They lay the eggs in heaps, pla-cing them in differ-ent rooms, and con-stant-ly take care of them till they are hatched. Fre-quent-ly in the course of the day they re-move them from one part of the nest to a-noth-er, as they may need more or less heat, or more or less mois-ture.

After the eggs are hatched, which hap-pens in a few days, the work-ers are very care-ful of the lit-tle worms or grubs, as they are called. They get them food constant-ly; and ev-e-ry day, an hour be-fore sun-set, they reg-u-lar-ly re-move them to lit-tle cells low-er down in the earth, where they will be safe from the cold, and in the morn-ing car-ry them back a-gain. If it is go-ing to be cold or wet, how-ev-er, they let them re-main in the low-er cells.

What is very re-mark-a-ble, the work-ers do all this, ear-li-er or la-ter, in the morn-ing and eve-ning, ac-cording as the sun ri-ses or sets ear-li-er or la-ter. For as soon as the sun shines on the out-side of their nest, the ants that are at the top go be-low in great haste to rouse their com-pan-i-ons, and these quick-ly car-ry the grubs to the up-per part of the nest, where they leave them a quar-ter of an hour, and then car-ry them in-to rooms, where the sun can-not shine di-rect-ly up-on them. Some-times the old-er grubs in one nest a-mount to seven or eight thou-sand, and the young-er ones to as man-y. The old-er ones eat the most, and the work-ers have to work very hard to sup-ply them with food, which they do sev-er-al times a day. They take great pains, too, to keep the grubs clean, and for this pur-pose the work-ers are con-tin-u-al-ly pas-sing their tongues o-ver them.

Aft-er the young grubs have ful-ly grown, they wrap

them-selves up in a silk-en case, which they spin out of their own bod-ies, and now they be-gin to change their ap-pear-ance and shape, and each one is called a pu-pa.

These pu-pæ, in-side of the silk-en ca-ses which are called co-coons, al-though they do not eat, re-quire as much care as the grubs did. Ev-er-y morn-ing and eve-ning, they are car-ried up and down in the nest as the eggs were; and if at an-y time the nest is crushed by the foot of some an-i-mal which is pass-ing o-ver it, the ants are all bus-y in pick-ing out the co-coons from the earth, and in put-ting the nest in or-der a-gain.

Do the work-ers know when the pu-pæ are ful-ly grown, and that it is time for them to come out of the co-coons? Do they know, too, that the pu-pæ are too weak to do this a-lone? for just at the right time, three or four be-gin to pull off some of the silk-en threads from one end of the co-coon, to make it thin-ner. They make sev-er-al small o-pen-ings, and cut the threads one by one which sep-ar-ate these o-pen-ings, till a hole is made large e-nough to let the pris-on-ers out.

They do all this very gen-tly; and then, with e-qual care, pull off the old skins which are on the pu-pæ, and watch them for sev-er-al days, and teach them how to find their way through all the rooms and wind-ings of the nest.-Gallaudet.

LESSON LXXX.-THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN.

God wished man to be a-ble to meas-ure time, in or-der to learn its val-ue and reg-u-late its em-ploy-ment; and what did He do for that end? He put in the sky a per-fect, mag-ni-fi-cent clock, which shows the days, the weeks, the months, the sea-sons, and the years; a clock

which no one winds up, and which yet goes al-ways, and nev-er gets out of or-der. Ob-serve in-deed these words, "And God said, let there be lights in the fir-ma-ment of heav-en, to di-vide the day from the night;" but was it on-ly to di-vide the day from the night, which is certain-ly ne-ces-sa-ry to reg-u-late the re-pose and work of man? No; for it is added, "And let them be for signs, and for sea-sons, and for days, and for years." You hear-there is the clock of the world. The face of that clock is the vault of heav-en, which re-volves o-ver our heads; a vault star-ry at night, and shi-ning with light du-ring the day, whose edges, like those of a watch, rest on the ho-ri-zon. But where on this glo-ri-ous face are the hands? God, to point out the hour on it, has placed two hands there, the great and the small. They are two glo-ri-ous hands, which al-ways go on, and which nev-er go too slow or too fast. The large hand is the "great-er light which rules the day," and which ap-pears to rise each morn-ing in the east, and to re-tire to rest ev-er-y night in the west; and the lit-tle hand is the "less-er light which rules the night," and which moves in the same di-rec-tion as the sun, but twelve times as quick-ly, pro-ceed-ing thus in a month all round the face of the clock,

