Wentworth.

Yes, Mamma; I am glad

you think animals once could speak. Æsop, I dare say, thought as you do.

Mamma. Many old writers give animals the power of speech, or perhaps they all believed the power really once existed. But I must hasten to tell you one more story of the serpent.

When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, they so often sinned against God, that he would not let them enter the land he had promised them. Once, when they were near Hor, on the Red sea, they encamped on a place, where there was no water, and they spoke against God, and against Moses, and said "There is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.

And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live.

"And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived."

Now this lifting up of the serpent was a type, or likeness of what should be done to our Saviour, for He says, "and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

After many years, when a good king called Hezekiah reigned over the Israelites, he found that many of them burned incense to this brazen serpent, which had been kept amongst their treasures; so he brake it in pieces, and burnt it, and called it Nehushtan, which means a brazen bauble or trifle.

You know all the ten Commandments of God, and must try never to be tempted to break one of them. If you think of Jesus on the Cross, He will help you to overcome

weak thoughts and sinful wishes, and cure your heart from sin, as the Israelites were healed of their bodily hurts by looking at the brazen serpent.

THE TORTOISE.

Mamma. One evening, about two months ago, do you recollect Mr. W. told you of a very curious thing he had seen where the foundation for the Umballa church was being dug, and where several soldiers were standing together looking at something on the ground?

Wentworth. Yes, Mamma, and when he asked them what it was, they said, "Please

sir, we think here is a lobster."

You all

said, it must be a tortoise; so I know our story for T, is the tortoise.

Mamma. Yes. You guess right. I dare say the soldiers thought they would have