uable the information that the pupil acquires at school may be, it is as nothing in comparison with the ability to study well.

If the pupils are not trained students, and especially if they are mere novices in study, it is well in commencing a new study, or where there is any material change in the nature of the lesson, and, finally, whenever it is at all doubtful whether all will know just how to get the lesson, to question them carefully as to how they intend to proceed in getting it, and then tell them the right way, and have them tell it, to show that they understand.

Perhaps it is worth while for the teacher, occasionally, to take time to go through the process of getting all, or a part, of the lesson with the class, slowly, step by step, carefully pointing out each step, and ascertaining that every member has mastered it before he proceeds to the next step. E. P. S.

UP THE SCHOOL-HOUSE HILL.
Ha! the bell is ringing! "Jingle, jingle, jingle!"
See the lads and misses all harmonious mingle.
Busy feet are moving, moving, moving, still;
Still, and yet so noisy, up the School-house Hill.

Playground is forsaken; sports are all suspended-
Hoop so nicely trundled; wicket well defended:
Ball and hunting frolic; mimic fight or drill-
Actors all are moving up the School-house Hill.

See! from far they're coming! road and lawn and wildwood
All are vocal with the silver laugh of Childhood.

Lightly are they tripping, ill at ease until

With their mates they're ranging up the School house Hill.

See the ruddy faces, full of life and beauty:
Mark the bosoms, swelling with a Sense of Duty:
Innocence-how gentle! Love that fears no ill:
Boldly marches Childhood up the School-house Hill.

Men, whose deeds of honor yet shall win them glory:
Men, whose praise shall ever live in Song or Story:
Men, whose clarion voices Tyrants' hearts shall thrill:
MEN TO BE are going up the School-house Hill.

Women, whose devotion not e'en death shall sever:
Women, whose attainments Earth shall value ever:
Women, whose commission they shall well fulfill:
Women, such, are tripping up the School-house Hill.

Lovely scene! inviting poet's smoothest measures—
Youthful minds engaged in search for hidden treasures.
Never searching vainly-"Where there is a Will
"There's a Way”— -a sure one, up the School-house Hill.

Let the bell keep ringing, ringing in the morning:
Ringing out its matin; ringing timely warning:
Ringing for the school-boys, like a clarion shrill :
Ringing rosy school-girls up the School-house Hill.

Ye who gaze enchanted on some landscape pretty :
Ye who list enraptured to some mellow ditty:
Ye who hear rich music in the warbling rill,
Go with me in fancy up the School-house Hill.

Watch the scene! how Nature in herself rejoices!
Hear the mingled chorus of her childish voices.
List her weird music as the magic trill

Breaks from myriad heart-strings up the School-house Hill.

B.

TIMELY SYMPATHY rescues many a generous spirit from the despondency and gloom which hasten to the grave. Teachers should understand that truth, and be neither afraid nor indisposed to act upon it. They may; thereby, make many a refractory pupil obedient, and many a dull scholar lively. It is a little thing to console kindly him whom misfortune hath "marked for its own," yet to his broken heart it is like the inward consciousness of Heaven's approving smile to the penitent, prayerful sinner.— O. Jour. of Ed.

"There is no excellence without labor," says the proverb. True, but there can be much labor and no excellence. Labor must be methodical and directed by an intelligent purpose.-Missouri Educator.

THE TEACHER'S MISSION.

There is a responsibility attached to the office of those who instruct the youth, which is realized by few. The great mass of teachers enter upon their duties, seemingly unconscious that to them is entrusted the power to mold the future destiny of their pupils. The routine of school-life is ever before them. They go through with the duties of the day mechanically, and experience a feeling of relief as they are, at night, freed from the re. straint of the school-room. The effect produced upon the minds of the scholars is deleterious in its nature, for it would be strange if a three months' intercourse should not impart to those with whom the teacher has mingled, something of his own nature,forming in their minds a repugnance to their studies, and teaching them to look upon the years they spend in study as lost time, when they should regard them as made up of golden hours which, if rightly improved, will fit them to perform the duties of subsequent life.

