pure, careful gentle love-meets children everywhere. Ought they not to be happy? Play on, then, oh, happy children! Let your harmless laughter ring out upon the ears of careworn men and women. Be merry, my little ones; but, oh, be good! Sin will spoil your laughter, and turn it into grief. Be good, therefore, and then your joy will last for ever. Your faces will grow old and your bodies feeble, but goodness will keep your hearts young and fresh for ever. -S. S. Advocate. BOYS, BEWARE OF STRONG DRINKS. SOME years ago, in a large town in the west of Scotland, there existed a drinking club of upwards of twenty members, all of whom belonged to the middle classes of society. This club had a great interest in municipal affairs, and several of its members were elected to fill posts in the town council. The drinking was carried on to a fearful extent in the tavern where they met. The members were to be found often in the club at all hours of night and day. Their drinking was often connected with such noisy mirth as to attract the attention of the passers-by. The club was broken up. Two of its members were sent to a lunatic asylum; one jumped from a window and killed himself; one walked or fell into the water, and was drowned; one was found dead in a public-house; one died of delirium tremens; upwards of ten became bankrupt; four died ere they had lived half their days. THE USE OF THE ARMS IN WALKING. THE first time you are walking with your arms at liberty, stop moving them, and hold them by your sides. You will be surprised to find how soon your companion will leave you behind, although you may hurry, twist, wriggle, and try very hard to keep up. One reason for the slow walk among girls is to be found in this practice of carrying the arms motionless. Three miles an hour, with the arms still, is as hard work as four miles with the arms free. I have seen a few girls and women of queenly bearing walk in the street and drawing-room. They moved their arms in a free and graceful manner. Could this habit become universal among girls, their chests would enlarge, and their bearing be greatly improved. See that girl walking with both hands in her muff! How she wriggles and twists her shoulders! This is because her arms are pinioned. Give them free swing, and her gait would soon become more graceful. You have seen pictures of our muscles. Those of the upper part of the body spread out from the shoulder in all directions, like a fan. Now, if you hold the shoulders still, the muscles of the chest will shrink, the shoulders stoop, and the whole chest becomes thin and ugly. PUNCTUALITY IN TEACHERS. It seems as if some people come into the world a little behind time, and they never catch up. They are always and everywhere a little late. The habit is a grievous misfortune to any one. In a teacher it is mischievous in the extreme. It betrays, too, a lack in the character which it is difficult to describe by its true name without giving offence. If a teacher is not in his seat at the proper time, he thereby throws the care of his class upon some one else. Either some other teacher or the superintendent must do what properly belongs to the one absenting himself. But the superintendent and the other teachers have duties of their own to attend to. Is it right for one person thus, without leave or warning, to devolve his own responsibility to the class, to the school, on the superintendent? -thus to leave the matter at sixes and sevens just at the most critical moment in the whole service, namely, at the time of opening?-S.S. Teachers' Advocate. GIVE THEM WORK. THE teacher of a young men's Bible class had his attention called to the large number of neglected children in his neighbourhood. While musing over the question, "What can I do to save them?" this thought entered his mind-"Perhaps the young men in my Bible class may be persuaded to save some of them." This thought was a seed of ac tion. He at once invited the young men to take tea with him. The question was mooted. The young men became interested, and eager to enter on the work proposed. Under his guidance a canvass was begun; and in four weeks, sixty-nine boys, hitherto neglected, were gathered in and placed under the tuition of eleven of his pupils. That was success. It benefited all the parties. Was not the teacher happier for his effort? Were not his eleven scholars happier, and in the way of higher improvement as teachers, than when they were pupils only? Were not the sixty-nine neglected boys happier? Surely the "thought" of that Bible class teacher was richly productive. To how many teachers of Bible classes is it possible to go and do likewise ? Let him who reads this line ponder the question. It may lead to the increase of human happiness, and to the brightening of his crown. It is worth considering patiently and prayerfully. POETRY. JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN. JERUSALEM the Golden, With God's own presence blest, In thoughts of thee, fair city, Sink heart and voice opprest; I know not, oh! I know not What social joys are thereWhat bright, unfading glory, What peace beyond compare. Echo its many mansions With sweetest, noblest song→→ With strains of angel harpers, And