ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

H, slow to smite, and swift to spare Gentle, and merciful, and just! Who in the fear of God, didst bear The sword of power, a nation's trust! In sorrow by thy bier we stand, Amid the awe that hushes all, And speak the anguish of a land That shook with horror at thy fall. Thy task is done; the bond are free; We bear thee to an honored grave, Whose proudest monument shall be The broken fetters of the slave. Pure was thy life; its bloody close

Hath placed thee with the Sons of light,

Among the noble host of those

Who perished in the cause of Right.

BIRDS IN THEIR NESTS.

ever I see,

bush or tree,

Young birds in their pretty nest,
I must not, in play,

Steal the birds away,

To grieve their mother's breast.
My mother I know,

Would sorrow so,
Should I be stolen away;

So I'll speak to the birds
In my softest words,
Nor hurt them in my play,
And when they can fly,
In the bright blue sky,
They'll warble a song to me;
And then if I'm sad,

It will make me glad,

To think they are happy and free.

HOE UP THE WEEDS.

WHEN we sow good seeds in the garden, we wish them

to grow up, and make nice plants and roots and flowers. If we let the weeds grow, they will choke the good seeds, and spoil them. We must hoe up the weeds.

When boys and girls are sent to school, they must learn to read and spell well, and get all their lessons. What their teachers teach them is good seed sown in their minds. When it springs up it must be taken care of. Bad thoughts, and wicked words and wicked deeds, are the weeds that sometimes choke the good seed. Such weeds must be pulled up. Some boys talk a great deal, and tell how hard they are going to study, and how much they are going to learn, and then go away and do nothing. They are too lazy to study. Other boys say little and study much. Now what are those men and boys like who promise much and do little? who have many words and few deeds? I will tell you.

"A man of words, and not of deeds,
Is like a garden full of weeds."

The mind is like a garden. Good plants and flowers will not be found in the garden unless the seed be planted. And then when the seed comes up, the young plants must be taken care of. But weeds will spring up of themselves, without being planted; and, if they are left to grow, they will grow faster and stronger than the good plants, and choke them to death. You must pull up the weeds if you want the plants to grow.

It is so with the mind. The soil may be good; but angry and wicked thoughts are apt to spring up there, and, if we let them grow, they will choke the good thoughts and kill them.

If we wish to be good, and to grow up good, we must pull up the wicked thoughts, and throw them away, just as the careful gardener pulls up the weeds in his garden.

In life's rosy morning,

In manhood's firm pride,
Let this be your motto

Your footsteps to guide:
In storm and in sunshine,
Whatever assail,

I'll onward and conquer,
And never say fail.

THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON.

HE birthday of the "Father of his Country! May it

Tererbe qeshly remembered by American hearts! May

it ever re-awaken in them a filial veneration for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard for the country which he loved so well-to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy, during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare; to which he devoted his life in the maturity of his powers, in the field; to which again he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience, as President of the convention that framed our Constitution; which he guided and directed while in the chair of state, and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly, to die.

He was the first man of the time in which he grew. His memory is first and most sacred in our love, and ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of power and of might.

"The first in the hearts of his countrymen!" Yes, first! He has our first and most fervent love. Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and good men, before his day, in every colony. But the American nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774; and the first love of that Young Amer

was Washington. The first word she lisped was his

name.

Her earliest breath spoke it. It is still her proud ejaculation; and it will be the last gasp of her expiring life. Yes; others of our great men have been appreciated, many admired by all; but him we love; him we all love.

I'M

He knows my name and nature too;

And all day long he looks at me,

And sees my actions through and through.

He listens to the words I say;

He knows the thoughts I have within;
And whether I'm at work or play,
He's sure to see me if I sin.

Oh! how could children tell a lie,
Or cheat in play, or steal, or fight,
If they remembered God was nigh,
And had them always in his sight?

Then when I wish to do amiss,