IN March the king of birds and his queen begin to prepare the nest where the royal young ones are to be fed and cherished. Of a princely race, they must have a princely dwelling place; not low down on the earth, but far up among the clouds, through which they must learn to soar; not on the plains, among the long grass, or in the soft meadow; not in the quiet greenwood, where flowers grow and soft breezes blow, but high up in the tall tree tops, or among the steep rugged rocks, where the lightning plays and the thunder roars-rocked by the storm-wind, and lulled to sleep by the noise of the

tempest, where no foot of man has ever trod, and where even the wild goat and the mountain deer fear to climb-there is the nest of the king of birds.

The eagle lives in a castle among the rocks-a castle older than any built by the hands of men; for it is among the everlasting hills, and its floor and walls are the solid rock. There the royal eagle chooses a home, and makes a bed for his young of rough branches and heather roots. The softer lining is made of the green boughs of the neighbouring trees, or the springy heather tops, with green moss for a lining, or some tufts of wool left on the thorns, or stolen from the fleeces of a neighbouring flock. Two eggs, white, spotted and speckled with brown, are laid in the nest. It is possible that only one may be hatched. The little tit, and the small wren, hatch from ten to thirteen nestlings; but what are they to one eaglet ?

If the eagle had many nestlings, they could not be brought up, for it has to sweep over miles of ground to find its prey; a lamb, a kid, a young deer, a hare, a rabbit, or even a child, are seized and carried off by the eagle to feed its young ones.

Many stories are told of the wonderful escapes of children after having been seized by eagles. One day, when all the people of a Highland village were out in the fields making hay, a mother had laid her baby quietly to sleep in a shady corner, and it was carried off by an eagle to its rocky nest. None dared to climb the cliff but the mother only. Strong in her love for her baby, she feared no danger, and alone she scrambled up the

steep rocks to the eagle's nest, and found her baby lying beside the young eaglets, still unhurt, as the claws of the eagle had been fastened in its clothes.

A child was one day playing among the rocky hills, when a large eagle saw her and darted down on her head. A man with a gun, not far distant, watched the motions of the eagle, but did not see the child. He fired, and killed the bird at the moment of his darting on the girl's head; and great was his surprise, on coming to the spot, to find the dead eagle by the side of the child. The deep wounds made by his talons in her head showed what a narrow escape she had had from the bird, and from being wounded or killed by the gun.

The eagle is so greedy, his strength is so great, his flight so swift, and his eye so keen, that he would destroy many more living creatures than ho does, were it not for one merciful limit to his power-he can only carry off what he can seize in sweeping by. He must find his prey alone in the open field. When the lambs in the meadow crowd together, and keep close to one another, they are safe; they find that "union is strength." When a kid or a deer keeps close under the shadow of an overhanging rock the eagle cannot seize it. Of how many texts in the Bible does this remind us, where a rock is spoken of as a safe refuge!

Count Arco, a Bohemian nobleman, was very anxious to get possession of a living eaglet. He found an eyrie, or nest, among the mountains, about thirty miles from the Lake of Constance. He built himself a sort of bower of fir and pine branches, as

near the eyrie as he could reach, and here he watched for the parent birds. He first shot the eagiets. The father bird was then afraid to come to the nest, seeing his enemy watching him; but, with the eagle's watchful care of its young, he would not leave his nestling without food. With the speed of lightning he darted to the nest at any moment when he could find his enemy off his guard, threw in hastily a young roe, or other animal, and dropped down at once out of the range of the gun, so quickly that it was impossible to hit him. For many days Count Arco watched before he could succeed in killing him; but at length he shot him. He then climbed to the nest, caught the eaglet, and afterwards succeeded in taming it.

There are no kinder parents than the eagles. When the young ones first begin to fly, they flutter round them, watch their flight, and prepare to catch them on their wings if they are likely to fall. The love of the eagles for their young is compared to God's care of his people: Deut. xxxii. 12.

The strength, vigour, and long life of the eagle are noticed in Psalm ciii. 5; Isaiah xl. 31. Its high nest is thus described in the book of Job, xxix. 2730:

Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

She dwelleth and abideth on the rock,

Upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place;

From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she."

The eagle is often mentioned in other passages of Scripture-Job ix. 26; Ezek. xvii. 3; Prov. xxiii. 5; Lam. iv. 19; Jer. iv. 13; xlviii. 40; xlix. 16; Hos. viii. 1; Hab. i. 8; 2 Sam. i. 23; Exod. xix. 4; Luke xvii. 37; Matt. xxiv. 28.

THE POSTBOY.

Do you know, my little reader, what a postboy is ? Well, I will tell you. It is a boy who carries a mail, or large package, containing letters and papers, on horseback, from village to village, in parts of the country too thinly settled to have mail. coaches, rail-carriages, or steamboats. Formerly these postboys were seen in almost every village; there are not many at the present time.

A good many years ago, I knew a little boy who was employed as a postboy. His father died when he was quite young, leaving his mother with several children, very poor. His mother was a pious woman, who taught her children to fear God, and keep his commandments. This little boy read the Bible, and prayed to God. One day he met with this verse in the 3rd chapter of Jeremiah: "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ?" The Holy Spirit caused it to sink deeply into his heart, and it would sometimes come up among his other thoughts.

While yet a little boy, he left his mother's home to seek employment in a village some miles distant, where he was thrown into very wicked company.