s the desire for amusement and
three times the need of it that her fashionable sister has. And where
can she go? To the theatre, perhaps, with some young man as thoughtless
as herself, and more depraved; then to the bar for a glass of wine, and
another; and then, with a head swimming and turning, who shall say where
else she may be led? Past midnight and no one to look after her,--and
one night ruins her utterly and for life, and she as yet only a child!

"John Newton had a very wise saying: 'Here is a man trying to fill a
bushel with chaff. Now if I fill it with wheat first, it is better than
to fight him.' This apothegm contains in it the whole of what I would
say on the subject of amusements."

AN ITALIAN RAIN-STORM.

The coast-road between Nice and Genoa,--known throughout the world for
its unrivalled beauty of scenery, the altitudes to which it climbs, and
the depths to which it dives,--now on the olive-clad heights, now close
down upon the shore shaded by palm or carob-trees, now stretching inland
amid orange-grounds and vineyards, now rounding some precipitous point
that hangs hundreds of feet over the Mediterranean,--is generally seen
with all the advantage of an unclouded sky above, and a sea as blue
beneath.

It was the fortune of a certain party of four to behold it under the
unusual aspect of bad weather. They set out in the diligence one winter
evening, expecting to arrive at Genoa by the same time next day,
according to ordinary course. But no one unaccustomed to the effect of
rain, continuous rain, in mountainous districts, can conceive the
wonders worked by a long succession of wet days. The arrival was
retarded six hours, and the four found themselves in _Genova la superba_
somewhere about midnight. However, this was only the commencement of the
pouring visitation; and the roads had been rendered merely so "heavy" as
to make the horses contumacious when dragging the ponderous vehicle up
hill, which contumacy had occasioned the delay in question. Despite the
hopes entertained that the weather would clear, the rain set in; and
during no interval did it hold up, with the exception of a short period,
which permitted one gentleman of the party of four to visit on business
two bachelor brothers, manufacturers in Genoa. The residence of these
brothers being in rather an out-of-the-way quarter of the city, and
being very peculiar in itself, the gentleman advised the rest of his
party to accompany hi