Chapter M: J. T

DOG PRINCE.

"Shake hands, Prince!"
Black as a coal, and curly, too.
Is the dog I introduce to you.
He gives at once his right-hand paw,
None a softer one ever saw.

"Beg, Prince!"
Up he rises on his hind legs,
Flies both little fore-feet, and begs,
Not for money, nor food, nor clothes,
But merely to show how much he knows.

"Speak, Prince!"
You'd think from that first growling note,
He'd a bumble-bee inside his throat;
'Tis not a bee, but only a bark;
For answer, shrill and eager, hark!

"Roll over, Prince!"
He'll do all other things you ask;
But this is a task, a dreadful task.
He hates the dust on his silky hide
And in the fringe of his ears beside.

"Roll over, I say!"
Such a struggle as he goes through;
He wants to do it, and don't want to!
He rubs one black ear on the floor,
Rubs a little, and nothing more.

"Ah, Prince! Ah, Prince!"
Do you call that minding? Yet, I find
Yours is a common way to mind:
Willing to do what you like to best,
And only half-way doing the rest.

MRS. CLARA DOTY BATES.

WHERE THE PRETTY PATH LED.

Little Fred went to spend his long vacation with his grandpa and grandma in the country. Fred's grandpa had an old white horse named Betsy. He had owned her ever since mamma was a little girl, and Fred and Betsy soon became great friends.

Every day grandma would give Fred two biscuits, two apples and two lumps of sugar in a little basket and he would take them over to the pasture. Betsy soon learned to expect him, and waited for him at the bars. She knew that half of what was in the basket was meant for her.

A very pretty path came in at one end of the pasture. Fred often wondered where it went, but he never dared to go in very far alone. One day his two cousins, Alice and Frank, came to make grandma a little visit. Grandma told Fred he must show them all over the farm. The next morning, after he had taken them out to lunch with Betsy, he thought it would be a good chance to go down the little path. Alice and Frank said they would like to go very much. Fred was still a little afraid, and kept very near Alice. But he forgot everything else, when, at the end of the path, they came upon a lovely little pond. It was all covered with great white lilies and their green pads.

They wanted to get some lilies to take home. They tried to reach them from the bank, but lilies have a provoking way of growing just out of reach. Then they tried to hook them in with sticks, but got only three or four, without stems. Then they looked for a board to use as a raft.

At last Frank said they must wade for them. He and Fred took off their shoes and stockings, pulled up their trousers, and went in. Fred used a long stick to feel the way before him, so as not to get into water too deep.

This time they were successful, and got just as many lilies as their hands would hold.

Grandma was delighted with them; she said she had not had any lilies from that old pond since grandpa used to bring them to her years and years before.

MRS. F. T. MERRILL.

A LETTER TO MOTHER NATURE.

"You dear old Mother Nature, I am writing you a letter,
To let you know you ought to fix up things a little better.
The best of us will make mistakes--I thought perhaps if I
Should tell you how you might improve, you would be glad to try.

"I think you have forgotten, ma'am, that little girls and boys
Are fond of dolls, and tops, and sleds, and balls, and other toys;
Why didn't you--I wonder, now!--just take it in your head
To have such things all growing in a lovely garden bed?

"And then I should have planted (if it only had been me)
Some vines with little pickles, and a great big cooky tree;
And trees, besides, with gum-drops and caramels and things;
And lemonade should bubble up in all the little springs.

"I'd like to have the coasting and the skating in July,
When old Jack Frost would never get a single chance to try
To nip our cheeks and noses; and the Christmas trees should stand
By dozens, loaded!--in the woods!--now, wouldn't that be grand?

"Ah! what a world it would have been! How could you, madam, make
Such lots of bread and butter to so very little cake?
I'd have it just the other way, and every one would see
How very, very, very, very nice my way would be.

"But, as I cannot do it, will you think of what I say?
And please, ma'am, _do_ begin and alter things this very day.
And one thing more--on Saturdays don't send us any rain.
Good-by. If I should think of something else, I'll write again."

SYDNEY DAYRE.

OUR MAY-DAY AT THE SOUTH.

Out in the woods we went to-day:
Mamma and Nannie, Freddie and May,
Charlie and I, and good old Tray,
Out in the greenwood to romp and play.

To-day, you know, is the first of May;
And we meant to be so jolly and gay:
And celebrate in so merry a way
That we could never forget this holiday.

So first we chose the loveliest queen,
The dearest and sweetest that ever was seen;
For mamma herself was Her Highness Serene,
And we crowned her with rosebuds and evergreen.

Then we kneeled around and vowed to obey
All the laws she made, not only to-day,
But all the year through. Then she waved a spray
Of lilac bloom, and bade us all be gay.

Oh the games we played, and the races we run!
The bars we leaped, and the prizes we won!
Oh the shouting, the singing, the laughter and fun,--
It were hard to tell who was the happiest one!

Then, rosy and tired, we gathered around
Our beautiful queen on the mossy ground;
The hungriest group in the land, I'll be bound.
As the sandwiches, cookies, and tarts went round.

When the sun was low and shadows were gray,
Down from her throne stepped our fair Queen of May,
And through the green fields led homeward our way,
While we gave her sweet thanks for this beautiful day.