gave the poor beggar the bread that he had wished to buy.

Then the pilgrim wandered through many lands and crossed the sea, and at last came to the Holy Land. Without loss of time he went and prayed at the tomb of Christ, and then he went to the Sultan of the Turks to buy his brother out of prison. He offered a great sum of money, but the Sultan wanted still more. Then the pilgrim said, "I have nothing more to give you except a copper farthing which a poor beggar gave me out of pity. O, that you would have pity on me also. Take my last farthing, and may your compassion be rewarded." Then the Sultan pitied him, and set free his brother.

The Sultan put the farthing in his pocket and forgot all about it. Soon after the Emperor of Germany came to the Holy Land and fought a battle with the Sultan. In the battle an arrow was aimed at the Sultan. It struck his breast, but, very oddly, glanced off without doing him any hurt. He wondered at his escape, but when he put his hand in his pocket he found the farthing, and then he knew that the farthing had saved his life; for the arrow, after striking it, had glanced off. Then the Sultan caused the farthing to be fastened by a golden chain to the top of his sword. Soon after he was taken prisoner, and his sword, with the farthing, passed into the hands of the Emperor.

One day, when the Emperor was sitting at table after dinner, with a goblet of wine in his hand, the Empress said that she should like to see the Turkish sword which he had brought from the

Holy Land. He ordered it to be brought, but as he showed it to his wife the farthing became unfastened and dropped into the goblet of wine. The Emperor, on taking it out, noticed that it had become green. Then all exclaimed, "There is poison in the wine," and on inquiry it was found that a

wicked noble had put poison in the wine to kill the Emperor. The noble was put to death, and the farthing was placed in the Emperor's crown.

Thus had the farthing pleased a child, gained bread for a beggar, ransomed a prisoner, protected

a Sultan from a wound, and saved the life of an Emperor.

Adapted from the German.

Precious, valuable; e. g., gold and silver are precious metals. Pilgrim, a traveller to some place considered holy; e. g., pilgrims used to go to the shrine of Becket at Canterbury.

Ransom, money paid for the release of a prisoner; e. g., King John could not raise the money for his ransom.

THERE was once a farmer who had a son named John; a boy very apt to be thoughtless, and careless as to doing what he was told to do.

One day his father said to him, “John, you are so careless and forgetful, that every time you do wrong, I shall drive a nail into this post, to remind you of it, and every time you do right I will draw one out." His father did as he said he would, and every day he had one, and sometimes a great many nails to drive in, but very seldom one to draw out. At last John saw that the post was quite covered with nails, and he began to be ashamed of having so many faults: he resolved to be a better boy; and the next day he was so good and industrious that several nails came out; the day after it was the same thing, and so on for a long time, till at length

only one nail remained. His father then called him, and said: "Look, John, here is the very last nail, and now I am going to draw this out; are you glad?"

John looked at the post, and then, instead of expressing his joy as his father expected, he burst into tears. 66 Why," said the father, "what's the matter? I should think you would be delighted; the nails are all gone." "Yes," sobbed John, "the nails are gone, but the scars are there yet."

THE ship boy was clambering up the high mast,

When a glance on the deck far below him he cast;
His head swam with fear, and thick came his breath,
"Look aloft!" cried a sailor, and saved him from death.

So do you, boy-since up life's rough hill you must go,
And see the steep precipice far down below,
Pause not to gaze over it, raise up your head,

"Look aloft, look aloft!" and in safety you'll tread.

When you find in yourself some low petty desire,
Feel cowardly, weak, lacking strength to aspire;
Take a noble example, don't stand still and fret,
“Look aloft, boy, aloft!" you may grow to it yet.

When, spite of all efforts, misfortune shall come,
Or sorrow shall darken your life or your home;

Raise your head and your heart with hope and with prayer, "Look aloft, look aloft, boy!" no sorrow is there.

Clamber, to climb; e. g., we clambered over the rocks.

Precipice, a steep rock looked at from above; e. g., he fell over the precipice.

Aspire, to desire to rise; e. g., he aspired to be a great painter.

MONKEYS are very fond of their own young, and the story I am going to tell you shows that they may be fond of human babies too.

A lady was on board a ship that was sailing to England, and had with her a little baby of only a few weeks old. One night she was nursing her baby, when the captain of the ship offered her his glass, that she might see a distant ship, which had just come into sight.

She wrapped her baby in her shawl and put it on the sofa, on which she had been sitting. The captain helped her to steady the glass, but, before she could look through it, she heard a sailor cry out, "See what that mischievous monkey has done."

Turning round, she saw that a large monkey, which was kept on board the ship, had caught up the child