Frank thought his motto not inappropriate, as he was of a very lively disposition, and was even sometimes, in the exuberance of his wit, a little mischievous, though always with the best intentions:

"Be yours

Wild wit, invention ever new,

And lively cheer, of vigor born;
The thoughtless day, the easy night;
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly the approach of morn."

Some of the others were considered quite as good, and after the wishes had been examined, and the breakfast despatched, the party proceeded to the drawing-room, where the new year's presents had been duly arranged on the centre-table, the evening before, by their kind father and mother. Each member of the family had made some little present, generally the fruit of his or her own ingenuity, to each of the rest; and the father and mother had given to each one some trifling token of affection. All the previous preparations had been secret; and the articles prepared and directed were placed in paper packages, in a large basket, and the night before arranged on the table. The opening of the papers, and examination of the gifts, produced a scene of

much hilarity, and occupied the hour until it was necessary for Mr. Milton to retire to his study, and the boys, George and Frank, to wrap themselves up and proceed to the school, or academy, as it was called, which they daily attended. The young ladies, after having spent a short time with their mother in some household duties, sat down to their daily studies, which were carried on under the direction of the mother, Mr. Milton being not unwilling to render his advice, in case of emergency, to remove the difficulties of an ode of Horace, or throw light on a dark problem in Euclid.

In diligent occupation, the hours glided quickly away, until the boys, on their return from school, rushed in, and begged the girls to come out and examine their new coast. To this proposition the young ladies made no objection; and after suitable preparations for meeting the cold weather, they all proceeded to the coast, and, in rapid slides, snowballing, and the other sports of winter, passed the hours until it was time to go into the house, and prepare for dinner. The afternoon was passed in working, reading, and conversation. Cousin Grace said she did not know what the town girls would have said, to see young la

dies employed as they had been this morning; but Eleanor told her that something much after the manner of coasting was at one time quite the fashion in Paris. The Russians amuse themselves with their hills of ice, built on purpose.. "I have read," said Eleanor, "that they build a high frame-work of timber, which they ascend at one end by a ladder. It is made sloping on the other side. This frame is covered with lumps of ice, squared neatly, and laid true, like a pavement of stones. Over this, water is poured, which soon freezes, and makes one compact body of ice every where. At the top of this is a sledge, like a small boat, or butcher's pung, as we call it. The person gets into this, and is put at the edge of the slope: down this he slides with so much force, as to carry him a great way on the flat ice of the river on which this hill of ice is built. He then comes to another ice-hill, which he ascends, and slides down as before; and so on, one after another. Sometimes, it is said, boys will skait down these places on one leg, keeping their balance with great skill. The French, who had heard of and seen this Russian fashion of coasting, took a fancy to imitate it; but as their climate is too warm to give them a sup

ply of ice for the purpose, they build up the frame of wood, which they ascend by steps at one end, and slide down the plane by means of a sort of railroad, the little sleds being provided with wheels instead of runners. Down these the ladies and gentlemen are propelled with great rapidity. They call them the Russian mountains. I remember," said Eleanor, "to have seen the operation of these represented on a Parisian screen, which had a little mechanism about it to show how the sleds went down.”

Cousin Grace said Eleanor's account quite reconciled her to coasting, which she was very well disposed to like for its own sake, after the agreeable trial of the sport she had had in the morning.

Mrs. Milton observed that, in the country, where young ladies had opportunity to join in active out-of-doors sports without exciting unpleasant observations, she should always recommend it to them. There was not quite so much, perhaps, to induce them to take walks for exercise as in a city, where the stone flagging, which was soon cleared after a storm, made so convenient a walk. But the girls out

of town certainly had the advantage of the city girls in being able to slide and coast, and even skait, as much as they pleased.

Sophia remarked that, in passing from their coast this morning, they had seen a great many immense cart-loads of ice in the road, more,

she should think, than would fill all the icehouses for miles round; and in fact, she had seen men every day, for some weeks past, employed in carting the ice in large square blocks away from the pond. She wondered what was to be done with it, and asked her father if he thought any one was going to build an ice-house, like the one George read to them about the other day, which was once made in Russia, and where the whole furniture, and even the cannon, which could fire a salute, were made of ice.

Mr. Milton told his daughter he did not think any one in this country, and at this time, would fancy such a residence, or had leisure or money to build such an edifice for curiosity; but he told her that a great deal of ice was now exported to the East Indies. A few years since, a merchant in Boston made the experiment of sending out a vessel to China with ice, and it proved so successful, that it had, he believed, now become a regular article of trade to the other side of the world, and to the southern part of America.

Mrs. Milton said this conversation reminded