THE FAITHFUL AMERICAN DOG.

AN officer in the late American army, on his ftation at the westward, went out in the morning with his dog and gun, in queft of game. Venturing too far from the garrifon, he was fired upon by an Indian, who was lurking in the bushes, and inftantly fell to the ground..

2. The Indian, running to him, ftruck him on the head with his tomahawk in order to dispatch him; but the button of his hat fortunately warding off the edge, he was only stunned by the blow. With favage brutality he applied the fcalping knife, and haftened away with this trophy of his horrid cruelty, leaving the officer for dead, and none to relieve or confole him, but his faithful dog.

3. The afflicted creature gave every expreffion of his attachment, fidelity and affection. He licked the wounds with inexpreffible tenderness, and mourned the fate of his beloved master. Having performed every office which fympathy dictated, or fagacity could invent, without being able to remove his master from the fatal spot, or procure from him any figns of life, or his wonted expreffions of affection to him, he ran off in queft of help.

4. Bending his courfe towards the river, where two men were fishing, he urged them by all the powers of native rhetThe men were fuforic to accompany him to the woods,

picious of a decoy to an ambufcade, and dared not venture to follow the dog; who, finding all his careffes fail, returned to the care of his master; and licking his wounds a fecond time, renewed all his tenderneffes; but with no better fuccefs than before.

5. Again he returned to the men; once more to try his skill in alluring them to his affiftance. In this attempt he was more fuccefsful than in the other. The nien, seeing his folicitude, began to think the dog might have difcovered fome valuable game, and determined to hazard the confequences of following him.

6. Transported with his fuccefs, the affectionate creature hurried them along by every expreffion of ardor. Prefently they arrive at the fpot, where behold!an officer

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wounded,

wounded, fcalped, weltering in his own gore, and faint with the lofs of blood.

7. Suffice it to fay, he was yet alive. They carried him to the fort, where the firft dreffings were performed. A fuppuration immediately took place, and he was foon conveyed to the hospital at Albany, where in a few weeks, he entirely recovered, and was able to return to his duty.

8. This worthy officer owed his life, probably, to the fidelity of this fagacious dog. His tongue, which the gen tleman afterwards declared gave him the most exquifite pleasure, clarified the wound in the most effectual manner, and his perfeverance brought that affiftance, without which he must foon have perished.

9. My dog, the truftieft of his kind,

With gratitude inflames my mind;
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my fervice copy Tray."

FILIAL DUTY AND AFFECTION.

THE

HE Stork is generally esteemed an emblem of filial love; infomuch that it has ever acquired the name of pious, from the just regard it is faid to pay to acts of filial piety and duty.

2. Storks live to a very advanced age; the confequence of which is, that their limbs grow feeble, their feathers fall off, and they are no ways capable of providing for their own food or fafety. Being birds of paffage, they are under another inconvenience alfo, which is, that they are not able to remove themfelves from one country to another at the ufual feafon.

3. I all thefe circumftances, it is reported, that their young ones affift them, covering them with their wings, and nourishing them with the warmth of their bodies; even bringing them provisions in their beaks, and carrying them from place to place on their backs, or fupporting them with their wings.

4. In this manner they return, as much as lies in their power, the care which was bestowed on them when they

were

were young ones in the neft. A ftriking example of filial piety infpired by inftinct; from which reafon itself needs not be afhamed to take example.

5. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," was an exprefs commandment, and the only one to which a promife was annexed. Among the Ifraelites, the flightest offence against a parent was punished in the most exemplary manner.

6. Certainly nothing can be more just or reasonable, than that we fhould love, honor, and fuccor those who are the very authors of our being, and to whofe tender care (under Heaven) we owe the continuance of it, during the helpless ftate of our infancy.

7. Love, charity, and an intercourfe of good offices, are what we undoubtedly owe to all mankind; and he who omits them is guilty of fuch a crime as generally carries its punishment with it.

8. But to our parents, more, much more than all this, is due; and, when we are ferving them, we ought to reflect, that whatever difficulties we go through for their fakes, we cannot do more for them than they have done for us; and that there is no danger of our over-paying the vast debt of gratitude they have laid us under.

