“They pulled upon the rope attached to the little boat until they drew it alongside.  They then let down a rope, with a hook in the end of it, from an iron crane which projected over the side of the steam-boat, and hooked it into a staple in the front of the small boat. ‘Hoist away!’ said the captain.  The sailors hoisted, and the front part of the little boat began to rise, the stern plowing and foaming through the water, and the man still in it, with his trunk under his arm.  They ’hoisted away’ until I began to think that the poor man would actually tumble out behind.  He clung to the seat, and looked as though he was saying to himself, ‘I will take care how I am tardy the next time.’  However, after a while, they hoisted up the stern of the boat, and he got safely on board.

“Moral—­Though coming to school a few minutes earlier or later may not in itself be a matter of much consequence, yet the habit of being five minutes too late, if once formed, will, in actual life, be a source of great inconvenience, and sometimes of lasting injury.”

NEW SCHOLARS.

There is at ------ a young ladies’ school, taught by Mr. ------.

* * * * *

“But, with all these excellences, there is one fault, which I considered a great one, and which does not comport with the general character of the school for kindness and good feeling.  It is the little effort made by the scholars to become acquainted with the new ones who enter.  Whoever goes there must push herself forward, or she will never feel at home.  The young ladies seem to forget that the new-comer must feel rather unpleasantly in the midst of a hundred persons to whom she is wholly a stranger, and with no one to speak to.  Two or three will stand together, and instead of deciding upon some plan by which the individual may be made to feel at ease, something like the following conversation takes place: 

“Miss X. How do you like the looks of Miss A., who entered school to-day?

“Miss Y. I don’t think she is very pretty, but she looks as if she might be a good scholar.

“Miss X. She does not strike me very pleasantly.  Did you ever see such a face?  And her complexion is so dark, I should think she had always lived in the open air; and what a queer voice she has!

“Miss Y. I wonder if she has a taste for Arithmetic?

“Miss X. She does not look as if she had much taste for any thing.  See how strangely she arranges her hair!

“Miss S. Whether she has much taste or not, some one of us ought to go and get acquainted with her.  See how unpleasantly she feels!

“Miss X. I don’t want to get acquainted with her until I know whether I shall like her or not.