"I will try," said Charley.

"Now here is one," said Mr. Brown taking the shell from his pocket, "called the Bulla Ampulla." Observe it.

It is shaped much like an egg, though somewhat round, and is beautifully spotted with white, plum-color and reddish. It is said to exist in both the Indian and American Oceans. What you see here is only the empty shell or covering of the animal.

BULLA VELUM. (TWO VIEWS.)

It once contained a living animal, and the shell was formed by the hardening of the soft material of its body. It grew just as your hard finger nails grow. Here is another Bulla. This is the Bulla Velum. You see its general shape is much like the other; but the markings are different.

"How beautiful it is!" said Charley. "Dear uncle, I can never repay you for your kindness in giving me such elegant things as these. And some of them are very costly too."

"They cost me nothing," said Mr. Brown. "They were brought and presented to me by sea captains, and supercargoes in my service. Even that Wentle-trap was a sea captain's gift; and when I told its real value, he insisted the more on my keeping it But most of the shells are cheap.—But that is of no consequence.

"I will tell you, Charley," continued Mr. Brown, "how you can repay and gratify me. It is by industry and good conduct.

"I wish you to grow up to a first-rate man, you must begin by being a first rate boy. When I am out here, and happen to remember any thing that has, in any way, done me good in my life time, I will tell it to you, if you will promise to try to keep it in mind and to act upon it. Will you promise?"

"Oh yes, uncle, I will promise to try to remember and do what you tell me."

"Well, then, I'll tell you one thing now, that happened when I was a school-boy, two or three years younger than you are even now. Our Master was a very good teacher and a very good man, and he liked to have his scholars go on learning and improving out of school, as well as in, and to behave well also. So he told all the boys and girls, except the little ones, to do, every week, two things, and let him see, each Monday, which had done them best.

"One of these was to keep a diary. Do you know, Charley, what a Diary is?"

"I believe, uncle, I have seen the word somewhere, but I do not know what it means."

"Well, the Master meant this, that each scholar should have a blank book, and every evening should write down what they had seen and heard, and done and thought and felt during the day, at least as much as they could remember, that was of any consequence. He said, that by doing this carefully, they would improve the memory, and also learn to express their thoughts well, either by writing or in speaking.

"So we did what he told us as well as we could, and used to carry what we had put down, through the week, for the master to examine, on Monday morning. Some of the scholars didn't write much or write it very well, but, I am pretty sure even that little was a benefit to them. I know, that it did me a great deal of good, which I found the advantage of, all my life. The President, John Quincy Adams, kept one of these Diaries, from the time he was a boy, till he died, over eighty years old, and you have read what a wise and good man he was. Now I want you, Charley, to begin now and keep a Diary. Will you?"

"As I told you before, uncle, I'll try."

"Well, my dear boy, if you will try in real earnest, you will do well enough, I am very sure. And, to help you start, I will bring you out the very first pages I wrote, when I was only ten years old."

"Do, uncle, I shall be very glad to read what you wrote, when you were a little boy."

"Well, Charley, I told you there was one more thing the master told us to do, out of school. This was, when we went to church, on Sunday, to listen very carefully to the minister's sermons, and when we got home, to put down the text and all the rest we could remember, and bring to him, on Monday morning, to be examined. He said this would improve us in the same ways, as keeping diaries would. We obeyed him, and some of the scholars became so skilful, that they could remember and write down more than half of both sermons. I think I have some of my notes, still left, and if so I'll let you see them. Perhaps they will help you to make a beginning in this too. Now, Charley, I want you to try this, as well, as the other. Will you, for the sake of pleasing uncle Brown?"

"As sure, as I live, uncle, I will, and I'll begin the very next Sunday, and see what I can do; and if I don't make out very well at first, I'll keep trying till I can do better."

"Thank you, my boy. And now I won't tell you but one more of these things, at present, but leave them till other occasions. You don't know one of the strongest reasons, why I wish you to have a Museum, and to get a knowledge of natural history."

"What is the reason, uncle? Won't you tell me?"

"It is, Charley, to prevent you, at least while you are so young, from forming the habit of reading the kinds of novels and stories, which are so plentiful now-a-days. I mean those, which are filled with all sorts of wild, horrible things. Reading such books would be very likely to make your mind sick, as taking poison would your body, and then you would'nt like to study or to read at all, books that would make you wise and good. Why, sometimes such stories drive people actually crazy."

"I'll tell you something, that happened to me once, when I was quite a small boy, that made me almost crazy, for a while, and it is a wonder, that it didn't make me quite so.

"I heard a story told, one day, which of course was the same thing as reading it. This story was, that a traveller, being once on a journey through a wild country, full of woods and rocks, came by a large cave, in the side of a hill and partly under ground, and for some reason went into it. He found there a horrible looking creature, a woman, as tall as a giant, down to the waist, and the lower part of her a long, monstrously large snake.

"I felt quite frightened, when I heard the story, and all the rest of the day, I couldn't help thinking uneasily of that gigantic woman snake. I was more frightened than ever, when the time came for me to go to bed at night. I slept then in the attic and used to go to bed without a light, for I had never been afraid of the dark. I went pretty slowly, I tell you, till I got to the attic door, and there I stopped awhile, afraid to open it for fear of seeing something horrid. But my father called to me to go to bed instantly. I opened the door, and there I saw the woman snake, part reaching into the dark above. I saw her as plainly, as I see you now, and was terrified almost out of my senses.

"But my father called to me again, and I shut my eyes and rushed up stairs. Of course I didn't hit any thing for there was no such creature there. It was my fright at hearing the story, that made me see what didn't exist.

"Now, Charley, do