head in every room in the house. I want you to do something for me; will you, Nell?"

3. "Not just now, George; I am busy do not trouble me."

4. "O yes, please do, Nell; you are only reading, and your book won't run off. I want you to cover this ball. Please do it for me, Nell; it won't take you long," said George.

5. "O, do go away, George! I can't read while you are talking. Go to Jane; perhaps she can do it for you."

6. With a sad, disappointed face, George turned and left the room, just as Aunt Mary, who was there on a visit, came in.

7. Nellie tried to read, but somehow her book did not seem so interesting to her, and after turning over leaf after leaf, she laid it down and looked up at her aunt.

8. "What is the matter, Nellie?" said her aunt. Does not your book please you?"

9. "O yes, aunt; and it was so kind in uncle to get it for me. I like the book very

much, indeed."

10. "I thought you looked as though you felt dissatisfied about something."

11. "Why, yes, aunt, I do feel a little so. believe I am tired of reading."

LIBRA

OF THE

12. "Are you sure you are tired of reading?"

13. "I do not quite understand you, aunt." 14. "Is it of reading that you are tired, or are you tired of yourself?"

15. For a moment Nellie was silent, wondering what her aunt could mean. At last she said, said, "Tired of myself? how can that

be?"

16. "Forgetting every body but ourselves, very easily makes us tired of ourselves. Did you never notice, that, when you refuse to do an act of kindness, you feel just as you do now?"

17. "I do not know that I have noticed that, but I know I often feel as I do now." What was it your brother wanted of you, just now?”

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19. "Why," said Nellie, blushing, "he wanted me to put a new cover on his ball; but

20. "But what?" said Aunt Mary.

21. "I was only going to say, I was busy reading, and could not."

22. "And you refused to do it for him?" 23. "Yes, I told him to ask Jane.-I see now," she added, after a little, "I see now

why my book fails to interest me," and Nellie arose and left the room.

24. Very soon George was as happy as a lark, playing with his new ball, and Nellie had learned a secret that would make my little readers as happy as it did her, if they could only find it out. Guess what it was.

1. Summer is full of happy life. The woods are alive with leaves and birds and butterflies and squirrels and rabbits and foxes and raccoons; the grass is full of crickets and moles and mice and caterpillars and spiders and all sorts of beautiful bugs; the cows are chewing a sweet cud under the trees, and every body is happy.

2. The Bible says, "Ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; or speak to the earth,

and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee." What can they teach us? What can they tell us?

3. "God made us," they say, "and not we ourselves." "God feeds us." "God loves us." God's goodness is over all. The little insects,

with the birds and bees, sing His praise. Go out into the woods to-day and listen. Hark! do you not hear them?

4. See the cows. All day long they are in the pasture feeding, or standing in the cool running brook; or, they are under the shade of the overhanging elms,-living quiet and pleasant lives.

5. But they are not living for themselves, alone. They are brewing milk in their warm, full bags, to bring home at night for the children's supper, and to make butter and cheese for the family.

6. Look at the trees. They stretch out their limbs and spread out their leaves to catch all the sun and the dew and the wind and rain that they can, in order to grow healthy and strong.

7. Do they grow for themselves alone? No. They give us their cooling shade; they drop their Autumn fruit into our hands; they give

us their wood to build our houses and our ships.

8. Let us walk to the rose-bush by the stone wall. The whole air is filled with its sweet scent. All day and all night it gives and gives. It does nothing but give, and it is none the poorer for it.

9. Can not we sweeten the lives of those around us? Should not pleasant looks and gentle words and kind deeds go forth from us as constantly as the perfume from the rose?

10. See the little river. On, on it goes. Stop, sparkling water; stay with me; do not go off on the run.

11. "Oh, I can't stop," cries the brook. "I must water the cow-pasture, and fill Widow Gruff's spring; I must turn the old miller's mill and grind his corn; and I have a world else to do by the way: so I must run. I should be lost if I stopped." "He that watereth shall be watered also himself."