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A-way, a-way, The glad bird flew, Far out of sight, In heav-ens blue.

The wee girl watched With won-der-ing eye, Till it had fad-ed In the sky, Then sat her down, and cried, "Boo-hoo!

My bird is gone! What shall I do?"

Her pin-a-fore With tears was wet: "My bird a-gain, "I'll nev-er get."

At last she raised Her weep-ing eye, And there at hand, What should she spy But bird-ie hop-ping in his door, Tired of his freedom, back once more.

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LITTLE MAY'S PET.

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"Come in, puss," said lit-tle May, "and you shall have a nice cup of milk for your break-fast. And I will put a fresh rib-bon on your neck, too." Puss walked in at once, for he was ve-ry hun-gry. For more than an hour she had been watch-ing at a mouse-hole, but the mouse would not come out and be caught. So at last she had grown tired of wait-ing.

TOM, GRACE AND LOU.

TOM and Grace and Lou had been down to the brook the day be-fore, and had caught three frogs. They got one of pa-pa's old ci-gar box-es, and lined it with leaves, and cut small holes in it, that the air might pa.s.s in and out.

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The next morn-ing they o-pened the box, and put them on the gra.s.s: they looked ver-y ill. "Let's take them back to the brook," said Lou. As soon as the frogs saw the wa-ter, they jumped, and were seen no more.

THE TWO STAGS.

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HERE we are out in the wild woods. What a pret-ty lit-tle glade it is, with a spring of fresh wa-ter in it! But see, there are two stags here, fight-ing as if they were bit-ter foes. Their great wide-spread ant-lers are locked in-to each oth-er's. It some-times hap-pens in these fights that the ant-lers get so fast-ened to-geth-er that the stags can-not get them a-part. Then they both die. This will show you how quar-rels of-ten have ve-ry sad ends.

THE PET RABBIT.

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TOM and Grace hur-ried through their break-fast, and ran out to feed their pet rab-bit. Grace did not ev-en wait to put on her hat. But, when they came to the hutch, there was no rab-bit there.

"We must tell John to look for him," said Grace. "There he is! Let's run." So they ran down the path to meet the gar-den-er's boy. John said that he would look just as soon as he took the bas-ket of let-tuce to the cook.

DOLL AND I.

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"OH, dear! Oh, dear!

'Tis al-most nine.

The birds all sing, The sun does shine.

Poor Doll and I To school must go: I don't see why, We hate it so.

I hate those let-ters. They twist and turn.

There's no use try-ing: I'll nev-er learn.

Hur-rah! hur-rah!

At last it's two!

I am so glad!

What shall we do?

Come, Doll, let's run.

I'll nev-er go, When I get big, To school, I know; But ev-er-y min-ute of the day I'll spend just as I like, in play."

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MAY AND HER PA-PA.

PA-PA and mam-ma will soon have sup-per; for I see Jane bring-ing it in on a tray. But, un-til they do, May is to ride a c.o.c.k-horse on her pa-pa's knee. Pa-pa goes to town to business ev-er-y day, and, when he comes back, May and her sis-ter Fan run to meet him. They take his hat, and bring his slip-pers, and put him in the big chair in front of the fire; and then they climb up in-to his lap, and play with him. He rath-er seems to like it.

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BELL AND HER PET DOG.

This dog's name is Puck, and a ve-ry wide-a-wake dog he is, as you may see from the pic-ture. His mis-tress is a lit-tle girl named Bell, and he is ve-ry fond of her. At night he sleeps coiled up at the foot of her bed. Some-times when she wakes she finds him ly-ing on the pillow, with his head close to her cheek, and one ve-ry cold night he man-aged to get in bed un-der the clothes. He is a ve-ry clever dog. If you tell him to beg, he will sit on his hind paws and wave his fore paws in the air. If he is thirs-ty, he will bring his cup for you to fill it with wa-ter for him.

The first time Bell ev-er saw her dog was in the street. He had lost his mas-ter, and came to her for help. She could not find his home for him, so she took him home with her, and there he has lived ev-er since. Now he has for-got-ten his old mas-ter en-tire-ly, and cares for on-ly Bell.