Take the Other Hand. It was one of the first days of spring, when a lady who had been watching by the sick bed of her mother for some weeks, went out to take a little exercise and enjoy the fresh air. After walking some distance, she came to a rope-walk. She was familiar with the place, and entered. At the end of one building, she saw a little boy turning a large wheel; she thought it too laborious for such a child, and as she came near she spoke to him. "Who sent you to this place?" she asked. as it were, along the surface of the ground, and if he meets with an obstacle, such as a fence, he will skirt along it, but never attempt to cross it, although he will cross a creek, the two banks of which are nearly on a level with each other, by flying. The pace of an ostrich in full speed, going before the wind, with his feathers standing erect, is killing, and I never saw the horse the rider of which could with truth say that he ran his game down fairly." At present, however, the ostrich has been partially domesticated, and in 1875 a careful census showed that there were no less than 32,247 domesticated ostriches within Cape Colony alone. The bird appears to need no artificial food if he has plenfather know you are ty of good grass, but if the your is sour grass he wants crushed bones, and good farmers improve his condition with allowances of "mealies," or Indian corn. He would, however, in suitable localities, yield very large profit, except for one circumstance the great amount of room that he requires. Sixty acres to a bird is a very large allowance, even for profitable stock. According to the statements published by Messrs. Harting & Monsenthal, it takes six hundred acres to feed eighty birds comfortably: and those acres, even if practically valueless, must "Nobody; I came myself," replied the boy. "Does here?" 66 'I have no father." "Are you paid for your labor?" Yes; I get ninepence this day." "Do you like this work?" Well enough; but if I did not, I should do it, to get the money for my mother." "How long do you work in the day?" "From nine to eleven in the morning, and from two till five in the afternoon." "How old are you?" "Almost nine." "Do you ever get tired of turning be fenced in with wire, at a cost of some this great wheel?" "Yes; sometimes." "And what do you do then?" "Thank you, ma'am," the boy said, and the lady bade him farewell. About Ostriches. Dr. Livingstone says: "The ostrich when feeding has a pace of from twenty to twenty-two inches; when walking at other times, about four inches more. In general, the eye cannot follow its legs. I was once able to count the steps by a stop watch, and, if I am not mistaken, the bird made thirty strides in ten seconds. Reckoning each stride at twelve feet, we have a speed of about twentysix miles per hour." Mr. Henry de Mosenthal says: "An ostrich in motion does not rise upon the wing; he skims, £500. The bird cannot jump, and makes no effort to cross the fencing, but it seems certain that he will not bear confinement close enough to prevent his enjoying a healthy amount of his customary exercise. Of course while feathers yielded from £20 to £40 a pound the profits were enormous; but in the present day, when the average value, according to official returas, 18 £5 58. per pound, the farmer must content himself, even though he grows ostriches, with moderate returns in cash. He can get a pound of feathers a year from each bird, and by the latest statistics is pretty sure of £5 a pound all around; but £400 a year, though a good yield in such a locality from six hundred acres, is not enough to make diamond-hunters quit their avocations. Still, as the land is usually fenced off from a farm too large to be cultivated, and food costs little, and the profit is received in cash, the rearing of ostriches may be con sidered a fairly-established and very cu rious industry.-Exchange. The Sunday-School Department THE Sunday School Times, and its accompanying publications, have been purchased from Mr. John Wanamaker by Mr. Clay Trumbull, for two years past its editor, and Mr. John D. Wattles, its business manager. By his characteristic energy and enterprise Mr. Wanamaker has made the Times a SundaySchool journal without an equal in this country. Under its new ownership the paper is to be conducted as heretofore. THE September number of the GUARDIAN contains an error on its first page, possibly owing to our illegible writing. Coleridge, and not Van Oosterzee, thanked Divine Providence for keep ing him ignorant of the French language. We have an impression that the great Reformed Theologian is a thorough French scholar. SOME people are boastful of noble or wealthy ancestry, and some blush to own a poor though honest laborer among their forefathers. On his summer tour through New