matter?"-Perhaps not much to you, my young friend; although, whether you be rich or poor, I can tell you, that one who does not care about a sixpence now, is very likely in the end not to have one to care about. But the family of the boy, as I told you before, were very poor. They had only what this poor boy and his brother, not much older than himself, could earn from day to day, to support the mother and four children. They were quiet, and decent, and their good mother's neatness and industry kept them so comfortable in outward appearance, that hardly any one, to look at them, would think how very poor they were. I say "hardly any one" would find it out-because, by looking at their faces, people who are in the habit of taking an interest in the happiness of their fellow-creatures, might observe a quiet look of sorrow, and a thin, sunken cheek, that could not be misunderstood.

These boys were accustomed to leave home early in the morning, and work at whatever jobs they could find to do. Some days they would come home with a few shillings, some days with only a few pence, and sometimes they would have to return without having earned any thing. Yet at all times their rent-money would be hoarded up, even if the family went supperless to bed; for if that was not paid they would be turned away, and have no place of shelter where they might enjoy their only comfort, the company of each other.

You may imagine, little reader, that even a sixpence, to people in their condition, must always be of value. But on the morning of which I was speaking, it was their all. The boy had bought some soap and starch, which his mother was to use in washing some clothes for a family in the neighbourhood, and this sixpence was all that she had left to buy herself and the two smaller children some of the cheapest kind of food, to eat through the day, while the larger boys. were out at work. When he missed the money, his first act was to turn his pocket inside out, that he might be certain it had not got into some corner. But no no sixpence was there! Then he sorrowfully turned round, and went slowly back, the way that he had come, looking carefully about, until he came to the store where he had bought his things.

There, too, he searched, and, as it was not there, the keeper kindly came out, and helped him again to look upon the road, and they even swept and raked the dirt, but all in vain. "It will never do, the sixpence is gone," said the storekeeper, as he turned away,--and so, indeed, it seemed. But just then a little girl came by, who knew the condition of the boy's family. She heard what the man said, and as she thought how valuable even a sixpence might be to the poor boy and his mother, she felt very sorry for his loss. But she knew that being sorry alone would do no good, and as she saw that the boy would not give over looking, a scheme came into her mind. So she hurried to her home, which was close at hand, and got another sixpence. Then crossing the street as she had done before, she walked past the boy (who was still stooping and poring on the ground) and slily dropped the money just behind him, so that when he turned he could not help seeing it. Before she had gone very far he did turn round, and then if you had seen how his eyes beamed with joy and surprise, as he snatched it up, and ran home to tell his mother of his good fortune, you would have said the sight was worth more than a dozen sixpences! But did not the little girl feel even happier than he did? Yes, without doubt: for it is written in the Bible, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Now, my reader, are you poor? You may see from this history that there are others as poor, and even poorer. If (but I hope this is not the case)—if you love to be idle or to play, more than to try to work and help your parents, think of those boys, who kept a home for their mother and their little brother and sister, and be ashamed, and mend. At any rate, learn what a comfort kindness and affection in a family may be, even in the worst of worldly circumstances. Has GoD blessed you with plenty, and given you many a sixpence to spend at your own pleasure? Think how many poor persons there are, to whom the money that you perhaps waste in buying dainties or foolish toys, would be a great blessing, and relieve them from the want in which they suffer.

Observe, too, my young friends, how considerately the little girl acted. She did not wound the feelings of the poor

boy (who, she knew, had never begged,) by openly offering her money, but gave it to him in such a manner that she thought only God and her own heart would know what she had done. Go, little reader, and as far as you have opportunity or means, be like that little girl, in willingness to do good, and prudence in doing it. There is no child so little or so poor, as not to be able to do some act of kindness or of love for others. Remember, then, what the Bible says:"Be ye followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.”—Eph. iv. 1, 2.

W.

POETRY.

THE PHILOSOPHER'S SCALES.

BY JANE TAYLOR.

A MONK, when his rites sacerdotal were o'er,
In the depth of his cell with its stone-covered floor,
Resigning to thought his chimerical brain,

He formed the contrivance we now shall explain :
In youth 'twas projected, but years stole away,
And ere 'twas complete he was wrinkled and gray;
But success is secure unless energy fails,

And at length, he produced the "Philosopher's Scales."
What were they? you ask. You shall presently see,
These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea.
O, no, for such properties wondrous had they,
That qualities, feelings, and thoughts, they could weigh;
Together with articles, small or immense,

From mountains or planets, to atoms of sense,
Naught was there so bulkly but there it could lay,
And naught so ethereal, but there it would stay,
And naught so reluctant but in it must go-
All which, some examples more clearly will show.
The first thing he weighed, was the head of Voltaire,
Which retained all the wit that had ever been there;
As a weight, he threw in the torn scraps of a leaf,
Containing the prayer of the penitent thief,

When the skull rose aloft, with so sudden a spell,
That it bounced like a ball to the roof of his cell.
One time he put in Alexander the Great,

And a garment that Dorcas had made, for a weight;
And though clad in armour from sandals to crown,
The hero rose up, and the garment went down.
A long row of alms-houses amply endowed
By a well esteemed pharisee busy and proud,
Next loaded one scale, while the other was pressed

By those mites the poor widow threw into the chest.

Up flew the endowment, not weighing an ounce,

And down, down, the farthing's worth came with a bounce.
Again he performed an experiment rare,

A monk with austerities bleeding and bare
Climbed into the scale; in the other was laid

The heart of Howard now partly decayed,

When he found with surprise, that the whole of his brother, Weighed less by some pounds than the bit of the other. By other experiments, (no matter how,)

He found that ten chariots weighed less than a plough.
A sword with gilt trappings rose up in the scale,,
Though balanced by only a tenpenny nail.

A shield and a helmet, a buckler and spear,
Weighed less than a widow's uncrystallized tear.
A lord and a lady went up in full sail,

When a bee chanced to light in the opposite scale.
Ten doctors, ten lawyers, ten courtiers, one earl,
Ten counsellors' wigs, full of powder and curl:
All heaped in one balance, and swinging from thence,
Weighed less than a few grains of candour and sense.
A first water diamond with brilliants begirt,
Than one good potato, just washed from the dirt.
Yet no mountains of silver and gold would suffice

One pearl to outweigh, 'twas the "pearl of great price."
Last of all the world was rolled at the gate,

With the soul of a beggar to serve for a weight;

When the scale with the soul so mightily fell,

That it jerked the philosopher out of his cell.

ISLAND OF SAINT HELENA.

THIS is a small island, in the South Atlantic Ocean, and is situate between South America and Africa. It lies distant about 2000 miles from America, 1200 miles from Africa, and is about 1800 miles from the Cape of Good Hope. The Island of Ascension, which is 600 miles distant, is the land nearest to Saint Helena. This latter island is only about ten miles and a half in length, and about six miles and three-quarters, in width.

Saint Helena was discovered in the early part of the sixteenth century; in the year 1501 or 1502. It was discovered, by a Portuguese navigator, on Saint Helen's-day; which, by the Roman Calendar, is the 21st of May. The island was first inhabited by a few Portuguese rebels, who had deserted from the Portuguese army, and joined the native princes in India, and were taken prisoners by Albuquerque, the commander of the Portuguesc. He cruelly ordered that their noses, ears, and right hands, should be cut