But steady and clear, with a constant ray,
The star of the light-house shines alway.

2. The ships come sailing across the main,
But the harbour mouth is hard to gain,
For the treacherous reef lies close beside,
And the rocks are bare at the ebbing tide.

And the blinding fog comes down at night,
Shrouding and hiding the harbour light.

3. The sailors, sailing their ships along,

Will tell you a tale of the light-house strong;
How once, when the keeper was far away,
A terrible storm swept down the bay,

And two little children were left to keep
Their awesome watch with the angry deep.

4. The fair little sister wept, dismayed,
But the brother said, "I am not afraid;
There's One who ruleth on sea and land,
And holds the waves in His mighty hand;

For mercy's sake I will watch to-night,
And feed, for the sailors, the beacon light."

5. So the sailors heard through the murky shroud
The fog-bell sounding its warning loud!
While the children, up in the lonely tower,
Tended the lamp in the midnight hour,

And prayed for any whose souls might be
In deadly peril by land or sea.

6. Ghostly, and dim, when the storm was o'er,
The ships rode safely, far off the shore,
And a boat shot out from the town that lay
Dusk and purple, across the bay,

She touched her keel to the light-house strand,
And the eager keeper leaped to land.

7. And swiftly climbing the light-house stair,
He called to his children, young and fair;
But, worn with their toilsome watch, they slept,
While slowly o'er their foreheads crept

The golden light of the morning sun,

Like a victor's crown, when his palm is won.

8. "God bless you, children," the keeper cried;
"God bless thee, father," the boy replied.
"I dreamed that there stood beside my bed
A beautiful angel, who smiled and said,

rugged, rough.

'Blessed are they whose love can make

Joy of labour, for mercy's sake."

treacherous, deceptive. dismayed, frightened.

awesome, full of awe.

peril, danger.

ea-ger fore-heads swift-ly

vic-tor dream-ed beau-ti-ful bless-ed

climb-ing

FERGUSON THE SHEPHERD BOY
ASTRONOMER.

1. James Ferguson was the son of a day labourer. He was born at Keith, a small village in Scotland, in the year 1710. He learned to read by merely listening to the instructions which his father communicated to an elder brother. He was afterwards sent for about three months to the grammar-school at Keith, and this was all the education he ever received at school.

2. His taste for mechanics appeared when he was only about seven or eight years of age. By means of a turning-lathe and a knife he constructed machines that served to illustrate the properties of the lever, and the wheel and axle. Of these machines, and the mode of their application, he made rough drawings with a pen, and wrote a brief description of them.

3. Unable to subsist without some employment, he was placed with a neighbouring farmer, and occupied for some years in the care of his sheep. In this situation he commenced the study of astronomy, devoting the greater part of the night to the contem

plation of the heavens, while he amused himself in the day time with making models of spinning-wheels and other machines which he had an opportunity of observing.

4. He was much encouraged by another farmer, in whose service he was afterwards engaged, in his astronomical studies, and enabled by the assistance that was afforded him in his necessary labour to

reserve part of the day for making fair copies of the observations which he roughly sketched out at night. In making these observations he lay down on his back, with a blanket about him, and by means of a thread strung with small beads, and stretched at arm's length between his eye and the stars, he marked their positions and distances.

5. The master who thus kindly favoured his search after knowledge recommended him to some neighbouring gentlemen, one of whom took him into his house, where he was instructed by the butler in decimal arithmetic, algebra, and the elements of geometry. After this we find him an invalid in his father's house, suffering from an illness which had been brought on chiefly by excessive labour; but true to his mental instincts, amusing himself during the period of his recovery by making a clock which struck the hours on the neck of a broken bottle, and a watch with a spring made of whalebone, the wheels of both machines being of wood. The clock kept time pretty well, but the watch proved a failure from the inability of the teeth of the wheels to bear the force of the main-spring.

6. He constructed a globe of wood, covered it with paper, and drew upon it a map of the world. He also added the meridian-ring, and horizon, which he graduated, and by means of this instrument, which was the first he had ever seen, he was enabled to solve difficult problems in mathematical geography. His ingenuity obtained for him employment suited to his taste, which was that of cleaning clocks, and drawing patterns for ladies' needlework he was