298 MOUNT LAMENTATION. ent persons. As far as I have observed, it is usually about four or five months. 2. Their USES. To support the balls of our fingers so that we can feel better. The sense of feeling lies very much, as you know, in the balls of the fingers. To feel things, you touch them, and examine them with your fingers; and if there is a good firm nail behind, you can feel with much more readiness and ease, than if there is not. Some people either cut or bite their nails so closely that the ends of their fingers, having no support, turn a little back or sideways; and besides being less useful to feel with, actually grow crooked and ugly. But there are other uses of finger nails which I have not yet mentioned. They are useful when we wish to untie knots, or pull small slivers or briars out of our flesh. They are also of considerable use in picking up small things from the floor or the ground. They are of use, indeed, for a great many more purposes, which I have not now time to name. 3. Their ABUSES. It is an abuse when we cut them too short, or bite, or break them off too closely, or scratch our skin or pick our noses with them. It is also an abuse of good manners and the rules of cleanliness when we suffer them to grow as long as bird's claws, or when we suffer dirt or filth to accumulate under or around them. I have seen the dirt so thick under the nails as to appear as black, almost, as a ridge of soot. I have even seen people go to church or to school with nails in this condition. I have not quite done. There is a worse abuse of the finger nails than any I have yet mentioned. And what do you think it is? It is the scratching of our play-mates or companions. I hope none of the readers of Parley's Magazine ever use their nails for such a purpose. And yet there are in the world boys and girls both who do. Such children, if they are not to be shunned, are to be pitied. Was it not the abuse of finger nails which the poet-Dr. Wattswas thinking of when he said to children "Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes?" MOUNT LAMENTATION. THIS place is in the town of Berlin, in Connecticut. The following story about it, is from Peter Parley's Book of the United States. "Soon after the first English people settled in Connecticut, there lived in Wethersfield a man by the name of Chester. On a cloudy day he got lost amid the woods which then covered the whole country. He wandered about for a long time, in the hopes of finding his homeward path, but in vain. The woods were still thick on every side, and every step he took seemed to involve him in deeper solitude and obscurity. "As the night drew near, the convic MOUNT LAMENTATION. 299 that were howling all around, what had he to expect from the light of another morning? The same difficulties to encounter, with fast-failing strength of mind and body. tion pressed itself upon his mind, that were now the reflections of the poor he was far away from home, and from wanderer. If he were spared through human aid, and at the mercy of wild another night from the ravenous beasts beasts, or ruthless Indians. Quickened by apprehension, he hastened on and on, but found no exit from the forest. The darkness now prevented him from walking with security, and our poor benighted traveller sat himself down to think upon his home, his wife, and his children. Exhausted with fatigue, he soon lost all recollection, and sunk into insensibility, with the cries of wolves and panthers all around him. "In the morning, he found himself on the very brink of a precipice, from which he might have been thrown by a single step. Chilled with horror, he looked around him. Every object was strange, and every thing proved to him, that he must be many miles from home. "Although faint with hunger, he still continued his efforts through another day, to reach the settlement. Feeding upon the few berries and wild fruits that he found in the forest, he tried to strengthen his courage by new exertions. He climbed trees and eminences, in order to obtain, if possible, a view of the country; but in vain: nothing but woods, tangled and dreary, met his view. "Night again drew near, and bitter "Worn out with hunger, fatigue, and watching, he at length fell asleep. In the morning, he awoke, and began with great labour to ascend the mountain. When he reached the top, he looked around, but could see nothing but an ocean of waving woods. The villages that now spread over the valley, were not then there. The day was cloudy, and he could see nothing to tell him where he was, or which way his home lay. "But at length sounds began to vibrate through the woods, like the beating of a drum. Then he heard shouts and loud cries. They came nearer, and he shouted in reply. In a few moments, a party of his friends came to the spot. When they found him, he was faint and partially deranged. They had been in search of him for two days, and were now greatly rejoiced to find him. It is from this story that the place is called Mount Lamentation." CONUNDRUMS. What is that which brings on an illness, cures it, and pays the doctor ? What is the difference between twice five and twenty and twice twenty-five ? ABOUT FRIGHTENING CHILDREN. As to frightening children to their duty, I must honestly say I don't like it, and never did. I have heard many a parent tell boys of five, six or seven years old-yes, and girls too, that if they did not behave well, the bears, or the 'boogers' would come after them. And I knew one boy of more than six years old who was so excessively frightened in this way that he could hardly sleep. Does any body believe that children are ever made better in this way? tainly meet with just and merited punishment. And he prophesied correctly. For the curses which he pronounced had scarcely escaped his lips, before it was ordered, in the providence of God, that a couple of bears from the wilderness, hard by, should beset them, and before they had time to escape to their dwellings, should maim and injure above forty of them. A most signal but just punishment, both upon them and their wicked