DANIEL WEBSTER'S FIRST CASE.

1. Daniel Webster was a very celebrated lawyer in America. His father was a farmer. The crops of the garden had suffered very much from the ravages of a woodchuck, whose hole was near the premises.

2. Daniel, some ten or twelve years old, and his brother Ezekiel, had set a steel trap, and succeeded in catching the trespasser. Ezekiel proposed to kill the animal and end at once all further trouble with him; but Daniel looked with pity upon the meek dumb captive, and offered to let him go. The boys could not agree, and each appealed to his father to decide the case.

3. "Well, my boys," said the old gentleman, "I will be judge. There is the prisoner," pointing to the woodchuck, "and you shall be the counsel, and plead the case for and against his life and liberty.”

4. Ezekiel opened the case with a strong argument, urging the mischievous nature of the criminal, the great harm he had already done-said that much time and labour had been spent in his capture, and now if he was suffered to live and go again at large, he would renew his depredations, and be cunning enough not to suffer himself to be caught again, and therefore he ought to be put to death. He argued further that his skin was of some value, and that, make the most of him they could, it would not repay half the damage he had already done.

5. His argument was ready, practical, and to the

point, and of much greater length than our limits will allow us to occupy in relating the story.

The father looked with pride upon his son, who became a distinguished jurist in his manhood.

"Now, Daniel, it's your turn; I'll hear what you have to say."

6. It was his first case. Daniel saw that the plea

of his brother had sensibly affected his father, the judge. The boy's large, brilliant black eyes looked upon the soft, timid expression of the animal, and as he saw it tremble with fear in its narrow prisonhouse, his heart swelled with pity, and he appealed with eloquent words that the captive might again

7. God, he said, had made the woodchuck; he made him to live, to enjoy the bright sunshine, the

pure air, the free fields and woods. God has not made him or anything in vain; the woodchuck has as much right to live as any other living thing. He was not a destructive animal, as the wolf and the fox; he simply ate a few common vegetables, of which they had plenty, and could well spare a part; he destroyed nothing, except the little food he needed to sustain his humble life; and that little food was as sweet to him, and as necessary to his existence, as was the food on their mother's table to them.

8. God furnished their own food; he gave them all they possessed; and would they not spare a little for the dumb creature that really had as much right to his small share of God's bounty as they themselves had to their portion? Yea, more, the animal had never violated the laws of his nature or the laws of God, as man often did; but strictly followed the simple instincts he had received from the hands of the Creator of all things. Created by God's hand, he had a right from God to life, to food, to liberty; and they had no right to deprive him of either.

9. He alluded to the mute but earnest pleadings of the animal for that life, as sweet, as dear to him as their own was to them; and the just judgment they might expect, if, in selfish cruelty and coldheartedness, they took the life they could not restore, the life that God alone had given.

10. During this appeal tears had started to the old man's eyes, and were fast running down his sunburnt cheeks. Every feeling of a father's heart was

stirred within him; he saw the future greatness of his son before his eyes, and he felt that God had blessed him and his children beyond the lot of com

mon men.

11. His pity and sympathy were awakened by the eloquent words of compassion, and the strong appeal for mercy, and, forgetting the judge in the man and father, he sprang from his chair (while Daniel was in the midst of his argument, without thinking he had already won his case), and turning to his elder son, dashing the tears from his eyes, he exclaimed— "Zeke, Zeke, let that woodchuck go!"

woodchuck, an American | mischievous, harmful.

animal of the rabbit kind.

celebrated, famous.

ravages, destruction.

captive, prisoner.

depredations, robberies. relating, telling.

jurist, one versed in law. brilliant, very bright.

wood-chuck tres-pass-er mis-chiev-ous re-lat-ing

What was Daniel Webster? Where did he live? How old was he at this time? What had the woodchuck done? Who wanted to kill it? What did their father say? Who began the pleadings before him? affected? Who did Daniel say What did the woodchuck eat? affected by Daniel's pleadings? last?

How was the judge made the woodchuck? How was the judge What did he say at

A STORM AT SEA.

1. A terrible storm is sweeping along the coast of Devonshire. The Teignmouth life-boat is preparing to make its way to a foreign vessel which, at some short distance from the land, is showing signs of dire distress.

2. The life-boat crew is complete with the exception of one man. Young Ned Carey, a Teignmouth fisher lad and an expert sailor, is offering to fill the vacant place. But first he bends down gently to a woman who stands beside him, and says to her in a clear, brave voice, "Mother, you will let me go?"

3. The mother had been a widow only six months. Her husband was a fisherman. He put out one bright day last spring for the last time in a fishingboat upon a calm sea. A sudden squall came on; broken fragments of the boat were seen next morning, but the fisherman returned no more.

4. A fierce refusal rises to the woman's lips. But her sad eyes move slowly towards the distressed vessel. She thinks of the many loved lives in danger within it, and of many distant homes in peril of bereavement. She turns to her boy, and in a voice calm and courageous as his own, "Go, my son," said she, "and may God bring you safe back to your mother's heart."

5. Hurriedly she leaves the beach, and seeks her desolate home; and alone she thinks of her old sorrow and of her new fear.

6. Morning dawns again. The storm has spent itself. The waves are tossing their heads, but the