a few minutes, while he went to see the merchant who gave her the note.

11. "Yes," said the merchant, when he had heard the banker's story, "I did make a mistake. I wrote fifty instead of five hundred. Give the poor widow, five hundred dollars, for such honesty is poorly rewarded with even that sum."

1. A man was walking one day through a large city. On a street corner he saw a boy with a number of small birds for sale, in a cage.

2. He looked with sadness upon the, prisoners flying about the about the cage, cage, peeping through the wires, beating them with their wings, and trying to get out.

3. He stood for some time looking at the birds. At last he said to the boy, "How much do you ask for your birds?"

4. "Fifty cents apiece, sir," said the boy. "I do not mean how much apiece," said the man, "but how much for all of them? I want to buy them all."

5. The boy began to count, and found they came to five dollars. "There is your money,"

with his morning's trade.

6. No sooner was the bargain settled than the man opened the cage door, and let all the birds fly away.

7. The boy, in great surprise, cried, "What did you do that for, sir? You have lost all your birds."

8. "I will tell you why I did it," said the man. "I was shut up three years in a French prison, as a prisoner of war, and I am resolved never to see any thing in prison which I can make free."

1. A moment too late, my beautiful bird,
A moment too late are you now;

The wind has your soft, downy nest disturbed-
The nest that you hung on the bough.

2. A moment too late; that string in your bill,
Would have fastened it firmly and strong;
But see, there it goes, rolling over the hill!
Oh, you staid a moment too long.

3. A moment, one moment too late, busy bee;
The honey has dropped from the flower:
No use to creep under the petals and see;
It stood ready to drop for an hour.

4. A moment too late; had you sped on your wing, The honey would not have been gone;

Now you see what a very, a very sad thing
'Tis to stay a moment too long.

5. Little girl, never be a moment too late,
It will soon end in trouble or crime;
Better be an hour early, and stand and wait,
Than a moment behind the time.

6. If the bird and the bee, little boy, were too late, Remember, as you play along

On your way to school, with pencil and slate,
Never stay a moment too long.

1. The most beautiful humming-birds are found in the West Indies and South America. The crest of the tiny head of one of

gi

these shines like a sparkling crown of colored light. afs 14..

2. The shades of color of color that adorn its breast, are equally brilliant.

As the bird

flits from one object to another, it looks more like a bright flash of sunlight than it does like a living being.

3. But, you ask, why are they called humming-birds? It is because they make a soft, humming noise by the rapid motion of their wings-a motion so rapid, that as they fly you can only see that they have wings.

4. One day when walking in the woods, I found the nest of one of the smallest hummingbirds. It was about half the size of a very small hen's egg, and