The School Children. rubbing of little fists, and cheers, as the three white heads touch each other over the pan. I THE following is an extract from the Sparrow-think an artist could make a charming picture grass Papers, just published by Derby & Jackson, of that group of urchins, especially if he painted them in their school knapsacks. Sometimes we get glimpses of their minor New York: cares, its hopes and its disappointments. The first afternoon they returned from school, open flew every satchel, and out came a little book. A conduct book! There was G. for good boy, and R. for reading, and S. for spelling, and so on; and opposite every letter a good mark. From the early records in the conductbooks, the school-mistress must have had an elegant time of it for the first few days with the old soldiers. Then came a dark day; and on that afternoon, from the force of circumstances, the old soldiers did not seem to care about showing up. Every little reluctant hand, however, went into its satchel upon requisition and out came the records. It was evident, from a tiny legion of crosses in the books, that the mistress's duties had been rather irksome that morning. So the small column was ordered to deploy in line of battle, and after a short address dismissed-without pudding. In consequence, the old soldiers now get some good marks every day. "WE have sent the children to school. Under the protecting wing of Mrs. Sparrow-world-its half-fledged ambitions, its puny grass, our two eldest boys passed in safety through the narrow channel of orthography, and were fairly launched upon the great ocean of reading before a teacher was thought of. But when boys get into definitions, and words more than an inch long, it is time to put them out, and pay their bills once a quarter. Our little maid, five years old, must go with them, too. The boys stipulated that she should go, although she had never gone before E in the alphabet before. When I came home from the city in the evening, I found them with their new carpet-satchels all ready for the morning. There was quite a hurrah, when I came in, and they swung their book-knapsacks over each little shoulder by a strap, and stepped out with great pride, when I said, Well done, my old soldiers.' Next morning we saw the old soldiers marching up the garden path to the gate, and then the little procession halted; and the boys waved their caps, and one dear little toad kissed her mitten at us-and then they went with such cheerful faces. Poor old soldiers! what a long, long siege you have before you! We begin to observe the first indications of a love for society growing up with their new experiences. It is curious to see the tiny Thank Heaven for this great privilege, that filaments of friendship putting and winding our little ones go to school in the country. their fragile tendrils around their small acNot in the narrow streets of the city; nor quaintances. What a little world it is-the over the flinty pavements; not amid the rush little world that is allowed to go into the of crowds, and the din of wheels; but out menagerie at half price! Has it not its joys in the sweet woodlands and meadows; out in and its griefs; its cares and its mortification; the open air, and under the blue sky-cheered its aspirations and its despairs? One day the on by the birds of spring and summer, or old soldiers came home in high feather with a braced by the stormy winds of ruder seasons. note. An invitation to a party, Master Learning a thousand lessons city children Millet's compliments, and would be happy to never learn; getting nature by heart-and treasuring up in their little souls the beautiful stories written in God's great picture-book. We have stirring times now when the old soldiers come home from school in the afternoon. The whole household is put under martial law until the old soldiers get their rations. Bless their white heads, how hungry they are. Once in a while they get pudding by way of a treat. Then what chuckling and see the Masters, and Miss Sparrowgrass to tea, on Saturday.' What a hurrah there was, when the note was read; and how their cheeks glowed with the ru. they had had. Not an inch of way had they walked, with that great note! There was mueh chuckling over their dinner, too; and we observed the flush never left their cheeks, even after they were in bed, and had been asleep for hours. Then all their best clothes had to be taken out of the drawer and brushed; and the best collars lain out; and a small silk apron, with profuse ribbons, improvised for our little maid; and a great to-do generally. Next morning I left them, as I had to go to the city; but the day was bright and beautiful. At noon, the sky was cloudy. At two o'clock it commenced raining. At three, it rained steadily. When I reached home in the evening, they were all in bed again and I learned they had been prevented going to the party on account of the weather. They had been dreadfully disappointed,' Mrs. Sparrowgrass said; so we took a lamp and went up to have a look at them. There they lay, the hopeful roses of yesterday, all faded; and one poor old soldier was sobbing in his sleep." What Makes the Negro Black ? A hot climate