THE FIRESIDE.

The Fireside.

THE QUEEN OF HOME.

SEE, my friend, that you make your own house a home. A house is a mere skeleton of bricks, laths, plaster, and wood: a home is the residence not merely of the body, but of the heart. It is a place for the affections to unfold and develope themselves-for children to love, and learn, and play in-for husband and wife to toil smilingly together, to make life a blessing. To talk of a home without love, we might as well expect to find an English fireside in one of the pyramids of Egypt. A house where the wife is a slattern and a sloven cannot be a home: a house where the husband is a drunkard cannot be a home: a house where there is no happy fireside, no book, no newspaper, above all, where there is no religion and no Bible, how can it be a home?

And, further, there cannot be a home worth calling one without a wife. There may be shelter and a resting-place, but there will want the chief charm of every home. And if that wife be the joyful mother of children more perfect will that home be, provided only that all live in order and love. In such a home the husband and father is revered-the wife and mother is beloved-for in happy and loving obedience to her head she rules there the QueenRegent of Home.

PORTRAIT OF A GOOD WIFE.

QUAINT old Dr. Fuller thus pictures her :

She commandeth her husband by constantly obeying him.

She never crosseth him in the spring-tide of his anger, but stays till it be ebbing water. Surely men, contrary to iron, are worst to be wrought upon when they are hot.

Her clothes are rather comely than costly, and she makes plaid cloth to be velvet by her handsome wearing of it.

Her husband's secrets she will not divulge; especially is she careful to conceal his infirmities.

In her husband's absence she is wife and deputy husband, which makes her double the files of her diligence. At his return he finds all things so well, that he wonders to see himself at home when he was abroad.

Her children, though many in number, are none in noise, steering them with a look whither she listeth.

The heaviest work of her servants she maketh light, by orderly and seasonably enjoining it.

In her husband's sickness she feels more grief than she knows.

And, may we add, she lays the Bible on the table every morning with the breakfast things.

THE PENNY POST BOX.

The Penny Post Box.

TWO GREAT EVENTS.

THE Editor of the Pioneer has told his readers that his Penny Post Box, that is, one page of this little magazine, is open for them to send letters on any subject they please of a good and useful kind; but whenever he does not find any in the box he will have to write one himself. This time he chooses to do so in order to tell his friends of two great events. Now England and the United States are the two greatest nations for intelligence, power, and influence, in the world-and in these two countries the two greatest events in the world are now happening. Here, in England, after it had been excluded for 300 years, and we thought it gone for ever, an attempt is made to "restore" popery. You should understand that Roman Catholics can at this time meet for worship like Dissenters or any one else; but the priests, who are always at the bottom of all mischief, were not content with this, and so they requested the Pope to make archbishops and bishops for England and Scotland, with territorial districts called sees or dioceses like English Church Bishops; and the Pope did so, and sent a Cardinal, one of his own privy councillors, with a red hat and red stockings to be at the head of them. And he had the impudence to do all this without asking our leave. This has made a fine stir in the land. Our forefathers suffered so much from popery that we may well dread the day when it comes back. For if it should come and get into power it will, there can be no doubt at all, do the same cruel deeds it did before, when it burnt men and women at the stake. This we do not fear, for we have all got the Bible now, and nearly all can read it. But the most offensive thing about this is that this old priest, called Pope, at Rome-a ruined, shabby, unhealthy old city in Italy-who ran away from it in disguise a few months ago, and was brought back by French soldiers-that he, a little king in his way, should give his priests titles of distinction, and divide England and Scotland into bishopricks for them! What right had he to do that? The Emperor of Russia, or the President of France, has as much right-and that is no right at all. Queen Victoria alone is the sovereign of England, and this is a rude and impertinent invasion of her civil authority. Our laws say that no foreign prince, power, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any authority in these realms. These laws are right and good, and we must stand up for them, and tell our Queen and her parliaments that they must tell the old Pope that he may send for his red-stockinged cardinal back again as soon as he likes, for we wont have him or his bishops at any price!

Now I have filled up my page, and so I must send you another letter about that other event in America yonder next time-an event which is making men's ears to tingle!

Materials.-Iron frames, pillars, and sash bars; with large thick plates of glass. The floors, and joists of floors, only being of wood. Area.-Eighteen acres of ground -or 1851 feet long, 456 feet broad, and 64 feet high.

