Grew pensive-discovered that life is a load;
Began to get weary of being a Toad;

Was fretful at first, and then shed a few tears."-
Here ends the account of the first thousand years.

MORAL.

It seems that life is all a void,

On selfish thoughts alone employed:
That length of days is not a good,
Unless their use be understood;
While if good deeds one year engage,
That may be longer than an age;
But if a year in trifles go,
Perhaps you'd spend a thousand so.
Time cannot stay to make us wise—
We must improve it as it flies.

Grace. And here is

JANE TAYLOR.

THE TOAD'S GOOD-BYE TO THE CHILDREN.
Good-bye, little children, I'm going away
In my snug little home all winter to stay;
I seldom get up, I'm tucked in my bed,
And as it grows colder I cover my head.

I sleep very quietly all winter through,
And really enjoy it, there's nothing to do;
The flies are all gone, so there's nothing to eat,
And I'm glad of this time to take a good sleep.

My bed is a nice little hole in the ground,

Where, snug as a dormouse, in winter I'm found;

You might think that long fasting would make me grow
But no, I stay plump as when I go in.

[thin,

And now, little children, good-bye one and all,
Some warm day next spring I will give you a call;
I am quite sure to know when to get out of bed,
When I feel the warm sun shining down on my head.

Aunt C. That is American, and nameless. Frogs and Toads have made a figure in fable and fairy tale, but scarcely in poetry. Still, I have one poem for Alice, out of the Silver Store; but Grace will enter into it better if I give her the explanations before instead of after. I cannot tell who Bishop Benno was, unless he was a certain Benignus, Bishop of Autun, and there is no note about him. However, he, like all clergy of his Church, had to say his portion of the Breviary every day. This consists of many of the prayers and canticles which are used in our daily service still. When the bell called Angelus rang at sunset, he began saying his office, walking beside a marsh, where the croaking of the frogs disturbed him. Well, we are asked to believe that they stopped when

he bade them be silent; but he was saying the Benedicite, which is, as you know, the Song of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Fire-"O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord!" This is the way the hymn rebuked him.

BISHOP BENNO AND THE FROGS.

At the closing of the day

Bishop Benno took his way,

With his book beneath his arm,
Through the meadows for a stroll,
The disturbance of his soul
To reduce again to calm.

Walking by a marish bank,
Where the yellow iris lank

Shot its bluish, bending sheath,
Whilst upon the surface, light
Floated chalices of white,

Anchored to the slime beneath.

Where about the margin grew
Clusters of celestial blue,

And the bog-bean speckled pink,
And the mare-tails with their spines,
Stood and shook in shadowy lines,
Wavering along the brink.