folks, and when he hesitated and intimated that he had better go below for his dinner, the General said, 'Tucker, you and I have been shipmates, and a long time together. You are an honest man; come and eat your dinner with me, and come here again tomorrow morning and get your breakfast with me.'

Tucker says, the General invited him to stay in Washington, and told him he would take care of him; but his wife and children being in Newyork, Tucker preferred to return. He says, General Harrison followed him into the grounds on the east side of the White House, and then walked with him arm-in-arm,—that the General had no hat on, and when Tucker adverted to his liability to take cold, he waived the remark by saying, he was already unwell. Having received the letter, Tucker says, the General followed him to the door and shook him by the hand, saying, 'Go to my friend Mr Curtis, and after you have been to him, don't forget to write to me that you and your wife and children are happy again.' Tucker says, he had no money to come home by land, but he did not let the General know that, for he knew he would give it to him in a minute, and he did not wish to take money from the good old man, who had been so kind to him. And so Tucker went down to Alexandria,

shipped on board the schooner Sturgis, and worked his passage home to Newyork. He had not been ashore thirty minutes when he came to the customhouse; and having first heard the sad

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news of the death of his kind benefactor as he passed up Old-Slip dock, the abundant tears that wet his hardy cheek testified that his is no ungrateful heart.

Washington, 26th March, 1841. Dear Sir,

The bearer hereof, Mr Thomas Tucker, a veteran seaman, came with me from Carthagena as mate of the brig Montidia, in the year 1829. several weeks I imbibed a high opinion of his character-so much so that, expressing a desire to leave the sea, I invited him to come to North Bend and spend the remainder of his days with me. Subsequent misfortunes prevented his doing so, as he was desirous to bring some money with him to commence farming operations. His bad fortune still continues, having been several times shipwrecked within a few years. says that himself and family are now in such a situation that the humblest employment would be acceptable to him, and I write this to recommend him to your favorable notice. I am persuaded that no one possesses, in a higher degree, the virtues of fidelity, honesty, and indefatigable industry; and, I might add, of indomitable bravery, if that were a quality necessary for the kind of employment he seeks. Yours, very truly,

In an association of

Edward Curtis, esq.

He

W. H. HARRISON.

Collector, &c. Newyork.

Mr Curtis immediately appointed Mr Tucker an inspector of the customs.

THERE was a boy who had been brought up in a Sunday school, where it was customary that the children should repeat every succeeding Sunday the appropriate collect of the day; he afterwards entered upon the world, he left a pious mother, he became a soldier, and in the army he lost almost every trace of his religion; and the experience he had acquired in his younger years was effaced by the habits of a military life.

It so happened that he was engaged in one of those great battles that occurred so often in the last war; and he received a wound which left him upon the ground in a hopeless state. Feeling, as he did, that he was upon the very confines of the eternal world, all the recollections of his past life rushed upon his memory. The habits that he had acquired, and all the good principles of his youth that he had lost, presented themselves powerfully to his mind; and, from his own account, he endeavored to lift up his heart in prayer; but he did not know how to pray, and no words whatever suggested themselves to his mind. Still, in the midst of this awful feeling he struggled to give utterance to his thoughts in the language of prayer. At length a collect, which he remembered having learned at school, presented itself to his memory. It was the language of prayer; it was a supplication for pardon; it was offered up in the spirit of penitence and true contrition; and from that time he felt as if a burden had

been removed, and that he had found access to the throne of grace.

It pleased God to spare his life; he returned to his own country; and, feeling how much he was indebted to what he had learnt in his childhood at the Sunday school, he made a resolution to save the sum of one guinea, and at the very first sermon that he might hear preached for a Sunday school, to drop the sum into the plate. He did so; it was in Leeds. When he dropt the guinea into the plate, the person who held it, supposing that he had made a mistake, and had put in a guinea instead of a shilling, brought it back again, and explained the mistake he thought he had made. But he said,

Sir, it is not a mistake; the gold which I have laid down has been collected during many weeks, and I wish it to be an offering of gratitude to my God.' Being requested to explain what circumstances led to so liberal an act, he retired into the vestry, and there related the facts.

"ONE day," says Mr Robert Raikes, the institutor of Sunday schools, "I overtook a soldier entering the church-door on a week-day. As I passed him, I said it gave me great pleasure to see that he was going to a place of divine worship. 'Ah, sir,' said he, ‘I may thank you for that.' Me? said I, why I do not know that I ever saw you before. 'Sir,' said he, 'when I was a little boy I was indebted to you for my first instruction in

my duty. I used to meet you at the morning service in this cathedral, and was one of your Sunday scholars. My father took me into Berkshire and apprenticed me to a shoemaker. I used often to think of you. At length I went to London, and became a soldier. Last night I was ordered to this place, and I took the opportunity of coming this morning to visit the old spot, in the hope of once more seeing you.' He then told me his name, and brought himself to my recollection by a curious circumstance which happened whilst he was at school. His father was a common carrier, a most vile profligate man. After the boy had been some time at school, he came one day and told me that his father was wonderfully changed; that he had left off going to the alehouse on Sunday. It happened soon after, that I met the man in the street and said to him, My friend, it gives me great pleasure that you have left off going to the alehouse on Sunday; your boy tells me that you now stay at home, and never get tipsy. Sir, I may thank you for it.' Nay, said I, that is impossible; I do not recollect that I ever spoke to you before. No, sir,' said he, but the good instruction you give my boy he brings home to me; and it is that which has induced me to reform my life.'

Propensity for Pills.

