two boys are fishing in the still water; for though the stream is rapid above the jutting point, just below, and between it and the shore, it is very tranquil. Yonder stands a paper-mill. Hark! the wheel goes splash!

splash! splash! A laden barge is sailing down the river; one man is now at the helm, and another is taking in the dark-coloured sail. How happy the boys are, with their fishing-rods in their hands! Did I say happy? Human happiness depends on a spider's thread. See! the younger boy, in flinging out his line, has toppled over; he has fallen from the point, and is now struggling in the

water.

Help! help! he is drawing nearer and nearer to the stream, and will be carried down."

"I am afraid he must be drowned. Help! help!"

Alas! he is in the current, and is now hurried along into the middle of the river. He has sunk and risen. Again he is under water."

"Ay, it is all over with him now. Poor fellow !"

"Once more he has risen, opposite the barge; the man taking in sail has leaped boldly into the water-he has caught hold of the drowning boy, and is swimming with him to the shore. It was a noble deed, my brave man, to risk thy life to save the life of another. May thy life be happy, and thy death be peaceful."

"I am so glad that the boy was saved after all!"

"As you have heard, Edwin, our days are running as rapidly as the waters of the river, and we should indeed so number them as to apply our hearts unto wisdom. The young cannot too soon seek the Saviour's mercy: he invites them to himself, and by faith in him they become truly holy and happy. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper," " Psa. i. 1-3.

Ponds with green duckweed upon them-Ponds with bulrushes, sedge, and reeds-Ponds with wild ducks and moorhens-The frogs in the land of Egypt-The pool of Bethesda -The pond in the park-The fishing of Pike Pool-Shivering Philip-Aged Arrowsmith and his book.

"THERE are many pond scenes, Edwin," said Mr. Haughton, "that would make pretty pictures, if I could but sketch them; many that would please you. Some ponds are very deep, so that you cannot see their bottom. Some are very shallow, and covered all over with green duckweed. Others have bulrushes

and sedge and reeds in them, and you may trace their roots all the way to the bottom of the clear, dark waters. And when ponds are large and secluded, they often have on them wild ducks and moorhens; and now and then a heron is seen standing in the shallow part of the water."

"Oh! I see that you will have no difficulty in sketching pictures, even from a pond. Why, you have given me three or four already."

"What a fearful picture is that painted in the eighth chapter of Exodus: 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land.'"

"That is a frightful picture indeed."

"God has mercies in store for the tender and humble heart, and judgments for the hard and proud one. There is another picture of a striking kind in the fifth chapter of John: Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and