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The 14th of February, on which Ash

Wednesday this year falls, is also called Valentine's Day. There is some obscurity about the origin of the customs connected with this day. Valentine, or St. Valentine, was a prominent man in the Christian Church in the second century. He held some strange and mysterious notions concerning the inhabitants of heaven.

The day was after held sacred to

his memory. In accordance with some of his notions, the custom of sending Valentines or love-letters has gradually grown up. This custom, as now carried out, has become very foolish. Many ugly and indecent pictures, often accompanied by doggrel lines are published and circulated in various ways. Some of the beautiful pictures and nice verses that are sold may be harmless, and even pleasing, but as there is so much folly, it is as well to have little to do with the custom.

The most remarkable day in February, this year, is the 29th. The usual number of days in this month is twentyeight, but one day is added every fourth year. If you add the number of days in all the months together, you will find it gives three hundred and sixty-five, the number of complete days in one year; the real year, however, is rather more than this, being truly three hundred and sixty five days, five hours, forty eight minutes, fifty eight seconds. This you perceive is nearly six hours, consequently every four years an extra day is put on, and as February is the shortest month, this extra day is attached to it, and the year is called Leap Year. This day in four years, however, is slightly too much, and to still further correct the reckoning, Leap Year is omitted every hundred years, so that those of us who live to see the year 1900, which would, in the ordinary way be Leap Year, shall only have twenty eight days in February instead of twenty-nine.

The Muscular Strength of Insects.

HE strength of an insect can be finely illustrated by a feat that was once performed by a beetle-oryctes maimon-a variety that is quite common in the United States. The beetle, for want of any box at hand, was put beneath a quart bottle full of milk, upon a table, the hollow at the bottom allowing him room to stand upright. Presently, to the surprise of all in the room, the bottle began slowly to move and glide along the smooth table, propelled by the muscular power of the imprisoned insect, and continued for some time to perambulate the surface. The weight of the bottle and its contents could not have been less than three pounds and a half, while that of the beetle was about half an ounce, so that it readily moved a weight one hundred and twelve times exceeding its own. A better notion than figures can convey, will be obtained of this feat, by supposing a lad of fifteen to be imprisoned under the great bell of St. Paul's which weighs 12,000 pounds, and to move it to and fro upon a smooth pavement by pushing within against the side.

We have another instance of insect power that is quite as remarkable as the one just related. A small kind of carabus, an elegantly-formed ground-beetle, weighing three and half grains, was once fastened by a silk thread to a piece of paper, a weight having been previously laid upon the latter. At a distance of ten inches from its load, the insect was able to drag after it, upon an inclined plane of twenty-five degrees, very nearly eighty-five grains; but when placed on a plane of five degrees inclination, it drew after it one hundred and twenty-five grains, exclusive of the friction to be overcome in moving its load.

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The Well of Beersheba.

LL wells are of great value in hot countries, where rivers and brooks are scarce, and where rain seldom falls. After Abraham and Isaac had been at the trouble of digging wells, their enemies often either filled them up, or took forcible possession of them. A case of this kind is narrated in the twenty-first chapter of Genesis. We find Abraham reproving Abimelech, king of Gerar, on account of one of these acts of cruelty and injustice. At length they came to terms and the well was restored to Abraham. The king and the patriarch entered into a solemn covenant of friendship with each other, which they confirmed by an oath. On this account Abraham gave the name of Beersheba to the well, a word which means the well of the oath.

The place became the site of a town whose name is often mentioned in the Old Testament in connection with the word Dan; thus: "from Dan to Beersheba." Dan was a town in the extreme north of Palestine, and Beersheba in the far south. So that the phrase means from one extremity to the other. We find also the expression "from the river to the ends of the earth," which means from the river Euphrates in the East, to the Mediterranean sea in the West, or the whole country. We have a similar saying in our own kingdom, "from Land's End in Cornwall, to John o' Groat's house in Scotland," meaning the whole of Great Britain. We strongly recommend our young friends to read books treating on the towns, rivers, mountains, valleys, &c., of Palestine, by which means they will be able to understand many passages in the Scriptures which otherwise will appear obscure and difficult. T. B.

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The Listener at the Door.

HERE lived many years ago a little boy whom we will call Willie.

Willie's father had been dead for years. but he had a loving band of brothers and sisters, and a mother who nobly strove to stand in the place of both parents towards her fatherless little ones.

Willie's mother was not sure that she had given her heart to God; and coming from church one day, bowed beneath a sense of guilt before God's pure eye, she sought her own room for prayer. Willie followed as far as the door, and throwing himself on the floor, he placed his ear at the crack, that he might hear his mother pray. And that prayer-it has ever since lingered in his heart. Such earnest pleading for mercy for herself and her children through the Lamb (which was slain on Calvary, that God would indeed give her a good hope, which should daily grow brighter and brighter, and at last end in perfect rest; that having knowledge and strength given her from heaven, she might train her little ones in the way their heavenly Father would be best pleased to see them walking in. There in the, bedroom the mother wept and prayed, and there, too, on the floor, with his ear at the crack, little Willie was an attentive listener.

Years have come and gone; and trusting in the salvation of Christ Jesus, the mother has welcomed the summons,"Child, your Father calls-come home." But long before her departure, her loving heart was gladdened by seeing her children treading the same road.

Some of them are in a foreign land, proclaiming to benighted souls the supassing love and compassion of Him who" spake as never man spake ;" while little Willie, grown

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