TH Calves. HREE gentle calves lying at rest in the corner of a clover-field. The sight makes us think of summer sunshine, and the songs of birds as they flit through the blossoming trees. There is an observant look in the eyes of these pretty creatures, and I should not wonder but they are hoping to see Molly, the dairy-maid, with a pitcher of warm milk to be divided among them, for it is a well-known fact that calves must be well and fully fed if they are ever to be worth much; long after they are able to eat grass, they are much the better for a supper of warm milk and meal before going to bed. Scotch calves cannot be fattened up to such goodly use as their English cousins, therefore in a Scotch market the best veal is sure to be English fed.' Sometimes on a Scotch mountain one meets with half-a-dozen Highland cows with their calves, and these little creatures do look strange; they are of a small breed, and their hair is so long and thick, that they are more like shaggy little bears than respectable calves. But this thick, long hair, is quite necessary to protect them from the cold of a northern climate. In a few years these calves will be grown into cows, the most useful creatures that God has given for the use of man. How much of our daily comfort depends upon these animals! How should we like to have no milk for the children, no butter, no cheese? How sad it is to see calves driven along a dusty street, and cruelly ill-used by their drivers! Parents should teach their boys to be tender-hearted towards these pretty creatures, who are so gentle themselves, and so useful to us. D. B. MCKEAN. L Habits. IKE flakes of snow that fall unperceived upon the earth, seemingly unimportant events of life succeed one another. As the snow gathers together, so are our habits formed. No single flake that is added to the pile produces a sensible change. No single action creates, however it exhibit, a man's character; but as the tempest hurls the avalanche down the mountain, and overwhelms the inhabitant and his habitation, so passion, acting upon the elements of mischief which pernicious habits have brought together by imperceptible accumulation, may overthrow the edifice of truth and virtue. 'Man,' says Adam Smith, 'is an animal that makes bargains. No other animal does this--no dog exchanges bones with another.' Dr. Whewell, walking in Mr. Hamilton's garden at Cobham, expressed his surprise at the prodigious growth of the trees. My dear sir,' replied Mr. Hamilton, remember, they have nothing else to do.' 6 D° Good-bye, Old Year! you know what 'Good-bye' means? It means, Good be with you; and if, when we say so to anybody at parting with them, we mean that, then 'Good-bye' is a good and a kind word to use. But very few who say 'Good-bye' know what the right meaning is, and therefore they cannot and do not wish good to those from whom they are parting. And if so with our friends and acquaintance, what is the meaning of 'Good-bye' to the old year, an expression one has often heard used ? The poor Old Year is certainly leaving us, but what need we care for it now that it is over and gone? Well, the expression may mean nothing, as it often does when used to people,—it may be used only in carelessness, and as an idle word, just to say, 'Well, we have done with thee, Old Year; go thy way; we shall see no more of thee!' Stop a little; are you sure you have done with the Old Year? are you quite sure that it will never turn up again? We say Good-bye' to acquaintances going to America or Australia, and it seems like parting with them for ever, and, indeed, some of them never are seen by us again; but some do come back, or perhaps some few of us may have to go to America or Australia ourselves, and so meet them again there. Then, if we really had wished Good to be with them when they went away, we shall be well pleased to see them again, and to see them well and prosperous; and still more, if, beside wishing Good to be with them, we had, while they were with us, done them all the good in our power, we should expect to find them meeting us with glad smiles, and ready to repay back again, perhaps tenfold, all the goodness we had shown them here. But the poor Old Year is gone, and gone never to come back, and, therefore, what matter does it make to us whether we have bid it 'Good-bye' with a real meaning, or no meaning at all? it is, you will again say, over and gone for ever. has in one sense, but I doubt whether Suppose the Old Year has gone from Yes, true,-gone for ever it we have parted with it for ever. us, may we not go to it? Where has it gone to? Eternity. Where, reader, art thou going? I think thou art travelling the same way the Old Year has gone! meet with it again? Did wishing Good to go with it? seen of thee and heard of thee to make thy What good didst thou to the Old Year? at all? Take care that the Old Year does not turn round upon thee in that vast Eternity to which it has gone, and thou art following, and tell a very different tale to thy 'Good-bye!' Dost thou know that every action And if so, how wilt thou like to thy 'Good-bye' mean that thou wert What good? What has the Old Year 'Good-bye' mean anything? Didst thou do any good in it Lines written in an old Family Bible. of thine, every word, nay every thought, in the poor Old Year are all put down, and that thou wilt have to answer to Him Who both made thee and gave thee the Old Year? Ah, what if it should be that no good from thee went with the Old Year; that it departed abused, wasted, mocked, disgraced, and has gone to tell of nothing but what was bad from thee, and to tell it to thy Judge! And I am not sure that the Old Year and thee may not meet before thou facest it in Eternity. These poor, abused, and mocked Old Years have a way of coming back, when we have forgotten all about them; they come when we are sick and in trouble, and they look at us in a way that makes us tremble on our beds. Ah, what shall we do with these Old Years? can we in any way send good after them if we neglected to send good with them? Let us go and ask God that question, for it is an important one! 'When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.' 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Almighty God, of His infinite mercy, pardon all our sins in the Old Year, and in all past years, and grant us a happy and a holy New Year, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Lines written in an old Family Bible. OOK of Life! to thee I fly BOOK When the world weighs heavily Heavily upon my heart, And earthly thoughts no peace impart. Earthly hopes all hollowness; Earthly joys deceitfulness; Earthly praise a tinsel gain; Earthly pleasure after pain; Earthly stay an ebbing wave; Earthly end the dark cold grave. Wearily, wearily, From worldly wastes so drearily From trouble, toil, and vanity, From care and strife, To thee I turn to thee I fly, Book of Life. |