but it earns its own living, and asks nothing at the hands of man. It takes that which is not missed; and the flower it has rifled loses nothing of its fragrance or beauty. It gives us honey, which is a most delicious article of food; and wax, which is employed for various purposes. There is hardly any part of the world, within the torrid3 and temperate zones, in which the bee is not found, either in a wild or a domesticated state. It is abundant in our western forests, and its honey is gathered by men called bee-hunters, who show great sagacity in finding where it is stored. 4 8. The actual value in money of the products of bees is very great, but can hardly be estimated. In Europe, many cottagers and small farmers derive no small part of the support of their families from their bee-hives. In Great Britain alone about six hundred thousand dollars are spent every year for foreign honey, besides what is made at home; and about the same sum for foreign wax. The wax and honey produced in the United States during the year 1850 were upwards of two millions three hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars in value. Such is the wealth created by a little brown creature, which we can hardly see as it wings its flight through the air. 1 CĂT'A-LOGUE. A list of names in some certain order. 2 BEN E-FI"CIAL (-fish'al). Conferring some good, helpful, useful. 3 TŎR'RID. Very hot. 4 DO-MES'TI-CAT-ED. That relates to the house, living under the care of man, tamed. LVI. -THE TWO VILLAGES. 1. OVER the river, on the hill, Of soaring hawk and screaming crow; 2. Beside the river under the hill 3. In the village on the hill, Never's a sound of smith or mill; The houses are thatched' with grass and flowers, The marble doors are always shut, You cannot enter in hall or hut. All the villagers lie asleep; 4. In that village under the hill, 1 THATCHED (thǎcht). Covered with 2 FŎR'EST. Woods. LVII. - THE LITTLE HERO OF HAARLEM. SHARPE'S MAGAZINE. 1. AT an early period in the history of Holland, a boy, who is the hero of the following narrative, was born in Haarlem, a town remarkable for its variety of fortune in war, but happily still more so for its manufactures and inventions in peace. His father was a sluicer that is, one whose employment it was to open and shut the sluices, or large oak gates, which, placed at certain regular distances, close the entrances of the canals, and secure Holland from the danger to which it seems exposed, - of finding itself under water, rather than above it. 2. When water is wanted, the sluicer raises the sluices more or less, as required, and closes them again carefully at night; otherwise the water would flow into the canals, overflow them, and inundate' the whole country. Even the little children in Holland are fully aware of the importance of a punctual discharge of the sluicer's duties. 3. The boy was about eight years old when, one day, he asked permission to take some cakes to a poor blind man, who lived at the other side of the dyke. His father gave him leave, but charged him not to stay too late. The child promised, and set off on his little journey. The blind man thankfully partook of his young friend's cakes, and the boy, mindful of his father's orders, did not wait, as usual, to hear one of the old man's stories, but as soon as he had seen him eat one muffin, took leave of him to return home. 4. As he went along by the canals, then quite full, for it was in October, and the autumn rains had swelled the waters, the boy now stopped to pull the little blue flowers which his mother loved so well, now, in childish gayety, hummed some merry song. 5. The road gradually became more solitary, and soon neither the joyous shout of the villager, returning to his cottage home, nor the rough voice of the carter, grumbling at his lazy horses, was any longer to be heard. The little fellow now perceived that the blue of the flowers in his hand was scarcely distinguishable from the green of the surrounding herbage, and he looked up in some dismay. The night was falling; not, however, a dark winter-night, but one of those beautiful, clear, moonlight nights, in which every object is perceptible, though not as distinctly as by day. 5 3 6. The child thought of his father, of his injunction," and was preparing to quit the ravine' in which he was almost buried, and to regain the beach, when suddenly a slight noise, like the trickling of water upon pebbles, attracted his attention. He was near one of the large sluices, and he now carefully examines it, and soon discovers a hole in the wood, through which the water was flowing. 7. With the instant perception which every child in Holland would have had, the boy saw that the water must soon enlarge the hole, through which it was now only dropping, and that utter and general ruin would be the consequence of the inundation of the country that must follow. 8. To see, to throw away the flowers, to climb from stone to stone till he reached the hole, and put his finger into it, was the work of a moment, and, to his delight, he finds that he has succeeded in stopping the flow of the water. 9. This was all very well for a little while, and the child thought only of the success of his device. But the night was closing in, and with the night came the cold. The little boy looked around in vain. No one came. He shouted he called loudly-no one an swered. 10. He resolved to stay there all night, but, alas, the cold was becoming every moment more biting, and the poor finger fixed in the hole began to feel benumbed, and the numbness soon extended to the hand, and thence throughout the whole arm. The pain became still greater, still harder to bear, but still the boy moved not. 11. Tears rolled down his cheeks, as he thought of his father, of his mother, of his little bed, where he might now be sleeping so soundly, but still the little |