father, may deserve the interposition of heaven; and from your hands I will receive the fiery ball, and test my innocence." The priest started, the judges smiled, and the soldier was pardoned.

But you must not suppose that criminals generally escaped so easily; the most fearful punishments, of which you will read the accounts in other books when you grow older, might be described, all arising from ignorance and false enthusiasm.

THE HOMES

OF ENGLAND.

The stately homes of England,
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O'er all the pleasant land!

The deer across the greenwood bound,
Through shade and sunny gleam;

And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.

The merry homes of England!

Around their hearths by night,

What gladsome looks of household love

Meet in the ruddy light!

There woman's voice flows forth in song,

Or childhood's tale is told,

Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old.

The blessed homes of England!
How softly on their bowers

Is laid the holy quietness

That breathes from sabbath-hours!

Solemn, yet sweet, the church bells' chime

Floats through their woods at morn;

All other sounds in that still time

Of breeze and leaf are born.

The cottage homes of England!

By thousands, on her plains,

They are smiling o'er her silvery brooks,
And round the hamlet fanes ;
Through glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its moat of leaves,
And fearless there they lowly sleep,

As the bird beneath their eaves.

The free fair homes of England!
Long, long in hut and hall,
May hearts of native proof be rear'd
To guard each hallow'd wall!
And green for ever be the groves,
And bright the flowery sod,
When first the child's glad spirit loves
Its country and its God!

EXTRAORDINARY MEMORY.

HERE formerly lived at Stirling a blind old beggar, known to all the country round by the name of Blind Alick. He knew the whole of the Bible by heart! If any one repeated a passage from either the Old or New Testament he would tell the chapter and verse; or if told the chapter and verse, he would repeat the passage, word for word. A gentleman, to puzzle him, once read, with a slight verbal alteration, a verse of the Bible. Alick hesitated a moment, and then told where it was to be found, but said it had not been correctly quoted; he then gave it as it stood in the book, correcting the slight error that had been purposely introduced. The gentleman then asked him for the ninetieth verse of the seventh chapter of Numbers. Alick was again puzzled for a moment, but then said hastily, "You are fooling me, sir! there is no such verse-that chapter has only eighty-nine verses."

THE NATURALIST.

THE TURTLE.

IF

you have ever been in the West-India Docks, you may have noticed some huge yellow monsters,-looking like giant tortoises, sprawling on their backs upon the quay; they are what are called turtles; and if you have never seen the living animal, a glance at the picture will give you a better idea of its appearance than any words of mine could convey.

The Sea Tortoise, or Turtle, as it is generally called, belongs to the crustaceous, or shell-bearing, species of fishes: it is sometimes found of immense size. There are four varieties of the turtle;-the Trunk Turtle, the Loggerhead, the Hawksbill, and the Green Turtle, all of which are to be found in the South Seas and the Indian ocean.

The TRUNK TURTLE is the largest, and has a high round back; its flesh is rank and unwholesome. The LOGGERHEAD is so called from the extreme