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"But it was only for a moment. He fell down in a heap to the ground.

"Then began a scene which never to his dying day will old Jorl forget. I was two hours in horrible suspense.

"Down under me the jaguar raged. He swept around and around the tree, his red eyes fixed on me with an unrelaxing vigilance. Tired at last with this, he crouched down under the tree, roaring with fury at being thus tantalized, fixed his eyes on mine and sat there, his red mouth gaping wide, showing his jagged rows of teeth, and his tail beating the ground.

"My attitude in the branches of the tree was such that it began at last to tell on my overstrained muscles. I felt myself growing weaker and weaker. The jaguar's eyes were exerting a sort of fascination over me, as a serpent does over a bird. I could not

take my eyes off his; I could not change my position without great danger of falling; and I began to mutter to myself, like a man who going crazy.

"All of a sudden I began to pray; and as I prayed, my strength seemed to return to me, and the film that was gathering over my eyes to break away.

"O Father in heaven!"" I breathed, save me from the jaws of the terrible man-eatersave me! save me!' It was all I

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could mutter, for I was like a man who is sinking into a dream. "And all the time there sat the jaguar, his gaze riveted on mine -his eyes seemed absolutely red with gore blind to everything in the world, but the man whose blood he thirsted for, deaf to every sound, conscious only of his prey, and his rage at being baffled so long.

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Ah! my prayer is heard.' "There came the swish of a lasso, which went over the beast's neck suddenly and was drawn tight.

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Swish! another from the other side-drawn tight.

"Then for the first time I tore my gaze away from the tiger's blood-red eyes, and beheld my deliverers.

666 "Juan! Pedro!' I screamed aloud, and fell to laughing immoderately.

666 'Jorl!' came the answer. 'Saved, comrade, saved! Climb down, Jorl, and slay your enemy.'

"I slid out of the tree like a monkey. I whipped out my knife, and approached the jaguar. “Pull, Juan,' I cried; pull, Pedro.'

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THE JESUITS OUTWITTED. WHEN the Duke of Ossuna was Viceroy of Sicily, there died a very rich duke, who left but one son, whom, with his whole estate, he bequeathed to the care of the Jesuits; and the words of the will were, 66 When he is past his minority you shall give my son what you will." It seems the Jesuits took to themselves two parts of three of the estate, and gave the rest to the heir. The young duke, dissatisfied with this arrangement, complained to the Duke of Ossuna, then Viceroy, who commanded the Jesuits to appear

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before him. He asked them how much of the estate they would have. They answered, Two parts of three, which they had made use of already to build monasteries and an hospital, to erect particular altars and masses, to sing dirges and refrigeriums for the soul of the deceased duke.” Hereupon the Duke of Ossuna caused the will to be produced, and found therein the words before recited: "When he is past his minority, you shall give my son of my estate what you will.” Then he told the Jesuits, "You must, by virtue and tenor of these words, give what you will to the son, which, by your own confession, is two parts of three," and so he determined the business.

PEARLS: WHENCE COME THEY?' MOST of my little readers know what a pearl is- -a white stone, shining and beautiful, and used for brooches and other ornaments. It is a precious stone, like the diamond, ruby, and sapphire, and being so much admired, great pains are taken and great danger risked to obtain large ones. Most precious stones are found in the earth, but not so the pearl. It comes from the bottom of the sea or the bed of a river. But if you could accompany one of the pearl-divers in the Indian Ocean, where many of these fine stones are obtained-leaping with him into the water and plunging down to the very bottom-you would not find the pearls there, lying about like pebbles in your garden. You would see-that is, if you could see or breathe in such a place-the diver tearing great oyster shells off the rocks, putting them into a basket, and then rising quickly to the

THE POGONIA, OR VOCAL FISH.

surface of the water, breathless and apparently half-dead, with these great shell-fish in his hand. The oysters are opened and carefully examined, for it is they that make the beautiful pearls. What a strange thing! an oyster, which seems to lead such a quiet, lazy life, to be a pearl-maker! and yet a pearl is not a part of an oyster's body, nor of its shell either. Many perfect oyster-shells have no pearls in them, as you know very well. Then how do the jewels come to grow in such a strange place?

There are certain little living things which contrive to get into the shell and fasten on the poor oyster so as greatly to trouble him. How do you think he gets rid of the annoyance? He pours out over the intruder a sort of juice, like that which makes the smooth lining of the shell, and which soon gets quite hard, and as it dries up it either shuts the tiresome little visitor out, or it hardens all around, and shuts it in. This hardened juice we call pearl.

