I

in little things usually wasted, to pay my wages ten times over, and they soon found it out. did not let anybody about commit petty larcenies without remonstrance and threats of exposure, and real exposure if remonstrance would not do. I did not ask for any two hours' leave. If I was wanted at three in the morning I never growled, and told everybody to go home, "and I will see everything right." I loaded off at daybreak packages for the morning boats, or carried them myself. In short, I soon became as I meant to be-indispensable to my employers, and I rose, and rose, until I became head of the house, with money enough for any luxury or any position a mercantile man may desire for himself and family in a great city.-ANONYMOUS.

Economy.

HOW quietly yon maple lifts

Its branches to the skies,

Because it uses all the gifts
Which Providence supplies!

Economy of every gift

Which God on us bestows

Produces grace and strength and thrift
And all that from them grows.

It makes each day a stepping-stone
To mark the sure increase,
The silent climbing which alone
Imparts the sense of peace.

It gives a task to every power,
Proportioned to its range;
And Recreation has her hour,
And Friendship sweet exchange.

It does not suffer any waste
Of substance, time or health,
Nor ever plunge in headlong haste
To gain ensnaring wealth;

But gathers wholesome property
For uses manifold,

Becoming that high alchemy

Whose wonders are untold.

Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease; and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness, and health; and profuseness is a cruel and crafty demon that gradually involves her followers in dependence and debts; that is, fetters them with irons that enter into their souls.-DR. JOHNSON.

It is, indeed, important that the standard of living in all classes should be high; that is, it should include the comforts of life, the means of neatness and order in our dwellings, and such

supplies of our wants as are fitted to secure vigorous health. But how many waste their earnings on indulgences which may be spared, and thus have no resource for a dark day, and are always trembling on the brink of pauperism! Needless expenses keep many too poor for selfimprovement. And here let me say, that expensive habits among the more prosperous laborers often interfere with the mental culture of themselves and their families. How many among them sacrifice improvement to appetite! How many sacrifice it to the love of show, to the desire of outstripping others, and to habits of expense which grow out of this insatiable passion! In a country so thriving and luxurious as ours, the laborer is in danger of contracting artificial wants. and diseased tastes; and to gratify these he gives himself wholly to accumulation, and sells his mind for gain. Our unparalleled prosperity has not been an unmixed good. It has inflamed cupidity, has diseased the imagination with dreams of boundless success, and plunged a vast multitude into excessive toils, feverish competitions, and exhausting cares. A laborer having secured a neat home and a wholesome table, should ask nothing more for the senses; but should consecrate his leisure, and what may be spared of his earnings to the culture of himself and his family, to the best books, to the best teaching, to pleasant and profitable intercourse, to sympathy and the offices of humanity, and to the enjoyment of the beau