sweep over it would be chilled and compelled to disgorge their booty, so that the wilderness, sprinkled with rain and veined with rivers, would, in time, "blossom as the rose." As to our supply of water and our irrigation, we must, with David, "Lift up our eyes to the hills, from whence cometh our help."

T. S. KING.

Spell and pronounce :—compensate, Sinai, writhings, suction, troughs (trawfs), apportion, Himalaya, disburse, distributes, variegate, Sahara, fertilities, beauteous, Amazon, disgorge, and comparatively.

Synonyms. - compensate-recompense; reward; remunerate; requite. obvious — manifest; plain; clear; evident; apparent. suggest-hint; allude; refer to; glance at; insinuate. somber dull; dusky; cloudy; melancholy; sad; grave.

LESSON LXXXII.

as signed', allotted; apportioned. ĕm'u lāte, to strive to equal or excel.

con vĭe'tion, being convinced of truth or error.

fie'tion, an invented story.

WHAT I LIVE FOR.

I live for those who love me,

Whose hearts are kind and true;
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;

For all human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the hopes not left behind me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story

Who've suffered for my sake;

To emulate their glory;

And follow in their wake;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The noble of all ages,

Whose deeds crown history's pages,
And time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion

With all that is divine; To feel there is a union

"Twixt nature's heart and mine; To profit by affliction,

Reap truths from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
And fulfill each grand design.

I live to hail that season

By gifted minds foretold,
When men shall live by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,

For those who know me true;
For the heaven that smiles above me
And awaits my spirit, too;

For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,

And the good that I can do.

G. LINNEUS BANKS.

affection

The following instances of natural among birds were observed by Thomas Edward, the well-known shoemaker-naturalist of Banff.

Within a few feet of the remains of a wreath of snow, he came upon a wild duck lying beside a tuft of rushes. Thinking that she was skulking with the view of avoiding observation, Edward touched her with his stick, in order that she might rise. But she did not stir.

He was surprised, and, on a nearer inspection, he found that the bird was dead. She lay raised a little on one side, her neck stretched out, her mouth open and full of snow, her wings somewhat extended, and with one of her legs appearing a little behind her.

Near the dead duck there were two eggs. On discovering this, Edward lifted her up, and underneath her found a nest containing eleven eggs. These, with the other two, made thirteen in all. A few were broken. He examined the whole of them and found that, without exception, they contained young birds. This was an undoubted proof that the poor mother had sat upon them from two to three weeks.

With her dead body in his hand, he sat down to investigate the matter, and to ascertain, if he could, the cause of her death. He examined her minutely all over, and could find neither wound

nor any mark whatever of violence. She had every appearance of having died of suffocation. Edward had no doubt that she had come by her death in a desperate but faithful struggle to protect her eggs from the fatal effects of the recent snowstorm.

How affecting an example she afforded of maternal affection! The ruthless blast had swept, with all its fury, along the lonesome and unsheltered hill. The snow had risen higher and the smothering drift came fiercer, as night drew on. Yet still that poor bird, in defiance of the warring elements, continued to protect her home, and the treasures which it contained, until she could do so no longer, and then yielded up her life.

That life she could easily have saved, had she been willing to abandon the offspring which nature had taught her so tenderly to cherish, and in endeavoring to preserve which she willingly remained to die.

"I wrapped," says Edward, "a piece of paper as a winding sheet, round the faithful and devoted bird, and forming a hole in the ground, sufficiently large for the purpose, I laid the mother and the eggs in it. I covered them with earth and moss, and, over all, placed a solid piece of turf; and having done so- and being more affected than I should perhaps be willing to acknowledge-I left them to molder into their original dust, and went on my way."

A remarkable instance of brotherly sympathy and help on the part of the common tern is related by the same keen observer and loving friend of every living thing. Being on the sands of Boyndie one afternoon in August, he had been observing

with eager interest the movements of a party of terns in their search for food.

At last one broke off from the party and directed his course toward the shore, fishing all the way as he came. It was an interesting sight to watch him; at one moment rising, at another descending, now poised in mid-air, his wings expanded and motionless, his piercing eye directed to the waters beneath, and following with eager gaze the movements of their scaly inhabitants; and now, as one of them would ever and anon come sufficiently near the surface, making his attack upon the fish in the manner so thoroughly taught him by nature.

Quick as thought he closed to his side his outspread pinions, and, with a seeming carelessness, threw himself headlong into the deep so rapidly that the eye could with difficulty keep pace with his descent. In the least space of time, he would be seen sitting on the water, swallowing his prey.

This being accomplished, he again mounted into the air. Being now within reach, Edward, who required a specimen of the bird, fired, and the tern came, down with a broken wing, screaming as he fell into the water. The report of the gun, together with his cries, brought together the party he had left, in order that they might ascertain the cause of the alarm.

"After surveying their wounded brother round and round, as he was drifting toward the shore with the flowing tide, they came flying in a body to the spot where I stood, and rent the air with their screams. These they continued to utter, regardless of their own safety, until I began to make preparations for receiving the approaching bird.