number of other storks, who assembled in a circle in the town, without paying any attention to the numerous spectators their proceedings attracted. The female stork was brought into the midst of the circle, and, after some discussion, was attacked by the whole flock and torn to pieces. The assemblage then dispersed and the nest was left tenantless. A somewhat similar case has been cited by the same author as having occurred in the vicinity of Berlin. Two storks made their nest on one of the chimneys of a mansion, and the owner of the house, inspecting it, found in it an egg, which he replaced by one belonging to a goose. The stork did not appear to notice the change until the egg was hatched, when the male bird rose from the nest, and, after flying around it several times with loud screams, disappeared. For some days the female bird continued to tend the changeling without interruption; but on the morning of the fourth day the inmates of the house were disturbed by loud cries in a field fronting it. The noise proceeded from nearly five hundred storks standing in a compact body listening, apparently, to the harangue of a solitary bird about twenty yards off. When this bird had concluded its address it retired and another took its place and addrest the meeting in a similar manner. These proceedings were continued by a succession of birds until eleven in the forenoon, when the whole court rose simultaneously into the air, uttering dismal cries. All this time the female had remained in her nest, but in evident fear. When the meeting broke up all the storks flew toward her, headed by one—supposed to be the offended husband—who struck her violently three or four times, knocking her out of the nest. The unfortunate stork made no effort to defend herself, and was speedily destroyed by the troop, who also annihilated the hapless gosling and left not a fragment of the contaminated nest.—Popular Science Monthly.
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FAMILY RELIGION
During a series of revival meetings in a
town in Ohio a very earnest and intelligent
little boy was converted. Several nights after
he brought his mother to the meeting, and
was solicitous for her conversion. He spoke
to one of the workers and asked that his
mother might be invited to seek the Lord.
The woman was approached, but said emphatically
that she had been converted. The
little fellow was informed of his mother's
answer, that she was converted, when with
an astonished expression, he said: "First
I'd knowed about it." Certainly if that
mother had given any evidence that she was
a Christian her little boy would have found
it out. What a low conception of Christianity
some people have, and how poorly they
exemplify it before their children and neighbors.
They are so far beneath the Bible
standard, as well as beneath the privilege,
that no one even suspects that they make a
profession of Christianity.
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A great many people say there is nothing in the Christian discipline of a household. Let us see. In New Hampshire, there were two neighborhoods—the one of six families, the other of five families. The six families disregarded the Sabbath. In time, five of these families were broken up by the separation of husbands and wives; the other, by the father becoming a thief. Eight or nine of the parents became drunkards, one committed suicide, and all came to penury. Of some forty or fifty descendants, about twenty are known to be drunkards and gamblers and dissolute. Four or five have been in state-prison. One fell in a duel. Some are in the almshouse. Only one became a Christian, and he after having been outrageously dissipated. The other five families, that regarded the Sabbath, were all prospered. Eight or ten of the children are consistent members of the church. Some of them became officers in the church; one is a minister of the gospel; one is a missionary in China. No poverty among them. The homestead is now in the hands of the third generation. Those who have died have died in the peace of the gospel. (Text.)—T. De Witt Talmage.
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FANCY, DECEPTIVE
It requires experience and love of reality to avoid the deceptions of life.
During the conflagration at the Crystal
Palace in the winter of 1866-67, when the
animals were destroyed by the fire, it was
supposed that the chimpanzee had succeeded
in escaping from his cage. Attracted to the
roof, with this expectation in full force, men
saw the unhappy animal holding on to it, and
writhing in agony to get astride of one of
the iron ribs. It need not be said that its
struggles were watched by those below with
breathless suspense, and, as the newspapers
informed us, with sickening dread." But
there was no animal whatever there; and all
