have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest altera tion that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that patch in a moment underwent the strictest scrutiny.

They seem too to be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites; to some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but a miller coming in engaged their affections at once; his powdered coat had claims that were irresistible. It is no wonder that my intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence he little knows what amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life; and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is only because man gives them peculiar cause for it.

Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a fall; Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor even of age, except that he has grown more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude without observing that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaintance, a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had never seen spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no real need of it; Puss discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least symptom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all respects sociable and friendly.

RATS.

JANE LOUDON.

A WHITE rat having been caught in some stables, and be ing from its colour thought a great curiosity, it was brought to a gentleman who was known to take great interest in animals. At first it was very savage, and tried to bite when left loose. It was therefore put into a turning squirrel-cage, and for two or three days kept short of food and allowed none that it would not take out of its owner's hand. At first it snapped and tried to bite through the wires, but soon learned to know his voice, and came out on hearing it; but usually it lay hid in the box at the end of the cage, and when its master took it out, it several times bit him severely. Finding at last that he always treated it kindly, it grew tame, and would let him open the box and look in, without stirring. He could soon let it out in his sitting-room, and it would come close to his feet to pick up the crumbs which he dropped for it, and in a fortnight came when called, and ate sugar from his hand.

When the rat was first brought, his little white terrier, Flora, was very anxious to get at it and kill it; but their master, holding the rat, called Flora, and showed it to her. She seemed at once to understand what he meant, and, far from harming it, thenceforward, if any stranger came in while it was loose, she stood by it, growling and showing her teeth, and the rat never failed to run up to her for protection at such times. There was a walled garden behind the house, where both rat and dog were often turned out to play together, which they did by a kind of hide-and-seek among the flowers; but if their master whistled, there was at once a race to be. the first to get to him.

Scugg, as he called the rat, became so bold that he would get on the table and carry off food to share with Flora, but, if she tried to get the first bite, Scugg kept her in order by striking her on the nose with his paw. Flora took this very

meekly, lapped milk out of the same saucer as Scugg, and slept on the rug with him between her paws.

Many people thought that its strange colour was the reason that the dog did not destroy it, but this was proved not to be the case. Another white rat being caught, it was set free in the room where Scugg and Flora were at play. Both the rats ran round the room with Flora after them, and in a moment one was killed by the terrier, to the great dismay of her master, who could not tell one rat from the other, sc much were they alike, and thought that perhaps his pet had perished. Great was his joy to see Scugg run into a corner, and Flora follow to guard him, and she stood growling till the dead rat was taken away. The end of the poor rat was a sad one. His master gave him away, and he pined and moped, and at last was found dead in his box.

LOVE AND PRAYER.

COLERIDGE.

Ó, SWEETER than the marriage-feast,

"Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk,

And all together pray,

While each to his great Father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!

XIII.

DRAMATIC, NOT IN THE DRAMA.

THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW.

JAMES W. WATSON.

O THE SNOW, the beautiful snow!
Filling the sky and earth below!
Over the house-tops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet,
Dancing, flirting, skimming along:
Beautiful snow! it can do no wrong;
Flying to kiss a fair lady's cheek,
Clinging to lips in a frolicsome freak,
Beautiful snow from the heaven above,
Pure as an angel, but fickle as love!

O the snow, the beautiful snow!

How the flakes gather and laugh as they go !
Whirling about in their maddening fun
They play in their glee with every one.

Chasing, laughing, hurrying by,

It lights on the face and it sparkles the eye;
And even the dogs, with a bark and a bound,
Snap at the crystals that eddy around;
The town is alive and its heart in a glow,
To welcome the coming of beautiful snow!

How the wild crowd goes swaying along, Hailing each other with humour and song! How the gay sledges, like meteors, flash by,

Bright for a moment, then lost to the eye:
Ringing, swinging, dashing they go,

Over the crust of the beautiful snow!

Snow so pure when it falls from the sky,

To be trampled in mud by the crowd rushing by ;

To be trampled and track'd by the thousands of feet, Till it blends with the filth in the horrible street.

Once I was pure as the snow, - but I fell!

Fell, like the snow-flakes, from Heaven to Hell;
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street;
Fell to be scoff'd, to be spit on and beat;
Pleading, cursing, dreading to die,
Selling my soul to whoever would buy ;
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living and fearing the dead:
Merciful God! have I fallen so low?
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow.

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow,

With an eye like its crystal, a heart like its glow;
Once I was loved for my innocent grace,

Flatter'd and sought for the charms of my face!
Father, mother, sisters, all,

God and myself, I have lost by my fall;
And the veriest wretch that goes shivering by
Will make a wide swoop lest I wander too nigh;
For all that is on or about me I know

There is nothing that's pure but the beautiful snow.

How strange it should be that this beautiful snow
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go!

How strange it should be, when the night comes again.
If the snow and the ice strike my desperate brain;

Fainting, freezing, dying alone,

Too wicked for prayer, too weak for my moan
To be heard in the crash of the crazy town,