stopping. The basket containing the coals was drawn over the wheels at the top of the shaft, and thrown into the engine-house. If he had not shut off the steam and fled for his life he would have been killed. It took hours of labour and a good deal of money to undo the mischief he had done.

Which of these men was worth most to his master? The old, steady, intelligent man to be sure. And you will find that intelligence will always get the best situations and the highest wages in the long run.

Not only work hard, but work intelligently. Not only work, but think while you work.

The third lesson the spider teaches is:

III. Patience. The spider builds a new web, spreads her sticky threads, and finishes all her plans for catching flies. She waits hour after hour, day after day, and week after week sometimes, before a single fly comes near. All this time she has nothing to eat, and yet she does not seem to grow restless or discontented. She waits with patience. Sometimes a bad neighbour will come to take part of the food she has laid up. Then there is a fight, and in the conflict the spider has the misfortune to lose a leg. This causes her great pain, and she crawls away into some quiet corner for ten days or a fortnight, till a new leg grows in the place of the old one. All this she bears without seeming to lose her temper. She waits patiently for better days.

Here is a lesson we should never forget. I don't know anything that tries children's patience more than going without food. You go home at noon and dinner is not ready. You are hungry and don't like to wait. Remember the spider, and have patience.

A little boy had a sum to do the other day that required a little thought. I knew he could do it very well if he would have patience and think about it. But he was in a great hurry and ambitious to have it done first. He made his fingers move over the slate at a great speed, and to judge by the rattle of his pencil he would soon have it finished. When he showed it to me it was wrong.

A look of disappointment came over his face, and then a flush of anger and impatience. I said nothing to him, but resolved in my own mind to make him do the sum correctly, or deprive him of his play. Other children in the class did the sum before him, and that increased his vexation and impatience. At length they had all finished in the class except this impatient one, and he was fit to cry for very rage and vexation. I went to him and said, "Now if you had taken your time at first, and been patient about it, you would have done it correctly long ago." I rubbed the working out, made him start again, and take his time about it. He did it correctly when he set about it patiently.

Patience lightens many a heavy load, makes many a difficult thing easy, and soothes many a ruffled temper. It is worth more than gold or silver. Learn this lesson of patience.

The last lesson I want you to learn is:

IV. Perseverance. You have read the story of Bruce and the spider in your reading-books.

Here is a lesson of perseverance that will be worth more to you than a purse full of gold.

Think of all the great men who have left honourable names in the world, and you will find that most of them won their honours by perseverance.

Wellington in our own country, and Washington in America, owe their successes to this.

They lost many a battle, they were often defeated, but they never gave up, and they won at last by perseverance.

Columbus, who discovered the New World, and Livingstone, who explored the interior of Africa, owe their honours and successes to perseverance. They were often opposed; they were greatly hindered; they were sometimes bitterly disappointed, but they never lost hope and heart. They were true in their aims and steady in their labours, and by perseverance they won for themselves names that will never be forgotten.

You cannot name a difficulty that perseverance will not either remove or lessen. I knew a boy who could not read in his class without stammering. He twisted his mouth into various forms, and seemed in great pain when he' tried to speak. But he resolved to cure himself of that distressing habit. Day after day he tried to utter the same word without stammering. He succeeded at last in speaking one or two words slowly and correctly, but it