themselves direct access to the food. At length, they gave up all attempts to reach up to the glass, and went around by the paper bridge. I left the arrangement for several weeks, but they continued to go round by the long paper bridge.

Again I varied the experiment as follows: Having left a nest without food for a short time, I placed some honey on a small piece of wood, surrounded by a little moat of glycerine half an inch wide and about one-tenth of an inch in depth. Over this moat I then placed a paper bridge, one end of which rested on some fine mold. I then put an ant to the honey, and soon a little crowd was collected round it.

I then removed the paper bridge; the ants could not cross the glycerine; they came to the edge and walked round and round, but were unable to get across, nor did it occur to them to make a bridge or bank of the mold which I had placed so conveniently for them. I was the more surprised at this, on account of the ingenuity with which they avail themselves of earth for constructing their nests.

For instance, wishing, if possible, to avoid the trouble of frequently moistening the earth in my nests, I supplied one of my communities with a frame containing, instead of earth a piece of linen, one portion of which projected beyond the frame and was immersed in water. The linen then sucked up the water by capillary attraction, and thus the air in the frames was kept moist.

The ants approved of this arrangement and took up their quarters in the frame. To minimize evaporation, I usually closed the frame all round, leav

personage in the cradle slumbered peacefully, with its waxen hands under its chin, looking as full of blissful quiet as if angels were singing lullabies in its ear. Indeed, it must have been dreaming about heaven; for, while Ben stooped over the cradle, the little baby smiled.

"How beautiful she looks!” said Ben to himself. "What a pity it is that such a pretty smile should not last forever!"

Now Ben, at this period of his life, had never heard of that wonderful art by which a look, that appears and vanishes in a moment, may be made to last for hundreds of years. But, though nobody had told him of such an art, he may be said to have invented it for himself.

On a table near at hand, there were pens and paper, and ink of two colors, black and red. The boy seized a pen and sheet of paper, and, kneeling down beside the cradle, began to draw a likeness of the infant. While he was busied in this manner, he heard his mother's step approaching, and hastily tried to conceal the paper.

"Benjamin, my son, what hast thou been doing?" inquired his mother, observing marks of confusion in his face.

At first, Ben was unwilling to tell; for he felt as if there might be something wrong in stealing the baby's face and putting it upon a sheet of paper. However, as his mother insisted, he finally put the sketch into her hand, and then hung his head, expecting to be well scolded. But, when the good lady saw what was on the paper, in lines of red and black ink, she uttered a scream of surprise and joy.

"Bless me!" cried she. "It is a picture of little Sally!"

And then she threw her arms around Benjamin, and kissed him so tenderly that he never afterward was afraid to show his performances to his mother.

As Ben grew older, he was observed to take vast delight in looking at the hues and forms of nature. For instance, he was greatly pleased with the blue violets of spring, the wild roses of summer, and the scarlet cardinal-flowers of early autumn. In the decline of the year, when the woods were variegated with all the colors of the rainbow, Ben seemed to desire nothing better than to gaze at them from morn till night.

The purple and gold clouds of sunset were a joy to him. And he was continually endeavoring to draw the figures of trees, men, mountains, horses, cattle, geese, ducks, and turkeys, with a piece of chalk, on barn-doors or on the floor.

In these old times, the Mohawk Indians were still numerous in Pennsylvania. Every year a party of them used to pay a visit to Springfield, because the wigwams of their ancestors had formerly stood there.

These wild men grew fond of little Ben, and made him very happy by giving him some of the red and yellow paint with which they were accustomed to adorn their faces. His mother, too, presented him with a piece of indigo. Thus he had now three colors-red, blue, and yellow-and could manufacture green by mixing the yellow with the

blue.

Our friend Ben was overjoyed, and doubtless showed his gratitude to the Indians by taking their

likenesses in the strange dresses which they wore, with feathers, tomahawks, and bows and arrows.

But all this time the young artist had no paint brushes; nor were there any to be bought, unless he had sent to Philadelphia on purpose. However, he was a very ingenious boy, and resolved to manufacture paint-brushes for himself. With this design he laid hold upon-what do you think? Why, upon a respectable old black cat, who was sleeping quietly by the fireside.

"Puss," said little Ben to the cat, "pray give me some of the fur from the tip of thy tail?"

Though he addressed the black cat so civilly, yet Ben was determined to have the fur whether she were willing or not. Puss, who had no great zeal for the fine arts, would have resisted if she could; but the boy was armed with his mother's scissors, and very dexterously clipped off fur enough to make a paint-brush. This was of so much use to him, that he applied to Madame Puss again and again, until her warm coat of fur had become so thin and ragged that she could hardly keep comfortable through the winter.

Poor thing! She was forced to creep close into the chimney-corner, and eyed Ben with a very rueful physiognomy. But Ben considered it more necessary that he should have paint-brushes than that puss should be warm.

Notes.-Cardinal-flowers are of several varieties, and of brilliant colors. They derive their name, so it is said, from their color resembling that of a cardinal's cassock.

The colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

The Society of Friends were the first settlers in what is now the State of Pennsylvania.

9. BENJAMIN WEST.

PART

ĕm'i nence, a high station among

men; a lofty place. per plěx'i ty, doubt.

a bil'i tiès, qualities; talents.
com mit'ted, gave in trust.
so bri'e ty, calmness; gravity.
văn'ity, idle show; empty pursuit.

II.

sim pliç'i ty, freedom from cunning or duplicity.

lănd' seāpes, portions of land and water which may be seen at one view.

fǎe'ul ty, gift; power.

dis course, talk; conversation.

About this time, Friend West received a visit from Mr. Pennington, a merchant of Philadelphia, who was likewise a member of the Society of Friends. The visitor, on entering the parlor, was surprised to see it ornamented with drawings of Indian chiefs, and of birds of beautiful plumage, and of the wild flowers of the forest. Nothing of the kind was ever before seen in the home of a farmer among the Friends.

"Why, Friend West," exclaimed the Philadelphia merchant, “what has possessed thee to cover thy walls with all these pictures? Where on earth didst thou get them?"

Then Friend West explained that all these pictures were painted by little Ben, with no better materials than red and yellow ochre, and a piece of indigo, and with brushes made of the black cat's fur.

"Verily," said Mr. Pennington, "the boy hath a wonderful faculty. Some of our friends might look upon these matters as vanity; but little Benjamin appears to have been born a painter, and Providence is wiser than we are."