England, President Hayes visited Brattleboro', Vermont, the house of his ancestors. With Mrs. Hayes standing at his side he made the following neat little speech to a crowd of the towns-people. Persons may differ in their views of his governmental policy, but we feel proud in the conviction that we have an honest, virtuous President, who is not ashamed to own before the country and the civilized world that his grandfather was a blacksmith. In his Brattleboro' speech he said: My fellow-citizens: Before I leave you I desire to say what I have hitherto omitted, and if you will kindly permit me to speak two or three sentences I shall be glad to receive your attention. No language is too warm or too strong to express my gratitude for the cordial reception which you have given me and | my family, in Brattleboro'. My family, or rather the Hayes family, came to Brattleboro' about one hundred years ago. I do not know the exact date. My grandfather was a blacksmith, the only one here, I think, when he came, and the people welcomed him cordially, as they always do so important a personage as the village blacksmith in a newly settled community. [A voice. A blacksmith in a new country is almost as good as a President among us.] Every one of the Hayes family scattered, and are all throughout the country. I have most agreeable recollections of Brattleboro'. I thank you cordially for what you have done, for there are few spots dearer to me than this. My father left here sixty years ago next month, and moved to Ohio, where I was born, but my elder brother and sister were born here. When a boy of eleven years-forty-three years ago-I first came to this place on a visit to my Uncle John, who then lived in this village. During my visit I walked over the very road by which I rode this morning, and from the very house where I slept last night. The place was beautiful then. There have been many changes since, but the beauty continues, and has been enhanced. I hope the beauty and prosperity of Brattleboro' will continue to increase, and I hope that again and often I shall come hither to meet you. But I am extending my remarks beyond two or three sentences, and so must close by again thanking you for the hearty welcome you have given me. God Is With Me. A dear boy of ten years of age belonging to a family in the South Reformed Church, in this city, under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Rogers, died a few days ago of a painful and lingering disease, during which he experienced paroxysms of severe suffering. During one of these, his moans were almost heart-breaking to the ear of his mother, who watched him with the most devoted and tender care. She said to him, "My darling, don't moan so sadly, mother is with you." The dying boy replied, "Yes, you and father are with me, but there's somebody else too." "Who is it, my darling?" "Oh you know, mother, God is with me." And with a child's faith little Sandy went to be with God. This touching incident is embodied in the following lines by their pastor. A mother bent over her child, one day, The sorrowful moan would start, To the mother's fast-breaking heart. "Oh hush! my darling," at last she cried, For she could not endure that moan, "Your nearest, and dearest are by your side, My boy is not left all alone!" "No! no! dearest mother," the sufferer - said, As a smile played over his brow, "On my father's strong arm I can lean my head, And you are beside me now; But yet there's another that's near me too, A friend even better than all." "Oh! who is thus with you, my darling, say who?" Was the mother's beseeching call; And then from the lips of that suffering The Curate and the Bricklayer. A Manchester curate did a good thing the other day. Walking along a street at the dinner hour, he passed a lot of bricklayers smoking their afterdinner pipe, and heard one of them say, "I'd like to be a parson, and have nowt to do but to walk about in a long black coat, and carry a walking stick in my fist, and get a lot of brass." Of course, there was a laugh at the parson's expense; but he turned sharp round and said, "So you'd like to be a parson. How much do you get a week?" "Twenty-seven shillings," was the reply. "Well," said the curate, "though I'm only a poor man, I'll give you twenty-seven shillings if you'll come along with me for six days and see how you like it. Then you'll be better able to talk about it." The bricklayer tried to back out of it, but his mates told him, "Nay, man, thou said'st thou'd like it; thou mun go with the parson chap." So he put on his coat and started with the curate amidst a roar of laughter. The parson presently turned down an alley, and told his companion that they were going to see a sick man, and that he must mind not to make a noise going up stairs. "What