MUEL GRISWOLD GOODRICH, whose pen-name was Peter Parley, was n Connecticut in 1793, and died in New York in 1860. In 1824, after ng in Europe, he established himself as a book-publisher in Boston. t it was as the author of books that Mr. Goodrich was destined to -e fame. In his "Recollections of a Lifetime," he gives a catalogue books. Concerning it he says: "I thus stand before the public as the rand editor of about 170 volumes, 116 bearing the name of Peter 7. Of all these about 7,000,000 of volumes have been sold." This mous number comprises works of many kinds, school-books, histories, and others.

ost of Peter Parley's books are intended for the young, or for persons ighly educated, and they undoubtedly did great good in conveying usestruction in an agreeable manner. All the boys and girls of the last -ation knew Peter Parley.

. WIT is not always wisdom. Keen as Mat Olmd, the town wit, was as to things immediately before ■. he was of narrow understanding. He seemed not possess the faculty of reasoning beyond his senses. never would admit that the sun was fixed, and that world turned round. In an argument upon this nt before an audience of his class, he would have ored Sir John Herschel, or Lord Rosse, by his homely pointed ridicule.

2. I remember that, when the great solar eclipse of 06 was approaching, he with two other men were at rk in one of our fields, not far from the house. The ipse was to begin at ten or eleven o'clock, and my her sent an invitation to the workmen to come up d observe it through pieces of smoked glass. 3. They came, though Mat ridiculed the idea of an

waiting and watching for the great explained that the light of the sun to be interrupted by the intrusion of this was to produce a transient nig around us.

4. Mat laughed, with that low, sc which a woodchuck, safe in his rocky bark of a besieging dog. "So you d said my father. "No," said Mat, sha bringing his lips obliquely together, a pair of shears. "I don't believe a say, Parson Goodrich, that the sun is move?"

5. "Yes," I say so. "Well, did n Sunday out of the tenth chapter of "And did n't you tell us that Joshu sun and moon to stand still?" "Y was the use of telling the sun to star moved?"

6. This was a dead shot, especially in the presence of an audience inclined ship of ignorance, to receive the argu successful, Mat went on.

"Now, Parson Goodrich, let's try turn a thing that has water in it bott will run out, won't it?" "No doubt turns round, then, your well will be t and the water 'll run out!"

7. At this point my father applied through a piece of smoked glass. Th gun; a small piece was evidently cut

father stated the fact, and the company around ed through their pieces of glass, and saw that it so. Mat Olmstead, however, sturdily refused to t, and bore on his face an air of supreme contempt, uch as to say, "You don't humbug me."

But ignorance and denial of the works of God do interrupt their march. By slow and invisible dea shade crept over the landscape. There was no in the sky, but a chill stole through the atmose, and a strange dinness fell over the world. It midday, yet it seemed like the approach of night. e was something fearful in this, as if the sun was t to be blotted out in the midst of his glory, the of the world to be extinguished at the moment of

oon.

All nature seemed chilled and awed by the strange omenon. The birds, with startled looks and ominotes, left their busy cares and gathered in the x branches of the trees, where they seemed to hold sel one with another. The hens, with slow and Eating steps, set their faces toward their roosts. 0. One old hen, with a brood of chickens, walked g with a tall, halting tread, and sought shelter upon barn floor, where she gathered her young ones under wings, continuing to make a low sound, as if saying, ash, my babes, lie still and slumber." At the same

e, like many a mother before her, while seeking to -g peace to her offspring, her own heart was agitated n profound anxiety.

1. I well remember this phenomenon, the first of kind I had ever witnessed. Its sublimity absorbed whole faculties; it seemed to me the veritable, ble work of the Almighty. The ordinary course

impressive display of the mighty skies.

12. Yet, though thus occupied b flict of the heavenly bodies, I rec some attention to the effect of the Mat Olmstead said not a word; were overwhelmed with emotions o

13. At length the eclipse began nature slowly returned to its equa came forth, and sang a jubilee, as if impending calamity. The hum of air; the old hen with her brood gayl bles, and made the leaves and g invigorated scratchings. The work thoughtfully to their labors.

14. "After all," said one of the 1 along to the field, "I guess the pars the sun and the moon." "Well, pe

Mat; "but then Joshua was wrong

XXII.

LANDING OF THE PILGRIM

FATHERS.

MRS. HEMANS.

. FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS, an English poetess, died in 1835, at of forty-one, leaving to the world a considerable mass of poetry, a which still continues to be read with much pleasure. The excellent s character of the woman shows itself in her writings, and causes › be especially attractive to persons of a serious and thoughtful turn

1.

THE breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast; And the woods, against a stormy sky, Their giant branches tossed;

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er, —

When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted, came; -
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame;-
Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear; -

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,

And the stars heard, and the sea,

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthem of the free: