All this time, Peter was trying to extract his hand with his clenched booty, and severe was the rake which he gave it, before he succeeded. But at length, with a sort of desperation, it came, and with it a hideous black snake! Fortunately he had seized it in the precise part which he could have wished――a little below the throat. Such had been his grasp that the mouth of the snake was wide open, and he looked as wildly and in as much of an agony as Sam Patch did in his leap from the Genesee falls. Peter hurled the snake to the ground, where he soon followed. I imagine that he looked for once somewhat pale, but his usual flush again returned, and he was soon ready for fresh adventure. * * * * * GEORGE WASHINGTON.――When George Washington, afterwards the president of America, was about six years of age, some one made him a present of a hatchet, of which being, like most children, immoderately fond, he went about chopping everything that came in his way; and going into the garden, he unluckily tried its edge on an English cherry tree, which he barked so terribly, as to leave little hope of its recovery. The next morning, his father saw the tree, which was a great favorite, in that condition, and inquired who had done this mischief, declaring he would not have taken five guineas for the tree; but nobody could inform him. Presently after, George came, with the hatchet in his hand, into the place where his father was, who immediately suspected him to be the culprit. “George,” said the old gentleman, “do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?” The child hesitated for a moment, and then nobly replied, “I can’t tell a lie, pa; you know I can’t tell a lie; I did cut it with my hatchet.” “Run to my arms, my boy,” exclaimed his father, “run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree, for you have paid me for it, a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is, my son, of more worth than a thousand cherry trees, if blossomed with silver, or bearing fruits of gold!” London, Past and Present. London, the capital of the British Empire, and by far the most splendid city on the globe, is about two thousand years old. It has long been the principal city in England, but its increase has been much greater of late years than formerly. Notwithstanding the antiquity of its origin, almost everything now existing in London is of recent construction. The Tower, Westminster Abbey, and a few other edifices, are of some antiquity, but by far the larger portion of this vast metropolis is less than a century old. We give a view of a portion of London, as it was almost two hundred years ago. Not a single edifice which appears in that picture, is now standing; and the hills which are visible in the distance, are now entirely spread over with a dense mass of buildings.