parents. For though we do not positively know that any of them were killed, we have reason to believe that many of them must have been wounded severely; and perhaps, after being long nursed by their parents, some of them died of their wounds. The common saying among some parents that, if their children did not behave well the bears would come and catch them, has led to what I fear is a wrong understanding of one passage in the Bible. A good old man, mentioned there, had long been the subject of derision with the people, and of course with their children; for children soon learn the temper and disposition of their parents. There was one city where the people hated him more, if possible, than elsewhere. One day as he was going into the city, the children came out to meet him, and to mock him and insult him; their parents gratified, I dare say, to have them. The man was bald- the young in a very different way from headed, and they began by calling him a bald head, and by using other saucy words. The old gentleman said little; but what he did say was very plain. He told them as a prophet of the Lord-for he really was one-that they would cer But this sad story-and this is what I was going to tell you-coming as it does to all parents, and to those parents among others who are in the habit of telling their children about the bears or the boogers, has led to a wrong understanding of it. Many a parent and some sabbath school teachers-having their heads already filled with this notion about bears-have related this story to what the Bible does. The bears, they say, killed forty children. Does the Bible say any such thing? Is there any reason for our thinking so? Is it not more likely that none were killed, than that all were? They "tare" forty chil dren, you will say. Yes; but what was frighten him. The story is in Berquin's it to tear them? Was it not to wound Children's Friend. If any of you should them? Perhaps, however, some of them were torn so severely that they died. I will let this rest, however, and go on with my remarks. I do not like so much frightening children. Sometimes they are told about ghosts. I suppose boogers means a sort of little, or mean ghosts; but I confess I do not know what it means, only that it means something frightful. read it, I hope it will help to cure you of the fear of ghosts. You should try to get rid of this foolish fear as early as possible, or it may be troublesome to you after you come to be a man, and know that it ought not to trouble you. I knew one boy who was afraid to go out in the evening, lest he should see a ghost of some sort or other; and who retained this fear till he was six feet high, and could not sooner get rid of it. Do shake it off while you are young. Learn to behave well, for it is for your health and happiness to do so; but not because you are likely to be troubled by ghosts for your misbehaviour. If there ever were any ghosts, they are out of fashion The above picture illustrates something about a ghost story. The great black figure-by the way, ghosts are commonly said to come in white, I believe with the torch, is the ghost; the little boy on his knees is the one to be frightened; the rest are the persons who joined with the pretended ghost in the attempt to now. A TALK TO THE BOYS AT BOSTON FARM SCHOOL. MANY of you, I find, have studied geography, for I have just heard you recite it. Well, some of you know that there is such a country as Greece, and that it is about five thousand miles to the eastward of us; and is in the southern part of Europe. Perhaps some of you know, too, how that not many years ago the Turks made war on the Greeks, burned the houses and villages, destroyed the crops and fruits, and murdered multitudes of the men, women, and children. They murdered, perhaps you also know, a great many parents, and left their children orphans, to shift for themselves. Now I am going to tell you a story about these poor Grecian children. A few months ago, as some travellers were passing along through Greece, and were not very far from the city of Corinth, they came to a small village called Galaxidi, where they stopped for a short time to look round among the ruins of the houses. As they were walking about, they met with an old man seated cross-legged on a stone, with about forty children around him, eating dinner. The dinner consisted of only a few olives and a morsel of bread; but it was eaten with as good a relish as if it had consisted of the nicest cakes and nuts. The dinner was placed on a little stall. I told you they were at dinner, and so they were some of them; but not all. Some of them were reading from a few old book leaves, so worn and dirty that they could hardly see the letters. The book leaves were not only dirty but ragged; as ragged almost as the clothes of the boys were. Do you wonder what they were doing? They were at school. A queer school, you may suppose, in the open air. But so it was. The master always kept the school in the open air, when it was good weather. Had they then no school house? you will say. Yes; they had a school house; but it was little better than none. It was a mere mud hut, not quite nine feet square, with no opening whatever for light, except at the doorway, and I believe with no chimney nor scarcely any benches. There had once been a better school house near the spot, but it was destroyed by the Turks. Some of you seem to think it strange to have a school out of doors, in the open air; but in good weather it is quite healthy to be out of doors. I have heard of other schools out of doors besides this. There is a story in Parley's Magazine for last year, of a school in Buenos Ayres in South America, under a fig-tree, kept by a lame man who could do nothing else, and was hardly fit to do that. However, the boys were very comfortable, as long as it was good weather. But which is worst, my young friends, to go to a school kept out of doors, or not to go to school at all? And yet there are hundreds, I think I might say thousands of boys in New-York, much nearer to us than Greece or South America, |