W. I got to the high field next our house just as the sun was setting, and I stood looking at it till it was quite lost. What a glorious sight! The clouds were tinged purple, and crimson, and yellow, of all shades and hues, and the clear sky varied from blue to a fine green at the horizon. But how large the sun appears just as it 'sets! I think it seems twice as big as when it is overhead.

Mr. A. It does so; and you may probably have observed the same apparent enlargement of the moon at its rising.

W. I have; but pray, what is the reason of this?

Mr. A. It is an optical deception, depending upon principles which I cannot well explain to you till you know more of that branch of science. But what a number of new ideas this afternoon's walk has afforded you! I do not wonder that you found it amusing: it has been very instructive too. Do you see nothing of all these sights, Robert?

R. I saw some of them, but I did not take particular notice of them.

Mr. A. Why not?

R. I don't know.

I did not care about them, and I made the best of my way home.

Mr. A. That would have been right if you had been sent to carry a message; but as you only walked for amusement, it would have been wiser to have sought out as many sources of it as possible. But so it is — one man walks through the world with his eyes open, and another with them shut; and upon this difference depends all the superiority of knowledge the one acquires above the other. I have known sailors, who had been in all the quarters of the world, and could tell you

nothing but the signs of the tippling-houses they frequented in different ports, and the price and quality of the liquor. On the other hand, a Franklin could not cross the channel without making some observations useful to mankind. While many a vacant, thoughtless youth is whirled throughout Europe without gaining a single idea worth crossing a street for, the observing eye and inquiring mind find matter of improvement and delight in every ramble in town or country. Do you, then, William, continue to make use of your eyes; and you, Robert, learn that eyes were given you to

use.

sceptre, or three-pronged fork, the common attribute of Neptune, the fabled deity of the ocean.

1 HAL'CY-ON (hǎl'she-un or hǎl'se-un). |2 NEPTŪNE'S TRĪ'DENT. A kind of Under the name of halcyon, the kingfisher was fabled by the ancients to build its nest on the surface of the sea, and to have the power of calming the troubled waves during its period of incubation: hence the phrase "halcyon days."

3 HAWKING. The sport of flying hawks at fowls.

HŌ'MER. The great epic poet of Greece.

XIV. THE PEBBLE AND THE ACORN.

GOULD.

1. “I AM a Pebble, and yield to none!"

Were the swelling words of a tiny stone;

"Nor change nor season can alter me;
I am abiding while ages flee.

The pelting hail and drizzling rain
Have tried to soften me long in vain;
And the tender dew has sought to melt,
Or to touch my heart, - but it was not felt.

2. "None can tell of the Pebble's birth;
For I am as old as the solid earth.
The children of men arise, and pass
Out of the world like blades of grass;
And many a foot on me has trod

That's gone from sight and under the sod!
I am a Pebble! but who art thou,
Rattling along from the restless bough?"

3. The Acorn was shocked at this rude salute,
And lay for a moment abashed1 and mute:
And she felt for a while perplexed to know
How to answer a thing so low.

4. But to give reproof of a nobler sort
Than the angry look or the keen retort,2
At length she said, in a gentle tone,
"Since it has happened that I am thrown
From the lighter element, where I grew,
Down to another so hard and new,
And beside a personage so august,3
Abased I will cover my head with dust,
And quickly retire from the sight of one
Whom time nor season, nor storm nor sun,
Nor the gentler dew nor the grinding wheel,
Has ever subdued or made to feel."

5. And soon in the earth she sunk away

From the comfortless spot where the Pebble lay;
But it was not long ere the soil was broke
By the peering head of an infant oak;
And as it arose, and its branches spread,

The Pebble looked up, and, wondering, said,

1

6. "A modest Acorn! never to tell

What was enclosed in her simple shell

That the pride of the forest was then shut up
Within the space of her little cup!

And meekly to sink in the darksome earth,
To prove that nothing could hide her worth.
And, O, how many will tread on me,

To come and admire that beautiful tree,
Whose head is towering towards the sky,
Above such a worthless thing as I!

7. "Useless and vain, a cumberer5 here,
I have been idling from year to year;
But never from this shall a vaunting word
From the humble Pebble again be heard,
Till something without me, or within,
Can show the purpose for which I've been!"
The Pebble could not its vow forget,
And it lies there wrapped in silence yet.

1 A-BASHED' (-bǎsht'). Confused.

2 RE-TÖRT'. Answer.

• ÂU-GUST'. Grand; majestic.

4 A-BASED'. Lowered; humbled.

5 CUM BER-ER, Burden.
6 VÂUNTING. Boasting.

1. THE bud will soon become a flower,
The flower become a seed;

Then seize, O youth! the present hour,

Of that thou hast most need.

As in the furrows of a plough
Fall seeds of good or crime.

3. The sun and rain will ripen fast
Each seed that thou hast sown
And every act and word at last
By its own fruit be known.

4. And soon the harvest of thy toil,
Rejoicing, thou shalt reap;

Or o'er thy wild, neglected soil
Go forth in shame to weep.

XVI. — THE FOOTPRINT ON THE SHORE.

DE FOE.

[Daniel De Foe was born in London in 1661, and died in 1731. He was a hosier by trade; but being a ready and able writer, and much interested in the political questions of the day, he neglected his business, and finally forsook it. He wrote a great number of works, comprising political pamphlets and fictitious narratives. His style

is easy, vigorous, and idiomatic; but his great merit consists in the wonderful air of truth he gives to his works of fiction. This is especially exemplified in his Robinson Crusoe, from which the following extract is taken, which is, probably, the most popular book in the English language. It was first published in April, 1719. It was founded on the narrative of Alexander Selkirk, a native of Scotland, who was mate of a vessel called the Cinque Ports, on a trading voyage round the world in 1704. Having quarrelled with the captain, he was left, at his own request, on the I land of Juan Fernandez, where he remained, without seeing a human being, for four years and four months, till he was found and brought away by Captain Rogers, commander of a commercial expedition round the world, which sailed in 1709, and returned to Great Britain in 1711.

An account of this expedition was given to the world, in which Selkirk's narrative first appeared. It is only a few pages long, and merely furnished De Foe with a point to start from.]

1. IT happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thun