ticular kind of palm, which Mr. Agassiz greatly coveted, was to be obtained. In this country of inundated surfaces, land journeys are often made by water. So we started in a boat, and after keeping along the water for some time, we turned into the woods and began to navigate the forest.

The water was still and clear as glass: the trunks of trees stood up from it, their branches dipped into it. As we wound in and out among them, putting aside a bough here and there, or stooping to float under a green arbor, the reflection of every leaf was so perfect that wood and water seemed to melt into each other, and it was difficult to say where one began and the other ended. Silence and shade so profound brooded over the whole scene, that the mere ripple of our paddles seemed a disturbance.

land, where we The wood soon

After half an hour's row we came to dry went on shore, taking our boatmen with us. resounded with their hatchets as the palms fell under their blows. We returned with a boatload of palms, besides a number of plants of various kinds that we had not seen elsewhere. We reached the boat just in time; for scarcely were we well on board and in snug quarters again when the heavens opened and the floods came down.

THE JOURNAL OF PROFESSOR AND MRS. LOUIS AGASSIZ (On the Rio Negro).

LOUIS AGASSIZ (1807-73) was a celebrated naturalist who was born in Switzerland, and educated in Germany. He was especially noted

for his studies into the nature and history of glaciers and rocks. When he was about forty years old he made a visit to the United States, and was persuaded to become a member of the faculty of Harvard University. From that time forward he made America his home, and did a great deal to make science interesting to the people of his adopted country. In 1865 he went to Brazil and explored the Lower Amazon. It is said that he found more than eighteen hundred new kinds of fishes in that region. He and Mrs. Agassiz afterwards published a book about Brazil. This selection is published with the consent of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

IF I WERE A BOY AGAIN

If I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance oftener, and never give a thing up because it was hard or inconvenient to do it. If we want light, we must conquer darkness. There is no trait more valuable than a determination to persevere when the right thing is to be accomplished.

If I were a boy again, I would school myself into a habit of attention; I would let nothing come between me and the subject in hand. I would remember that an expert on the ice never tries to skate in two directions at once.

One of our great mistakes, when we are young, is that we do not attend strictly to what we are about just then; we do not bend our energies close enough to what we are doing or learning; we wander into only a half-interest and so never acquire fully what is needful for us to become master of.

If I were to live my life again, I would pay more attention to the cultivation of memory. I would strengthen that faculty by every possible means and on every possible occasion. It takes a little hard work at first to remember things accurately; but memory soon helps itself, and gives very little trouble. It

needs only early cultivation to become a power. Everybody can acquire it.

If I were a boy again, I would know more about the history of my own country than is usual, I am sorry to say, with young Americans. If the history of any country is worth an earnest study, it is surely the history of our own land; and we cannot begin too early in our lives to master it fully and completely. If I were a boy again, I would look on the 'cheerful side of everything; for almost everything has a cheerful side. Life very much like a mirror; if you smile upon it, it smiles back again upon you; but if you frown and look doubtful upon it, you will be sure to get a similar look in return.

is

If I were a boy again, I would school myself to say "No" oftener; I might write pages on the importance of learning early in life to gain that point when a young man can stand erect, and decline doing an unworthy thing because it is unworthy.

If I were a boy again, I would demand of myself more courtesy toward my companions and friends. Indeed, I would rigorously exact it of myself toward strangers as well. The smallest courtesies interspersed along the rough roads of life are like the little English sparrows, which now sing to us all winter long, and make that season of ice and snow more endurable to everybody.

Instead of trying so hard as some of us do to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would, if I were a boy again, try still harder to deserve happiness.

JAMES T. FIELDS.

JAMES T. FIELDS (1817-81) was an American author and also a publisher and an editor. He was from time to time a partner in several book firms in Boston; and for eight years he edited the Atlantic Monthly. "Yesterdays with Authors" is the title of one of his books.

ABOU BEN ADHEM AND THE ANGEL

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
within the moonlight of his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

And saw,

An angel writing in a book of gold—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
And with a look made all of sweet accord,
Answer'd, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still, and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellowmen."

The angel wrote and vanish'd. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And show'd the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

LEIGH HUNT.

JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859) was born near London, and was educated at Christ Hospital School in London. Lamb, Coleridge, Dickens, and Carlyle were among his friends. He edited magazines and papers, and wrote both prose and poetry.

CHOICE LITERATURE

By SHERMAN WILLIAMS, Ph.D., New York
State Institute Conductor

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LTHOUGH these books can be used to excellent

A advantage in teaching children how to read, the main

purpose of the series is to teach them what to read; to create and foster a taste for good literature. The selections are carefully made and graded.

The books for the primary grades include selections from the Mother Goose Melodies, nursery classics, fairy stories from Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm brothers. Æsop's Fables, memory gems, children's poems by such w iters as Stevenson, Alice Cary, Tennyson, Lydia Maria Child, Cecilia Thaxter, and a few prose selections among which Ruskin's King of the Golden River is given complete.

In the books for intermediate grades the reading matter is more advanced. Here are given such delightful selections as Aladdin, Pandora, The Sunken Treasure, Wonder Book, Tanglewood Tales, Rip Van Winkle, The Barefoot Boy, A Visit from St. Nicholas, Children in the Wood, The Last of the Mohicans, Tom Brown's School Days, etc.

The volumes for the grammar grades are made up of the best English and American literature. Among the eminent writers represented are Scott, Dickens, George Eliot, Irving, Addison, Patrick Henry, Lamb, Lincoln, Webster, Bryant, Burns, Goldsmith, Tennyson, Newman, Poe, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Gray, Macaulay, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Milton, Whittier, and Byron.

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY