But when he changed the strain,--he told how soon is cast
In early Spring, the fetters that hold the waters fast;
How the Winter causeway, broken, is drifted out to sea,
And the rills and rivers sing with pride the anthem of the free;
How the magic wand of Summer clad the landscape to his eyes,
Like the dry bones of the just when they wake in Paradise.

He told them of the Algonquin braves--the hunters of the wild;
Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child;
Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing
A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping;
Of how they brought their sick and maimed for him to breathe upon;
And of the wonders wrought for them, thro' the Gospel of St. John.

He told them of the river, whose mighty current gave
Its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean's briny wave;
He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight,
What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga's height;
And of the fortress cliff, that keeps of Canada the key;--
And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from perils over sea.

THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE

ANTS AND THEIR SLAVES

Peter Huber, the son of the noted observer of the ways and habits of
bees, was walking one day in a field near Geneva, Switzerland, when he
saw on the ground an army of reddish-coloured ants on the march. He
decided to follow them and to find out, if possible, the object of their
journey.

On the sides of the column, as if to keep it in order, a few of the
insects sped to and fro. After marching for about a quarter of an hour,
the army halted before an ant-hill, the home of a colony of small, black
ants. These swarmed out to meet the red ones, and, to Huber's surprise,
a combat, short but fierce, took place at the foot of the hill.

A small number of the blacks fought bravely to the last, but the rest
soon fled, panic-stricken, through the gates farthest from the
battle-field, carrying away some of their young. They seemed to know it
was the young ants that the invaders were seeking. The red warriors
quickly forced their way into the tiny city and returned, loaded with
children of the blacks.

Carrying their living booty, the kidnappers left the pillaged town and
started toward their home, whither Huber followed them. Great was his
astonishment when, at the threshold of the red ants' dwelling, he saw
numbers of black ants come forward