But with us at the north, April is still a windy, chilly, capricious season. Not a green leaf, not an opening flower is to be seen. A few solitary birds are with us, and now and then we have a warm day. The grass begins to look a little green, where the soil is rich and the land slopes to the south. But still, April is a month in which we all take delight, for, at this time we begin to work in the garden, and there is a promise of spring around us. The snow is gone, the ice has fled, jack-frost comes not, the hens in the barn-yard make a cheerful cackle, the geese at the brook keep up a jolly gobble, the boys play at ball on the green, the lambs frisk on the hill-sides, the plough is in the furrow; winter is gone--summer is coming! [Illustration: _Jeremiah foretelling the downfall of Jerusalem._] The Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was one of the most celebrated of the Jewish prophets. He lived about six hundred years before Christ, and prophesied about seventy years after Isaiah. He began his career, by divine command, at an early age. He was a man of great piety, and a sincere lover of his country. He foresaw the evils which his sinful countrymen would bring upon themselves by their idolatries, and while he warned them of the wrath to come, he seems to have done it with an almost breaking heart. It became his duty, in obedience to the instruction of God, to predict the downfall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple. Zedekiah was then king of Judah, and the fearful prophecy no doubt grated harshly on his ear. The people, too, who cared not for the truth, but only desired a prophet who would prophesy smooth things, took Jeremiah, and were near putting him to death, only on account of his fidelity. In the 21st chapter of the prophecies of Jeremiah, we see his prediction of the fate that awaited Jerusalem, and in the 52d chapter, we see how this sad and fearful warning was fulfilled. After the destruction of Jerusalem,--he himself witnessing the completion of this prophecy,--he was carried into Egypt with a remnant of the Jews, and, according to tradition, was murdered by his countrymen, for warning them against their idolatrous practices. The book of Lamentations is a melancholy and pathetic poem, written by Jeremiah, in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. It is exceedingly affecting, and it is impossible to read it without deeply sympathizing with the afflicted prophet. Some parts are very beautiful, and the whole being imbued with a religious spirit and feeling, it is calculated, in a peculiar degree, to soften, purify, and sanctify the heart of the Christian. The Siberian Sable-Hunter. CHAPTER VIII. _A weary journey.--Meeting with Tungusees.--Grand attack of wolves.--The first sables killed._