up. Jane ought not to have interrupted her mother while she was reading, unless on some very important occasion, which in the present case it was not.

66

Mother, mother; I want to know whether I may go and put the back parlour to rights ?"

"Yes, yes, you may," said her mother, going on with her reading.

Well,-mother, mother!"

66 What now, Jane ?"

May I take down all the books from the shelves, and put them up better? I know I can put them up right again. May I, mother ?”

66

Yes, you may; but do not talk to me now, because I am engaged."

Jane went to work, making a great noise in taking down and putting up the books. Instead of clearing one shelf at a time, and filling each one before she cleared the next, she took down all the books at once; and as she stood on a chair to replace them, she must needs jump down for each parcel, as she set them up again.

"Oh, Jane," her mother would now and then exclaim, as the volumes came tumbling upon the floor, "do be a little more careful, and try to make less noise."

But for Jane to have carried on any operation without making a great fuss, or occasioning interruption to other persons, would have been quite out of the question.

“There, mother, just come and see how much better that looks," she would say, each time she had filled a shelf.

If her mother did not attend at once, she would go on calling, "Mother, mother," until at last becoming quite tired of being interrupted, her mother bade her leave the room as it was, and sit down to her sewing. Jane felt mortified and grieved at the reproof thus conveyed, and

could scarcely repress her tears, as she prepared to obey the direction.

"Why, what is the matter, Jane ?" said her mother, laying down her book, and perceiving Jane's sorrowful looks. This question brought the tears at once into Jane's eyes.

"Why, mother," she answered, "I was putting the bookshelves to rights as well as I could, when you spoke to me, and, and I was going"

66

Well, you did them very well, and I should have been glad had you finished them, but you made so much bustle about it, and talked so much, that I could not go on with my reading. I have never spoken to you particularly about this fauit, but it is one that you can easily overcome. You are a very lively, active, little girl, I should be sorry were you indolent and dull; but when you have anything to do, I wish you to do it with as little noise and bustle as possible. Now, I will show you the difference between the bustling and the quiet way of doing things. Let me see— what shall I do? Oh! there is the hearth-rug which is out of order." One edge of the rug was turned under, and Jane's mother walked to the fire-place, stooped down to the rug, and, with one or two strokes of her hand, spread it even, and smoothed out the fringe. "There, that is the quiet way of doing the thing; now I will show you the bustling way." Her mother then hurried to the fire-place, pulled away the chairs that stood near, rattled the shovel and tongs, then turned over the rug in such a manner as to cause a great puff of smoke and dust from the fire, and then in the same parading style, spread the rug down again.

"That is the bustling way of doing it," said her mother, sweeping up the hearth, and brushing off the ashes that bad settled upon the chimney-piece. "Now I will show

you

how it is for persons to talk and disturb others while they are engaged. Let us suppose that you have lost your thimble, and that I am going to look after it for you." She then pretended to be looking for the lost thimble. "Why, Jane," said she, hastily turning over the things on the table, "where do you suppose your thimble can be? Surely, Susan must have mislaid it when she swept the parlour. I wish she was not such a careless girl." She then went to another part of the room, and looked under the sofa, continuing all the while to talk: "Why, Jane, perhaps you left your thimble upstairs, did you not? Jane-Jane-Jane, did you not leave your thimble upstairs? Shall I go up and see ?"

Jane stood laughing to see her mother acting in this strange way.

"You think it odd for me to act in such a manner," said her mother, "but it is quite as improper in a little girl like you. Now," she continued, "I wish you to learn the quiet way of doing things, and then you will be much more useful to me than you are at present, for very often when there is something that you could do, I say, “No, I will do it myself, for Jane will have so much to say, and will make such a parade about it, that she will cause me more trouble than she will save. But I wish you to begin now, to learn the quiet way of going about everything; and then you will be a very great help to me."

Jane had many opportunities throughout the day of practising her new lesson, and she felt amply repaid by her mother's smile and approving looks, and resolved ever afterwards to try the quiet way in preference to the bustling

way.

If her mother did not attend at once, she would go on

calling, "Mother, mother," until at last becoming quite tired of being interrupted, her mother bade her leave the room as it was, and sit down to her sewing. Jane felt mortified and grieved at the reproof thus conveyed, and could scarcely repress her tears, as she prepared to obey the direction.

ABBOTT'S "Reader."

THE STORY OF THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK

THERE was in former times at Casgar, on the extreme boundaries of Tartary, a tailor, who was married to a wife to whom he was tenderly attached. One day while he was at work, a little hunchback seated himself at the shop door, and began to sing and play upon a tabor. The tailor was pleased with his performance, and resolved to take him to his house to entertain his wife. Immediately after their arrival, the tailor's wife placed before them a dish of fish ; but as the little man was eating, he unluckily swallowed a bone, which, notwithstanding all that the tailor and his wife could do, choked him. This accident greatly alarmed them both, lest they should be punished as murderers. Now, it so happened that a doctor, a Jew, lived close by, and the tailor and his wife devised a scheme for placing the body of the dwarf in his house. On their knocking at the door, the servant-maid came down without any light, and asked what they wanted. "Go and tell your master," said the tailor, putting a piece of money in her hand, “we have brought him a man who is ill, and want his advice." While the servant was gone up to inform her master, the tailor and his wife hastily conveyed the body of the hunch

back, supposed to be dead, to the head of the stairs, and leaving it there, hurried away.

In the meantime the doctor, transported with joy at being paid beforehand, hastily ran towards the head of the stairs without waiting for a light, and came against the body of the hunchback with so much violence, that he precipitated it to the bottom. "Bring me a light!" cried he to the maid; "quick, quick!" At last she brought a light, and he went down-stairs with her; but when he saw what he had done-" Unhappy man that I am!" said he, "why did I attempt to come without a light? I have killed the poor fellow who was brought to me to be cured. The authorities will be here, and drag me out of my house for a murderer."

The doctor then called his wife, and consulted with her how to dispose of the dead body during the night. The doctor racked his brain in vain; he could not think of any stratagem to relieve his embarrassment; but his wife, who was more fertile in invention, said, “A thought has just come into my head; carry the dead body to the terrace of our house, and let it down the chimney of our Mussulman neighbour."

This Mussulman was one of the sultan's purveyors for furnishing oil, butter, and articles of a similar nature, and had a magazine in his house, where the rats and mice made prodigious havoc.

The Jewish doctor approving the proposed expedient, his wife and he took the little dwarf up to the roof of the house, and placing ropes under his arm-pits, let him down. the chimney into the purveyor's chamber so dexterously that he stood upright against the wall, as if he had been alive. They were scarcely got back into their own chamber, when the purveyor, who had returned late from a