avoided, and many other games readily suggest themselves to one’s mind.

Reading will be more to the liking of many.  Read books which are worth reading, not the penny trash which shops offer to the boys of England.  I should hope that the boys of England have sufficient brains to care for something a little above the penny dreadfuls, otherwise it is a bad look out for the future men of England.  Independently of libraries you can now get books, by good writers, as cheap as sixpence—Walter Scott, Fennimore Cooper, Maryatt, Dickens, &c.  A word about books.  Of course, in books by writers such as I have mentioned you will find many things spoken of which are wrong and ought not to be.  They must write so if stories are to be written of life as we find it, and mere goody-goody books, which avoid all mention

of such things, are unnatural, and do not give true pictures of life.  The harm of too many cheap publications, and not only the cheap ones, is, that in speaking of these things they make them appear unavoidable, and even worthy of praise.  Good writers show how revolting crime and evil is, how they can be overcome and resisted, and how truth and honesty must prevail in the end.  The difference between good books and plays and bad ones is not so much the subjects they write about as the way in which they speak of them.  Some of the cheap literature is only foolish, some is distinctly wicked, but both are better avoided, and your time and money spent on worthier objects.  Avoid bad company, and take care that your recreations are manly and honest.

HOME DUTIES.

As soon as you begin to bear your share in the expenses of home, you will naturally look to have your word in the arrangements thereof.  From the time that you begin to earn your own living, until the time that you make a home for yourself, there will be certain home duties which you have no right to neglect.

First of all, you must be ready to bear your fair share in the expenses of the home.  When first you go to work, you will probably be expected to bring home all your money, and have a certain sum given to you for pocket money.  As you grow older, you will agree to pay a certain sum for your board and lodging, and keep the rest for yourself.  Let your payments be such as will do a little more than actually cover the expense of what you have.  Give a thought to the general comfort of the home, and in time of need when perhaps your father’s work is slack, be ready to increase your help, even though it may decrease your own personal comfort.

Secondly, you must acknowledge the authority

of the head of the house, and respect his wishes as to home arrangements, time for being in at night, &c.

Thirdly.  Recognise your responsibilities to your brothers and sisters.  If you are the eldest son you are bound to be the example, and if need be the protector of the others, and whether elder or not you have still your duties and responsibilities.  A good brother is a great help to a sister, and her brother’s good opinion will be something which she will be very sorry to forfeit through any fault of hers.  For your sisters’ sake specially you are bound to be careful that your companions whom you may bring home with you should not be such as would not be fit company for them.  Your duties to your parents I have already mentioned, and the older you grow the more thoroughly you should carry them out, so that, as you grow out of mere boyhood, you may become more and more the companion and friend of your father, and more and more the comfort and support of your mother.  It is a great thing in time of trouble to have one son to whom they can look without fear of his help failing them.  It is far too common to see young fellows, so soon as they can earn enough

to support themselves, leaving home and going into lodgings because they are freer and more comfortable, and leaving their parents to struggle on with the youngsters.  It is a selfish and ungrateful course, and therefore sure to be without a blessing from God.  I am talking now of those whose work keeps them near home, and who only leave their home to escape its duties, or as they would miscall them, its burdens.  Many, of course, must leave home.  If work calls you elsewhere it is another matter.  It would be a very good thing in many instances if young fellows would have the pluck to emigrate and make their way in a new country.  Englishmen are getting too fond of stopping at home where the labour markets are overstocked.  Emigration is one of the best openings for a young fellow if he makes up his mind to work, and does not expect a fortune to fall into his lap because he has gone to a new country to seek it.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

Boys generally leave school at about thirteen years of age, but they make a very great mistake if they leave off learning at that age.  Time might be roughly divided off into four parts—necessary work, work for others, self-improvement, and recreation.  A man’s education is never completed.  A man is never too old to learn.  Whilst you are a boy and lad you need to be taught; afterwards you can to a great extent learn for yourself.  You should never be content to remain just where you are, you should endeavour to make the most of your opportunities, and to advance in knowledge and capability.  You are taught in your catechism to “do your duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call you.”  This does not mean that you are not to try and better your position.  Quite the contrary; it means that while you are to go on contentedly in the station and work which God has allotted to you, you are also to try and use to the utmost all the opportunities and powers which he has given.  He has called you to your present position, He may

be calling you to something more.  If he has given you the power and opportunity of raising yourself, he meant you to use them.  It is a false humility and a false view of religion that encourages sloth under the pretence of being contented with one’s humble lot.  There is God’s work—real every day work to be done in worldly as well as in what seems to be more directly spiritual work.  One’s whole interest is not to be centred on earthly things, neither are we to be so heavenly minded as to neglect earthly duties, and the talents which God has committed to our trust.  It is your duty then to do your utmost to improve your stock of knowledge.  School has laid the foundation, and you must work at the building.  Your own particular tastes or your work will suggest the subjects to which you should first turn your attention.  Develop the natural powers you have, and advance steadily from one subject to another.  Set apart a certain portion of your spare time for study and self-improvement.  Remember also that you have certain duties to your neighbours and your country, and that in order to fulfil them you must understand your position as a man and a citizen.  Read the history both of your own country and of

other lands.  Read your paper.  Study the questions of the day, both at home and abroad, and learn to form your own opinion concerning them.  Learn to think for yourself, and not take as gospel all that you read in your favourite paper.  Look at both sides of a question and make up your own mind.  Comparatively few people think for