ALEX HAINES and Eva were promised a piece of ground as their very own if they would cultivate (what is that?) it.

Each took a hoe and began. By night Alex and Eva had planted a rod square to corn.

Then they watched the corn; that is, they watched for the corn. After a few days, sure enough, the spots where the corn was planted—that is, the hills—began to swell as though something wanted to get out. Then up came a bit of a green leaf. Higher it grew, and they came often to see it.

One day they came and found some of the hills pulled up, and while they wondered what thief had been about, they heard from the top of a tree, “Caw, caw, caw!”

The thief was a crow.

So they must scare the crows away, or the corn will be all pulled up, and their labor will be in vain.

Crows are afraid of men; but men cannot stay all the time in the field to scare the crows off. So something that looks like a man must be set up in the corn patch to scare the crows away.

With a pair of pants, a coat, a hat, and three old brooms, they are making a man! When it is all done it will not look much like a man. It has neither eyes, nose nor mouth. It can not walk nor talk. The scarecrow has no heart or soul, but it can scare crows away from the corn.

The gods of the heathen have eyes, but they can’t see. They can’t see or hear or feel or think.

They are made gods, and those who make such gods worship them. They think such things can scare away evil and do them good!

But such gods just scare the heathen, and of course cannot save them.

Ah! if the poor, deceived people knew of Him “who so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

What Pansy among you will go and tell them, or help send a preacher to them?

L.

There is a grand temperance organization in Sweden, which is trying to get rid of the saloon. Last year their Government appropriated twenty-five thousand crowns, a portion of which was set apart to be used as awards for the best essays on the different phases of the temperance question, with suggestions as to how soonest to rid the country of the curse of alcohol.