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PERSEVERANCE.

OBERT BRUCE was at one time al-most in des-pair of ma-king good his right to the throne, and of re-sto-ring free-dom to Scot-land; he had been so often de-feat-ed, and there seemed so lit-tle chance of suc-cess, that he doubt-ed wheth-er it was his du-ty to try a-gain.

While thus doubt-ful what he should do, Bruce looked up-ward to

the roof of the cab-in where he lay on his bed, and saw a spi-der, which, hang-ing at the end of a long thread of its own spin-ning, was try-ing to swing it-self from one beam in the roof to an-other, for the pur-pose of fix-ing the line for its web.

The in-sect made the at-tempt a-gain and a-gain with-out suc-cess; and at length Bruce count-ed that it had tried to car-ry its point six times, and had been as often un-a-ble to do so.

It re-mind-ed him that he had him-self fought just six bat-tles, and that the poor, per-se-ve-ring spi-der was ex-act-ly in the same sit-u-a-tion with him-self, hav-ing made as man-y tri-als, and as often failed in what it aimed at.

"Now," thought Bruce, "as I do not know what is best to be done, I will be guid-ed by the spi-der. If the in-sect shall make an-oth-er ef-fort to fix

its thread and shall be suc-cess-ful, I will ven-ture a seventh time to try my for-tune in Scot-land; but if the spi-der shall fail, I will go a-way and nev-er re-turn to my na-tive coun-try a-gain."

While Bruce was form-ing this res-ol-u-tion, the spi-der made an-oth-er at-tempt with all the force it could mus-ter, and fair-ly suc-ceed-ed in fastening its thread on the beam, which it had so often in vain tried to reach.

Bruce see-ing the suc-cess of the spi-der, was en-cour-aged to make one more ef-fort for his coun-try, and as he nev-er be-fore gained a victor-y, so he nev-er af-ter-wards met with an-y great de-feat.

THE PLUM PUDDING.

"I ONCE saw," said my un-cle Rob-ert, "a plum pud-ding, the ma-king of which had in one way or oth-er em-ployed more than a thou-sand men." "A thou-sand men!" said I; "why, it must have been as large as a church! I would walk twen-ty miles to see such a pud-ding!"

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'Well," re-plied my un-cle, “if that be the case, you shall see just such a pud-ding next Fri-day, if you will come and dine with me. Fri-day will be my birth-day, and ex-act-ly at one o'clock we will sit down to cut up the won-der-ful plum pudding." "But where is the pud-ding to be made, un-cle ?" said I. 'And how can you get a pot big e-nough to boil it in? You can-not have it in

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this house, for it would nev-er come through the door way." "Nev-er mind a-bout that," re-plied un-cle Rob-ert. "If you will do your part in help-ing to eat it, I will take all the care up-on my-self of see-ing that it is made prop-er-ly. If we should find the house too small, we will have the pud-ding in the big field at the back of the or-chard."

"What a pud-ding it will be!" said my broth-er Har-ry, snap-ping his fin-gers; "but how shall we be a-ble to cut it up?"

"O," re-plied my un-cle, "nev-er fear. If it be ne-ces-sa-ry, I will bor-row my neigh-bour Brown's long lad-der to get to the top of it; and I should think that a wag-gon and hors-es would be more than suf-fici-ent to re-move the sli-ces as I cut them."

"A long lad-der, and a wag-gon and hors-es!" said Har-ry, lift-ing up his eye-brows with surprise; "why, all the neigh-bour-hood will be in an up-roar: we shall have a thou-sand persons to see it. How-ev-er, as the pud-ding will be so ver-y large, we shall per-haps be a-ble to spare most of them a taste; but I should like of all things to see it made."

Un-cle Rob-ert would by no means a-gree to this pro-po-sal; so we left him, prom-is-ing to be at his house ex-act-ly at half past twelve on the next Fri-day.

For the next few days we thought more of the plum pud-ding than we did of our books. My

broth-er ab-sol-ute-ly dreamed of it; and I ver-i-ly be-lieve that no three days of our whole lives ev-er ap-peared to us so long as those we passed through be-fore my un-cle's birth-day ar-rived. We were up be-times, and scrubbed our fa-ces. with cold wa-ter till they were red as cher-ries. Nev-er were two hap-pi-er hearts than those that beat in our bo-soms when at e-leven o'clock we set off for Cran-ber-ry cot-tage, where we ar-rived full half an hour before the time fixed up-on.

Har-ry and I had ob-served a lad-der lean-ing a-gainst the end of Brown's house, and we conclu-ded at once that it was placed there to be in read-i-ness. A wag-gon al-so we saw that stood un-der the wheel-wright's shed, which we doubt-ed not would in a lit-tle time be mov-ing to-wards the cot-tage. Now, we had seen a lad-der standing a-gainst Brown's house, and a wag-gon un-der the wheel-wright's shed, twen-ty times be-fore then, but our heads were so full of the plum pudding, that we had no i-de-a the lad-der or the wag-gon could be want-ed for an-y oth-er pur-pose than the im-port-ant one of ren-der-ing as-sistance in dis-po-sing of the won-der-ful pud-ding.

Har-ry and I, who had fan-cied that the cottage would be in strange con-fu-sion in con-sequence of the great prep-ar-a-tions ne-ces-sa-ry to be made, were not a lit-tle sur-prised to find ev-er-y thing as qui-et and in as much or-der as u-su-al.

We were very an-xious to have a peep at the

kitch-en; but un-cle Rob-ert was on the look out, and took care we should have no op-por-tu-ni-ty. Ex-act-ly as the clock struck one, Mr Raikes, un-cle Rob-ert's old friend, en-tered the cot-tage, and at the same mo-ment Peg-gy Saun-ders, un-cle Rob-ert's house-keep-er, brought in a dish with a cov-er o-ver it, and set it on the ta-ble.

Un-cle Rob-ert then asked a bless-ing, and the cov-er was re-moved from the plum pud-ding. I do not know that a bet-ter pud-ding was ev-er set up-on a ta-ble, but it was a sad fall off from what we ex-pect-ed to see.

"But this is not the pud-ding you prom-ised us, un-cle,” cried Har-ry, as soon as the cov-er was taken from the dish. "The very same,” said uncle Rob-ert. "Why, did you not say you would bor-row neigh-bour Brown's lad-der to get to the top of it?" "I said I would do so if it was neces-sa-ry, Har-ry," re-plied my un-cle Rob-ert; "but you see I can con-trive to get to the top of it with-out the lad-der." "And did you not say," cried I, "that you would get a wag-gon and hors-es to re-move the sli-ces?" "O, no!" re-plied he; "what I said was, that I thought a wag-gon and hors-es would be more than suf-fici-ent for the pur-pose; and I think so still." But you do not mean to say, un-cle," con-tin-ued Har-ry, "that a thou-sand persons have been em-ployed in making that pud-ding?" "Yes I do," was un-cle's re-ply; "and af-ter din-ner I will try to con-vince you that what I say is true."

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