a most curious spinning-machine. It consists of four little knots, which we will call spinners, enclosed by a ring, and pierced with a multitude of holes, so numerous and extremely fine, that there are above a thousand in each of these four divisions, a space itself not bigger than the point of a pin. From every one of the holes a thread proceeds, so that the very finest part of a web, which we can scarcely see, is not a single line, but a cord, composed of at least four thousand strands, as a rope-maker would call them.

When a spider has completed her snares, she hides herself, and the moment an unfortunate fly or other insect touches the net, feeling the lines move, she rushes out, and seizes it with her fangs. If it be small, she carries it off at once to her hiding-place. Sometimes a wasp, or large bee, is caught. In general she wraps the larger insects round with threads in a most skilful manner, until their legs and wings being fastened, they can no longer struggle.

Adapted from "Insects and their Habitations."

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield!

pro-vid-eth

Hark to nature's lesson given
By the blessed birds of heaven;
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy :
"Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow.

'Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle than the rose ?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we poor citizens of air?
Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily.

Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow.
"One there lives whose guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny:
One there lives, who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers, lest they fall.
Pass we blithely then the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,
Free from doubt and faithless sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow."

Bishop Heber.

87.-WILL-OF-THE-WISP.

im-poss-i-ble furze

scram-bling

im-poss-i-ble

Mr B.-Harry, do you tell the story of your being lost on the moors.

Harry. You must know that I have an uncle who lives about three miles off, across the great moors. Now my father very often sends me messages to him. One evening I got there so late that it was scarcely possible to get home again before it was quite dark. It was at that time in the month of October. My uncle wished me very much to stay all night, but my father had ordered me to go back. So I set out as soon as I could; but just as I reached the heath the evening grew very dark. By the time that I had reached the middle of the heath, there came on such a violent tempest of wind and rain, blowing full in my face, that I found it impossible to go on. So I left the track, which is never very easy to find, and ran aside to a holly-bush that was growing at some distance, in order to seek a little shelter, Here I lay till the storm was almost over; then I rose and tried to continue my way, but unfortunately I missed the track and lost myself. I wandered about a great while, but still to no purpose. I had not a single mark to direct me, because the common is so large, and so bare of either trees or houses, that one may walk for miles and see nothing but heath and furze. Sometimes I tore my legs in scrambling through great thickets of furze; now and then I fell into a hole full of water, and should have been drowned, if I had not learned to swim; so that at last I was going to give it up in despair, when, looking on one side, I saw a light at a little distance, which seemed to be a candle that somebody was carrying across the moor.

At first I was doubtful whether I should go up to it;

but I considered that it was not worth anybody's pains to hurt a poor boy like me, and that no person who was out on any ill design would probably choose to carry a light. So I determined to go boldly up to it and inquire the way. I therefore began walking up towards it; when immediately the light, which I had first observed on my right hand, moving slowly along by my side, changed its direction, and went directly before me, with about the same degree of swiftness. I thought this very odd, but I still continued the chase; and just as I thought I had approached very near, I tumbled into another pit full of water. I scrambled out, and very luckily on the same side as the light; which I began to follow again, but with as little success as ever. I had now wandered many miles about the common; I knew no more where I was than if I had been set down upon an unknown country. I had no hopes of finding my way home unless I could reach this wandering light; and though I could not conceive that the person who carried it could know of my being so near, he seemed to act as if he were determined to avoid me. However, I was resolved to make one attempt, and therefore I began to run as fast as I was able, halloing out at the same time to the person I thought before me, to entreat him to stop. Instead of doing so, the light, which had before been moving along at a slow and easy pace, now began to dance as it were before me, ten times faster than before; so that, instead of overtaking it, I found myself farther and farther behind. Still, however, I ran on, till I quite unexpectedly sunk up to the middle in a large bog, out of which I at last scrambled with very great difficulty.

Surprised at this, and not believing it possible that any human being could pass over such a bog as this, I made up my mind to pursue the light no longer. But now I was wet and weary; the clouds had indeed rolled away, and the moon and stars began to shine. I looked around me, and could see nothing but a wide, barren country, without so much as a tree to shelter me, or any animal in sight. I listened, in hopes of hearing a sheep-bell, or the barking of a dog ; but nothing met my ear except the shrill whistling of the wind, which blew so cold and bleak along that open country, that it chilled me to the very heart. In this situation I stopped a while to consider what I should do; and raising my eyes by accident to the sky, the first object I beheld was Charles's Wain, and above it I saw the Pole Star, shining, as it were, from the very top of heaven. Instantly a thought came into my mind. I considered, that when I had been walking along the road which led towards my uncle's house, I had often observed the Pole Star full before me; therefore I thought that if I turned my back exactly upon it, and went straight forward in a contrary direction, it must lead me towards my

father's house.

As soon as I thought of this, I began to do so. I was persuaded I should now escape; and therefore, forgetting how tired I was, I ran along as briskly as if I had but then set out. Nor was I disappointed; for though I could see no tracks, yet, taking the greatest care always to go on in that direction, the moon gave me light enough to avoid the pits and bogs which are found in various parts of that wild moor; and when I had walked, as I fancied, about three miles, I heard