house, and building a nice clean dairy, and erecting a byre and piggery away from the house in the back of the garden. It took all my money at the time; but I have been well paid for it since. Why, I daresay you pay as much to the doctor in a year as my dairy cost me. My children have seldom been ill. I have never been away from work from ill health a single day these ten years; and you were away five weeks a short time ago, from a fever which the doctor told you came from bad drainage. Your illness would cost you five weeks' wages, at twelve shillings a week, and ten shillings to the doctor, that is three pounds ten shillings; and laying down a drain would not cost more than fifteen shillings."

"I never thought of that, neighbour," Smith remarked; "I always thought it was you and your cleanliness that spent money; and it is very true, I see, that I have been losing far more than any improvements will

cost. Just last year, my two poor boys died of the fever, and it cost me six pounds to bury them; and all that might have been saved if I had laid out two pounds in cleaning and repairs."

"Yes, Brown, and more than that. You know your wife's butter does not keep, and she never gets more than sixpence a pound for it, and my wife sometimes gets elevenpence; and all that just because our dairy is sweet, clean, and well aired, and yours is choked up and dirty."

"Well, neighbour," replied Smith, “I see you are in the right. Cleanliness is the best plan even for the poor, and the cheapest and least troublesome in the end. Do you know, I have been thinking you were right ever since my girl Sally was turned away from the parsonage. I never told you what it was for; but the rector's lady called to see me one day. Well, Smith,' she said, 'we have tried your Sally for a month, and should

have been very glad to keep her; but the plain truth is, she is so dirty that she will never do in my house. I think, if you are a wise man, you will try to improve, and follow the example of your neighbour Brown.' These were her very words, and I am seriously thinking to take her advice."

"You could not do better than do so," Brown returned; "and I'll make a bargain with you, neighbour. When your wife gets better, I will come over in the evenings after work, and will help you to clean away that dungheap and put things straight outside; and my wife will drop in to-morrow, and shew Sally how to put things in order inside; and I'll lend you five sovereigns till the end of the year."

"Thank ye, Brown," said Smith, "God bless you for that."

Smith tried the plans of his neighbour, and with the same success; his house put on an improved appearance; fever was no

longer a constant visitor; the dungheap disappeared, and the puddle was swept away; Mrs. Smith's butter was no longer sold for sixpence, and Sally was again tried at the vicarage to the rector's satisfaction; and in a few years Smith had not only paid his neighbour's loan but had begun to keep an account at the Saving's Bank. He is fond of a joke, and he sometimes tells his old friend the doctor, that he has been much benefited by his two new doctors, Fresh Air and Cold Water.

POLITENESS.

We learn in our catechism that part of our duty to our neighbour is, "to order ourselves lowly and reverently to all our betters." And we read in our Bibles that we should "give honour to those to whom honour is due." The proper way of shewing respect

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is different in different countries and towns; but those who wish to do their duty properly, will be sure to learn it and to practise it carefully. Some people talk as if good manners were a great bother; and some even seem to think that it is more manly to be rude and shew bad manners, forgetting altogether that politeness is a duty which we are bound to discharge, and not a piece of fashion which we are at liberty to observe or not as we please. The best way to learn to be polite is, to take for our example those who are considered well-bred. If we watch them we shall find that they always speak in a courteous way to each other; that they take care to avoid saying anything that would give offence to any one in the company; and that their great object is to make every one who is beside them feel quite at ease. Some people say that this is all sham and a sort of hypocrisy, and that we should always speak out what we think in the

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