its size, together with the young insect inside. When arrived at maturity, the latter eats its way out: hence gall nuts are generally found with a hole in them. The best of them come from Aleppo and Smyrna, and are about the size of a nutmeg. They are also used in preparing some kinds of medicine. They cost from ten to twenty dollars a hundred weight, according to quality.

In many diseases it becomes important to raise a blister upon the skin. This is done by applying a plaster made from an insect commonly called the Spanish fly; which is a sort of beetle, of a bright green color, about three quarters of an inch in length. They are most abundant in Italy and Spain. They are worth from two dollars to two dollars and twenty cents a pound.

Our catalogue of insects which are directly beneficial to man may be concluded by one of the most important, and the most interesting, of all; and that is the common honey bee -"the little busy bee" of the poet. Known from the earliest times, and almost every where found, it has become the type, or model, of diligence and industry. And it is a most faithful little worker, and well deserves its reputation. Diminutive as it is, it has had more books written about it than any other lower animal, the horse and ox perhaps excepted.

The bee is of great value to us. Unlike the silkworm, it does not require to be fed and taken care of; but it earns its own living, and asks nothing at the hands of man. It takes that which is not missed; and the flower it has rifled loses It gives us honey, which

nothing of its fragrance or beauty. is a most delicious article of food; and wax, which is employed for various purposes. There is hardly any part of the world, within the torrid and temperate zones, in which the bee is not found, either in a wild or domesticated state. It is abundant in our western forests, and its honey is gathered by men called bee hunters, who show great sagacity in finding where it is stored.

The actual value in money of the products of bees is

very great, but can hardly be estimated. In Europe, many cottagers and small farmers derive no slight part of the support of their families from their beehives. In Great Britain alone about six hundred thousand dollars are spent every year for foreign honey, besides what is made at home; and about the same sum for foreign wax. The wax and honey produced in the United States during the year 1850 were upwards of two millions three hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars in value. Such is the wealth created by a little brown creature, which we can hardly see as it wings its flight through the air.

LXI. BERNARDO DEL CARPIO.

MRS. HEMANS.

[The celebrated Spanish champion, Bernardo del Carpio, having made many ineffectual efforts to procure the release of his father, the Count Saldana, who had been imprisoned by King Alfonso of Asturias, at last took up arms in despair. The war which he maintained proved so destructive that the men of the land gathered round the king, and united in demanding Saldana's liberty. Alfonso, accordingly, offered Bernardo immediate possession of his father's person, in exchange for his castle of Carpio. Bernardo, without hesitation, gave up his stronghold, with all his captives, and being assured that his father was then on his way from prison, rode forth with the king to meet him. "And when he saw his father approaching, he exclaimed," says the ancient chronicle, "O God! is the Count of Saldana indeed coming?" "Look where he is," replied the cruel king; "and now go and greet him whom you have so long desired to see." The remainder of the story will be found related in the ballad. The chronicles and romances leave us nearly in the dark as to Bernardo's history after this event.]

THE warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire,

And sued the haughty king to free his long-imprisoned sire: "I bring thee here my fortress keys, I bring my captive train; I pledge my faith: my liege, my lord, O, break my father's chain!

"Rise! rise! even now thy father comes, a ransomed man this

day;

Mount thy good steed, and thou and I will meet him on his

way."

Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, And urged, as if with lance in hand, his charger's foaming

speed.

And lo! from far, as on they pressed, they saw a glittering band,

With one that 'mid them stately rode, like a leader in the land. "Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in very truth, is he, The father, whom thy grateful heart hath yearned so long to see."

His proud breast heaved, his dark eye flashed, his cheeks' hue came and went ;

He reached that gray-haired chieftain's side, and there dismounting bent;

A lowly knee to earth he bent his father's hand he took : What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook?

That hand was cold! a frozen thing!-it dropped from his like lead:

He looked up to the face above the face was of the dead! A plume waved o'er that noble brow the brow was fixed

and white!

He met at length his father's eyes but in them was no sight!

Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed; but who can paint that gaze?

They hushed their very hearts who saw its horror and amaze : They might have chained him, as before that noble form he

stood;

For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his cheek

the blood.

"Father!" at length he murmured low, and wept like childhood then

Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike

men:

He thought on all his glorious hopes, on all his high renown; Then flung the falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down;

And, covering with his steel-gloved hand his darkly mournful brow,

"No more, there is no more," he said, "to lift the sword for

now;

My king is false! my hope betrayed! my father

worth,

O, the

The glory, and the loveliness, are passed away from earth!"

Up from the ground he sprang once more, and seized the monarch's rein,

Amid the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train ; And with a fierce, o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war horse

led,

And sternly set them face to face

-

the king before the dead!

"Came I not here, upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss? Be still! and gaze thou on, false king! and tell me, what is

this?

The look, the voice, the heart I sought give answer, where

are they?

If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, put life in this cold clay !

"Into these glassy eyes put light: be still, keep down thine ire; Bid these cold lips a blessing speak this earth is not my sire! Give me back him for whom I fought, for whom my blood was

and a king? his dust be mountains on thy

head!"

He loosed the rein- his slack hand fell ;

face

He cast one long, deep, mournful glance, and fled from that

upon the silent

sad place:

His after-fate no more was heard amid the martial train;

His banner led the spears no more among the hills of Spain !

LXII. THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

THE Eddystone rocks are a dangerous ledge, of six or seven hundred feet in length, in the English Channel, about fourteen miles south-west of Plymouth. They were long noted as the cause of numerous shipwrecks, and merchants and sailors were very desirous that lighthouse should be placed there. But the building of a lighthouse on a spot covered by water at high tides, and exposed to all the storms of the ocean, was a very difficult task; and many supposed it could not be done at all. But in the year 1696, a gentleman named Winstanley agreed with government to erect a tower on the largest of these fatal rocks.

He found great difficulties in his way; but he was a man of a great deal of ingenuity, as well as a great deal of perseverance; and at the end of two years he erected a building, almost wholly of timber, secured to the rocks by enormous bolts of iron. It was lighted for the first time on the 14th day of November, 1698. But though the lantern was more than sixty feet above the level of the sea, such was the violence of the storms of the ensuing winter, and so high did the waves rise, that the lightroom was at times actually buried under water. In consequence of this, the height was carried to one hundred and twenty-four feet, and the base enlarged in proportion.

Thus it remained some years, and was of great benefit to vessels entering or leaving the Channel At length, some repairs being necessary, Mr. Winstanley went to the lighthouse to superintend them. While he was there, a dreadful storm came on, which strewed the whole southern coast of England with wrecks. When the day broke, not a vestige was to be