water rush through. In one of these floods the one south of us had a channel cut in it, through which the water rushed with great force. One day a man who lived on the other side of this attempted to cross. He was a stout heavy man, and his limbs were not so supple as they were when he was young. When he came to the channel it looked so narrow he thought he could jump across it. He went back a few paces to give himself speed. When he jumped he covered only about half the distance he thought he would reach, and down. he went into the middle of the rushing torrent. He was very nearly carried away, and might have been drowned, but a man who was near got hold of him and helped him out. His mind seemd to retain its youth while his body was growing old and stiff. His youthful mind measured too long a jump for his stiff limbs to reach over. Boys and girls also of- ten over-estimate what they can do and fall short of the mark. It is better to go round a dangerous place than run the risk of getting in-

jured.

Eating Hard Oat Cake

We had a neighbour near the south shore. He was a good man. He frequently preached in the church near his place. He was very serious and solemn. He had a Scotch voice and spoke in a slow drawling manner. My brother Johnny and I went to help him pick potatoes. We got along very well in the field, but when we went in- to the house for dinner everything was so strange, and the whole fam- ily so quiet and solemn, we could not adjust ourselves to the situation. We knew how to conduct ourselves properly but could not do it. When we sat at the table my brother was at the opposite corner from me. The old man asked a blessing in what we felt was a long prayer. He prolonged his words in a droll way, and with a Scotch accent that sounded strange and peculiar to us. In place of our minds and feel- ings being made serious, they took the opposite direction. By sum- moning up what little self-control we had we kept ourselves in check for the moment. Had nothing further occurred to undo us we might have held out, “but the worst was yet to come.” A grown up son‘and daughter were also at the table, but no one spoke. Silence reigned. This was so different from our home, where we talked and laughed at mealtime, that we were getting uncomfortable. Every movement was

86