might the matter be with him?" asked the bricklayer. "Small-pox," said the par son. "Oh, then," said the man, "I'll just wait outside for you, sir, for I've not had it myself, and I've got a wife and children to think of." "That's exactly my case," replied the curate, "for I have not had it and I have a wife and children depending on me. But you agreed to come with me wherever I went." The man of bricks began not to like it, and after a moment's hesitation he asked, "And where are you going next?" Then the parson told him they would have to visit another house that day where the father lay in his coffin and all the family were down with scarlet fever, and also a house where there was typhus; and on the morrow there would be a longer round. This floored the bricklayer. "Sir," he said, "I'll go back to my old job, if you please, and I'll say no more agin you parsons.' So off he went; and let us hope he kept his word, and never taunts the parsons with having "nowt to do but to walk about in a long black coat and get a lot of brass.' " Hugh Miller's Early Days. The name of Hugh Miller is well known. He devoted himself early to a life of hard labor as a quarryman and mason; and by the steady exercise of the powers which God had given him, to a position of much usefulness and honor. This story has been often told, to show what can be done by the earnest use of common means. rose The father of this celebrated man was a master of a sloop belonging to Scotland, which was lost in a fearful tempest. In consequence of this bereavement, the widow had to work late into the night as a seamstress, to provide for the family. Hugh used to frequent the harbor and watch the shipping, sadly missing the familiar vessel, the return of which used to be the cause of such joy to him. He would also climb, day after day, a grassy knoll of the coast, close behind his mother's house, which commanded a wide view of the Moray Frith, and look wistfully out, long after every one else had ceased to hope, for the sloop with the two stripes of white, and the two square topsails, commanded by his father. But they never appeared again. He learned the letters of the alphabet by studying the sign-posts; he afterwards attended a dame school, and persevered in his lessons till he rose to the highest form and became a member of the Bible class. The story of Joseph aroused his interest, and he became a diligent reader of all the Scripture stories. Hugh then began to collect a library in a birch-bark box about nine inches square, which was found large enough to contain all his books. He has described, in his "Old Red Sandstone," the feelings with which he began to work, and the happiness he found in it. To be sure, my hands were a little sore, and I felt nearly as much fatigued as if I had been climbing among the rocks; but I had wrought and been useful, and bad yet enjoyed the day fully as much as usual. I was as light of heart next morning, as any of my brother-workmen." After describing the landscape, he says; "I returned to the quarry, convinced that very exquisite pleasure may be a very cheap one, and that the busiest employments may afford leisure enough to enjoy it. a Various wonders soon disclosed them selves in the rocks; marks of furrows, as of an ebbing tide, fretted in the solid stone, fossil shells and fish, and leaves of plants. Almost every day opened new discoveries to his curious eye, and awakened deeper interest. And thus began that course of observation and study which made him famous as a geologist, and enabled him to render valuable help in the progress of science. The addi His first year of labor came to a close, and he found that "the amount of his happiness had not been less than in the last of his boyhood. tional experience of twenty years,” he adds, "has not shown me that there is any necessary connection between a life of toil and a life of wretchedness." "My advice," says Hugh Miller, "to young working-men desirous of bettering their circumstances, and adding to the amount of their enjoyment, is a very simple one. Do not seek happiness in what is misnamed pleasure; seek it rather in what is termed study. Keep your conscience clear, your curiosity fresh, and embrace every opportunity of cultivating your minds. Learn to make a right use of your eyes; the commonest things are worth looking at-even stones and weeds, and the most familiar animals. Read good books, not forgetting the best of all; there is more true philosophy in the Bible, than in every work of every skeptic that ever wrote; and we should all be miserable creatures without it."— Child's Companion. NERVE FOOD.