disturbs the normal action of let it not be thought that this darkening process is the result of a disordered, in the sense of an unhealthful action of the liver. In that case it would appear that Providence designed only the temperate zones to be inhabited, and the wealth of the tropics to be lost to mankind. In fact, the health and vigor of the tropical tribes show that all the earth is man's intended dwelling-place. "Black Version." THE legend concerning the color of Adam's and Eve's skin, and the causes of different varieties of shade and complexion now observable among men, are more numerous than the varieties themselves. The following takes it for granted that all the inhabitants of the earth, before the Deluge, were black, and attributes these varieties to the sons of Noah, is new to us, and may, perhaps, amuse some of our readers: "Noah," say the black Marabouts, "was entirely black. His three sons were also quite One day, when as black as their father. DR. DRAPER, of New York, gives the following explanation: Human blood is made up of little cells, containing, among other elements, hæmatin, a reddish substance, which is largely made up of iron. One of the duties of the liver is the removing of the old blood-Noah knew that his life would soon end, he cells and the forming of new ones, and this showed his sons a pit, partly filled with water, duty includes the carrying out from the system which he said had the wonderful property of completely transforming any one that leaped of all excess of hæmatin. into it. For a moment they all hesitated, but Japhet suddenly rose and plunged into it, and almost as suddenly re-appeared from the magical water under the form of a handsome young Caucasian. Shem, seeing this, eagerly followed his example; but, to his astonishment, the water had disappeared, and only a few ripe lemons were at the bottom. With the juice of these he rubbed his skin, and issued from the pit, not black, but of an Indian's copper color. Ham then took courage, and, with one bound, reached the bottom of the pit on his hands and feet. Frantic at the disappearance of the water, he even put his lips to the ground to suck up the few remaining drops of the lemon juice; thence it happens that the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and the lips of the negro race are of the same coppery color as the skin of Shem."— Zion's Herald. the blood, and also of the liver. Imperfect oxygin attends great heat, and adds to the darkness of the arterial blood, while by the want of energetic respiration which it revolves, there is an over fatness and torpidity of the liver. The hæmatin, therefore, by the inaction of the great cleansing agent, is left in the system and wandering about, takes refuge in the lower and spherical cells of the cuticle, which it thus bronzes from orange-tawny down to the negro-black, according to the heat of the climate, the inactivity of the liver, and the amount of hæmatin left as refuse in the system. : Cold checks the action of the liver equally with heat, and, therefore, the complexion of the Esquimaux approaches that of the Mongolian and negro. This is certainly a simple and intelligible explanation The tendency of coloring matter to deposit itself iu the But cells of the cuticle is well known. LABOR Omnia vincet. was yet lingering, and the leaves had changed to fall, the child fell sick, and the light of that cottage and the joy of that mother's heart went out. He breathed his last in her arms; and as he took her parting kiss, whispered in her ear, "I am going to be an angel!" I WANT TO BE AN ANGEL.-In the door of a New England cottage sat a little child at the close of a summer Sabbath day. The twilight was fading, and as the shades of evening deepened into darkness, one after another of the stars stood out in the sky, and looked down on the child in his thoughtful mood. He looked up into the mysterious chambers above him and counted the bright spots as they came, till his eyes grew weary of watch-works of complete astral catalogues, the number of stars visible to the naked eye in a sining the worlds of light, which to him were ASTRONOMICAL MARVELS.-In the recent only holes in heaven's floor to let the glory gle hemisphere, namely, the northern, is stated through. And the child became so thoughtful to be less than three thousand-a result which Yes, my dear child, I know you were thinking, and I wish you would tell your mother what you were thinking of." Oh," said he, as his little eyes sparkled in the dark with thoughts upon his lips: "Oh, mother, I want to be an angel." "And would you tell me, my precious boy, why you want to be an angel?" "Heaven is always up there, mother, and God is there, and the angels love him, and are so good and so happy; I want to be good, and go there to love God, and be an angel to wait on him forever." There was something like the voice of Heaven in these child-words, and the mother -proud of her son, trembling for her treasure-called him to her knee, and as he laid his head on her bosom and wept, she thought she had been warned as in a vision. But she was wise as well as fond in her affection, and she kissed his forehead and smoothed his silken hair, and