lack of counsel, up came a stout forest- imagination till it was too horrible to be boy, of twelve years, or thereabouts. borne. We felt as if hemmed in by a He was a brown and wild-looking creature, like a very satyr of the woods; he was dressed in a suit of leather, had a belt round his waist in which he carried his wood-knife, and on his back was a bundle of fagots. As he came up he seemed amazed to find two children, like the Babes in the Wood, seated hand in hand at the foot of an old tree, and made a pause to look at us. We were not alarmed at his strange appearance, for such grotesque garbs, were familiar to us in our forest wanderings; so hailing him as a friend and counsellor, we demanded what was that strange low voice which we heard somewhere thereabout. The boy looked at us for half a moment with a sort of grin, and then with a sudden look of fear, half bending his body and speaking in a low but distinctly articulated whisper-"It's my lord Vernon's blood-hounds," said he, "they are out hunting, and yon sounds are the chains which they drag after them!" and so saying he dashed off like a wild stag.

What a horror now fell upon us! The glade was like an enchanted forest: all at once the trees seemed to swell out to the most gigantic and appalling size; every twisted root seemed a writhing snake, and every old wreathed branch a down-bending adder ready to devour us. The holly thickets seemed full of an increasing blackness, which, like a dreadful dream, appeared growing upon our

mighty wilderness of gloom that cut us off from our kindred, and still the chirr-r-chirr-r of the terrible hounds, and their dragging chains sounded through the dreadful silence, and seeming to our affrighted senses to come nearer and nearer, well nigh drove us distracted. What indeed would have become of us, I know not, had we been left to ourselves and our terrors; but our cry of "Father! father!" speedily brought him to us, and the enchantment fled with his presence. The laugh with which he heard our story dispelled the whole terror of it. "It is the grasshopper and nothing more," said he, "which has caused all this foolish alarm ;" and then listening for a moment, he traced it by its sound among the short, dry, sunny grass, and then held it in his hand before us. "And yet he was a wicked boy," continued our father, "who told a falsehood to frighten you thus. But come, now you shall go to your dinner;" and so saying, and taking one by each hand, he led us from the enchanted glade to a woodman's cottage in the next dell.

HOW A BOY TOOK A FLIGHT.

THERE is a story, and which I believe is a fact, of two boys going to take a jack-daw's nest from a hole under the belfrey-window in the tower of AllSaints' Church, Derby. As it was impossible to reach the nest while standing

1

Children's Books published and for sale by Charles S. Francis and Joseph H. Francis.

MOTHER GOOSE'S MELODIES.

This amusing work for little children, and for which no substitute has yet been found for keeping quiet the ever restless spirit of two-and-three-year-olders, has been often and often acknowl edged the only panacea for cross and sick babies, is now printed on good paper with new and handsome pictures, and sells as rapidly as any book should, which is so useful in a nursery. Parents have their choice now, of either of these two Books, (GOOSE'S MELODIES, or NURSERY RHYMES,) both designed for one purpose, and of the same size and price.

THE YOUNG MAN'S EVENING BOOK.

This volume is the first of a series of Six Volumes Entitled LIBRARY OF INSTRUCTIVE AMUSEMENT, intended as a reading Book for the Parlour, of matter selected expressly for its usefulness, its interest, and its quality to entertain; enlivened with cuts, upwards of fifty in each volume. It will be found an excellent book for a new year's present for young men.

THE WINTER EVENING BOOK.

This is the Second volume of the same series, "LIBRARY OF INSTRUCTIVE AMUSEMENT," and contains a collection of choice reading for winter evenings and all other times of leisure. These volumes are all intended to be sold separately-there being no connection between them.

Other Volumes of the same series in press.

THE STORY WITHOUT AN END.

A most beautifully written relation of the adventures of a little Child who lived in a hut, and went out every day into the woods and fields and talked with the little animals and flowers and insects, and heard their stories of the wonders they knew, and how they lived, &c. Translated from the German, by SARAH AUSTIN.

THE CHILD'S OWN BOOK.

It must be evident to all who reflect much upon the subject of early education, that many little books have been written, which contain stories, anecdotes, tales of light romance, legends, &c., well calculated to engage the infant mind; and to lead it gradually, by the flowery paths of amusement, and pleasing moral instruction, towards those higher branches of literature, which must at a later period occupy the attention of the well-educated; but owing to the mixture of im moral sentiment, and lax principle, in some of our most popular tales, the careful instrtructor of youth is frequently compelled to withhold real sources of pleasure and improvement from the minds and hearts of their pupils, rather than run the risk of contaminating them. It is dificult to make a selection, besides which, many excellent compositions for childhood, by writers of high celebrity, are not to be procured in a detached state.

To extract, therefore, every thing detrimental to the moral growth of the youthful reader, and to condense in one volume a complete juvenile library, has been the task (modest in its pretensions, but far from unimportant in its results) with which the editor has charged herself. Many of the pieces have been given entire, others again reduced and simplified to the comprehension of childhood. This plan has enabled the editor to combine great variety with the utmost economy.

CONTENTS.

Aladdin-Forty Thieves-Beauty and the Beast--Blanch and Rosalinda-Blue Beard-Children in the Wood-Cinderella-The Discreet Princess-Diamonds and Toads-Fatal and FortuneFortunatus-Fortunio-Fisherman and the Genii-Fair One with Golden Locks-Goody TwoShoes-Griselda-Graciosa-Gulliver's Travels--Hop-o -my-Thumb-History of Little JackHistory of King Pippin-Jack the Giant Killer-Jack and the Bean-Stalk-Invisible PrinceLittle Hunch-back-Little Red Riding Hood-La Perouse-Miranda and the Royal Ram-Nour jahad-Puss in Boots-Philip Quarll-Peronella-Prince Lee Boo-Riquet with the Tuft-Robin Hood-Robinson Crusoe-Seven Champions-Three Wishes-Tom Thumb-Valentine and Orson-White Cat-Whittington and his Cat-Yellow Dwarf.