THE LION AND MOUSE.

A lion, faint with heat and wea-ry with running, lay down to rest un-der the spread-ing boughs of a thick sha-dy oak.

It hap-pen-ed that, while he slept, a compa-ny of wan-der-ing mice ran o-ver his back, and a-wak-en-ed him; up-on which, start-ing up, he laid his paw up-on one of them, and was go-ing to put it to death, when the lit-tle creature ask-ed for mer-cy in a ve-ry ear-nest manner, beg-ging him not to dis-grace him-self by shed-ding the blood of so pi-ti-ful and small a beast.

The lion lis-ten-ed to the pray-er for mercy, thought pro-per to do as the mouse desir-ed, and im-me-di-ate-ly set him at li-ber-ty. Not long after, roam-ing the fo-rest in pursuit of his prey, the lion chanc-ed to run into the hun-ter's net, and, not be-ing able to re-lease him-self, he set up a loud roar which rung through the woods.

The mouse hear-ing the voice, and know-ing it to be the lion's, im-me-di-ate-ly went to the place, and bade him fear no-thing, for he was his friend. Then straight he fell to work, and with his small sharp teeth gnaw-ing a-sunder the knots and fas-ten-ings of the net, set the lion at li-ber-ty.

There is no one so poor as not to be able to re-pay a kind-ness. Hence, we ought to be kind to our neigh-bours and ac-quain-tan-ces, for the time may come when we shall need their help.

TRY AGAIN.

lit-tle

"Will you give my kite a lift?" said my ne-phew to his sis-ter, after try-ing in vain to make it fly, by drag-ging it a-long the ground. Lu-cy ve-ry kind-ly took it up, and threw it in the air; but as her bro-ther did not run off at the same mo-ment, the kite fell down a-gain.

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Ah, now, how awk-ward you are!" said the lit-tle fel-low. "It was your fault en-tire-ly," an-swer-ed his sis-ter.

"TRY A-GAIN, chil-dren," said I; and Lu-cy once more took up the kite; but now John was in too great a hur-ry-he ran off so sud-den-ly, that he pull-ed it out of her hand; and the kite fell flat as be-fore.

"Well, who is to blame now?" asked Lu-cy.

“TRY A-GAIN," said I. They did, and with more care; but a side wind com-ing sud-den-ly, as Lu-cy let go the kite, it was blown a-gainst some shrubs, leav-ing the poor kite hang-ing with its head down-wards.

I now went to the kite's as-sist-ance, and having dis-en-gag-ed the long tail, I roll-ed it up, say-ing, "Come, chil-dren, there are too ma-ny trees here; let us find a more o-pen space, and 'then TRY A-GAIN."

We pre-sent-ly found a nice grass plot, at one side of which I took my stand; and, all things be-ing pre-par-ed, I toss-ed the kite up, just as lit-tle John ran off. It rose like a bal-loon, and pro-mis-ed a lof-ty flight; but John, who was now great-ly de-light-ed, stop-ped short to look

up-wards. The string slack-en-ed, the kite totter-ed, and, the wind not be-ing ve-ry fa-vourable, the kite came down to the grass.

"Oh, John, you should not have stop-ped," said I. "How-ever, TRY A-GAIN."

"I will not try any more," re-plied he, ra-ther sul-len-ly. "It is of no use, you see. The kite will not fly, and I do not want to be plagued with it any longer."

"Oh, fie, my lit-tle man! would you give up the sport, af-ter all the pains we have tak-en both to make and to fly the kite? A few dis-appoint-ments ought not to make us afraid to TRY A-GAIN. Come, I have wound up your string; and now TRY A-GAIN."

And he did try, and suc-ceed-ed, for the kite was car-ried upon the breeze as light-ly as a feather; and when the string was all out, John stood in great de-light, hold-ing fast the stick, and gaz-ing on the kite, which now seem-ed as a lit-tle white speck in the blue sky. "Look, look, aunt, how high it flies!"

Af-ter en-joy-ing the sight as long as he pleas-ed, lit-tle John be-gan to roll up the string slow-ly; and when the kite fell, he took it up with great glee, and car-ri-ed it a-way. "Shall we come out to-mor-row, aunt, af-ter lessons, and TRY A-GAIN ?"

"I have no ob-jec-tion, my dear, if the weather is fine. And now, as we walk home, tell me what you have learnt from your morn-ing's sport ?"

"I have learnt to fly my kite pro-per-ly." "You may thank aunt for it, brother," said Lu-cy; " for you would have given it up long a-go, if she had not told you to TRY A-GAIN."

"Yes, my dear chil-dren, I wish to teach you the va-lue of per-se-ve-rance, even when no-thing more de-pends up-on it than the fly-ing of a kite. When-ever you fail in your at-tempts to do any good thing, re-mem-ber to TRY A-GAIN."

ALTERED FROM CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH.

One ve-ry sul-try day, a wolf and a lamb happen-ed to come, just at the same time, to quench their thirst in a stream that ran tum-bling down the side of a rocky moun-tain. The wolf stood on the high-er ground, and the lamb at some dis-tance from him, down the cur-rent. However, the wolf, wish-ing to pick a quar-rel with

the lamb, ask-ed him what he meant by disturb-ing the wa-ter, and mak-ing it so mud-dy that he could not drink?

The lamb, fright-en-ed at this threat-en-ing and false charge, told the wolf, in a tone as mild as pos-si-ble, that, with hum-ble sub-mis-sion, he could not con-ceive how that could be, since the wa-ter that he drank ran down from the wolf to him, and there-fore it could not be dis-turb-ed so far up the stream.

The wolf could not de-ny that this was true, so he changed the ac-cu-sa-tion. "I have been told that, six months ago, you vile-ly slander-ed me, and for this you de-serve to be pun-ish-ed." "That is im-pos-si-ble," re-pli-ed the lamb, "for the time you men-tion was before I was born." The wolf, finding it to no pur-pose to ar-gue a-gainst truth, fell into a pas-sion, and said, "No mat-ter, if it was not you who slan-der-ed me, it was your fa-ther, or some of your re-la-tions, and that is all one." So say-ing, the wolf seiz-ed the poor, in-no-cent, help-less lamb, tore him in pieces, and ate him

up.

He who is de-ter-min-ed to com-mit a bad action, will sel-dom be at a loss for a pre-tence.

THE FOX AND GRAPES.

A fox, ve-ry hun-gry, chanced to come in-to a vine-yard, where there hung ma-ny bunch-es of charm-ing ripe grapes; but they were nail-ed up to a wall so high, that al-though the fox leap-ed till he was quite tired, he was not able