colour? And do they all live in the same manner? Who knows them all? What more does he do? To whom may this afford comfort? What ought nations to do?

NATHAN'S PARABLE OF THE EWE LAMB.

And the Lord sent Na'than unto David, and he said unto him, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb, which he had bought, and nourished up: and it grew with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man: but he took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the stranger that was come unto him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Na'than, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and set thee over the house of Israel and of Judah: wherefore hast thou deIspised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed U-ri'ah the Hit'tite,

and hast taken his wife to be thy wife. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised my commandments; for thou didst it se'cret-ly: but I will avenge the death of Uriah before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan replied, The Lord will spare thy life. Howbeit, by this deed, thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blas-pheme': the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. And the Lord struck the child, that it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child, and fasted and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the earth; but he would not, neither would he eat bread with them. And it came to pass, on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, Behold, while the child was. yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, he perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.

Then David arose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his ap-parel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped ;

then he came to his own house; and, when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, Thou didst fast and weep for the child whilst it was alive; and now, when it is dead, thou hast arisen and dost eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

QUESTIONS.

What did Nathan say to David when sent to him? What had the rich man? And what had the poor? What did the rich man do when a traveller came to him? What did David say when he heard of such conduct? What was Nathan's reply? [In the same manner let the teacher conduct the examination to the close of the piece.]

THE DUCK AND DRAKE.

I heard a curious story the other day, which I am going to tell you. There was a Duck and Drake who were very fond of each other. Th Duck was sitting upon her eggs in the duck-house which was placed on a grass plot under the parlour windows, and the Drake was such a good husband, that he stayed with her all the time in the duck-house, sitting by her side and quacking to her; and though a drake has not a very musical voice, I dare say

she thought his song as har-mo'nious as that of the nightingale. Well, at length the eggs were hatched, and the little dncklings came out, and then the poor Drake was turned out of the duck-house, for fear he should trample upon his children with his great splay feet and hurt them. So he strolled about the grass plot. And next day he met a Hen with a brood of five little chickens. And he took the chickens, which were just hatched, for his own children. And he wanted to teach them to swim. For the Drake always takes that business upon himself. He leads his young ones to the water, and cuffs and bites them to make them go in, for they are afraid at first. So the Drake went up to these poor little chickens, and drove them before him down to the pond, which was at the bottom of the lawn. The Hen resisted and scuffled with him as well as she could, but the drake was a great deal stronger than she, and nobody came to her assistance, though they saw from the house, that something was the matter, by her fluttering and screaming. But the Drake was resolved his little ones should learn to swim, so he pushed them along, with his wings spread out, till he made them all go into the pond, where they were all five found dead the next morning, and the Drake standing by, very much surprised, I dare say, that his children were so stupid as to let themselves be drowned rather than learn to swim.

QUESTIONS.

About what did you hear a curious story? Where was th duck? And how did the drake then act? What was done to the drake when the young ducks came out? What did he meet next day? What did he do to the chickens? What did he want to teach them? How did the hen act? And whether was the drake or the hen the stronger? What be came of the chickens?

THE FOX.

The fox is a quad'ru-ped of the dog kind, and is found in almost every quarter of the world. His colour is brown; he has a sharp muzzle; his ears are erect and pointed, and his tail is straight and bushy, and tipped with white. His usual residence is a den, or large burrow, formed under the surface of the ground, or in some deep crev'ice of a rock. This he seldom leaves till the evening; and then he prowls about the woods and fields for food, till the morning. He feeds on hares, rabbits, poultry, feathered game, moles, rats, and mice; and is known to be very fond of fruit. He runs down hares and rabbits, by pursuing them like a slow hound. His voice is a sort of yelping bark

Although the fox is very destructive to poultry yards and game, and sometimes takes the liberty of carrying off or devouring a lamb, he is also of service to mankind, by de-stroy'ing many kinds of noxious animals. His skin also constitutes a soft and warm fur, which, in many parts of Europe, is