out of the pantry when he had gnawed for being in time. Now, if you can be the bones of the chine and chickens, but in time for these things, make up your not before. minds to be in time for others. Remember, my boys, that you learned to walk before you ran, to spell befor you read, and to write before you cast up accounts; you ought not, then, to despise the practice of a good rule on the most trivial occasion; for the advantage will extend beyond it. It is only by attending to a maxim in little things, that you can ever hope to prac tise it in greater: let the boy be in time with his trifles, and the man will not be too late in his weightier affairs. "Be in time" is a maxim that I could uphold by a hundred authorities; but I think its own plain good sense is the best authority with which it can be invested. When sent on an errand, loiter not With willing feet and humble heart repair; Elderly people usually keep time in their appointments, but young ones hardly ever do this. I used, in youth, to think—" Well, if I am a little late, I can run and make up lost time:" but now I take care to lay hold of my hat and cane early enough, and say to myself, "I will be moving forwards; for of though I may be a little before the time, something may happen on my way to hinder me." Hours, minutes, even moments, are frequently of the greatest importance. It is narrated of Lord Nelson, one the bravest and most successful of admirals, that, on one occasion, when told the hour on which his baggage would be on board his vessel, he replied, "Say a quarter of an hour before that time, say a quarter of an hour before; for it is to that quarter of an hour that I owe every thing that I have, and every that I am." His lordship well knew the advantage of being in time, and so will you if you adopt the same practice. Be in time, my boys! be in time! You can be as punctual as any one, if it be to answer your own purpose. If a balloon be about to ascend, Punch and Judy to be seen, or an exhibition of fireworks to take place, I will trust you all Think of the difference between arriving with a letter one minute before the post is closed, and arriving one minute after; between being at the coach-office a quarter of an hour too soon, and reaching there a quarter of an hour too late; between shaking a friend heartily by the hand as he steps on board his vessel bound to the Indies, and arriving at the pier when the vessel is under weigh and stretching her wide canvass to the winds! Think of these and of a thousan other such instances, my boys, and LETTER FROM UNCLE NEWBURY. be determined, through life, to be in time. "We ought to keep our appointments punctually," says a writer, "for all the time we keep another waiting, he will consume in thinking evil of us ;" and there is much truth in the observation. Sometimes, it is true, painful circumstances do occur wherein every exertion to be in time, is fruitless. Leighton and Lindsey were friends; they had been schoolfellows, had associated much together, and served as officers in the same regiment. They were bound together by many ties, and were ardent in their attachment. Leighton had saved the life of Lindsey in battle, by parrying the stroke of a sabre that must have been fatal. He returned to England, and was attacked with a malignant fever. Lindsey, on the Continent, heard of the illness and danger of his friend, and urged by friendship, gratitude, and affection, lost not a moment in hastening to his side. Day and night he travelled with the greatest anxiety, but it was in vain; nor had he the consolation to attend on the death-bed of his dying friend, nor even to witness his body conveyed to the tomb. He flew to attend The sad couch of his friend, But he gazed on his face again never : Life ebb'd away fast, The death-sob had passed, He came to the grave, I I But he wandered away broken-hearted; 59 I once made an appointment to accompany a friend on a journey of importance: we were to proceed by mail, and to meet at the coach-office ten minutes before it set off. I resolved to be in time; so packed up my things, and got all ready, except shaving myself and putting on clean a cravat. Knowing that I had plenty of time, I took up a newspaper, and half an hour slipped away as read one article after another; so that had only just time enough to get ready. Jumping up to shave me, I found that I had packed up my razors in my portmanteau. What was to be done? I could not go without shaving, so unpacked my portmanteau; but when I had found my razors, there was no hot water, and I could not shave with cold. There was no time to lose: I gave up shaving, and hastened to put on my cravat; but all my clean cravats had been put at the bottom of my box. Driven to desperation, I tied my dirty cravat round my neck, and, with my beard unshaven, sallied forth. After a desperate attempt to be in time, I heard the coachman blowing his horn. Puffing and blowing, in a profuse perspiration, a great coat on my back, an umbrella under my arm, a box in my right hand, and my portmanteau in my left, I arrived at one end of the street just in time to see the mail go out at the other. 60 AGE OF TREES.