she had suffered two or three rather severe burns, and the loss of a considerable quantity of hair. This accident completely broke up the party; and Mrs. Norton returned home, accompanied by groans and expressions of pain from Louisa and Caroline, and sobs of mortification from Emma.

The following morning found Mrs. Norton and her daughters together; they were all for some time silent; the children seemed completely ashamed of themselves, and Mrs. Norton anxiously awaited the sentiments which their varying countenances told that they were about to confess to their kind and good parent. Louisa was the first to speak. “Oh, mamma, dear mamma," she exclaimed, "I do not think I shall ever be vain and conceited again; I shall always remember the pain I am now suffering, when I am inclined to be silly."- "And I," cried Emma, "shall recollect the trouble and disappointment which my carelessness has occasioned me." "Oh! that nasty physic!" said Caroline;" and all the boys and girls laughing at me so! I am sure, quite sure, that I will leave off being greedy and selfish."

"My dear children," returned their mother

affectionately, "I hope that what happened last night will have a lasting effect on you, and be the means of correcting those faults I have so long observed, and which would prove sources of much unhappiness in your more advanced years. I wish, my dear girls, to impress on your minds how frequently one error or omission is connected with, or leads to another. Your love of display, Louisa, occasioned the punishment of your vanity. Could you have been satisfied to play modestly and properly, you would not have confused yourself, and met with the accident from which you are now suffering. Had you, Emma, been tidy, and put your shoes in their proper place, you would neither have spoiled your frock, nor have been deprived of an evening's amusement. You, Caroline, would not have been ill, and thereby occasioned the disgraceful discovery of your purloined sweets, had you contented yourself with a moderate share of the delicacies provided: these faults have, however, like most others, brought their own punishment. Louisa's disfigured appearance will not admit of the remotest vanity, and, of course, she cannot appear in any company. Emma's frock, for I cannot

allow a new one, will bespeak her carelessness; and the prohibition of all sweetmeats, to say nothing of the medicine which must be Caroline's portion, will, I think, cure all disposition to excess in eating. But, my dear children, if these faults are entirely eradicated, I shall not regret the disastrous occurrences at GRANDPAPA'S BALL."

STANZAS.

I NEVER cast a flower away,
The gift of one that cared for me—
A little flower, a faded flower,-
But it was done reluctantly.

I never looked a last adieu

To things familiar, but my heart
Shrank with a feeling, almost pain,
Even from their lifelessness to part.

I never spoke the word "Farewell,"
But with an utterance faint and broken;
A heart-sick yearning for the time

When it shall never more be spoken.

ITALY.

BY MRS. HEMANS.

'Tis morn, and Nature's richest dyes
Are floating o'er Italian skies;
Tints of transparent lustre shine
Along the snow-clad Appenine;

The clouds have left Soracte's height,

And yellow Tiber winds in light,

Where tombs and fallen fanes have strewed

The wide Campagna's solitude.

'Tis sad amidst that scene to trace
Those relics of a vanish'd race;
Yet o'er the ravaged path of time,
Such glory sheds that brilliant clime,
Where nature still, though empires fall,
Holds her triumphant festival;

E'en Desolation wears a smile,

While skies and sunbeams laugh the while;

And Heaven's own light, Earth's richest bloom, Array the ruin and the tomb.

THE DATE PALM.

IT is one of the sweetest employments in which the human mind can engage, to turn itself attentively to the beauties which spring beneath our feet in the garden and in the field, and turn an attentive glance to those giants of vegetable life which supply to man so many of the comforts and luxuries of life. Botany is itself one of the most beautiful-perhaps the most beautiful of the sciences. In its every feature are the lineaments of loveliness; the sweetest and softest petal of the brightest and most beauteous flower is lovely; and the bark of the old tree, if examined through a glass,

will show a loveliness, too. Botany may be studied in all seasons, and in all seasons seen to advantage. In winter, when the crocus and the snow-drop smile in their meek brilliancy, amidst snows and chilling storms; in summer, when the rose and the lily court every eye; in