perance boy, carry a brandy jug?" Hurrying back to the kitchen, he said, "Mamma, I can't carry that brandy jug-I've signed the pledge; but I'll stir the batter while you go." Without a word the mother gave into his little hands the spoon and went herself to bring the jug. She felt a strange, choking sensation in her throat; but she walked up those steps with a firm tread, and seized the jug. When she came down the dear little fellow was beating away, at the dough. His eyes followed her as she went to the sink and began to empty out the contents of the jug.

"What are you doing, mamma?" "I'm emptying out the brandy. We'll have no more in our mince pies."

“Oh, mamma! I'm so glad! Then I can eat them too, can't 1, mamma?” Yes, my dear; and mamma will never make anything again that her dear boy cannot eat.

"Oh, I'm so glad we're going to have temperance pies."

Davy fairly danced up and down in the kitchen as the brandy gurgled in the sink. Don't you think Davy is a real good temperance boy? Then follow his example. Touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing.

INTEMPERANCE AMONG FASHIONABLE LADIES. The New York correspondent of the Boston Courier says: There is a great growing evil. in this city, but of such a delicate nature as almost to forbid its being dragged into public print. I refer to the increasing and lamentable habit now so common, of the indulgence by ladies in intoxicating drinks. do not refer to those who do wrong almost from necessity, but to that class who have rich husbands and homes that might be made happy. A large number of this class seem stead

I

ily to be diving deeper into dissipation than many persons greatly interested in their welfare and happiness ever imagine. I have recently heard of several distressing cases of this kind, and to-day I learn that the wife of a well known citizen reported to be very wealthy, has been sent to a lunatic asylum, in the hope that she may with returning reason, be enabled to overcome the terrible temptations which intoxicating liquors have of late made for her. Her husband's name is almost as familiar in some parts of the South as it is here.

THE TEST. Thomas Jefferson, at at the end of his second term, declared, that if he were President again, he would put a fourth question to each applicant for office, in addition to the three which he set out, namely: 1. "Is he honest ?" 2. "Is he capable?" 3. Is he a friend of the constitution?" And the additional one would be: "Is he in the habit of using ardent spirits?" "And," said Mr. Jefferson, "if I should find the applicant were in that habit, I would never appoint him to any office whatever; for my sad experience and observation have taught me that such a man is not fit for public office."

We trust that all our future presidents will "fight it out on this line," and push things, "in this direction."

THE use of alcoholic drinks diminishes man's capacity to endure both mental and physical labor, increases his predisposition to disease, and shortens the average duration of life. -N. S. Davis, M. D.

EVERY day is a little life, and our whole life is but a day repeated. Therefore, live every day as if it would be the last.

HEROISM IN COMMON LIFE.

In the spring of 1720, a great plague infested Marseilles. It was brought there by a ship from the Levant. In that vessel came hideous death wrapped in veils of beautiful and costly merchandise. Between the months of May and November, 50,000 people died-nearly one-half of the inhabitants of the city. There were scenes of horror and suffering such as no pen could describe and the imagination shrank from picturing. The lower part of the population, maddened by suffering, did the most brutal and inhuman acts.

The

history of that reign of terror showed examples of the most heroic deeds. Most of the priests and high officials did all in their power to allay the suffering. The Chevalier Rose was the most prominent for humanity, generosity, and courage. He was distinguished for his great executive power. He furnished a hospital and kept it going at his own expense.

Nor did he stop there. The decaying bodies of the dead lay everywhere in the streets; the thoroughfares were obstructed by them. He devoted

himself to the burial of those corpses in the country. He hired people and carts, and with his own fair patrician hands he helped to lift the bodies in the carts. At last all the bodies were removed, except one vast, tremendous pile of bodies, the stench from which filled the air all around. The people working under him bung back, and it was only by working harder than any of them that the task was done. What was the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, compared with that!

In the Hospital of Scutari moved that loveliest of modern women, Florence Nightingale. To the dying she brought that consolation which a Christian woman could give so well. The stern, rough faces of the soldiers grew soft when she spoke to them. All the recklessness of hired fighters

vanished as she passed by them. The very sight of her brought calm and quiet to the sick and wounded. She was the sweet soul of heroic womanhood

"The pure among women, whose name it

is blessing to speak."

There were many unsuspected angels in life, softening and sweetening the daily troubles; too humble to claim fame-mute Florence Nightingales.

In the summer of 1855 the yellow fever visited Norfolk. At first, it was only to be found in the alleys` and haunts of vice and but little notice was taken of it. But when it struck at respectability, the attention of all was aroused, and all that were able fled, save a few heroic men and women. Among those noble few were most of the clergy. The weak and ignoble, who were unable to leave, grew mad with terror and died a thousand deaths, fearing one. Physicians after physicians were pressed down by their labor, and perished at their posts. Others came from the North and elsewhere, filling their places, and they were met by no vigilance committees; their residences and their opinions were not asked for. No one objected to their presence. Men fell down in the streets and died there; there were none to remove them. Then the black men the despised slaves-came forward, of their own free will, and buried the bodies. A black man named Ben or Bob (one who had not the aristocratic superfluity of a surname) was especially distinguished for the number of bodies. he buried. When the fever was over the citizens gave him a paper-not of freedom-authorizing him to go North and beg money to purchase it.

To prove the existence of the Divine mind, there is nothing like the human mind. Chapin.

WHERE SARAH WAS.

A farmer had some wheat stolen a few nights since, and he was so surə that he knew who the thief was that he came into town and secured a warrant for a certain young man living near him. When the case came up for trial the defendant said he could prove an alibi. prove an alibi. In order to do this he had brought in "his girl," a buxom lass of 22. See took the stand and swore that he sat up with her from seven in the evening until broad daylight next morning

"People can be very easily mistaken," observed the plaintiff's lawyer.

