and cold, and no little flower dares to peep above the surface of the ground when he is by. Whatever he touches turns to ice. Youths and maidens, do you see him? He is coming upon us, and soon will be here.

you know, who he is, and what is his name.

Tell me, if

MRS BARBAuld.

THE VOICE OF SPRING.

I AM Coming, little maiden!
With the pleasant sunshine laden;
With the honey for the bee;
With the blossom for the tree;
With the flower and with the leaf;
Till I come the time is brief.

I am coming, I am coming!
Hark, the little bee is humming;
See, the lark is soaring high
In the bright and sunny sky ;
And the gnats are on the wing;
Little maiden, now is Spring!

See the yellow catkins cover
All the slender willows over ;
And on mossy banks so green
Starlike primroses are seen;
Every little stream is bright;
All the orchard trees are white.

Hark! the little lambs are bleating;
And the cawing rooks are meeting
In the elms, a noisy crowd;
And all birds are singing loud;
And the first white butterfly
In the sun goes flitting by.

Turn thy eyes to earth and heaven!
God for thee the Spring has given,

Taught the birds their melodies,
Clothed the earth, and cleared the skies,

For thy pleasure or thy food,

Pour thy soul in gratitude!

MARY HOWITT.

LET us come closer

THE ANT.

these ants.

See how curious

inside their house is! The hill which Occupy seems to be divided various streets. Those little sticks are rafters of their houses. And these little parcels straw and leaves hanging over them prevent the rain coming in them, by turning current of wa

ter another way.

There is one property in the with respect to their food, which astonishing. In summer they provide a of corn for winter provision; but, as grains would shoot out and grow when hid under the earth,

rub

off the buds before they lay up; place them sand, to prevent the moisture the earth from making them rot swell; and, in a very dry day, if the shines, they bring their corn, &c. out of holes, to dry and

harden

other.

path,

As they have one interest, they are always united in attacking enemies, or defending Those who go out in quest of food, all in the and you may see, that from their frequent marches, have worn path. When they have discovered any prey, such a ripe apple, or any other fruit or seed, some of the party return to others to the feast; and they have taken their fill, the whole party engaged in bringing the remainder home. If, in this honest labour, any foe an attack upon them, the whole party

in resenting it.

Solomon very wisely observes, Go to the thou sluggard, consider her ways

be wise; which, having no

guide, overseer, ruler, yet provideth meat in the

summer, gathereth her

in the harvest.

MYLNE'S Spelling Book.

TO A BEE.

THOU wert out betimes, thou busy busy bee!

As abroad I took my early way,

Before the cow from her resting-place
Had risen up, and left her trace
On the meadow with dew so grey,
I saw thee, thou busy busy bee.

Thou wert alive, thou busy busy bee!

When the crowd in their sleep were dead.
Thou wert abroad in the freshest hour,

When the sweetest odour comes from the flower;
Man will not learn to leave his lifeless bed,

And be wise and copy thee, thou busy busy bee.

Thou wert working late, thou busy busy bee!
After the fall of the cistus-flower,

I heard thee last as I saw thee first,

When the primrose-tree blossom was ready to burst,
In the coolness of the evening hour,

I heard thee, thou busy busy bee.

Thou art a miser, thou busy busy bee!

Late and early at employ ;

Still on thy golden stores intent,

Thy youth in heaping and hoarding is spent
What thy age will never enjoy ;

I will not copy thee, thou miserly bee.

Thou art a fool, thou busy busy bee,
Thus for another to toil!

Thy master waits till thy work is done,
Till the latest flowers of the ivy are gone,
And then he will seize the spoil,

And will murder thee, thou poor little bee.

SOUTHEY.

WHANG, THE MILLER.

WHANG, the miller, was naturally avaricious; nobody loved money better than he, or more respected those that had it. When people would talk of a rich man in company, Whang would say, I know him very well; he and I have been long acquainted; he and I are intimate. But if ever a poor man was mentioned, he had not the least knowledge of the man: he might be very well for aught he knew; but he was not fond of making many acquaintances, and loved to choose his company. Whang, however, with all his eagerness for riches, was poor. He had nothing but the profits of his mill to support him; but though these were small, they were certain: while it

stood and went, he was sure of eating; and his frugality was such that he every day laid some money by, which he would at intervals count and contemplate with much satisfaction. Yet still his acquisitions were not equal to his desires; he only found himself above want, whereas he desired to be possessed of affluence. One day, as he was indulging these wishes, he was informed that a neighbour of his had found a pan of money under ground, having dreamed of it three nights running before. These tidings were daggers to the heart of poor Whang. "Here am I," says he, "toiling and moiling from morning to night for a few paltry farthings, while neighbour Thanks only goes quietly to bed, and dreams himself into thousands before morning. O that I could dream like him ! With what pleasure would I dig round the pan! how slily would I carry it home! not even my wife should see me : and then, O the pleasure of thrusting one's hand into a heap of gold up to the elbow!" Such reflections only served to make the miller unhappy: he discontinued his former assiduity; he was quite disgusted with small gains, and his customers began to forsake him. Every day he repeated the wish, and every night laid himself down in order to dream. Fortune, that was for a long time unkind, at last, however, seemed to smile upon his distresses, and indulged him with the wished-for vision. He dreamed that, under a certain part of the foundation of his mill, there was concealed a monstrous pan of gold and diamonds, buried deep in the ground, and covered with a large flat stone. He concealed his good luck from every person, as is usual in money-dreams, in order to have the vision repeated the two succeeding nights, by which he should be certain of its truth. His wishes in this also were answered; he still dreamed of the same pan of money, in the very same place.

Now, therefore, it was past a doubt: so getting up early the third morning, he repaired alone, with a mattock in his hand, to the mill, and began to undermine that part of the wall which the vision directed. The first omen of success that he met was a broken ring; digging still deeper, he turned up a house-tile, quite new and entire. At last, after much digging, he came to a broad

flat stone, but then so large that it was beyond man's strength to remove it. "There," cried he, in raptures, to himself, "here it is; under this stone there is room for a very large pan of diamonds indeed. I must e'en go home to my wife and tell her the whole affair, and get her to assist me in turning it up." Away, therefore, he goes, and acquaints his wife with every circumstance of their good fortune. Her raptures on this occasion may easily be imagined: she flew round his neck, and embraced him in an agony of joy; but those transports, however, did not allay their eagerness to know the exact sum; returning, therefore, together to the place where Whang had been digging, there they found-not, indeed, the expected treasure-but the mill, their only support, undermined and fallen! Citizen of the World.

THE ROOKERY.

F. Is that a rookery, papa?

Mr S. It is. Do you hear what a cawing the birds make?

F. Yes; and I see them hopping about among the boughs. Pray, are not rooks the same with crows?

Mr S. They are a species of crow, But they differ from the carrion crow and raven, in not feeding upon dead flesh, but upon corn and other seeds and grass, though indeed they pick up beetles and other insects and worms. See what a number of them have lighted on yonder ploughed field, almost blackening it over. They are searching for grubs and worms. The men in the field do not molest them, for they do a great deal of service by destroying grubs, which, if suffered to grow to winged insects, would injure the trees and plants.

F. But do they not hurt the corn?

Mr S. Yes; they tear up a good deal of green corn; but, upon the whole, rooks are reckoned the farmers' friends.

F. Do all rooks live in rookeries?

Mr S. It is their nature to associate together, and build in numbers on the same or adjoining trees. They have no objection to the neighbourhood of man, but