How beau-ti-ful is all this. The moon, by its four quar-ters, which con-tin-ue each a lit-tle more than sev-en days, gives us the weeks and the months. The sun, by his course in the heav-ens, gives us the four sea-sons, and the years; at the same time that by the ro-ta-tion of the heav-ens a-bove our heads, he gives us days and hours. He gives them so well, too, that the best watchma-kers reg-u-late their watch-es by his noon,—and that from the old-est times men have meas-ured on sun

di-als, the reg-u-lar course of his shad-ow. You have all seen some in gar-dens, or coun-try church-es; and you rec-ol-lect that in Je-ru-sa-lem, as ear-ly as the reign of A-haz, or seven hundred and thirty years be-fore Christ, there was one in the pal-ace of the kings.*

But now, what I want you tho-rough-ly to com-prehend, is the u-til-i-ty, or ra-ther the ne-ces-si-ty of this help for man. Ah! it is no small thing for him to have con-tin-u-al-ly be-fore him that clock of the heav-ens, to learn how to meas-ure his time, to be reg-u-lar-ly re-mind-ed of his task, of the rap-id course of years, and of the short-ness of life. With-out this help man would have been de-gra-ded on earth, and his life would quick-ly have passed a-way, like a use-less dream.-Gaussen.

LESSON LXXXI.-AN ADVENTURE OF MUNGO PARK.

On his re-turn from the in-te-ri-or of Af-ri-ca, Mr. Park was en-coun-tered by a par-ty of armed men, who said that the king of the Fou-lahs had sent them to bring him, his horse, and ev-er-y-thing that be-longed to him, to Foo-la-doo; and that he must there-fore turn back and go a-long with them. "With-out hes-i-ta-ting," says Mr. Park, "I turned round and fol-lowed them, and we trav-elled to-geth-er near a quar-ter of a mile without ex-chang-ing a word; when com-ing to a dark place. in the wood one of them said, in the Man-din-go language, "This place will do;" and im-me-di-ate-ly snatched the hat from my head. Though I was by no means free from ap-pre-hen-sions, yet I was re-solved to show as few signs of fear as pos-si-ble; and there-fore told them that un-less my hat was re-turned to me I would pro-ceed no

*Isaiah xxxviii. 8; 2 Kings xx. 11.

far-ther; but be-fore I had time to re-ceive an an-swer, an-oth-er drew his knife, and seiz-ing on a met-al but-ton which re-mained up-on my waist-coat, cut it off, and put it in-to his pock-et. Their in-ten-tion was now ob-vi-ous; and I thought that the eas-i-er they were per-mit-ted to rob me of ev-er-y-thing, the less I had to fear. I therefore al-lowed them to search my pock-ets with-out resist-ance, and ex-am-ine ev-er-y part of my ap-par-el, which they did with the most scru-pu-lous ex-act-ness. But ob-serv-ing that I had one waist-coat un-der an-oth-er, they in-sist-ed that I should cast them off; and at last, to make sure work, they stripped me quite na-ked. E-ven my half boots, though the sole of them was tied to my foot with a bro-ken bri-dle-rein, were mi-nute-ly inspect-ed. Whilst they were ex-am-in-ing the plun-der, I begged them to re-turn my pock-et com-pass; but when I point-ed it out to them, as it was ly-ing on the ground, one of the ban-dit-ti, think-ing I was a-bout to take it up, cocked his mus-ket, and swore that he would shoot me dead on the spot if I pre-sumed to put my hand on it. Af-ter this, some of them went a-way with my horse, and the re-main-der stood con-sid-er-ing whether they should leave me quite na-ked, or al-low me some-thing to shel-ter me from the heat of the sun. Hu-man-i-ty at last pre-vailed; they re-turned me the worst of the two shirts, and a pair of trow-sers, and as they went a-way, one of them threw back my hat, in the crown of which I kept my mem-o-ran-dums, and this was prob-a-bly the rea-son they did not wish to keep it.

"Af-ter they were gone, I sat for some time look-ing round me with a-maze-ment and ter-ror. Which-so-ev-er way I turned, noth-ing ap-peared but dan-ger and dif-fi