"I don't care- -I know he was there," she replied.

"What did you talk about?" "Love!" she promptly answered. "What time did the old folks go to bed?"

"I gave'm the wink about ten." Sure he was there at midnight, are you?"

"Yes,, sir."

Why are you sure?"

She blushed, looked over to her lover and laughed, and getting a nod to go ahead, she said:

"Well, sir, just as the clock struck 12 the old man jumped out of bed upstairs and hollered down: 'Sarah, yer mar wants some o' that catnip tea,' and we got such a start we broke the back of the rocking chair and went over backward kerplunk."

"Then the jury must understand that you were seated on Samuel's knee?"

"I object!" put in Samuel's lawyer, and his honor remembered the days of his youth and sustained the objection.

As a general rule, no man can be good for much whose dinner consumes two hours of his day in the providing and consuming of it.

STUDYING THE WAVES.

He who would do should first learn what must be done. The survey precedes the building of the railroad; the reconnaissance locates the field and the line of battle. The first steamboats built in Scotland did not venture out of the rivers and firths except in fine weather. David Napier, thinking that a steamer could be built to navigate the open sea in all weathers, determined to know the difficulties it would encounter.

fast.

At a stormy period of the year, he took passage on a sailing packet which ran between Glasgow and BelStanding for hours at the bow, he watched the waves breaking. Now and then he would leave his post, to ask the captain if it was a rough sea. When told it was nothing unusual, he went back to the bow with an air of disappointment.

He did not mind being drenched with the spray, but he was impatient with the ordinary weather. At last it blew a gale, and a wave, breaking over the bow, swept the packet from

When Napier made his voyage › days where often required to sail between Glasgow and Belfast. It is now made in nine hours, because the marine engineer first saw what was to be done, and then did it.

BUILDING.

"Our to-days and yesterdays. Are the blocks with which we build,"

you

So sings the poet. I suppose, dear children, that some of have seen men laying blocks of stone, in the walls of some large building. You have seen how carefully they work, fitting the heavy blocks exactly into their places, and cementing them firmly, so firmly, so that nothing can move them. You have, perhaps, seen men thus at work day after day, the strong walls rising, one stone at a time, until they were completed. You may have been told that, unless the workmen were very careful, unless they fitted each stone into its own place, unless all of the stones were bound together by strong mortar, the walls would be insecure; the building would not stand. Some one may have told you that it is necessary for all the stones to be of the same kind, and without a flaw. If, in a wall of granite some block of sandstone should find a place, they would impair the strength of the wall. Even one worthless block might render the building unfit for habitation.

Every one of us is building a character. Our habits are to our character what the blocks of stone are to the wall. Day by day our character becomes developed, just as, day by day, the wall rises. What we make oursolves now, we shall remain through life. If we build a strong and noble character, we must form habits of truth, of steadfastness, of charity. We must see that our " to-days have no flaw of falsehood in them, no flaw of envy, none of revenge. We

must ask for power to see clearly what stones we are using in our building, and for strength to use only those that will endure through eternity.

A NURSERY THOUGHT. Do you ever think how much work a little child does in a day? How, from sunrise to sunset, the little feet patter round to us so aimlessly? Climbing up here, kneeling down there, running to another place, but never still. Twisting and turning, and rolling, and reaching, and doubling as if testing every bone and muscle for their future uses. It is very curious to watch it. One who does so, may well understand the deep breathing of the rosy little sleeper, as, with one armed tossed over its curly head, it prepares for the next day's gymnastics. Tireless through the day, till that time comes, as the maternal love which so patiently accomodates itself hour after hour, to its thousand wants and caprices, real or fancied. A busy creature is a little child; to be looked upon with awe as well as with delight, as its clear eyes look trustingly into faces that to God and man have essayed to wear a mask; as it sits down in its little chair to ponder precociously over the white lie you thought it "funny" to tell it; as rising and leaning on your knee, it says thoughtfully, in a tone which should provoke a tear, not a smile, "I don't believe it." A lovely and yet a fearful thing is that little child.

HE "DID IT.” It was in our way, not long since, to listen to a conversation between two intelligent and well known citizens. The tide turned upon American progress, and the men now representing the national character in pushing forward the great ideas of the century. The name Cyrus W. Field was mentioned in connection with the Atlantic Telegraph. Said one of the speakers:

I think too much credit is given to

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Mr. Field in this matter of submarine cable. The idea is not at all original with him. The feasibility of such a project was proven long before his mind was directed to the subject; and he has only caught up other people's ideas and put them in practice." Ah," said the other, "that is just the point. We have plenty of dreamers, but few workers. Ideas. are of little use to the world so long as they lie imbedded in other people's brains. They might just as well have never been promulgated. Others thought of putting the two continents in communication, but Field did it." did it." All honor to Cyrus W. Field for accomplishing what other men dreamed of.

The

NO DEATH FOR THE SPIRIT.- Our journey is not to the grave. I am not growing into old age to be blind, and to be deaf, and to be rheumatic, and to shrink a miserable cripple into the corner, shaking and tottering and forgetting all that I ever knew. The best part of me is untouched. I sit enthroned within the me. soul; the reason; the moral sense; the power to think; the power to will; the power to love; the power to admire purity aud to reach out after it -that is not touched by time, though its instrument and means of outer demonstration be corroded and failing. No physical weakness touches the soul. Only the body is touched by sickness. And shake that down! Let it go! For, as the chrysalis bursts open, and the covering which confines the perfected insect is dropped, that he may come out into the brightness of form and largeness of life; so the body is but a chrysalis; and when

we

break through it, we rise on wings by the attraction of God, and by the propulsion of our own inevitable desire and need, and are forever with the Lord.-Henry Ward Beecher.