all the ransomed throng; For sin may never enter To mar its hallowed joy, And tears are ever banished, And smiles have no alloy. There Jesus sits enthroned, And there, from toil released, His saints partake His triumph, And in His presence feast: They, once beneath His banner, Have conquered in the fight, And now by Him, their Captain, Are clad in robes of white. Jerusalem the Holy! While wrestling here below, Oh, bright and blessed country, York. I Our Youths' Department. NATURAL HISTORY. THE GANNET. THOSE who ply between Belfast and Liverpool or Glasgow often see flocks of whitish-looking birds, sometimes skimming across the surface of the sea, at other times plunging headlong into the water, as if in their maritime excursions they united the two-fold object of business and pleasure. No doubt this is the case; for God has made his creatures happy, each in its own way; and whether these birds hover in the air on the wing, or plunge into the sea for prey, they are obeying the instincts of their nature, and feel happy in doing so. As it is possible some of our young friends may, in the course of their lives, see those birds sporting in their wild freedom on the bosom of the sea, we wish to contribute to their pleasure by making them acquainted with some of their habits. Convinced we are that an intelligent observer of Nature derives much more pleasure from what he sees in the world than an ignorant person; and would our space admit of it, we should here pause to show how almost unbounded sources of enjoyment are open to him who devoutly cultivates his mind, which are entirely sealed to the ignorant. In these articles from month to month, we seek to increase the happiness of our young friends, by adding to their knowledge; and we shall be happy to know if these sketches have the effect of leading them to seek a more thorough acquaintance with the works of God. The Gannet, or Solan Goose, is about the size of the domestic goose, but with much longer wings. The bill is longer than the head, straight almost to the point, where it is slightly curved, and the sides are irregularly jagged, that it may hold its prey with greater security. The crown of the head is of a buff colour; the general plumage white, except parts of the wings, which are black. It has a pouch something like that of the pelican, but very much smaller; it can, however, stow five or six herrings into it, which, in the breeding season, it carries to its mate or its young. The gannets are birds of passage, performing their migratory flights near to the shore, but, like our coasting vessels, always keeping a distance from land; for it has been observed when a bay or a pro montory intervenes, they follow at an equal distance, doubling every cape, and thus the course of their flight is very much like the irregular outline of the coast. Their movements are often determined by the migrations of the immense shoals of herrings which, at certain seasons, come pouring down from the north through the British Channel; and on those occasions no sight is more welcome to the fisherman than the gannet; for it proclaims to him the approach of the finny tribe. At this signal, getting his nets and boats ready, he is soon able to capture them in numbers at a draught the gannet not unfrequently coming in for its share of the booty, by snatching it from the boats. They do not dive like some other sea birds in pursuit of their prey, but dart down upon it, head first, from a considerable height, with such force that they will pierce a plank an inch thick, and thus they are sometimes caught. A few herrings are fastened to a board, which is set afloat, when the gannet swoops down upon it, and is either killed or severely maimed by the shock it receives. The eye, which might be injured by the sudden concussion with the water, is provided with a transparent membrane under the eyelid, which, at the pleasure of the bird, covers the eye, without obscuring the sight in the least. These birds breed once a year, and lay but one egg, which, if taken away, they lay another; if that also be taken, then a third, but never more for that season. The egg is white, and rather less than that of the common goose, and the nest is composed principally of sea-weed. The young, soon after they escape from the egg, are covered with white down, and are not much unlike powder-puffs, but their plumage soon changes to a dusky hue, speckled with numerous triangular white spots. They undergo a second moult at the end of the first year, after which the prevailing colour of their coat is brown. At their third moult they become dressed in the ordinary hue of their tribe. One species of the gannet, rather inferior in size to those just described, is known as the Booby-bird. Our sailors have given it this not very flattering title because of its allowing itself to be knocked on the head without attempting to escape. It is often attacked by the frigate-bird, and made to disgorge the prey it has stored in its pouch. The boobies float on the tempestuous wave like a cork; and to enable them to do so, have the power of puffing themselves out with air, which they force between their skin and body, so that they are like a bladder. |