dom at-tacks an-y crea-ture, un-less when hard pressed by hun-ger. Man-y sto-ries are told of the li-on's gen-er-os-i-ty. Some years a-go, li-ons were kept in the Tow-er of Lon-don, and one day a small black span-iel was cru-el-ly thrown in-to the cage of a large li-on for his din-ner. The lit-tle an-i-mal trem-bled and shiv-ered, and held up his paws, as as if pray-ing for mer-cy. The li-on, in-stead of de-vour-ing him, turned him o-ver, first with one paw, and then with the oth-er. When food was brought in-to the cage, the li-on kept a-loof, and in-vi-ted the dog, as well as he could, to taste it. From this day the strong-est friend-ship com-menced be-tween the li-on and the dog. In a-bout twelve months the lit-tle span-iel sickened and died.

The li-on ap-peared to think that his lit-tle fa-vour-ite was a-sleep, but find-ing that all his ef-forts to wake him were in vain, he walked a-bout the cage at a swift and un-ea-sy pace. He would then look at him with ten-der-ness, and a-gain lift up his head and roar loud-ly. The keep-er tried in vain to move the body of the dog. When quite spent with grief, the no-ble an-i-mal stretched him-self by the re-mains of his be-lov-ed lit-tle play-fel-low, laid his paws up-on him, and took him to his bo-som. For five days he thus grad-u-al-ly de-clined, re-fu-sing all food, till one mor-ning he was found dead, with his head recli-ning on the bod-y of his lit-tle friend, and they were both in-terred to-geth-er.

cu-ri-ous

THE FLY AND THE SPIDER.

kū'-rē-us | va-ri-ous

vā'-rē-ús

SOME chil-dren once went with their grand-mother to see a spi-der's web; they thought it ver-y cu-ri-ous, and they talked a good deal a-bout it, though they could not see the use of such things, nor why there should be such crea-tures as spiders at all. Their grand-moth-er re-plied, "My dear chil-dren, I can-not tell you just now all the reasons why the all-wise God cre-a-ted and sustains the va-ri-ous crea-tures which we see a-round us, though we may be sure there is some good end to be served; but I will tell you a sto-ry which may at least help us to think up-on the sub-ject.

"A young prince used often to won-der for what pur-pose God had made flies and spi-ders, as he could not see, he said, what use they were to men, and if he had the pow-er, he would kill them all. One day, after a great bat-tle, this prince was o-bliged to hide from his en-e-mies; and wander-ing a-bout in a wood, he lay down be-neath a tree, and fell a-sleep. A sol-dier pass-ing by, who be-longed to the en-e-my, was qui-et-ly draw-ing near with his sword to kill the prince, when all of a sud-den a fly stung his lip and woke him. Seeing his dan-ger, he sprang to his feet, and quickly made the sol-dier run off.

"That night the prince a-gain hid him-self in a

cave, in the same wood, and du-ring the night a spi-der wove her web a-cross the en-trance. Two sol-diers be-long-ing to the ar-my which had defeat-ed him, and who were look-ing for the prince, passed the cave in the mor-ning, and the prince heard their con-ver-sa-tion. "Look," cried one of them, "he is sure-ly con-cealed in this cave.” "No," re-plied the oth-er, "that is im-pos-si-ble; for if he had gone in there he would have brushed down the spi-der's web at the en-trance." When they had gone a-way, the prince raised his hands and eyes to heaven, and thanked God for yes-terday sa-ving his life by means of a fly, and now a-gain by a spi-der, and ac-know-ledged that the ways and works of God are per-fect-ly good and wise." Children's Friend.

weapons

AFRAID OF THUNDER.

wěp'-nz

calm-ly

cawm'-lē

SHALL I tell you what I heard Un-cle George say to one of the lit-tle girls at school who was a-fraid of light-ning?

"O! do,” said Lu-cy, "I am so frightened when it thun-ders."

Lu-cy nestled clo-ser in her sis-ter's lap, and Ro-sa be-gan

"There was once a might-y king who was so ter-ri-ble in war that all his en-e-mies were a-fraid of him; the ver-y sound of his name made them

trem-ble. His arm was so strong that the horse and its ri-der would sink un-der one blow of his bat-tle-axe; and when he struck with his sharp sword, his en-e-mies fell dead at his feet. This might-y king had a lit-tle fair-haired daugh-ter, who watched him as he pre-pared for the bat-tle. She saw him put on his hel-met, and laughed as the plumes nod-ded a-bove his brow. She saw the state-ly bat-tle-axe brought forth; she saw him take his keen sword in his hand; he tried its edge, then waved it a-bout his head in the sunlight. She laughed as it glanced through the air; and even while it was up-held, she ran to-wards her fa-ther to take a part-ing kiss. Why was not the lit-tle child a-fraid of the might-y king with the fierce weapons? Be-cause he was her fa-ther; she knew that he loved her, loved her as his own life. She knew that those dan-ger-ous weapons would nev-er be used a-gainst her, un-less to save her from worse per-il. Do you un-der-stand what Un-cle George meant by this sto-ry?"

"Not ex-act-ly," said Lu-cy, "do tell me."

"He meant," said Ro-sa, "that God is like that might-y king; sick-ness, light-ning, dan-ger, tri-al, death, are all his weapons, but we need not fear them if we are tru-ly his chil-dren. When the sharp light-ning flash-es in the sky, we can look calm-ly at its beau-ty, for it is in our Fa-ther's hand; sick-ness may be a-round us, but our Father can keep us safe. Death may come, but it will on-ly be to send us to our Fa-ther's arms."

THE EAGLE AND THE CHILD.

THERE are man-y high hills in Scot-land, which are called Ben. The high-est of all is Ben Ne-vis. On the tops of these Bens, ea-gles build their nests. What nests they are! flat like a floor, and ver-y strong; the great sticks are often placed be-tween two high rocks that hang o-ver a deep place.

The ea-gles often car-ry off hares and rab-bits to their nests, and some-times young lambs. The far-mers do not like these fierce birds, yet it is dan-ger-ous to pro-voke them. There was a man who swam a-cross a lake, to a rock where some ea-gles had built their nests. He went to rob them of their lit-tle ones, while the old birds were a-way. But while he was swim-ming back with the ea-glets in his hands, the old birds saw him, came down up-on him, and killed him.