in a low, gentle voice, told him to be a good boy, and by and by he should be an angel among angels. His young heart was comforted. He sat on her knee for an hour, and asked strange, deep questions, which the mother could not always answer; and then he knelt by her side, and with her soft hand on his head, he repeated his evening prayer. A few minutes afterwards he was in his cot, asleep, dreaming perhaps of Heaven. Within less than a quarter of a year, when the summer was gone, but the mellow autumn will strike with astonishment, on account of the smallness of the number, those who have only vaguely examined the sky on a beautiful winter night. The character of this astonishment, however, will change, when the number of stars revealed by the telescope is considered. Carrying the enumeration to the stars of the fourteenth magnitude-the last that are seen by powerful telescopes-there is found a number superior to 40,000,000, and the distance from the farthest of them is such that the light would take from three to four thousand years to traverse it. A photometric experiment, of which the first indications exist in the Cosmotheories of Huygens-an experiment resumed by Wollaston a short time before his death, teaches us that 20,000 stars the same size as Sirius, the most brilliant of the firmament, would need to be agglomerated to shed upon our globe a light equal to that of the sun! Rural New Yorker. PACKING THOUGHT.-Do not assume that, because you have something important to communicate, it is necessary to write a long article. A tremendous thought may be packed into a small compass-made as solid as a cannon ball, and, like the projectile, cut down all before it. Short articles are generally more effective, find more readers, and are more widely copied than long ones. Pack your thoughts close together, and though your article may be brief, it will have weight, and be more likely to make an impression. "Ye, who write for this busy age," says a late writer, " speak quick, use short sentences, never stop the reader with a long or ambiguous word, but let the stream of thought flow right on. and men will drink it like water. For the Schoolmaster. China. [The London News correspondent in China communicates the following new idea concerning the character, dress and habits of the inhabitants of the Central Flowery Nation:] the hills. We must fill the lake with shipping of every nation, and we must pour over all the hills the glow of an Eastern sun." [The following extract from a letter of Sir John Bowring, under the head of "How China is Peopled," is from the Eclectic for August.] "I have found the celestials very intelligent, "We may with tolerable safety estimate the wonderfully ingenious and altogether different present population of the China empire as befrom what I had been told. I got along very tween 350,000,000 and 400,000,000 of human well with them. The small boys have the beings. Dogs, especially puppies, are habitubrightest look you can conceive, and, so far ally sold for food; and I have seen in the from being ugly, they are most pleasant-look-butchers' shops, large dogs skinned and hanging little fellows. Their dress is a long way ing with their viscera by the side of pigs and in advance of the dress of our juveniles: it is a white silk or other stuff blouse; no shirt in summer, and the neck bare; loose trousers tied around the knee with a satin band, and covering a stocking that descends into the most sensible of all shoes. The coolies are much more loosely dressed and merely wear the shirt and trousers." Barbers." A coolie on his way to his diurnal duties sits down at a road-side barber's to have his head shaved; at his feet is his bamboo hat—a most glorious hat it is, too, being an umbrella as well as a parasol; some have bits of string inside, to which are slung pipes and on it too, as you see, they dry fish whilst they are walking. Sometimes you see a hat covered with fish drying in the sun. A bamboo for carrying weight is near his hat. A coolie is never without his bamboo: he is sitting on his never-failing chest of drawers, containing razors, soap, &c.; the vessel contains water; the stick is surmounted by the usual joss lion." goats. Even to rats and mice the Chinese have no objection-neither to the flesh of monkeys and snakes. Unhatched ducks and chickens are a favorite dish." "Ye cannot know the End from the Beginning." NEVER threaten your children. "Old advice," you say, "I have read it before." Yes, and where you have read it once, you have forgotten it ten times. You know that the government which requires threats is not perfect; and that the words, "don't do that again," should be sufficient. Yet again and again, in the vexation of a moment, you have exclaimed, “If you do that again, I'll ———.” And again and again have you seen the little fist doubled towards a younger brother or sister, and heard the repetition of your own words; and you have said, "What! angry? oh, how naughty!" But excuse me; I didn't mean to be personal. I only intended to tell [The Times correspondent, quoted by the you this story, illustrative of the fact that News, thus describes Hong Kong :] "It is a town of beautiful