Then Bennie and Blossom took their way to their Green Mountain N home. A crowd gathered at the Mill Depot to welcome them back; and as farmer Owen's hand grasped that of his boy, tears flowed down his cheeks, and he was heard to say fervently, “The Lord be praised."

MRS. R. D. C. ROBBINS.

Notes. A soldier who is found asleep at his post when doing duty as a sentinel, is usually sentenced to be shot.

Double-quick means the fastest time or step in marching, next to the run.

A stoop, as used in the lesson, means either a number of steps leading to the door of a house; or, a porch with a railing around it.

The Green Mountains are in the State of Vermont.

Depot (de po' or de'po) is a word often used in some parts of this country to signify a railway station. The popular meaning of depot in the United States seems to be a place where cars and freight are kept, and from which trains start; and station, any other stopping-place on a railway.

A strap upon the shoulder is the badge of a commissioned officer either in the army or navy. As employed in the lesson, the expression means that Bennie was made a lieutenant.

Our country! 'tis a glorious land!

With broad arms stretched from shore to shore; The proud Pacific chafes her strand, She hears the dark Atlantic roar; And, nurtured on her ample breast, How many a goodly prospect lies In Nature's wildest grandeur drest, Enameled with her loveliest dyes!

Rich prairies, decked with flowers of gold,
Like sunlit oceans roll afar;
Broad lakes her azure heavens behold,

Reflecting clear each trembling star:
And mighty rivers, mountain-born,

Go sweeping onward, dark and deep,
Through forests where the bounding fawn
Beneath their sheltering branches leap.

And, cradled 'mid her clustering hills,
Sweet vales in dream-like beauty hide,
Where love the air with music fills,
And calm content and peace abide;
For plenty here her fullness pours
In rich profusion o'er the land,
And, sent to seize her generous stores,

There prowls no tyrant's hireling band.

Great God! we thank Thee for this home-
This bounteous birth-land of the free;
Where wanderers from afar may come,
And breathe the air of liberty.

Still may her flowers untrampled spring,
Her harvests wave, her cities rise;
And yet, till time shall fold his wing,
Remain Earth's loveliest Paradise!

W. J. PARBODIE.

Elocution.—With what tone of voice should this lesson be read? Language.—What simile occurs in the second stanza? "Calm content and peace abide" is an expression containing either the figure personification, in case we think of content" and 29 peace as persons; or, me ton'y my, if we regard "content" and "peace" simply as qualities used instead of the possessors of those qualities.

Metonymy signifies a change of name, one word being used for another on account of a close relationship between them.

26.-BEE-HUNTERS.

sèm Ĭ çîr'eu lar, having the
form of half a circle.
ereep'er, a plant which clings to
something for support.
hŎr i zŎn'tal, level.

pǎs'sive, not opposing; inactive.

stū'pe fied, made senseless.
sue çěs'sively, one after an-
other.

luscious (lush'ŭs), sweet.
im mū'ni ty, freedom.
per'se eût ing, annoying.

One of the most important and valuable products of the Island of Timor, in the Malay Archipelago, is bees-wax. This is formed by the wild bees, which build huge honey-combs, suspended in the open air from the under side of the lofty branches of the highest trees. These combs are of semicircular form, and often three or four feet in diameter.

I once saw the natives take a bees' nest, and a very interesting sight it was. In the valley where I used to collect insects, I one day noticed three or four men and boys under a high tree, and looking up, saw on a very lofty horizontal branch, three large bees' combs.

The tree was straight and smooth-barked and without a branch, till at seventy or eighty feet from the ground it gave out the limb which the bees had chosen for their home.

As the men were evidently looking for honey, I waited to watch their operations. One of them first produced a long piece of wood, apparently the stem of a small tree or creeper, which was very tough and stringy, and began splitting it through in several directions. then wrapped it in palm-leaves, which were secured by twisting a slender creeper round them.

He then fastened his cloth tightly around his waist, and producing another cloth wrapped it around his head, neck, and body, and tied it firmly, leaving his face, arms, and legs completely bare. Slung to his girdleN he carried a long coil of thin cord; and while he had been making these preparations, one of his companions had cut a strong creeper, or bush-rope, eight or ten yards long, to one end of which a wood torch was fastened. It was then lighted at the bottom, and emitted a steady stream of smoke. Just above the torch a chopping-knife was fastened with a short cord.

The bee-hunter now took hold of the bush-rope just above the torch, and passed the other end around the trunk of the tree, holding one end in each hand. Jerking it above the tree a little above his head, he set his foot against the trunk, and leaning back began walking up it. It was wonderful to see the skill with which he took advantage of the slightest irregularities of the bark or inclination of the stem to aid his ascent, jerking the stiff creeper a few feet higher when he had found a firm hold for his bare feet.

It almost made me giddy to look at him as he rapidly got up-thirty, forty, fifty feet above the ground; and I kept wondering how he could possibly mount the next few feet of straight smooth trunk. Still, however, he kept on with as much coolness and apparent certainty as if he were going up a ladder, till he had got within ten or fifteen feet of the bees.

Then he stopped a moment and took care to swing the torch, which hung just at his feet, a little toward these dangerous insects, so as to send up the

stream of smoke between him and them. Still going on, in a minute more he brought himself under the limb, and, in a manner that I could not understand, seeing that both hands were occupied in supporting himself by the creeper, managed to get upon it.

By this time the bees began to be alarmed, and formed a dense buzzing swarm just over him, but he brought the torch up closer to him, and coolly brushed away those that settled on his arms and legs. Then stretching himself along the limb, he crept toward the nearest comb and swung the torch just under it. The moment the smoke touched it, its color changed in a most curious manner from black to white, the myriads of bees that had covered it flying off and forming a dense cloud above and around.

The man then lay at full length along the limb, and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, and then drawing his knife, cut off the comb at one slice close to the tree, and attaching the thin cord to it, let it down to his companions below.

He was all this time enveloped in a swarm of angry bees, and how he bore their stings so coolly, and went on with his work at that giddy height so deliberately, was more than I could understand. The bees were evidently not stupefied by the smoke or driven away far by it, and it was impossible that the small stream from the torch could protect his whole body when at work.

There were three other combs on the same tree, and all were successively taken, and furnished the whole party with a luscious feast of honey and young bees, as well as a valuable lot of wax.