-PRESENCE OF MIND. Never, since then, have I been too late for the mail. Think, my boys, of what I suffered, and, as long as you live, be in time, my boys! be in time! THE AGE OF TREES. PRESENCE OF MIND. Cultivate presence of mind, all you can. Many a life has been saved by it; and your own, for any thing you can know, may be. Have you ever read the story by Mrs. Edgeworth, about presence of mind? An insane man seized another man by the arm, and led him towards the verge of a steep precipice, saying "Let us jump down here, and immortalize our names." The height was so great as to dash them in pieces had they attempted it. Yet the crazy man was in earnest, and there seemed no way of getting rid of his death-like grasp. What was to be done? THOSE of our young readers who have looked a little at Botany, may find themselves amused for a few moments, with the following table. It gives the age of some of the most remarkable trees which are known in the world. How their age is found out, we do not know. The common method is by counting the circles of the wood, after the tree is cut down; but these trees are yet standing, many of them.-But you have the table" just as we find it in the Horticultural Register. A Date tree in Egypt, do., Years. 300 373 66 Stop a moment!" said the other. Any body can jump down. We shall get no fame so. Let us go down and jump up." The insane man was pleased with the proposal; and thus the other escaped with his life. I have another story. At the rais400 ing of the monument, to Alexander the 406 late Emperor of Russia, at St. Peters640 burg, the hand of one of the workmen, 648 was caught by a roller, and his whole 710 body was in great danger of being 780 drawn under the stone, and crushed to 850 atoms. A Russian carpenter, seeing his 1000 danger seized a hatchet, and at a single 1805 well aimed blow, severed his arm from his body. The wounded man was taken 1824 to a hospital, where he soon recovered; Another Cedar of Mt. Lebanon, 2112 and the Emperor Nicholas when he heard Celebrated Chesnut of Mt. Etna, 2660 the story, settled annual pensions on both Sycamore of the Bosphorus, 4000 of them, of 500 roubles, each for life. Olive tree of Asia Minor, S. Yes, there are other things; but fence? I do not know what they are. T. What is the boy doing? S. He is asleep. S. I do not know. T. It appears to me to be a brook. The boy reclines on a grassy bank, 1 T. Asleep on what? On a feather think, by the side of a brook, and the bed? S. No; on the ground. T. What lies before him? S. His hat. T. On what is the man sitting? T. Perhaps on a small rock. But what has he in his hand? S. A staff. man sits on another bank near him. S. I think so too. T. Then we have, in the picture, besides, a man, a boy, a tree, and a fence, a brook, a bank, grass, the man's staff, and the boy's hat. Is it not so? S. Yes it is. I had not thought there were so many things represented in the picture. 62 JOURNEY DOWN THE OHIO RIVER. son, an old place, but not large; and here is the Wabash, a river of Indiana. It is a noble stream, 500 yards, or more than a quarter of a mile wide at its mouth. We are now more than 1000 miles from Pittsburg, as the river runs ; but I do not know what the distance is by land. On our right hand we have now the state of Illinois. Golconda, is in Illinois, a little below the mouth of the Wabash; and nine miles below is Shawneetown. This is one of the finest villages we have seen since we left Cincinnati. Here are a bank, a printing office, a land office, and a great many taverns and stores. We come now to two small villages on exactly opposite sides of the river. That on the Indiana side is Rome. There is a Troy, too, on the same side, a Here, on the Kentucky side, comes little farther on. How they love to call another noble river, the Cumberland. our American towns and cities by those It is 300 yards wide at its mouth, and famous ancient names! But the village may be navigated-so they say-in opposite Rome is Stephensport. A times of floods, nearly 400 miles; or 200 small village, indeed! The Gazetteer above Nashville, which stands on its says, it had in 1830 only 64 inhabitants; but I think it may be twice as large now. bank. Thirteen miles farther is another large river, on the same side. It is the Tennessee. It is more than 1000 miles long; is navigable 250 miles, and is 500 yards wide at its mouth. In this river are the curious Whirl, or Suck, and the Muscle Shoals, which you have formerly described in your magazine. Rockport in Indiana, is but a small village; and next is Owensburg in Kentucky. Evansville in Ky., comes next. -But here, now, is a large river from Kentucky. Oh, it is Green river. It has a noble appearance. It is 200 yards wide at its mouth; and is navigable 150 And here at last, is the Mississippi, the miles or more. Near it, in the Ohio king of rivers. We are now nearly river, is quite a large island, and a small 1200 miles from Pittsburg, by way of the one opposite to it. The larger one is river. Our journey is drawing rapidly six miles long and has eight or ten fam- to a close. We only go to Columbus, ilies settled on it. in Kentucky, 25 miles farther.-Here is Here, on the Kentucky side is Hender- Columbus; and here we stop. |