occupation; but she recals her motto, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it," and she is encouraged to persevere. By-and-by, perhaps, she finds herself falling into a fit of idleness, a musing on she knows not what, without aim or object; and she is beginning to relax in her exertions, when again she checks herself by thinking, "Well! this is not doing with my might.”

We might picture to ourselves the good effect of many similar texts, such as “A soft answer turneth away wrath ;” and we might see how its adoption by one member of the family group would tend to the happiness of all; but we all can supply, from our own memory, instances of misery resulting from the want of “the soft answer.” I have given a hint for you to carry out, assured that you will find it one great means of self-improvement. For do not imagine that the strict following out of the text for that one day will be wholly without its effect in your after life. A tendency to indolence once subdued, a hasty answer suppressed, a temptation overcome, will make the next trial far less painful. Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte, either in good or evil.

Whilst dressing in the morning, it will be wise to consider what your duties and occupations for the day will be; in what manner you can assist your mother in her domestic affairs, if such comes within your province; what demands there are upon your time, for business, improvement, or pleasure. The education your parents have given you has cost them much money, and perhaps they have made many sacrifices to afford you the advantages you have had : it is your duty to improve these advantages to the utmost, and a portion of every day ought to be sacredly devoted to keeping up your knowledge of languages and other accomplishments commenced in the schoolroom. Your family duties, of whatever kind, should claim another; needlework, exercise, society, charity,—all these will probably form some part of your day's duties; and whatever they may be, each should, as far as possible, have its own particular hour. Of course, the juniors of a family neither can nor ought to dictate hours in

any way. It is for them to take care they are not the cause of the household regulations being infringed; and by a very little careful management and forethought, they may maintain a certain exactitude themselves. Supposing, for example's sake, that the breakfast hour is not absolutely certain : that one of the principal members of the family is occasionally a quarter or half an hour late. How easy for the young ladies to have some small neat piece of work about, not easily spoiled by being kept in hand, to take up at the appointed breakfast hour, and put in their work-bags when the meal commences. Indeed, there are so many occasions when we are compelled to wait for some thing or person, that it is always wise to have some piece of work ready to take up at a moments notice. None but those who have tried it can imagine how much may be done in this way.

But this, of course, is but the filling up of odd moments: the hours should be regularly portioned out for the more serious occupations. It will be found a golden rule to devote large portions of time to long works, and keep the

smaller spaces for that which can be performed in them. Now the reverse of this is the rule usually adopted by those who have not made it a study to put their time to the best use. A long rainy day comes; it is impossible to go out, and indoor exercise is not dreamed of (more of that by-and-by); so it is thought a piece of wise economy to devote the long morning to a

multitude of odd jobs,” of which one, two, or three might have easily been completed in the odd half hours of ordinary days. So the time passes, and there is absolutely nothing to show for it: had it been steadily occupied in some one more important undertaking, there would, on the contrary, have been a visible progress made and the habit of close and lengthened attention would have been strengthened.

If it were a question of money instead of time, we should see the folly of the popular practice at once. The man who, having to pay one bill of £60, and a multitude of small items, should change his fifty-pound note to pay the trifles, and settle the large bill in small coin, would very justly be thought to have taken leave of his senses; nor would the excuse that the fifty would not entirely pay the bill, be held a sufficient reason for his folly. Yet this is practically what nine out of ten do with what is infinitely more valuable than money, with time itself: the folly is to the full as great, but we do not think of it in that light. However, she who desires to make the most of her time will appropriate it on the same principle as she would her cash; she will keep long periods for the tedious or serious labours of life, and fill up with the lighter matters all the spare minutes or quarters of an hour.

In this way, too, many valuable works may be read, and progress made in many branches of study, during intervals which many young people utterly waste. We have only to ask ourselves at the end of a day, “What have I done since I rose this morning ?” and to put down the time for which we can account, to find out how many hours of each day are entirely lost. It is an excellent check upon ourselves, to put down in the morning before leaving our bedroom what we nd to do during the day; and