night or so, is a very liberal donation. The organ-man is, therefore, obliged to live in a way that would provoke the pity of a moderately well-to-do beggar. Sometimes he will take out with him a piece of bread and an onion, and upon this repast subsist the entire day. The streetdrinking fountains have been a great boon to the entire class, for one half-pint of beer is the utmost they could afford until evening. It cannot be alleged of them that they are given to intemperance in drink when their work is done; and who has ever seen an organ-grinder intoxicated in the streets, unless he had purposely been made so by some mischievous person? Notwithstanding the temptations to which they are exposed in their peculiar condition, charges of dishonesty are very rarely preferred against them. The character of the organ-grinder, indeed, may upon the whole be estimated in his favour, and perhaps a more accurate investigation into his domestic life might show that his faults are exaggerated.— Old Jonathan.

THE JUVENILE REPORTER.

ONE day last month, a thought came into the Reporter's head; he said, "I'm off to the hills; may be to the Highlands!" He went down to the London Docks, stepped on board a large screw steamer, and he has never been seen in London since. Where he has been, or what he has been doing all this time, it would puzzle a sage to tell. And he doesn't mean to tell himself-at least, he is not going to do so at present, although he may be in a better mood for it some day, Some may think it a strange thing for an old breathless man to do; but he had his own reasons for it, and that's enough.

He has thought it necessary to say this much in order to account for the delay of his chapters, and to assure his friends that he is neither lost nor dead. "The young may die, but the old must;" but his time is not yet come. The reporter has never gone far beyond the lines of the telegraph-although he has sometimes been far enough from a post-office-and he hears little of what is going on, even now.

A very interesting meeting was lately held in London, when the Rev. Behari Lal Singh was appointed our Church's Missionary to India. The Reporter hopes to give some account of Behari-who is himself a native of India-in next number.

He hopes that Mr. Swanson's letter will be read over carefully, and that every one of his readers will keep in mind that the year is passing on, and it is more than time the collecting cards were all in full operation. Let all who were behind, last year especially, mind this hint and take time by the forelock.

CATCHING A GREAT IDEA-YOUNG WATT AND THE TEA-KETTLE.

"THE idle," says Mr. Smiles, "pass through life leaving as little trace of their existence as foam upon the water, or smoke upon the air; " but the industrious stamp their character upon their age, and influence hundreds that come after them. Hugh Miller, the great geologist (examiner of rocks and stones), who was only a mason in a quarry, "held honest labour to be the best of teachers, and the school of toil the noblest of schools,save only the Christian one e; and it is quite true that those who have given us the greatest inventions and discoveries have worked the hardest, not only with the head but with the hands.

You have seen the steamboats gliding along the Thames every day, have you not? We have to thank the patient, never-tiring JAMES WATT for them. There is a story of him, that when he was a little boy he was sitting by the fire one evening watching the kettle boiling, and his aunt was making tea; she called him two or three times to come to the table, but James did not seem to hear her; so busy was he in watching the steam lifting up the lid of the kettle every now and then, and thinking whether the same power might not be made to lift, push, or pull anything! He did not forget the kettle and the steam. Now, whatever that boy saw he studied; he never let a thing go without knowing all about it. He "found science in his toys." The quadrants lying about his father's shop (he was a sort of carpenter) led him to study algebra, the laws of sight, and the stars; his bad health made him learn all about the human body; and his lonely walks took him to the

study of plants and to the history of men and places. When he was in business, he was ordered to build an organ; and though he had no ear for music, he stuck hard at learning it, and built the organ successfully. So, when the little model of Newcomen's steam-engine, belonging to the University of Glasgow, was put in his hands for repair, he set himself to learn all about heat, water, and steam, at the same time plodding his way in mechanics, &c. ; so that the result of all was the wonderful steam-engine which has worked so hard and so well ever since.

For ten years, though he had to go on inventing and making, "with little hope to cheer him, few friends to encourage him," and earning little from his trade-even when he had made his engine fit to work, he could not get any one who had money to join him in bringing it out, and making it public. He went on, earning bread for his family by making and selling quadrants, fiddles, flutes, and other instruments; measuring mason-work, surveying roads, planning canals, or doing anything that turned up, by which he might live. He was not a man of business, and hated jostling with the world, saying himself that he would rather face a loaded cannon than settle a bargain; so that his invention might have been lost, or have done him no good, had he not been so fortunate as to meet with “a skilful, energetic, far-seeing man"-MATTHEW BOULTON, "the father of Birminghim," who helped Watt to bring the engine into general use as a working power. Their joint success is known through all the world,

Boulton was a man quite different from Watt, but quite as able in his own way. His beginning in life was humble; he was only a Birmingham button-maker.