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before solemn faces of his flock, at once stopped the service, and desired the clerk to eject the intruder. But the order was more easily given than executed. Jack was determined not to leave; and so, finding himself pursued, took refuge in a forest of legs belonging to his young friends, the school-children, who did not appear at all unwilling to afford him shelter.

4. The clerk rushed on, intent upon cătching the enemy, and putting an end to this unorthodox proceeding; and over, first a bench and then a child, he stumbled, in his attempts to pounce upon the fugitive, who easily evaded his grasp, and always appeared just where the clerk was not, informing him, ever and anon, of his whereabout, by the old cry, "Here am I!" At last, with the help of two or three of the congregation who had joined in the pursuit, a capture was effected, and Jack was ignominiously turned out, and the door closed upon him.

5. After the lapse of a few minutes, order and solemnity were restored in the church; and the prayers were commenced and ended without further disturbance. The minister, in due time, ascended to the pulpit. He gave out his text, and commenced a discourse calculated, no doubt, to be of much benefit to his hearers; but he had not proceeded far when he was interrupted by a loud noise, accompanied by rapping at the little window at the back of the pulpit..

6. Turning round, to ascertain the cause, he beheld our friend Jack pecking away at the window, flapping his wings against it, and screaming, at the top of his voice, "Here am I here am I!" a fact which no one could gainsay, or resist laughing at. The worthy minister, finding his own gravity and that of his congregation so entirely upset by what had occurred, brought his sermon to a speedy conclusion, and dismissed the congregation. Sentence of death was re

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corded against the offender; but, upon the petition of a number of the parishioners, it was commuted to banishment for life from the precincts of the church. Such is the story of friend Jack.

XXV. — ON THE TREATMENT OF BOOKS.

LŌTH, a., reluctant; unwilling.
KNACK, n., skill or dexterity.
SEIZE, v. t., to take hold of.
KNUCKLES, n., joints of the fingers.
PORTRAIT, n., picture drawn from
life.

MIS'CHIEF, n., harm; injury.
EN-DEAVOR, n., effort; exertion.

PORT-FOLIO, n., a portable case for
papers.

SE-CLU'SION, n., a shutting out.
DE-LIN'QUENT, n., an offender.
PRO-PRI′E-TOR, n., an owner.

AT'MOS-PHERE (-fere), n., the air en

compassing the earth.

|IL-LUS ́TRI-OUS, a., very distinguished.

Give the vocal

Do not say sence for since; vollum for vol'ūme; steeout for stout sound (as in breathe) to th in beneath. Sound the t in the last syllable of instincts.

incorporeal

1. WHAT a world is the book world! What an illustrious companionship does it offer for the gratification of our social and spiritual instincts and likings! The great, the brave, the good; the oppressed and their deliverers; the sages, the instructors, the benefactors of mankind, in all ages, live again in books.

2. In books they reveal to us, in the seclusion of our chambers and firesides, what were the thoughts and motives of their secret lives; why they lived laborious days, and spurned the tempting delights of sense; what was the spiritual atmosphere in which they breathed; what the secret source of endeavor, never slackening till the goal was won.

3. Books, like men, have a two-fold nature. Paper, print, and binding, are their bodily substances, and the thoughts that breathe along their pages may be called their spirit. And since we would be lōth to abuse our living friend and benefactor, or his dead remains, we ought not to abuse a good book. That, in Focist

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the present day, books are cheap, is no reason why they should be cheaply estimated.

4. Some persons of our acquaintance are, we are sorry to say, grossly wanting in a reverence for books. Thus, one excellent gentleman never takes up a volume without grasping it firmly between finger and thumb of both hands, and twisting it suddenly, as it were, inside out, by bringing his knuckles together behind. He may thus break the back of the book, especially if it be in boards, or only bound in cloth.

5. Another of our friends has a knack of pulling at each leaf, as he reads it, and thumbing and pinching it, like a man in the paper market trying the stoutness of a sample. We happened, once, to take this gentleman with us into a shop where prints were sold. While we were turning over a portfolio, in search of a portrait, he opened another, of new prints, and began looking at them for pastime. The proprietor flew forward, and seized his arm, saying, "I will show you those prints, sir, with pleasure; but can not allow you to handle them."

6. Why not? Other gentlemen are handling prints." "Pardon me,-you do not know what you are about," said the shop-keeper, as he tied up the portfolio. "Were I to suffer you to proceed, you would do two hundred dollars' worth of mischief in a quarter of an hour. You should handle no prints but your own."

7. The rebuke was perfectly just; and, like the delinquent in question, there are numbers of inconsiderate people, whose touch, albeit with fingers of the very cleanest, is ruin to a fine print or drawing, which, when once crumpled, or "kinked," as the dealers say, can never again be pressed flat, or offered for sale as new. Books in folio or in quarto, especially when illus'trated, require as delicate handling as prints; and

those who maltreat them will find their error, should it ever become convenient to turn them into cash.

8. Some persons never lose the habit they acquired at the primary school, where they learned, to spell "a, b, ab," and "b, a, ba"; and, to the end of their lives, hold their books by sheer force of thumb pressed between the margins at the foot of the page. If this class of persons read much,- which they never do, their books would perish by the tortures of the thumb

screw.

9. Books should be handled tenderly. It should be remembered that their nerves and sinews are but sewing-thread and thin glue, and that they are not brickbats. They should never be forced open too wide; should not be swung by a single cover; not thumbed, like a child's primer; not folded down at the corners, to mark where the reader left off; not ground beneath the elbow; not consigned to the mercy of pitch-and-toss accidents.

10. When read, they should lie comfortably in the hollow of the hand, or rest on the table or readingstand; and there is not really the slightest necessity for dropping a spoonful or two of bread-crumbs between the leaves. If they are good books (and if they are bad, the sooner the owner gets rid of them the better), they have a solid right to good treatment, and should have it.

11. It was a habit of Sir Peter Lely, the celebrated painter, never, if he could help it, to look at a bad picture; he having found, by experience, that whenever he did so he would unconsciously get something bad from it, which his pencil would reproduce. Apply Sir Peter's rule to bad books and bad company. "The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom." There is no worse robber than a bad book.

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Pronounce glisten, glis'sn. 'T will is a contraction of it will. Do not say comin for com'ing. Mind the ng sound.

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There's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming:

The pen shall supersede the sword,
And Right, not Might, shall be the lord,

In the good time coming.

Worth, not Birth, shall rule mankind,
And be acknowledged stronger;

The proper impulse has been given; -
Wait a little longer.

There's a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming:

War in all men's eyes shall be

A monster of iniquity,

In the good time coming.
Nations shall not quarrel then,

To prove which is the stronger;
Nor slaughter men for glory's sake;-
Wait a little longer.

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