"It's all right, mother; as right as five pun' five shillings and nine pence. Here's the landlord's receipt signed and stamped." He suddenly paused, and addressing the doctor asked, "What's the matter with mother ? Oh don't tell me she's dead, and me so happy!" "No, no, my boy. I will soon bring her round." "Thank you, sir, thank you. Oh, sir, I am so happy! You see the society puts all my money that's over and above what keeps me into the bank to buy me an apprenticeship when I'm old enough. And you see, sir, I had six pounds in the bank, and when I heard that mother was so ill, and wanted money so much, I went right straight up to our secretary and I told him the story; and I said, "Will you let me have the money?' and he smiled, and said, 'It's against the rules;' and then he looked fierce, and then he smiled again, and he gave me the money, and off I ran to the landlord; and didn't he stare at me; and didn't he stare far more at the five pound note, and looked at it before the lamp, and behind the lamp; and didn't he try all the shillings, biting them with his teeth, and ringing them on the table; and then he signed this paper, and said 'thank you and I said thank you,' and off I came, and here I am." The story is ended. The man who had come to seize the furniture went away in anything but a good humour. The doctor repaid the sum to the secretary in behalf of the boy. The widow recovered, and she and her son and daughter were among the guests that came to make themselves merry at our Christmas treat. My dear little children! I hope when you read this story you will try to help the poor little children who have no comfortable homes and bright firesides. Ask God to help you to do so; ask Him in the name and for the sake of His Son, who blessed the little children and said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven."-Extracted. A WORD ON STIMULANTS. THE use of stimulants has fearfully increased in this kingdom of late years. The drinking customs of the country are exerting a very pernicious influence in all classes of the community, and threaten to deluge the nation with crime and poverty. We have reason to believe that thousands of the youthful readers of the Juvenile Magazine belong to Bands of Hope, and have protested that they will never allow strong drinks to pass through their lips. This is wise, and I hope you will keep your resolution. Alcohol is a rogue and a vagabond. He no sooner enters the stomach than nature sets about the task of expelling him and never rests until she has accomplished her purpose. But there is another article of stimulants that I wish, in this paper, to call your attention to. I allude to tobacco. The use of this narcotic has increased very much in this country. Some time ago the quantity of tobacco consumed in England per head was something under one ounce; it is now about 14 ounces per head. Young boys, I find, in many towns, have become addicted to the practice of smoking. They have taken to the cigar, or pipe, in imitation of their seniors, and under the impression that there is something manly in the habit. In this supposition they are mistaken. It is a shame fɔr a boy in his teens to be found indulging in a practice so offensive. The late Dr. Adam Clarke was a great enemy to the tobacco leaf, and published a strong paper in condemnation of it. He takes high ground upon the subject. "That it is sinful to use it, as most do," he says," I have no doubt-if destroying the constitution, and vilely squandering away the time and money which God has given for other purposes, may be termed sinful. I have observed some whole families, and very poor ones too, who have used tobacco in all possible ways, and some of them for more than half a century. Now, suppose the whole family, consisting of four, five, or six, to have used but 18. 6d. worth a-week, then, in the mere article of tobacco, nearly £200 sterling is totally and irrecoverably lost in the course of fifty years. Were all the attending expenses such as appropriate implements, neglect of business, and other concomitants, taken into account, probably four times the sum would be too small an estimate." Captain Scott, in his interesting work, Rambles in Egypt and Candia, says— "All the Arab races are addicted to the use of the pipe, and to this pernicious habit may be traced the origin of most of their vices, and a great proportion of their misery." And again, in a note he observes-"Nothing tends so much as the pernicious and universal habit of smoking to retard all improvement amongst the natives of the East, producing habitual indolence, and occasioning an irreparable loss of time." He calls it elsewhere the "predominant vice of Mahomedanism." "Now, with such warning and such examples before me, I own that I cannot contemplate the possibility of my countrymen becoming a nation of smokers without the utmost pain. I would wish to put all parties, but especially the young, on their guard against the insidious and seductive approaches of the habit. The elegant pipe, the splendid snuff-box, and all the curious conveniences of tube, light, tobacco-pouch, and so on, are so many lures to the unwary; and many, by simply nibbling at these captivating baits, have been gradually led on, and at last turned into confirmed consumers. There is a temptation in the furniture of our fashionable snuff and cigar shops-divans,' as they are called-which it is hard to resist. It would seem almost worth while to 'consume,' for the sake of encompassing oneself with such beautiful toys; but I class all such resorts in the same category with the gin-palaces of London. Look to the end-observe what a confirmed habit of smoking is-how wasteful, how enervating, how every way pernicious! The tyranny of it is dreadful. No man knows it thoroughly but he who has |