A ROMAN JUDGE.――While Octavius Cæsar was at Samos, after the famous battle of Actium, which made him master of the then known world, he held a council, to examine the prisoners who had been of Anthony’s party. Among the rest, there was brought before him a man named Metellus, oppressed with age and infirmities, disfigured by a long beard and a neglected head of hair, but especially by his clothes, which, through adversity, had become ragged. The son of this Metellus was one of the judges, and had great difficulty to recognise his father in the deplorable condition in which he now saw him. At length, however, recollecting his features, instead of being ashamed of his unhappy parent, he ran with tears to embrace him. Then, returning to the tribunal, “Cæsar,” said he, “my father has been your enemy, and I your officer; he deserves to be punished, and I to be rewarded. The favor I ask of you, is, that you would save him on my account, or order me to be put to death with him.” All the judges were touched with compassion at the affecting scene. Octavius himself relented, and granted to old Metellus his life and liberty. * * * * * PATRICK HENRY.――This eminent American left in his will the following important passage: I have now disposed of all my property to my family; there is one thing more I wish I could leave them, and that is, the Christian religion. If they had that, and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor. [Illustration] The Old Owl. I. The owl is a bird that flaps along With a lonely loud halloo; He has but one unceasing song, _To whit, to whit, to woo._ In dusky light he takes his flight, The twilight dim is the time for him, And when the midnight scowls,―― ’Tis then he silently prowls, And hunts the mice and moles. II. A lonely owl once built her nest In the hole of a hollow tree, And she with a fine young brood was blest As ever owl could be. She loved her young, and as they clung Beneath her downy wing, She o’er them oft, on a branch aloft, As they reposed below, Would shout and sing, while the woods would ring, _To whit, to whit, to woo._ III.