multitude of stars on a fine, cloudless winter's night led him to speak of Abraham, and God's promise to him about his seed, and likewise about true Christians shining like stars in the firmament of glory.

As the old gentleman was once walking in the neighbourhood of the city, he pointed out to his young pupils many interesting and instructive objects, and reminded them of what he had said about the reflections which may be suggested to a pious mind by the humblest objects. "It is God's world, my children," said he, "and the same divine wisdom made the Bible that made the world. It is no wonder, therefore, that there should be so much in one to put you in mind of the other."

Just then several of the boys had their attention drawn to a patient, weary-looking donkey, standing near the door of a gardener's shed. Though the day was exceedingly cold, the quiet creature stood as if she would have kept the same position all day long. Now and then she would put her head to the ground and crop the root-leaves of beets and parsnips which two children were taking from a pannier that stood against the wall. These little ones, whose arms and noses were almost as red as the beets, seemed to bear the cold without

shivering; and the boys were amused to see how attentive they were to their inoffensive neighbour. They smoothed down her face, untangled her shaggy mane, stroked and patted her sides, and coaxed her as if she had been a human friend. "Poor Dapple, good old Dapple," they would say, "you shall have plenty to eat, for you have been to town more than ten times to-day, and you must be tired. And when Jack comes in you shall have a pail full of water."

"It is pleasant," said Mr. Early, "to see the kindness of these children to a poor dumb creature, let us see how many pence you can raise among you, to bestow upon them. It is a good sign to find humane feelings in children towards domestic animals. Cruelty to brutes commonly ends in cruelty to men. It is not only foolish but cowardly, to seek amusement, as some boys do, in tearing the wings from flies, or throwing them to spiders, or sticking pins through bugs and beetles. Larger boys are still more to blame when they throw at poor forlorn cats, or teaze and vex every strange dog that comes in their way. If I see a drayman beating his horse over the head, I set him down as an unfeeling man, who, upon provocation, would do the like to me."

Here Samuel Steel smiled and said, "I see, Mr.

Early, you can preach a little sermon to us about as humble a creature as this; I only wonder you have not found something to say out of the Bible."

"All in good time," said the old gentleman, who already had his spectacles on, and his pocket-bible in his hand; "it is a very good time to fix this text in your mind: A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Prov. xii. 10. And you remember perhaps that the Israelites were forbidden to muzzle the ox when he was threshing the grain, by treading it out; a most humane provision, though it seems to relate to so small a thing. Deut. XXV. 4."

One of the smaller boys said that he thought there was a good deal in the Bible about this particular animal. "It is mentioned," said he, "in the tenth commandment."

"Very true," replied Mr. Early, "there is no domestic animal which is more widely spread, or of which greater use is made in the Eastern countries. It is always mentioned among the wealth of pastoral nations. It is thus joined with the camel and the ox, in the case of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Job. Gen. xii. 16, xxiv. 35, xxx. 43, xxxii. 5. The ass is a nobler animal in

the East than it is in Europe or America, and for this reason they do not use the name, as we do, to designate a blockhead. Some of these days you will read in Homer's Iliad, how the poet does not hesitate to compare Ajax to an ass. It is thus in the translation of Pope, who takes all the liberty he can, to suit our western notions:

"As the slow beast with heavy strength endued
In some wide field by troops of boys pursued,
Though round his sides a wooden tempest rain,
Crops the tall harvest, and lays waste the plain;
Thick on his hide the hollow blows resound,
The patient animal maintains his ground;
Scarce from the field with all their efforts chased,
And stirs but slowly when he stirs at last."

ILIAD, Xi. 682.

The boys were much amused with this comparison, and could not help thinking the poet meant to have a sly joke upon his hero, but Mr. Early declared that there was less appearance of this in the Greek than in the English. They all thought however that they would not like to ride through town on a donkey.

"Yet nothing," said Mr. Early, "is more common in the East. The ass is the animal most commonly used for riding among the Orientals;