confusing the ideas you have now gained, by attempting to explain any other part of the machinery of the human frame at present."

THE attention of Mr. Beaufoy had for some time been silently divided between his breakfast and the newspaper; at length he met with a paragraph which he read aloud. It was an account of a melancholy accident which had happened to a stage-coach. It had been overturned; one of the outside passengers was killed; and, among other casualties, it was said that a gentleman, who was sitting by the coachman, had dislocated his shoulder in the fall.

Harry did not recollect having heard

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this word before, Pray, mamma," said he, "what is the meaning of dislocated?"

"To dislocate is to put out of the proper place. When this word is applied to any part of our bodies, it means that a bone is pressed out of its socket, or, in the common phrase, put out of joint."

I do not understand this: I thought you said that our joints could only open and shut like hinges. I know that a hinge may be broken, but I do not see how it can be pushed out of its place."

"There are two kinds of joints in our bodies," replied his mother, "though I. had occasion yesterday to speak of only one of them, the hinge-joint, which

attaches the head to the back-bone. The other kind is called the ball and

socket joint. The upper part of the arm-bone terminates in a round knob, or ball, which fits into a socket, or cup, in the shoulder. If by any accident this ball slips out of the socket, the shoulder is said to be dislocated; though perhaps it would be more correct to say, that the arm is dislocated at the shoulder, since the arm-bone is that which is put out of its place."

"I like the hinge-joint best, because it seems less liable to injury."

"I believe you would be very sorry, Harry, if the ball and socket in your shoulder were exchanged for a hingejoint. In that case you must give up

the pleasure of skipping, of driving your hoop, and every other exercise which requires a circular motion of the arm."

"I am sure I should not like that: but it is a sad thing that these balls and sockets are so apt to slip out of their places. How I pity this poor gentleman !"

"So apt, Harry," said Mr. Beaufoy, looking up from his newspaper with an ironical smile: "Why, my good fellow, is not this the very first accident of the kind you ever heard of? I, who have lived so much longer, can recollect only two persons of my acquaintance to whom this misfortune, which is "so apt" to happen, has occurred.

"Ah, papa! when the wrong word

just comes by chance, you are sure to find it out, and laugh at the blunder. But I am glad to hear that these balls and sockets are not so slippery as I supposed it must be very shocking for them to be pushed out of their places.

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"Perhaps not quite so shocking as

you suppose," replied his father: "when the shoulder is dislocated, the application of a proper degree of force generally restores the arm to its place without much difficulty. I once heard a gentleman to whom this accident had happened, give an account of it, and I observed that his imagination appeared more strongly impressed by the recollection of the delight he experienced, when the bone of his arm had risen