most confused manner possible. Here was, "Paid Mr Crusty for a week's bread and baking, so much." Then, "Paid Mr Pinchtoe for shoes, so much." "Paid half a year's rent, so much." Then came a butcher's bill, next a milliner's, and then a grocer's. "What shall I do?" cried poor Julia. "Where am I to begin, and how can I possibly pick out all these things? Oh that the good little creature were here again with her wand!" Just as she uttered these words, the fairy Order stood before her. "Don't be startled, my dear," said she. "Let me see your book." She turned over a few leaves, and then exclaimed, "I see my cross-grained sister has been playing you a trick. She has brought you the day-book instead of the ledger; but I will set the matter to rights." She then went away, and returned with another book, in which she showed Julia the names of every one of the articles standing at the tops of the pages, and all the particulars entered under them from the day-book; so that there was nothing for her to do but to cast up the sums, and copy out the heads with their amount in single lines. As Julia was quick at figures, she was not long about the work, and took down her account, very neatly written on one sheet of paper, at dinner-time.

Julia's tormentor next day brought her up a large box, full of letters stamped upon small bits of ivory, capitals and common letters of all sorts jumbled together, as if they had been shaken in a bag. "Now, miss," said she, "before you come down to dinner, you must exactly copy out this poem with these ivory letters, placing them line by line on the floor of your room." Julia at first thought that this task would be pretty sport enough, but when she set about it, she found such trouble in hunting out the letters she wanted, that she got on very slowly; and as the

poem

was a long one, she thought that night would come before it was finished. Order, however, was not far distant. She gave a tap on the letters with her wand, and they arranged themselves directly into little heaps, in the order of the alphabet, the small letters and the capitals separately. Then her task went on so easily and quickly, that she called up the old lady an hour before dinner to witness its completion. The good lady kissed her, and told her, as she was now sensible of the benefits of order, and the inconvenience of disorder, she would not confine her any longer to work by herself at set tasks, but would let her come and sit beside her. And Julia, from that time, took such pains to please her, by doing everything with the greatest neatness and regularity, that, by the time she was sent back to her mother, she had corrected all her careless habits; and her mother was quite pleased to have her with her again.

THE GLEANER.

BEFORE the bright sun rises over the hill,
In the corn-field poor Mary is seen,
Impatient her little blue apron to fill

With the few scattered ears she can glean.

She never leaves off, or runs out of her place,
To play and to idle and chat,

Except now and then just to wipe her hot face,
And fan herself with her broad hat.

"Poor girl, hard at work in the heat of the sun,
How tired and warm you must be !

Why don't you leave off, as the others have done,
And sit with them under the tree?"

"Oh no! for my mother lies ill in her bed,

Too feeble to spin or to knit ;

And my poor little brothers are crying for bread,
And yet we can't give them a bit.

"How could I be merry, and idle, and play,
While they are so hungry and ill?

Oh no! I would rather work hard all the day,
My little blue apron to fill."

STEAM.

I DARESAY you have often heard of steam. There are steam-engines, and steam-boats, and steam-guns, and steam-mills for all sorts of purposes--to saw wood, to grind flour, to dress flax. I think steam will soon become so common, that we shall forget that there ever was a time when the use of steam lay undiscovered. And yet it

is only about a hundred years ago since James Watt made the first steam-engine which was of any real use. No doubt many people, long before that time, had watched the steam as it poured out of the spout of a tea-kettle or lifted up the lid, and knew its power to burst any vessel in which it was so closely shut up that it could find no way of escape. And many had thought, too, that some device might be contrived to make so great a force of some use to mankind. And more than one had attempted the problem many years before the days of Watt, but none had been able to contrive a way by which it might be turned to useful account. You know that steam is produced from water raised to a great heat by means of fire. The water is placed in a very large vessel, called a boiler, many

hundred times as large as a tea-kettle, and under this boiler is a place for the fire, called a furnace. But the steam cannot get out of this boiler, as it does out of the kettle by the spout. There is no spout to the boiler. Neither can it lift up the lid or burst the boiler, for the boiler is very strong; its only way out is by a pipe which leads from the boiler to that part of the steam-engine which is called the cylinder. This cylinder is a very large tube, with a rod and a piston in it, which fits quite tight inside the cylinder, and is forced up and down by the steam pressing against it with great force. Thus this cylinder somewhat resembles the squirts and pop-guns with which boys sometimes play, and the piston is something like the sucker with which they force out the water from the squirt, or the pellet from the mouth of the popgun.

Now, I shall not try to explain the contrivance by which this piston is first pushed up and then pushed down by the steam from the boiler, and how the piston moves the beam, and how this turns the wheels, and so the whole engine is set a-going, and made to do the work for which it is intended. You must use your eyes when you see an engine at work, and you will soon be able to find out all that. And then, too, you can learn the use of the governor, which is like a great pair of tongs, with the legs stretched out, on the top of the engine, and which regulates the quantity of steam admitted into the engine; and the flywheel, which keeps the motion steady; and the eccentric, which opens and shuts the valves. I shall only give you two illustrations of the power of steam. A pint of water can be converted into steam by two ounces of coal, and the steam thus produced would have force enough to lift up this schoolroom, and all the boys and girls who are

in it. In Great Britain, at the present time, steam is doing work on railways and in steamships, in mines and in manufactories, which it would have required twelve million horses to do if the art of applying steam-power had never been invented.

THE SCOTCH SHEPHERD BOY AND
HIS DOG.

ONE Saturday evening, Halbert's mother was very ill. The cottage they lived in was away among the mountains, in the Highlands of Scotland, and far from any path. The snow was falling in large heavy flakes, and Malcolm had taken his long pole, with the intention of setting out to the village, that he might procure some medicine for his wife."Father," said little Halbert, "I know the sheeppath through the dark glen better than you, and with Shag, who will walk before me, I shall be quite safe; let me go for the doctor, and do you stay and comfort mother." To this Malcolm agreed. And Halbert, who had been always used to the mountains, set out on his journey with Shag, who kept wagging his tail and jumping round his young master with many a frolic and grimace. They went safely on,—Halbert arrived at the village, saw the doctor, received some medicine for his mother, and then commenced his return with a cheerful heart.

Shag went on before to see that all was right. Suddenly, however, he stopped, and began snuffing and smelling about. "Go on, Shag," said Halbert; but Shag would not stir. 66 Shag, go on, sir,” repeated the boy, ". we are nearly at the top of the glen, and I can already see the candle glimmer in our cottage window." Shag seemed