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inch in diameter, but, as it is rarely seen except when coiled, its length can hardly be conjectured. It is of a dull lead color, and generally lives near a spring or small stream of water, and bites the unfortunate people who are in the habit of going there to drink. The brute creation it never molests. They avoid it with the same instinct that teaches the animals of India to shun the deadly cobra.

Several of these reptiles have long infested our settlements, to the misery and destruction of many of our fellow-citizens. I have, therefore, had frequent opportunities of being the melancholy spectator of the effects produced by the subtile poison which this worm infuses.

The symptoms of its bite are terrible. The eyes of the patient become red and fiery, his tongue swells to an immoderate size, and obstructs his utterance; and delirium of the most horrid character quickly follows. Sometimes, in his madness, he attempts the destruction of his nearest friends.

If the sufferer has a family, his weeping wife and helpless infants are not unfrequently the objects of his frantic fury. In a word, he exhibits, to the life, all the detestable passions that rankle in the bosom of a savage; and such is the spell in which his senses are locked, that no sooner has the unhappy patient recovered from the paroxysm of insanity occasioned by the bite, than he seeks out the destroyer for the sole purpose of being bitten again.

I have seen a good old father, his locks as white as snow, his step slow and trembling, beg in vain of his only son to quit the lurking place of the worm. My heart bled when he turned away; for I knew the fond hope

that his son would be the "staff of his declining years," had supported him through many a sorrow.

Youths of America, would you know the name of this reptile? It is called the WORM OF THE STILL.

DEFINITIONS. - Cō'bra, a highly venomous reptile inhabiting the East Indies. Păr'ox yşm, a fit, a convulsion. Wõrm, a spiral metallic pipe used in distilling liquors. Still, a vessel used in distilling or making liquors.

RESULTS OF INTEMPERANCE.

BY EDWARD EVERETT.

I believe the poverty out of the almshouse, produced by intemperance, is greater, in the amount of suffering which it occasions, than the poverty in the almshouse. To the victims of drunkenness, whom it has conducted to the almshouse, one bitter ingredient of the cup is spared. The sense of shame and the struggles of honest pride are at length over. But take the case of a person whose family is dependent on the joint labor of its heads. Suppose the man a hard-working mechanic or farmer, the woman an industrious housewife, and the family supported by their united labor, frugality, and diligence.

The man, as the phrase is, "takes to drink." What happens? The immediate consequence is, that the cost of the liquor which he consumes is taken from the fund which was before barely adequate for their support. They must therefore reduce some other part of their expenditure. They have no luxuries, and must, accordingly, pinch in the frugal comforts and necessaries of life, in wholesome food, in decent clothing, in fuel, in the education of the children.

As the habit of excess increases, there must be more and more of this melancholy retrenchment. The old clothes, already worn out, must be worn longer; the daily fare, none too good at the beginning, becomes daily more meager and scanty; the leak in the roof for want of a nail, a shingle, or a bit of board, grows wider every winter; the number of panes of broken glass, whose place is poorly supplied with old hats and rags, daily increases; but not so the size of the unreplenished woodpile.

Before long, the children are kept from school for want of books and clothing; and, at length, the wretched family are ashamed to show their sordid tatters in the church on

the Sabbath day. Meantime, the fund for the support of the family, the labor of its head, although burdened with a constantly growing charge for liquor, is diminished, in consequence of the decline of his health, strength, and vigor. He is constantly earning less; and, of what he earns, constantly consuming more unproductively-destructively.

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Let this process proceed a year or two, and see to what they are reduced, and how poverty passes into crime. Look into his hovel-for such by this time it is — when he comes home on Saturday evening, the wages of his week's labor already squandered in excess. Not wholly intoxicated, he is yet heated with liquor and craves more. Listen to the brutal clamors, accompanied by threats and oaths, with which he demands of his family the food which they have been able to procure neither for themselves nor for him.

See the poor, grown up children-boys and girls, perhaps young men and women, old enough to feel the shame as well as the misery of their heritage without a

tinge of health upon their cheeks, without a spark of youthful cheerfulness in their eyes, silent and terrified, creeping, supperless, for the night, to their wretched garret, to escape outrage, curses, and blows from the author of their being.

Do I paint from the imagination, or do I paint from nature? Am I sporting with your feelings, or might I heighten the picture, and yet spare you many a heart sickening trait from real life?

SHORT SELECTIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE.

THE GREENWOOD TREE.

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,

And loves to live i' the sun,

Seeking the food he eats,

And pleased with what he gets,

Come hither, come hither, come hither :

Here shall he see

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

- From "As You Like It."

MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strained,

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It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath it is twice blessed,
:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes :
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway, —
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.

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When icicles hang by the wall

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail ;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tuwhoo!

Tuwhit! tuwhoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,

And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw; When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl

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