Novelties. It will include several full-grown trees. There will be 34 miles of gutters for carrying off rain water. The tables for exhibiting will be eight miles in length. There

will be 3,300 iron columns, and 205 miles of window sash bars. The glass will cover 900,000 superficial feet, and weigh 400 tons. The gallery will be one mile long and twenty-four feet wide.

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The Cost. It is computed that the whole expense of the erection will be £150,000.

Hints.

RELIANCE on your own efforts is the great secret of success.

LUCK is a much abused word. "I have not been in Luck's way," said a grumbler. "Luck would have something to do to find you," was the reply.

A TRUE MAN will rise above untoward circumstances and conquer them, or make them bend to his purpose and use.

IMPROVIDENCE is a sad failing. He who does not take care of little would not take care of much. would always be behind hand.

He

USE OF EXPERIENCE. - By past experience we clear away impediments and build upon a more solid foundation. He who does not use his experience has lived in vain.

TRUE WEALTH consists in the fewness of our wants. "I can do

without it," is a capital maxim to hide in our heart and have ready for use any day.

TIME. He who never wastes time, has always time enough.

RICHES often load more than they fill. Wealth often increases wants. A rich man oftener wants appetite and rest than a poor man a bed to lie on.

CIVILITY is a debt we owe to all men-rich or poor. It costs us Visitors are expected, not only nothing at all, but it always pays from all parts of the United King-well, for it brings back to us somedom, by special trains at reduced thing better than money. fares, but from all the nations of Europe, and the United States of America, and our Colonies.

The Good Effects to be produced, over and above the pleasure of seeing the wonderful curiosities, will be to teach all nations, as the widow of Waterloo said, that "PEACE IS BETTER THAN WAR."

RUDENESS should never be in

dulged. It is a mean, cowardly, vulgar habit, which sometimes gets repaid in its own coin, and with interest.

To WIVES.-Never sit with one hand in the other doing nothing. Let both be at something, for something always wants them both.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

The Children's Corner.

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keeping on his hat during the whole. It was now Henry's turn. Just before he had finished his prayer, he suddenly recollected that the aged sinner had not once been mentioned. He immediately prayed, “O Lord, do bless poor old Tom! Have mercy on him! Though he is very old and very wicked, he is not beyond

TOM, THE TOWN SINNER.-Three this time Tom sat in the corner, promising youths, who had been encouraged by their teachers to meet for mutual prayer, found some difficulty in meeting with a suitable place; at length they obtained permission from Old Molly, at the town end, to meet in her cottage. Molly was a pious woman who feared God, and always loved to do all the good she could. At the ap-the reach of thy mercy!" While he pointed time each took his little was yet praying for him, Tom threw "Cottage Hymn Book,' as it is off his hat, and kneeling down by called, and when they had met, they his stool, cried out, "What! are all took the road that led to Molly's these boys praying for me, and I cottage. On arriving there, Henry have never prayed for myself! O opened the door, but instantly star-Lord be merciful to me a sinner!" ted back, and shut it, saying, "Oh, there is old Tom, the drunkard. Now, if we go in, he will laugh at us, and scoff, and quarrel. What shall we do?" Tom was a very old man, and so notoriously wicked that he was always called "Tom, the town sinner." "No matter," said George, "Molly will not let him hurt us. Let us go in." Molly met them at the door, saying, "So my little lads you've come." They went in, and there sat old Tom in the chimney corner, with his hat slouched over his face. It seems he had been taken ill on the road, and came in there to rest himself, for he knew Molly was good and kind, and the wicked, when they are in trouble, are always glad to ask assistance from christians. He hardly turned his head when the boys came in, so they looked at him without speaking, and then drew round their stools. George read a hymn from his little hymn book, and they sang it. They then kneeled, and Molly with them, and he offered a short fervent prayer. Charles then read and did the same. All

From this moment Tom was an altered man. While he listened to those prayers, the Holy Spirit awakened him to a sense of his sins and his danger. Now he no longer scoffed at the bible; for there he found that there was a Saviour even for him. He was never again heard to curse and swear; never again seen at the alehouse; never quarrelling with all he met. But always, on the sabbath, you might see in the house of God a very old man, one of the most humble and devout worshippers, and on inquiry, would find it was penitent Tom," sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." Penitent Tom visited the sabbath school too, and did not think himself too old to learn more of his Saviour. Do you not think these three boys went home that afternoon still happier than they came? They thanked God for his mercy to that aged sinner; and they thought of these three things-that they were not too young to do good

that they must always do their duty without fear-and that God always hears and answers prayer.