-In what does nerve food consist? In what do we find it? Is it meat? No. White bread? No. Potatoes? No. If it is not found in these staples, in what is it to be found? I answer, in the exterior of the white kernel, in the skin of the potato, and in milk; partially also in eggs and fish. I answer, the chief food staples, in the present dietetic system, are almost entirely deficient in brain and nervebuilding material. In view of these facts, is it a result to be wondered at that the starving nervous tissue in the overworked masses attempts to satisfy an intolerable sense of craving, of physical hunger, by the use of stimulating poisons, each case meeting the demand, and no more?-Herald of Health. NE PLUS ULTRA. -The old Spanish monarchs, when in possession of both sides of the sea at the Straits of Gibraltar, stamped two columns upon their coin to represent the Pillars of Hercules, as the promontories of rock that guard the entrance to the Mediterranean were at that time called. Around the pillars was entwined a scroll, upon which was the inscription Ne Plus Ultra-There is nothing beyond.' But Columbus ere long discovered that there was something beyond; so old Spain just crossed off the Ne from the motto, and ever since it has read Plus Ultra-More beyond." That was a graceful way of yielding to the new lesson of 66 a stubborn fact." Many people make themselves trouble all their days, and greatly hinder their amiability and usefulness, just because they are too vain to learn anything new, or too proud to confess their former ignorance. They are rather hopeless cases -they are disagreeable to others and even dissatisfied with themselves. What to do for persons of this class is a hard problem. Most of them, it is sad to say; must just be let alone. Faithful, useful people have no time to waste on doubtful disputations." 66 THE longer we neglect writing to an absent friend, the less mind we have to set about it. So, the more we neglect private prayer and closet communion with God, the more shy we grow in our approaches to Him. Nothing breeds a greater strangeness between the soul and God than the restraining of prayer before Him. And nothing would renew the blessed intimacy, if God Himself, the neglected party, did not, as it were, send us a letter of expostulation from heaven, and sweetly chide us for our negligence. Then we melt, then we kindle; and the blissful intercourse gradually opens as usual.-Toplady. OUT of one hundred and eighty prisoners in the Eastern Penitentiary last year, one hundred and seventy-three never served an apprenticeship to any trade. Only seven of the whole number had been apprentices. There is food for reflection in this fact. The inability of young men to obtain chances to learn trades has helped to push thousands of them into crime. The destruction of the apprenticeship system was the greatest misfortune that ever befel this country, and the sooner we get back to it the better. EATING ON SUNDAYS.-The Advance gets in a splendid blow on Sabbath gormandizing. Adam and Eve killed themselves and all the race by their fondness for eating. The writer says: "Improper diet often arrests the power who during the secular week were hurof the Gospel. On Sabbath days, men ried in all their meals, make up for lost time; and stupefied beyond the power of arousing, they seat themselves in church, between the minister and the marketand the whole hour of service is a war man. If the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes had been performed on the Sabbath, we doubt whether there would have been twelve baskets of fragments taken up. That man is quite sure to get the victory, who on the Sabbath assaults the truth with culinary imple ments. We fear if a Sabbath fast were cause rebellion proclaimed, it would the name of high heaven, we arraign among some of our best Christians. In Sabbath surfeiting as a sin of the church, highly derogatory to the spread of the gospel." "BIVALVULAR BENEVOLENCE" is what it is called in New England. It signifies a gathering of well-to-do people for the purpose of eating oysters. These well-provided people get the oysters, and the poor share the profits. We wonder if it would not be well to reverse this order occasionally, and give the poor the oysters, and the others the "profits." In that case the account would stand about as follows. Poor about ninety per cent.; rich ten per cent. And ten per cent., is always a good investment. is said, however, this species of charity never faileth, and the quality of such mercy is never strained.--Alliance. It A BRIGHT ANSWER-In a lecture at Portland, Maine, the lecturer, wishing to explain to a little girl the manner in which a lobster casts his shell when he has outgrown it, said, "What do you do when you have outgrown your clothes? You cast them aside, do you not?" "Oh, no!" replied the little one, "we let out the tucks." The lecturer confessed that she had the advantage of him there. |