Marked as is the effect upon the child, if we but follow him to the period of manhood, we shall witness the development of the teacher's influence, in his incapacity to assume the position in the world which he might have otherwise attained. The seed implanted in his mind just as it was beginning to unfold its powers for the reception of true or false ideas of life, will then produce its legitimate fruits.

Fearful then, we say, is the responsibility which rests upon the teacher, and he who selects teaching as his occupation for life, merely with a view to the pecuniary emoluments it may secure him, is manifestly unfit for the position he has assumed. No teacher should enter the school-room until he has carefully considered the duties he owes to those who are to be placed under his care, and then he should discharge those duties, feeling that for the influence he exerts he is to answer before a Tribunal that cannot err in its decisions. If he is not interested in the advancement of his pupils, he certainly cannot expect to see them make any progress in their studies. But let him once show them that

his interests are one with theirs, that their attainments inspire a feeling of satisfaction in his own bosom, and the seed he has sown will, like bread cast upon the waters, return unto him after many days, and future generations shall rise up and call him blessed.

Should not the fact that he is forming characters for life, cause every intelligent person to consider carefully the motives by which he is actuated when he assumes the responsibility pertaining to the teacher's calling? Is the trite saying, "as the twig is bent the tree is inclined," unmeaningless? If not, let the teacher govern himself accordingly, and show to the world that there is a nobility clustering around the teacher's calling, truer, holier, better than that of titled lords: that the empire he governs is greater than a kingdom, its rewards more priceless than the treasures which gem a ducal coronet,—the consciousness of having taught to others, in the truest sense of the term, how to live.

IMPROVE YOUR TIME.

Work! for time is speeding, and your task may not be completed at the appointed time. "Work while the day lasts"! and let not one grain of his precious time-sand slip by unheeded, for, has it passed the portal, it is irrevocably lost. Only one grain at once, and life's great castle to build from its very foundation! Every grain is needed, for the full number will just perfect the structure. Then if one is permitted to fall to the ground while we idly neglect to secure it in its proper place, there will be a defect in the wall, for no other can take the place allotted to that. Then he who is on the alert to perform punctually each duty and gain good from every passing hour, will find, when the last grain has been properly adjusted, that his is a perfect structure-perfect in strength and beauty; while the idle dreamer, who sees grain after grain run to waste, only securing one at intervals, finds his wall to be weak and tottering-his structure worthless-the golden sands all run out and his work not completed. Would we have ours a castle of true worth, then must we begin early to lay

a sure and firm foundation. Early garner up the treasures of knowledge and stow them away in the conservatory of the mind for future use. There they will mature and brighten, and as each passing moment adds new gems of thought, the mind, thus early beginning to expand, and its cloisters filling with the riches of true knowledge, will prove the surest key to a life of "joy in wisdom"-the richest treasure mortal may possess, and one gained by our own efforts.

Knowledge, on

Youth is the bright gleaning-season of life. every breeze, bears its precious gems to the susceptible mind. Not a moment of life's bright spring-time but is laden with rich spoils for the eager, aspiring soul; and abroad over the extensive fields of observant thought, roams the young knowledge-seeker, culling sweets from every flower. How unworthy the priceless boon, he, who spurns the exertions necessary for its possessionwho heedlessly sees these knowledge-fraught moments pass by, gleaning not therefrom fadeless joys! Pass not by the flowers close beside your pathway, without extracting from them refreshing draughts of that nectar for which your soul is thirsting; and actively bestir yourself lest many grains of this precious timesand fall to the ground, and that life-structure of yours lack the L. M. D. necessary material.

CHANGE OF TEACHERS.-The young mind needs to be cared for and educated by those who understand its powers, its motives, its tendencies, its peculiarities. How can these be known by the teacher who comes to take direction of the child, a stranger; eaves at the end of a few weeks, just as he begins to understand his trust and his duties, and leaves, never to return again, for another to follow him in the same blind and erring course? this is the usual way in our public schools.-Educational News.

Yet,

Why is a fop like a cinnamon tree? Because the bark is worth more than the body!"