Some years ago a German Artist was travelling in Norway, on foot, with his knapsack on his back and his stick in his hand. He lodged most of time in the cottages that he fell in with on his road. In one of them there was a seal, which the fisherman had found on the sand, after harpooning the mother of the poor animal. No sooner was it admitted into the cottage than the seal became the friend of the family and the playmate of the children. It played from morning till night with them, would lick their hands, and call them with a gentle little cry, which is not unlike the human voice, and it would look at them tenderly with its large blue eyes, shaded by long black lashes. It almost always followed its master to fish, swimming around the boat and taking a great many fish, which it delivered to the fisherman without even giving them a bite. A dog could not have been more devoted, faithful, teachable, or even more intelligent. [Illustration] THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS. "What is that, mother?" "The eagle, boy, Proudly careering his course with joy, Firm on his own mountain vigor relying, Breasting the dark storm, the red bolt defying; His wing on the wind, and his eye on the sun, He swerves not a hair, but bears onward, right on. Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world he stands; The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls, He watches from his mountain walls. Boy, may the eagle's flight ever be thine, Onward and upward, and true to the line." [Illustration] THE BEE. Oh! busy bee, On wing so free, Yet all in order true; Each seems to know, Both where to go, And what it has to do. 'Mid summer heat, The honey sweet, It gathers while it may; In tiny drops, And never stops To waste its time in play. I hear it come, I know its hum; It flies from flower to flower; And to its store, A little more It adds, each day and hour. [Illustration] [Illustration: THE LARK AND YOUNG.] [Illustration] V--THE VULTURE. _On rugged rods the Vulture waits To scent its carrion prey, When down, into the plains below It takes its rapid way._ [Illustration] W--THE WOLF. _Fierce is the wolf, and crafty too, And swift of foot is he; In forest depths and mountain glens He loves to wander free._ [Illustration] X--THE XEMA. _In far-off lands, 'neath northern skies, And on the surfy shore, Lives the lone Xema, and delights In ocean's thunder roar._ MOTHER AND PUPS. The dog that you see here looking quite maternal with her family around her, is the sheep dog, the shepherd's faithful and invaluable friend. It is the most sagacious and intelligent of all dogs, and volumes of anecdotes might be written of its intelligence and affection.