n ceased working the moment the bell began to strike at twelve
o'clock, but they were not so prompt in resuming work at one o'clock.
They came leisurely up one by one, some minutes after the clock had
struck. When the Duke inquired the reason of this, the men excused
themselves by saying that while they heard the clock well enough when it
struck twelve, they did not always hear it when it struck only once. The
Duke thereupon had the clock made to strike thirteen at one o'clock, so
that the men could no longer plead this excuse for their dilatoriness.
This clock was still in use not many years ago, and may be even yet
striking its thirteen strokes at one o'clock.

LOOKING UP AND LOOKING DOWN.

The little flower set in the grass,
Where it doth lowly lie,
As one by one the bright hours pass,
Looks upward to the sky.
So must a child's thoughts upward soar,
So must my soul take wings,
And to grow wiser than before
Reach up to lofty things.

The little stars set in the sky,
As night by night they show,
Though shining in their home on high,
Look down to earth below.
So I must stoop to lowly things,
To gentle deeds of love;
E'en though my thoughts soar upon wings,
And climb to Heaven above.

PEEPS INTO NATURE'S NURSERIES.

X.--NURSERY CUSTOMS IN THE FISH-WORLD.

In our last article we drew a contrast between those creatures which
thrust their young upon the world at the earliest possible moment,
taking care only to lay their eggs in a favourable spot, and leaving
them to hatch or be eaten as the case may be, and those which display
the most tender care for their offspring at least until they are able to
fight for themselves. In the first case, thousands of young have to be
brought into the world at one time because of the enormous death-rate
which this helplessness brings about; in the second, comparatively few,
sometimes only one or two, young ones make up the family.

I propose now to tell you more of this fascinating question; to show you
some perfectly amazing instances of the care and love for their young
which some of these little mothers and fathers display, and these
instances shall be taken from what we call the 'cold-blooded' fishes.

Let us begin with one of the commonest and best-known of our fishes, the
stickleback of our ponds and ditches. The male stickleback, as many of
you may know, builds a wonderful nest (see fig. 1), in which, whe