window-panes. Outside, they are commonly spread over crevices in old walls, among the foliage of shrubs and trees, and upon the grass, where, in the early morning, the dew-drops may be seen glittering upon them like pearls in the golden sunshine.

The spider is a clever weaver. The elaborate network of its web, with its countless lines crossing and recrossing each other, is constructed in less than an hour; and in this short time the busy insect not only arranges the lines in the desired pattern, but spins the whole material out of its own body.

The apparatus or machine by which it spins the threads and forms the web, is very wonderful. Its parts are so fine and so numerous that we cannot discern them without the aid of a microscope. Under the hinder part of the insect's body there is a slight depression containing four or six minute tubes, called spinnerets, each of which is perforated like a grater with about one thousand openings or pores. Through each of these openings comes a slender thread of a gummy fluid which hardens when exposed to the air. On the hind feet there is a curious comb-like apparatus, by which the insect cards and twists the lines as they issue from the pores of the spinnerets. Could you ever have fancied that the thread of a spider's web is in reality a rope, composed of no fewer than four thousand strands?

The spider is bold and active, and will assail insects many times larger than itself. Sometimes it meets with its match, and is forced to retire from the contest with many wounds; but it quickly recovers; and even when its legs have been torn off in the struggle, they very soon grow out again to their former length and size.

Did you ever observe how nimbly the spider catches

and destroys his prey. Hidden by the dusty folds of his web, he watches with keen eyes the motions of some unwary fly buzzing within a few inches of his lurkingplace. In a few moments the fly alights on the treacherous net; and, now conscious of her danger, she struggles to free her feet from the toils, but all her struggles are in vain. Suddenly the spider rushes from his lair, and his victim is held fast by the merciless claws, which serve at once as spears and poison-fangs. Fettered by the threads, stupefied by the poison, bitten and bruised, the hapless fly is dragged in triumph into the larder of her wily foe!

An eminent French naturalist once thought it possible to manufacture the silk of spiders' webs into articles of wearing apparel. He accordingly collected a large number of spiders and fed them. After a great deal of trouble he succeeded in obtaining sufficient silk to make a pair of gloves; but he never repeated the experiment, as he found that the spiders fought so bitterly with each other, that it required no fewer than sixty thousand of them to produce one pound of cobweb silk.

But spiders are useful to us in another way. They destroy myriads of flies and other insects which, if they were allowed to multiply without check, would become a pest, injuring alike our persons and our property.

QUESTIONS.

How many legs has the spider? How many eyes? Of what use are eyelids to us? Why does a spider need none? What has it on its head? What is there below each claw? What is the use of this poison? What do spiders live on? How do they trap their prey? Where do you find their webs? Where is the spinning apparatus of the spider

placed? What are spinnerets? How many strands are in a thread of cobweb? What are the threads formed of? How does the spider keep the threads separate when spinning? What is said of the spider's bravery? What did a naturalist once try to do? Why did he not persevere? Of what use are spiders?

Spell nouns formed by adding er to these verbs: begin, rob, sin, drum, toil, slip, sleep, shut, shoot; love, receive, weave; magnify, purify; play; counsel, travel, jewel, level, worship, kidnap, traffic.

DICTATION.

Check such unseemly conduct. The jeweller gave the traveller a cheque for four pounds. Rub the carrots on the grater. The pain was greater than he could bear. The fly crept up the window-pane. His feet were bare. Did you comb your hair? The hare ran across the field. We use wax for sealing letters. Can you touch the ceiling? The drummer died in a foreign clime. The robber tried to climb the wall. Sweat issues from the pores of the skin. Rain pours down from the clouds.

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." LUKE ii. 13, 14.

Ir came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace to the earth, good will to men
From Heaven's all-gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on heavenly wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;

And men, at war with men, hear not
The love-song which they bring;-
Oh! hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,-
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,-
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh! rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Her ancient splendours fling,

And the whole world send back the song

9

Which now the angels sing.—Rev. E. H. Sears.

Still through the cloven skies they come-The Gospel of Peace is for all times-for the present and future, as well as for the past. Babel-The language of those who attempted to build the tower of Babel was so confounded that they could not understand each other (Gen. xi. 1-9). Babel meaus confused or confusion. Prophet-bards-the Old Testament writers who, like Moses, David, and Isaiah, were at once prophets and poets.

Age of gold-that blessed time to come, as foretold in Scripture (see Isaiah xi. 9), when violence and strife shall disappear from earth.

Pronounce and explain--angle, angel; solemn, Solomon; prophet, profit; haven, heaven; min'ute, minu'te; surly, surely.

DICTATION.

William went out to angle. He caught a trout at an angle of the stream. What was the song of the angels? Solomon was wise. The prophet spoke in a solemn tone. You should profit by his example. The vessel reached the haven in safety. A fiery meteor passed across the heavens. Wait a minute, please! All bodies are composed of minute particles. The man will surely not be so surly when we see him again.

WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED.

1. VOWELS.-The first word in italics contains the vowelsound proper to the words, or the accented syllable of the words, that follow it.

(Say). Bear, steak, e'er, ne'er, fête, gaol, freight, gauge, an'cient, fa'tal, hein'ous, cam'bric, A'pril, dah'lia, a'pricot.

(Sad). Bade, plaid, rail'lery, agʻile, cam'el, fab'ric, grav'el, unrav’el, pat'ent, salm'on.

(Far). Fa'ther, heart, hearth, hearken, aunt, haunt, half, calf, laugh, laugh'ter.

(Law). Bawl, ball, tall, small, &c. ; wa'ter, broad, abroad', caught, taught, bought, brought, fought, sought, ought, thought, wrought, daugh'ter, slaugh'ter; George, nor, north, born, morn, fork, form, storm, sort, forty, scorch, lord, mor'tal, enor'mous, &c.

(See). Fiend, beard, knead, leapt, aleanly (adv.), yeast, leisure, quay, bohea', tre'acle, ae'rie, que'ry, chief'tain; police', routine', marine', machine', magazine', fatigue', antique', chagrin'.

(Set). Friend, cleanse, clean'ly (adj.), deaf, heard, leant, meadow, meant, peas'ant, sweat, weap'on, her'oine, any, many, leop'ard, jeop'ardy, says, said, again', against', res'in, bury, bur'ial, heif'er, chem'ist.

(Pine). Aisle, isle, islet, island, vis'count, climb, height, sleight. choir, malign', fi'nite, oblique'.

(Pin). Sieve, sick, prim'er, vine'yard, bus'y, bus'iness, wom'en, vic'ar, civ'ic, live'long.

(No). Beau, sew, goal, comb, pour, mourn, court, mould, poultry, yeo'man, bow (anything curved), tow, trow, low (like an ox), bowl, horde, sword, ford, forge, force, torn, worn, gross, forth, pork, porch, fort, port, sport, por'trait, ghost, host, most, post; roll, droll, toll, scroll, &c.; bold, fold, told, &c. ; only, wholly.