Chapter C: R. S

ST. PAUL, MINN.

THE LAZY SHEPHERD.

SOME years ago in Scotland, two boys, whose names were Henry Bright and John Yorner, were left orphans by the death of parents. Mr. Donald, a good man, who had nine or ten thousand sheep, and employed many shepherds, took both these boys into his employ.

"Now, boys," said he, "a shepherd's life may be barren or fruitful, lazy or active, just as you choose to make it. In pleasant weather, while you are tending the sheep, if you have good dogs to help you, you can, if you choose, find leisure for reading and for study, and at the same time not neglect your proper duties.

"If you want books, come to my house, and I will lend them to you. You have eight years to serve before you are twenty-one; and in that time you can fit yourselves for employments that will yield you much more than the work of a shepherd."

Henry Bright first suited himself to a good dog, and taught him so well, that Plato--such was the dog's name--soon took almost the whole care of a hundred sheep that Henry had to look after. The lad would take a seat under the shelter of some rock, and read and study, while Plato would lie at his feet, or run round to see that no sheep or lamb was straying too far from the pasture-ground.

But John Yorner was lazy, and did not care for books. He would not take the trouble even to teach a dog his duties. He would lie on a bank in the sun, with his hands clasped above his head, and there sleep away the long hours before dinner. Often his sheep would stray away and get lost; so that Mr. Donald once said to him, "I fear you are not fit even for a shepherd, John."

You may easily guess what the result was at the end of eight years. John Yorner was a shepherd still: he had not been promoted to any better employment. He loved idleness too well. One must be diligent if he would be faithful and succeed.

As for Henry, he applied himself to the study of arithmetic, and became so skilled in that branch of study, that, before he was nineteen, his services were wanted by a large mercantile house in Glasgow. There he made himself so useful, that his success became no longer a matter of doubt.

Oh the days of youth, how precious they are! Do not be like the lazy shepherd, my little friends!

UNCLE CHARLES.

SEVENTH LESSON IN ASTRONOMY.

YOU all know that the sun comes to us in the morning, and goes away from us at night, and you say that it rises and sets. Does it rise and set in the same place?

I know that is a foolish question to ask any child who lives with his eyes open. You all know, of course, that it rises opposite to where it went down the night before, and takes all day to cross the sky to its setting-place again. And you know it rises in the east, and sets in the west.

But do you know that most of the stars, too, rise and set in this same way? Those of you who are old enough to be up when the stars are out can see for yourselves that this is so. You can see some stars rise, and some set, if there is nothing in your way, and you patiently watch; or you can pick out a particular star, and notice just where it is, and then, if you look for it later, you will see that it appears to have moved.

All night long, and all day too, only we cannot see them in the sunlight, stars are rising, crossing the sky, and setting, the same stars coming up a little earlier each day. But there are some stars which neither rise nor set, and these I will tell you about some other time.

Now, after all this that I have said about the rising and setting of the sun and stars, you will be surprised to learn that, so far as we can see, they never move at all. The planets--and our earth among them--move around the sun; but the sun stands still; and all the stars which are suns, shine always in the same place, and are hence called fixed stars. How, then, can they be said to rise and set?

I will try to explain this in the next lesson. In the meantime you had better read again what I told you about the planets in the second lesson.