V. O velvet bee, you're a dusty fellow, VI. O columbine, open your folded wrapper, VII. And show me your nest with the young ones in it; I will not steal them away; I am cld! you may trust me, linnet, linnet— ON XLIII-THE BELL ROCK. N the east coast of Scotland, as you sail along, a tall tower rises out from the waves The steamer comes near it, and you see a smooth, strongly-built pillar; on the top is a large lantern composed entirely of glass. It is the Bel! Rock Lighthouse. 2. Were it night, and did a storm, such as fre quently visits these shores, toss your ship on its waves, you would be glad to see from that lantern the light cheerful rays it sends through the darkness, to tell the sailor where to steer his vessel. 3. Why is it called the Bell Rock? I will tell you. Once there was no lighthouse there, and often the stormy east wind drove boats and ships against these rocks and wrecked them. 4. Some kind monks who lived on the shore got a large bell, and chaining it fast to the rock, when the waves rose, the bell swung heavily in the storm, and its melancholy tones warned the seamen of the nearness of danger. 5. A pirate or sea robber one day was so wicked as to steal the bell. He broke the chain and carried it away, and the ships again had no warning of these dangerous rocks. 6. But it so happened that the very pirate who had done this wicked action was sailing these seas on a wintry day. Night came on, and the tempest bore heavily on his ship. She had to yield to its violence, and, driven before it, she struck a rock. 7. It was the very rock from which her captain had stolen the bell. By the side of that rock the vessel sank, and her captain perished. 8. It was just he should-that he who had hushed the voice of kindly warning should perish unwarned. XLIV.-STORY OF A WATER-DROP. ONE day a child went to walk beside a gurgling brook. The merry little stream rushed wildly on, as if the great mossy rock from which it sprang were close behind it, and would catch it if it did not make a break-neck leap into the river below. 2. Then the child began to talk to the little waves, and asked them whence they came. They would not stay to give him an answer, but danced away, one over another, till at last, that the sweet child might not be grieved, a drop of water stopped behind a piece of rock. From her the child heard strange histories, but he could not understand them all, for she told him about her former life and about the depths of the mountain. 3. "A long while ago," said the drop of water, "I lived with my countless sisters in the great ocean, in peace and unity. We had all sorts of pastimes; sometimes we mounted up high in the air and peeped at the stars; then we sank down deep below and saw how the coral builders work and work, that they may reach the light of day at last. 4. "But I was conceited, and thought myself much better than my sisters. And so one day, when the sun rose out of the sea, I clung fast to one of his hot beams, and thought that now I should reach the stars and become one of them. 5. "But I had not ascended far when the sunbeam shook me off, and, in spite of all I could say or do, let me fall into a dark cloud; and soon a flash of fire darted through the cloud, and now I thought I must surely die, but the whole cloud laid itself down softly upon the top of a mountain, and so I escaped. 6. "Now I thought I should remain hidden, when, suddenly I slipped over a round pebble, fell from one stone to another down into the depths of the mountain, till at last it was pitch dark, and I could neither see nor hear anything. 7. "Then I found, indeed, that 'pride goeth before a fall.' I resigned myself to my fate. My portion was now the salt of humility. After undergoing many purifications from the hidden virtues of the metals and minerals, I was at length permitted to come up once more into the free, cheerful air. And now will I run back to my sisters, and there wait patiently till I am called to something better." 8. But hardly had the little water-drop done speaking, when the root of a forget-me-not caught her by the hair and sucked her in. She found herself gliding up through the roots into a stem of the forget-me-not, and soon after, she became a beautiful floweret, and twinkled brightly as a blue star on the green firmament of earth. THE XLV. THE DOVES. PART FIRST. HE children had now reached the yard where the barn was. The dove-cote was up above the barn-loft. "Ah! there are Willie and Diamond standing on their balconies," said Clara as they approached the barn. 2. "Oh, call them !" said Jane; "perhaps they will fly down and alight upon you.' 3. Clara called and held up her arm to in |