His breast grew light, as he breathed the fragrant flowers and the pure air; and as he went through the evening landscape, glowing in rosy light, and from afar beheld the modest thatched-roof of his father's cottage, he shouted aloud with joy; and driving his flock to quicker pace by the sound of his flute, he cried: 'Welcome, my father's roof! welcome, valley of my home! How gladly I have left the costly palace to return to thee! Here I find no gold or silver, or precious stones; but free from bars, no longer threatened by the swords of cruel watchmen, I shall enjoy calm peace—I shall be poor but I shall be happy.'

THE SAILOR'S MOTHER.

1.

One morning (raw it was and wet—

A foggy day in winter-time),

A woman on the road I met,

Not old, though something past her prime :
Majestic in her person, tall and straight;
And like a Roman matron's was her mien and gait.

2.

The ancient spirit is not dead;

Old times, thought I, are breathing there;
Proud was I that my country bred

Such strength, a dignity so fair:

She begged an alms like one in poor estate; I looked at her again, nor did my pride abate.

3.

When from those lofty thoughts I woke,
'What is it,' said I, 'that you bear

Beneath the covert of

your cloak,

Protected from this cold damp air?'

She answered, soon as she the question heard, 'A simple burthen, sir, a little singing-bird.'

4.

And, thus continuing, she said:
'I had a son, who many a day
Sailed on the seas, but he is dead;

In Denmark he was cast away:

And I have travelled weary miles to see

If aught that he had owned might still remain for me.

5.

'The bird and cage, they both were his :

'Twas my son's bird; and neat and trim He kept it: many voyages

The singing-bird had gone with him; When last he sailed, he left the bird behind; From bodings, as might be, that hung upon his mind.'

JUVENILE MECHANICS.

An active clever lad in the country never need feel dull-never experience that miserable sensation of wanting something to do. The objects of attraction, of employment, and amusement, that I have already mentioned, would be enough to prevent that; but if a lad has a turn for mechanical inventions and labours, there is another vast and inexhaustible source of pleasure open

to him. I remember, though I never was a very mechanical fellow, the pleasure I used to enjoy building my saw-mills, in making shoe-heel bricks, in watching the operations of the various village tradesmen, and in erecting our rabbit-cotes and dove-cotes. I remember, too, the delight with which I used to erect water-mills. Wherever I found a little descent-a good spout of water in the brook or the ditches-there I set down two forked sticks, got an old tin bottom, and cutting nicks all round the circumference, turned one piece one way, and the next another; thus alternating them all round, so as to form a broad surface for the water to play upon. In the centre of this mill-wheel, I then punched a hole, and putting another stick through for an axle, laid it across the two forked sticks; and the stream spouting upon it, kept it spinning and fizzing and spurting the water round gloriously. These mills I used to visit occasionally, to see that all was right; and there they were spinning away for weeks and months together.

But a really clever lad, with a mechanical turn, not only gathers present pleasure, but lays up a good deal of really valuable knowledge. The simple and patriarchal state of society in old-fashioned villages and small towns, allows him to go and see all that is going on. He watches the different artisans at their labours, and makes friends amongst them; so that he can go and hammer and saw and file to his heart's content. It is true, that more and higher kinds of mechanical operations may be seen in large towns and cities, but then a boy has rarely the same easy access to them, nor can he be suffered to go amongst the workmen with the same confidence that he will be welcome, and that he will not be in the way of evil communication. 1

Charles Botham, a young relative of mine, who lived in a small town in Staffordshire, was the most perfect example of what enjoyment and advantage a boy may derive from mechanical amusements that I ever knew. He was a fine active lad, of a frank and intelligent disposition, that made him an universal favourite. He was quite at home in the yards and shops of ropemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, watchmakers, turners, and I know not how many trades besides. When he was a little lad of not more than four years old, he used to sit on the hearth-rug of an evening, or of a winter's day, cutting little logs of wood with his knife into wind-mills, boats, and ships. The boats and ships that he made from that time till he was grown quite a youth-some of which still remain—were acknowledged by every one to be admirable. Some were made before he had ever seen a real ship, from pictures of them; and, though not so correct as they otherwise would have been, were very surprising. When he had actually seen ships, and become familiar with all the parts of them, he constructed some which were more correct, even to the smallest piece of rope, so that the most experienced seaman could not detect a single error. One of these ships we have now in our possession a very beautiful thing.

But ships were only one kind of his mechanical productions. Whatever he wanted for his own amusements, he made with the utmost ease. His fishing-rods were of his own making, even to the iron-ferrules; his lines were of his own making too. Having got some silk from his mother, he ran off to the rope-yard, and soon came back with beautiful lines of his own twisting. He made his own little wheel-barrows, garden-rake, and other tools. At the joiner's, he made all kinds of little boxes for his

mother and sisters; at the shoemaker's, he learned to make shoes; at the watchmaker's, he learned to make an actual clock of wood; and then, from a drawing in an encyclopædia, proceeded to construct, with the utmost accuracy, a perambulator-an instrument to measure distances.

When a very little fellow, if he got a sarcenet-roller from a draper, he would cut it into short lengths, and carve it with his knife into little wind-mills of the most perfect construction. They were not such mills as rise in a regular cone from the base, but of that kind which are built of wood, and stand upon a stout pillar and frame, on which they are turned to the wind as it may vary. They had their sails, doors, window-holes and steps, all constructed with the nicest accuracy. He used to make for the kitchen spill-boards, rolling-pins, towel-rollers, toasting-forks; and could work in wire, of which he made two beautiful bird-cages. When he was ten or twelve years of age, I first became acquainted with him; and then he had his own little shop over the stable, with his turning-lathe and tools of all sorts; and he never was so happy as when he found out that he could make anything for you. A screw nutcrack, a wafer-seal, tobaccostopper, a snuff-box, a set of nine-pins, anything, he was ready to make for his different acquaintances. Going on a visit to a relative of his, who was a large farmer, he set to work and mended up rakes, forks, flails, gates, posts, rails, the paling of the garden-everything, in fact, that wanted doing. If a lock was out of order, he soon had it off, and put to rights; in short, there was no mechanical job that he was not master of, and could not quickly accomplish, to the astonishment of the family. Had he been thrown, like Robinson Crusoe, on an uninhabited