IN May, 1817, died Mr. Samuel Jessup, an opulent grazier, of pill-taking memory. He lived at Heckington, Eng

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land, in a very eccentric way as a bachelor, without known relatives; and for the last thirty years had a most inordinate craving for physic, as appeared on a trial for the amount of an apothecary's bill, a short time before Mr Jessup's death. The evidence on the trial affords the following materials for the epitaph of the deceased, which we hope and believe no other man nor boy will have placed on his tombstone. In twenty-one years the deceased took 226,934 pills, supplied by a respectable apothecary; which is at the rate of 10,806 pills a year, or 29 pills a day; but as the patient began with a more moderate appetite, and increased it as he went on, in the last five years he took the pills at the rate of 78 a day, and in one year he swallowed not less than 51,590. Notwithstanding this, and the addition of 40,000 bottles of mixture, and juleps and electuaries, extending altogether to fifty-five closely-written columns of an apothecary's bill, the deceased lived to sixty-five years.

This longing for pills, which probably contained opium, is very similar to the desire which drunkards feel when they begin to love ardent spirits, increasing the dose from day to day, and making it stronger and stronger till they are ruined, soul and body.

My dear young readers, if you have ever felt a desire to taste of wine or spirits, or thought you would like to chew tobacco, but have repelled the wish and kept yourself unspotted from their stain, you never can be too thankful. Persist

in your determination till you die; for if you once let their serpent folds begin to wind about you, you had better be in the embraces of a boa constrictor; the one may kill the body only, but the other takes the soul away.

An old English Gentleman.

WHEN I was a young man, (says a pleasant writer in one of the London magazines) there existed a character, now worn out and gone, a certain little independent gentleman, of 300l. a year, who commonly appeared in a plain drab coat, large silver buttons, a jocky cap, and top-boots. His travels never exceeded the distance of the county-town, and that only at court time, or to attend an election. Once a week he commonly dined at the next market town with the justices and lawyers. This man went to church regularly, read the weekly journal, settled the disputes between the parish officers at the vestry, and afterwards adjourned to the neighboring ale-house, where he usually drank deep for the good of his country. He never played at cards but at christmas, when a family pack was produced from the mantel-piece.

He was commonly followed by a couple of greyhounds and a pointer, and announced his arrival at a neighbor's house by smacking his whip, or giving the view-halloo, His drink was generally ale, except at christmas, the 5th of November, or pope-day, or some other galadays, when he would make a bowl of

strong brandy punch garnished with a toast and nutmeg. A journey to London was, by one of these men, reckoned as great an undertaking as is at present a voyage to the East-Indies, and undertaken with scarcely less precaution and preparation.

The mansion of one of these squires was of plaster striped with timber, not unaptly called calamanco work, or of red brick, large casemented bow windows, a porch with seats in it, and over it a study; the eaves of the house well inhabited by swallows, and the court set round with hollyhocks. Near the gate a horse block for the convenience of mounting.

The hall was furnished with flitches of bacon, and the mantel-piece with guns and fishing-rods of various dimensions, accompanied with the broadsword, partizan, and dagger, borne by his ancestors in the civil wars. The vacant spaces were occupied by stags' horns. Against the wall were pasted King Charles's Golden Rules, Wing's Almanac, and a Portrait of the duke of Marlboro'; in his window lay Baker's Chronicle, Fox's Book of Martyrs, Gianvil on Apparitions, Quincy's Dispensatory, the Complete Justice, and a Book of Farriery.

In the corner, by the fireside, stood a large wooden two-arm chair with a cushion, and within the chimney-corner were a couple of seats. Here, at christmas, he entertained his tenants assembled before a glowing fire made of the roots of trees, and other great logs, and told and heard the traditionary tales of the village

respecting ghosts and witches, till fear made them afraid to move. In the mean time the jorum of ale was in continual circulation.

The best parlor, which was never opened but on particular occasions, was furnished with turk-worked chairs, and hung round with portraits of his ancestors; the men in the character of shepherds, with their crooks, dressed in full suits and huge full-bottomed perukes; others in complete armor or buff coats, playing on the bass-viol or lute. The females as shepherdesses, with the lamb and crook, all habited in high heads and flowing robes.

These men and these houses are no more; the luxury of the times has obliged them to quit the country, and become the humble dependents on great men, to solicit places or commissions to live in London.

Solemn Inscription.

On the outside of the market-house at Devizes in England, is put up a large handsome stone, on which are these words: "The following authentic relation is to deter all persons from calling down the vengeance of God or taking his holy name in vain. Thursday, January 25, 1753, Ruth Pierce of Pottern agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat. One of the three collecting the money, and discovering some wanting, demanded it of Ruth Pierce, who said she had paid her share, and rashly wish

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ed she might drop down dead if she had not; which she instantly did, on repeating her wish, with some money concealed in her hand, to the amaze and terror of the crowded market."

Don't kill the Birds.

A NOTION prevails that birds do great injury in gardens and fields, and hence rewards are frequently offered to induce boys and others to kill them in spring. The notion and the practice are erroneous. A gentleman of long experience in horticulture has aseertained that birds in general do more good by destroying vermin, than they do harm by the little fruit and grain they consume; an entire district in Germany was once nearly deprived of its corn harvest, by an order to kill all the rooks having been generally obeyed.

Origin of the word Oratorio.

St. Philip Neri founded the congregation or religious order of the Oratory, in 1551. The rules of the order savor of no small severity, for they were required to mix corporal punishments with their religious harmony. From the first of November to the feast of the resurrection, their contemplation of celestial objects shall be heightened by a concert of music; and it is also enjoined, that at certain seasons of frequent occurrence, they all whip themselves in the Oratory After half an hour's mental prayer, the officers distribute whips made of small cords full of knots, put forth the children