houses; but its powers of accommodation are not capable of indefinite expansion. The flight from Canton and other causes have filled it. I passed this morning on the verandah of a friend's house, and we agreed that to suggest to the European mind an idea of Victoria and its scenery, we must imagine ourselves to be looking down upon a Scotch loch,-Loch Lomond or Loch Long will do. We must create by imagination a handsome city of light, airy houses upon the margin of the waters, and climbing up when you threaten an act with punishment you cannot know but that very act may be performed under such circumstances as not to deserve punishment; in which case you must either forfeit your word or punish unjustly. In Eddie's character, faults and virtues were blended in about the usual proportion. Among his pleasant qualities was one to which his mother trusted as a means of overcoming evil propensities, and of counteracting impure influences, viz: a love for natural objects. Each flower, and every insect was a treasure to him. He knew the note of every bird that sang near his home. He had often been told "Why, it's two weeks, you know. I wait not to frighten the birds from their nests, lested till after dinner, so it's quite two weeks, they should desert them. One day he came in, bringing a nest in which were four blue eggs. "Oh! mother," he said, "isn't it too bad; Ponto frightened the bird away, and now these pretty little eggs can never be hatched." The eggs were warm, and had evidently not been disturbed. Carry back the nest," said his mother, "and perhaps the bird will come to it again." It was a long walk in the hot sun, but the errand was done, and Eddie reported that the bird was crying when he got there, but he told her he had brought back the eggs, and she didn't say "peep-peep" much more, so he guessed she would come to them. "Now," said his mother, "don't go to the nest for two weeks." Eddie promised, and went with his sisters to work in their garden, a certain sand-bank, where they persisted in planting corn that wouldn't come up, and beans that died as soon as they were up, and succeeded in making nothing grow but themselves. Soon the children were missing. When next seen they were coming from a long distance up the street. Right out of the sand-bank they had been calling on the neighbors. "Provoking," laughs some mamma whose fa.nily pride has met with a similar disaster. True, but it was the first offense, and the mother only reproved them. Yet, in her vexation, she added, "Recollect, the first time you go in the street beyond the walnut trees, I shall punish you.' Days passed on, and both incidents were forgotten. One afternoon Eddie was seen coming through a long field which ran parallel with the street, and at the farther end of which was the bird's nest. This field was overgrown with wild vines, which rendered the passage through it not only difficult but too slow for Eddie, who was bringing pleasant news, and when only a short distance beyond the walnut trees he sprang over the fence and came bounding up the street. "Oh! mother! mother!" he exclaimed, as with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes he entered the room where his mother was sitting, "the eggs are broken, and the birds are hatched, and "— and I've been "—the countenance changed, the eyelids dropped, for a moment the chest heaved-then, with eyes brimful of tears and from quivering lips, came the answer-" in the road beyond the walnut trees." Thoughtlessly, innocently, he had transgressed the letter, but not the spirit of the law. In the face of punishment he had told the truth. The mother's word was pledged. "What did she do?" No matter, reader, she does not care about telling you, save that she learned this lesson, never threaten. NATURE is gifted with something wonderfully like imagination; forever re-producing herself, but always in new forms, new combinations, new lovliness, and her humblest tree passes through as many phases as her fairest moon. Now the summit is crimson and gold; now it rolls a great billow of green, and now it stands dark as the folds of a storm-cloud. So nature busies herself all the day, and all the year long, is doing something new and something more for that tree; when it buds, when it blossoms, when it is full of summer glories. In the morning, she amuses herself in laying its shadows all to the westward; in the evening she trails them, like a mourner's robe, to the east, and at noon she bundles them up under a tree. What mockery of sunset, of flame and of gold, when she touches it with frost. What a decoration of fairy land, when Winter endows it with pendants of diamond and pearl.-Chicago Journal. INTERCOUSE WITH CHILDREN.-The most essential point in our intercourse with children is to be perfectly true ourselves. Every other interest ought to be sacrificed to that of truth. When we in any way deceive a child, we not only show him a pernicious example, but we also lose our own influence over him forever. THE sun is best seen at his rising and settihg. So men's native disposition is most "Where have you been, my son?" inquir- clearly perceived when they are children and ed his mother. when they come to die. |