬ 
selves, hut which, taken together, are valuable weap¬ 
ons for the mind and substantial armor for the soul. 
Read anything continuously, says Dr. Johnson, and 
you will be learned. The odd minutes which we were 
inclined to waste, if carefully availed of for instruction, 
will, in the long run, make golden hours and golden 
days that we shall he ever thankful for. 
A Secret. —William Wirt’s letter to his daughter, 
on the “small, sweet courtesies of life,” contains a 
passage from which a great deal of happiness might 
he learned: 
“I want to tell you a secret. The way to make 
yourself pleasant to others is to show them attention. 
The whole world is like the miller at Mansfield, ‘ who 
cared for nobody—no, not he—because nobody cared 
for him.’ And the whole world would serve you so if 
you gave them the cause. Let people see that you do 
care for them by showing them what Sterne so hap¬ 
pily called the small courtesies, in which there is no 
parade, whose voice is too still to tease, and which 
manifest themselves by tender and affectionate looks 
and little acts of attention, giving others the preference 
in every little employment, at the table, in the field, 
walking, sitting, and standing.” 
Strike the Knot. —“Strike the knot!” said a gen¬ 
tleman one day to his son, who, tired and weary, was 
leaning on his axe, over a log, which lie had in 
vain been trying to cleave. Then, looking at the log, 
the gentleman saw how the boy had hacked and 
clipped all around the knot without hitting it. Taking 
the axe, he struck a few sharp blows on the knot and 
split the log without difficulty. Smiling, he returned 
the axe to his son, saying: 
‘ ‘ Always strike the knot! ” 
That was good advice. It is good for you, my 
children, as it was for the boy to whom it was first 
given. It is a capital maxim to follow when you are 
in trouble. Have you a hard sum to do at school ? 
Have you got to face the difficulty ? Are you leaving 
home for the first time to live among strangers? 
Strike the knot! Look your trouble in the eye, as 
the bold lion-hunter looks in the face of a lion. Never 
shrink from a painful duty, hut step up to it and do it. 
Yes, strike the knot! Strike the knot! hoys and 
girls, and you will always conquer your difficulties. 
An Astonished Negro. —Not long ago a country 
store, in close proximity to the city, had one or two 
boxes of torpedoes, that are about the size of a wren’s 
egg, left over from its holiday stock. In re-arranging 
the shelves one of the little boxes was opened and all 
its contents given away, except one single torpedo, 
which, resembling a “bird’s egg” candy, as the colored 
folks call them, was left on the counter. A wise-look¬ 
ing old negro rode up to the store on a malicious- 
looking horse about nine o’clock at night. He 
hitched his “ critter,” and came into the store to get a 
dram. While the clerk was pouring this out, old 
grizzly-head, thinking that where even the smallest 
things are available, opportunities should not he lost, 
slid his homy hand over the “bird’s egg” candy, and 
hauled it in. Then he made out like he was putting a 
chew of tobacco in his mouth. He rolled bis apparent 
quid with his tongue hack to his teeth, and then he 
must have shut down upon it tight, for the explosion 
of yells and shrieks, and howls and sulphur smoke 
commingled that ensued was perfectly awful. The old 
negro tore out to his nag howling, and under the im¬ 
pression that he had got “conjured,” fled as fast as 
sorry hones could fly. 
Various Talents Needed. —There is a strong dis¬ 
position in men of opposite minds, says Sidney Smith, 
to despise each other. A grave man cannot conceive 
what is the use of a wit in society; a person who takes 
a strong, common-sense view of a subject is for push¬ 
ing out, by the head and shoulders, an ingenious theo¬ 
rist, who catches at the lightest and faintest analogies; 
and another man, who scents the ridiculous from afar, 
will hold no converse with him who tastes exquisitely 
the feelings of the heart, and is alive to nothing else; 
whereas talent is talent, and mind is mind, in all its 
branches. Wit gives to life one of its best flavors; 
common-sense leads to immediate action, and gives to 
society its motion; large and comprehensive views, its 
annual rotation; ridicule chastises folly and impu¬ 
dence, and keeps men in their proper sphere; subtlety 
seizes hold of the fine threads of truth ; analogy darts 
away to the most sublime discoveries; feeling paints 
all the exquisite passions of a man’s soul, and rewards 
him by a thousand inward visitations for the sorrows 
that come from without. God made it all good ! We 
must despise no sort of talent; they all improve, exalt 
and gladden life. 
An JEolian Harp. —In the spring and summer 
season, when the air is pleasant, and windows may be 
safely opened, the young people will be pleased with 
the music of an iEolian harp. It can be made by any 
one as follows: Make of very thin, soft wood, a box 5 
inches deep, 7 inches wide, and of the length of your 
window-sill. Across the top, near each end, glue a 
strip of wood inch high and -i-inch thick, for bridges. 
Insert two wooden pins in each end of the box to wind 
the strings around. Make a sound-hole in the middle 
of the top, and string the box with small cat-gut, 
fastening the strings to the wooden pins and carrying 
over the bridges. The ends of the box should he in¬ 
creased in thickness where the wooden pins enter by a 
piece of wood glued on the inside. Have three or four 
strings; tune them in unison and place the box in the 
window. The air passing the window and past the 
string will cause them to vibrate and produce soft or 
forcible sound, according to the force of the wind. If 
a door is opened, or another window, to cause quite a 
flow of air, the strength of the music is increased. 
How John. Chinaman Smoked the Cigar. —A 
letter tells how a Chinaman learned to smoke a cigar: 
As the puffs curled out from his lips his face was 
wreathed in smoke and smiles. He took it out and, in 
silver accents, said: “Him good.” Here a pause and 
more puffs of smoke. “Him heap good.” Another 
pause and the puffs more rapid. “Him bully heap 
good.” Yet another pause and he put one hand up to 
the cigar. “ Him berry bully heap good.” Here both 
hands went up and the silence w r as broken by—“ Him 
big berry bully heap good.” And then a change came 
over the spirit of his dream, as Iris face changed from 
pie-crust to dust and ashes, and things assumed a tinge 
no longer celestial but cerulean, until, with a gesture 
indescribable in its expressiveness, he slowly enun¬ 
ciated : “ Him muehee muchee big berry bully heap 
good, but me no berry well here.” Here he took off 
his cap, assumed an attitude indicative of internal 
disarrangements, and—let history draw a veil over 
what followed. 