9. In fine, we fhould confider that it is a duty most peculiarly infifted on by Heaven itself; and, if we obey the command, there is no doubt but we shall also receive the reward annexed to it.

THE BEE.

THE Bee is a noble pattern of industry and prudence. She fettles upon every plant and flower, and makes the most infignificant, nay, even the most hurtful of them, useful to her purpose. Thus fhe toils all the fummer, while the days are fair, in order to get a stock, which fhe lays by to ferve for winter, when the herbs and flowers are dead, the trees deprived of their leaves, and the weather anfavorable

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2. Then the Bees retire to their hive, which is formed like a little state, and governed by a queen, who difpenfes juitice to her fubjects. It is faid they bury their dead, punifh criminals, and drive the drones from their hives. They keep a regular order, whether in war or peace; and, as foon as their queen dies, appoint another to fucceed her, and rule their little ftate, which may ferve as a pattern for a well ordered community.

3. The Bee is one of the apteft emblems of industry, and the art of extracting good out of evil, that can be found in nature. It is endued with an instinct, which jusly excites our admiration; and its perfeverance is an admirable example for the wifeft of us to follow.

4. As the Bee, in the fummer, provides for itself that which may rve for its fupport in winter, so should we, in the fummer of our days, take care to lay in a ftore of profitable virtues and good qualities, which may render us juftly admired in age, and enable us to fet a good example to pofterity.

5. Like that induftrious infect, likewise, we should learn to make every occurrence of life ferviceable to us; for nothing is fo fmall or minute but it may be made of use ; nothing fo bad in nature, but we may draw from it fome profit or inftruction. And thus, by choofing the good, and avoiding the evil, we may purchase to ourselves peace here, and the hopes of a brighter reward hereafter.

ON THE STARRY HEAVENS.

WHEN we furvey the whole earth at once,

and the feveral planets which lie within its neighborhood, we are filled with a pleasing astonishment, to fee fo many worlds hanging one above another, and fliding round their axles in fuch an amazing pomp and folemnity.

2. If, after this, we contemplate thofe wild fields of. ether, 'that reach in height as far as from Saturn to the fixed stars, and run abroad almost to an infinitude, our imagination finds its capacity filled with fo immenfe a profpect, and puts itself upon the ftretch to comprehend it.

3. But if we rife yet higher, and confider the fixed ftars as fo many vaft oceans of flame, which are each of them attended with a different set of planets, and still discover new firmaments and new lights which are funk farther in those unfathomable depths of ether, fo as not to be seen by the largest of our telescopes, we are loft in fuch a labyrinth of funs and worlds, and confounded with the immenfity and magnificence of nature.

OF QUEEN MARY AND THE MARTYRS.

MARY poffeffed few qualities either eftima. ble or amiable. Her perfon was as little enging as her manner. And, amidst the complication of vices which entered into her compofition, obftinacy, bigotry, violence, cruelty, we fcarcely find any virtue but fincerity; unless we add vigor of mind, a quality which seems to have been inherent in her family.

2. During this queen's reign, perfecution for religion was carried to the most terrible height. The mild counfels of cardinal Pole, who was inclined to toleration, were overruled by Gardner and Bonner; and multitudes of all conditions, ages and fexes, were committed to the flames.

3. The perfecutors began with Rogers, prebendary of St. Paul's; a man equally diftinguished by his piety and learning; but whofe domeftic fituation, it was hoped, would bring him to compliance.

4. He had a wife, whom he tenderly loved, and ten children; yet did he continue firm in his principles. And fuch was his ferenity after condemnation, that the jailors, it is faid, awaked him from a found fleep, when the hour of his execution approached. He fuffered at Smithfield.

5. Hooper, bifhop of Gloucester, was condemned at the fame time with Rogers, but was fent to his own dioces to be punished, in order to ftrike the greater terror into his Block. His conftancy at his death, however, had a very contrary effect.

6. It was a fcene of confolation to Hooper to die in their fight, bearing teftimony to that doctrine which he had

formerly