Other pearls are found in mus

sels; and on the coast of Wales large quantities of shell-fish are caught and opened for the sake of the small pearls they contain. By selling these, some poor people pick up a scanty living. Much finer pearls are found in the common fresh-water mussel of our English rivers.

THE POGONIA, OR VOCAL FISH. HAVE our young friends ever heard of vocal fish-that is, fish that utter sounds? Most land animals can utter some sounds of their pleasure or pain; but fishes are generally supposed to be unable to utter any sounds at all.

But the Pogonia is a fish which can utter various kinds of sounds; and as they move toge

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ther in large numbers, it is usual for them to join in a kind of chorus while swimming in their native element. Mr. John White, lieutenant in the navy of the United States, in his voyage to the seas of China, relates that being at the mouth of the river of Cambodia, the ship's company were "astonished by some extraordinary sounds which were heard around the bottom of the vessel. They resembled," he says, "a mixture of the bass of the organ, the sound of bells, the guttural cries of a large frog, and the tones which imagination might attribute to an enormous harp; one might have said the vessel trembled with it. The noises increased, and finally formed a universal chorus over the entire length of the vessel and the two sides. In proportion as we went up the river the sounds diminished, and finally ceased altogether." As the interpreter told Captain White, the ship had been followed by a troop of fish of an oval and flattened form;" they were most probably Pogonias. Humboldt met with a similar adventure in the South Sea, but without suspecting its cause. "On February 20th, 1803, at seven p.m., the whole crew was astounded by a very extraordinary noise, resembling drums beaten in the air; we at first attributed it to the breakers; speedily it was heard all over the vessel, especially towards the poop, and was like the noise which escapes from fluid in a state of ebullition; we began to fear there might be some leak in the bottom. It was heard at the same moment in all parts of the vessel, but finally, about nine p.m., ceased altogether." How these fish manage to purr in the deep, and by means of what organ

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they communicate the sound to the external air, is wholly unknown. Some suppose it to proceed from the swim-bladder; but if that be the drum, what is the drumstick that beats upon it? and cushioned as it is in an obese envelope, and without an opening, the swim-bladder cannot, would think, be a bagpipe or wind instrument.

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WONDERFUL MEMORY OF SENECA. AGE," saith Seneca, "has done me many injuries, and deprived me of many things I once had: it hath dulled the sight of my eyes, blunted the sense of hearing, and slackened my nerves. Amongst the, rest I have mentioned before is the memory, a thing that is the most tender and frail of all the parts of the soul, and which is first sensible of the assaults of age: that heretofore this did so flourish in me, as not only served me for use, but might even pass for a miracle I cannot deny; for I could repeat two thousand names in the same order as they were spoken; and when as many as were scholars to my master brought each of them several verses to him, so that the number of them amounted to more than two hundred, beginning at the last I could recite them orderly

unto the first: nor was my memory only apt to receive such things as I would commit to it, but was also a faithful preserver of all that I had entrusted it with."

The

THE TAKER-IN OUTWITTED. A POOR man being very hungry, stayed so long in a cook-shop while the meat was being served, that his stomach was satisfied with only the smell thereof. angry cook demanded of him to pay for his breakfast. The poor man declined, and the controversy was referred to the de'cision of the next man that should pass by, who chanced to be the most notorious idiot in the whole city. He, on the relation of the matter, determined that the poor man's money should be put betwixt two empty dishes, and the cook should be recompensed with the jingling of the poor man's money, as he was satisfied with the smell of the cook's meat; and this is affirmed by credible writers as no fable, but an undoubted truth.

HE who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness.

Poetry.

BE KIND TO THY MOTHER..

BE kind to thy mother, she bore thee and nursed thee,
And watched o'er thy cradle, lest aught should thee harm;
In sickness or trouble to her bosom she pressed thee-
What heart like a mother's, confiding and warm?

Be kind to thy mother-remember youth's follies,
How she sigh'd lest some evil should tempt thee to stray;
And when grown to manhood it yielded her solace
To see thee with honour pursuing thy way.

Then bear up thy mother with affection most tender,
Her strength is declining along with her years;

And do what thou canst-'tis not much thou canst render-
For all her kind chidings, her smiles, and her tears.

HUNSHELF.

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