OMEN.


As Cooke, the solicitor-general, was beginning to open the pleadings
at the trial of Charles I, the king gently tapped him on the shoulder
with his cane, crying "Hold, hold!" At the same moment the silver head
of the cane fell off, and rolled on the floor.

* * * * *


COTTAGE GARDENS.


The comforts and benefits to be derived from a well cultivated garden,
by a poor man's family, are almost beyond calculation. What a resource
for hours after work, or when trade is dull, and regular work scarce!
What a contrast and counteraction is the healthy, manly, employment
which a cottage garden affords, to the close, impure, unwholesome air,
the beastliness and obscenity, the waste of time, the destruction of
morals, the loss of character, money, and health, which are the
inmates of too many common ale-houses!--_Gardener's Mag_.

* * * * *


PAINTING.