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A VISIT TO THE MINES.

DID you ever, while playing out of doors, stop a moment, wondering what could be inside this earth upon which you run about? Did you ever think of what might be hidden deep, deep under the houses in which you live?

When a child like you, I gave all sorts of questions to those around me; asking them, "what it was that filled the earth, making it so hard ?" and when in our small garden, I often would try to imagine “what was beyond the roots of the plants;" nothing seemed to me so desirable as to "see the middle of this great earth," if that had been possible. And I must tell you what happened to me once, and how I came up more than 300 feet from under ground.

All of you surely know that gold is found in the earth, not bright and smooth, as that of your mother's ring, but as a rough and coarse thing, mixed with common substances, and grains of sand. Then iron, the most useful metal, is also found there, and lead, copper; in short, all metals, and even diamonds.

Marble also was laid up by the Creator in large stores or quarries, from which men get it with much trouble, to build fine houses, or palaces, as the queen's palace.

And water, pure cool spring water, comes also from the earth. Indeed, there are some springs in which God has put the best medicines, and which in many cases prove a great blessing, curing diseases, or restoring health when it has become feeble.

Fire, too, is hidden in the earth, forcing itself

through the tops of mountains, which are called volcanoes; and the finest quality of salt is stored away in the bosom of the earth.

But I see some little boys and girls looking at me, and telling me that I am forgetting one of the most useful things which is found in the earth. Well, what is it? "Coal." Yes, to be sure, coal; so necessary for warming our houses in winter, for factories where our clothes are woven, for railway carriages to travel in, for steamboats to go up and down our rivers and across the seas, and for bright and clear gas-light, which dispels darkness when night comes on.

Coal is indeed found in the earth, and the places where they dig it are in some parts of the land so deep and so wide that hundreds of people live in them.

I was quite young yet when I was at a friend's who owned large coal-mines, and a party was one day formed to visit them. We started in carriages, and after a few miles we had reached the opening to the mines.

Before us were several holes about fifteen feet wide, in which, suspended by chains, were buckets large enough to hold two persons. Some of us stepped into them, and were let down more than 300 feet; while I, with others, preferred to enter the mine by walking down a gentle slope under ground.

We soon arrived at a strange region. Long galleries were formed in the coal. Large halls, some quite high; then narrow passages, so low that we had to creep along on our hands. A great many men were there at work, with small round lamps fastened in front of their caps to light their way. In one part

of the mines families were gathered together, mothers with their little ones, many of whom had never beheld the light of the sun as it shines on the face of the earth. A boy of twelve years old told us that he never had left the mines, and had never breathed the fresh pure air of heaven. Oh, how we pitied him! but he seemed quite happy; this was his home; he was born here; his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters, and his playfellows were here, and he loved the spot. I am happy to tell you that miners and their families are not so shut up under ground now as they used to be.

When we had been in the mine some time, and had seen enough of darkness, we entered the buckets; the signal was given to the men who had charge of the chains, and up we went again into the cheerful light of the sun again we could breathe the sweet air of the fields. Oh how lovely all appeared to us! How grateful we were to God for having made the world so beautiful! It seemed indeed as if the sun was a friend with whom we had parted a long, long time since.

As we found ourselves again all seated in the carriages on our way home, we could do nothing but sing for joy, or praise our heavenly Father in the silence of our full hearts.

Since then I have often thought of the poor miners, and more than once I have wished their God and my God to cheer them in their dark homes, and to make me grateful for the many blessings which they had not, and with which I was surrounded.

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THE BAROMETER.

"OH, what a stormy night it has been!" cried several members of a family party, as they met one winter morning around the breakfast table.

"I never heard such a gale before; I feared that the chimneys would have been blown down every minute."

"I thought we were to have a storm," said Mr. Morton, "from the sudden fall of the barometer yesterday afternoon. How low it is now! and no wonder. But see,” (giving it a shake,) “it is on the rise again, so the worst of the gale is past."

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'Father," asked a little boy, "how can the barometer, in our warm room, tell us about the storms out of doors? How can any wind or rain get at it here and make it fall ?"

"That is a question more easily asked than answered, George. It is indeed a very wonderful power or property which has been given to the quicksilver, in common with other fluids, with which this hollow pipe of glass is filled. When you are older, I shall explain to you the way in which the barometer is made, so that you can profit by this principle in nature; but the great secret of how it is, must, after all, for the present remain among the secret things. We may thank God for having enabled us to discover how to make use of it. We, in our comfortable homes, can have little idea of the value of the barometer to others in many cases, and particularly to those at sea. For you know, George, when a sensible man knows that a danger is coming, he can generally do something to guard

against it. And many a ship will be safe in harbour this morning, or safe in the open sea, which, but for the barometer's friendly warning, might have been dashed in pieces on the rocks last night. The captain would see by the fall of the mercury that a gale was at hand, and he would either make at once for a port, or keep far away from the shore."

"Do you recollect, my dear," said Mrs. Morton," the story Mrs. Ctold us one day about the barometer

in a storm on the Indian sea ?"

"Yes, very well; it was a story, not about the barometer only, but concerning the good providence of God. If you are attentive to your lessons to-day, George, I shall tell you it in the evening.”

After dinner George did not fail to claim this promise. "The lady," said his father, "who told me what I am going to tell you, is one who loves to mark the hand of God, our heavenly Father, in everything that happens to her, small as well as great—a most blessed state of mind, which it is well for us all to seek after.

"While in India, many years ago, she had once to go by sea, with her husband and child, from one place to another which was not far distant, and ought only to require a voyage of a few hours. The night before, a gentleman who was skilful in such matters begged of them to put off going, because, from the signs of the sky and of the barometer, he was sure a tempest was at hand. The lady would willingly have agreed to this; but their passage was paid for, the captain was not afraid, and as the voyage was to be so short, it was resolved that they should run the risk.

"Before they had been an hour at sea, the storm

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