tail, and slender, flexible toes, they are among the best climbers in the world; and they are brave, too. Mice of one of the tribes are said to be like little bears. 7. They must be nimble, as their food consists of insects, especially flies, which they are very fond of. When they go in pursuit of them their aim is as sure as that of the swallow. 8. If you can get some one to catch a fieldmouse for you, it will be a pretty pet,-a little Thumbling, with which you may amuse yourself. It will burrow and build in a cage, as well as anywhere, if you give it something to work with. What is it creeps amidst the corn? Oh, children dear, don't do her ill! What can better please, When your mind is well at ease, Than a walk among the green fields in May? To see the verdure new, And to hear the loud cuckoo, While sunshine makes the whole world gay: When the butterfly so brightly And the bee goes by with business-like hum, When the fragrant breeze and soft, And the children's hair, as laughingly they come : When the grass is full of flowers, And the hedge is full of bowers, And the finch and the linnet piping clear, Where the branches throw their shadows On a footway through the meadows, With a brook among the cresses winding clear. RHYMING WORDS. W. ALLINGHAM. Write the last words of the first and second lines in each stanza; then of the fourth and fifth. Do they rhyme with each other? What lines are left? EXPRESSION. - To be read musically, but not with sing-song tones. LANGUAGE. The verdure is the green grass and the leaves. The butterflies and bees are insects. Bowers are little arbors or shady places made by the branches of the trees or bushes. Cresses are plants found on the edges of brooks. They have a hot, biting (pungent) taste, and are eaten at table as a salad. 1. Baby Calla had been put into her little bed by the kind gardener. It was not a clean white bed with pretty hangings, in which she lay. There were no great, fluffy pillows for her golden head to nestle against. The sheets that covered her were brown and damp, and the place was very dark. 2. When the man made up the bed for the little baby, he took great pains to have it smooth and nice. He patted it gently with his trowel, and left the blankets off all day, that the sun might warm it. 3. Then he laid the little baby in very carefully, and covered her over with the brown blankets. He did not allow even the tip of her nose to show above them. 4. Baby Calla did not want to be covered up. But the wise old gardener knew what was best for such little tots, and he packed her snugly in. Oh, how cruel to make me lie here in this dark place!" cried the little one. "It was bad 66 enough, I am sure, in the box, but this damp, musty bed is a thousand times more dreadful!” 5. Then she lay quite still, thinking. 66 'I wonder how long I am to stay here!" she cried, after trying in vain to drop off to sleep. Then she tried to throw off the blankets, but they were so heavy she could not lift them. 66 6. Oh dear, oh dear! How very tiresome it is, to be sure! If I were only a little bigger, I would not be many minutes in getting these dirty old bedquilts off my poor head. How I do wish that I could grow!" 7. Just then a clear, soft light from a pretty lantern lit up the place where she lay, and something cool touched her face. 66 "Wait," said a queer little voice beside her,wait, and you shall grow." 8. "How do you know that ?" asked baby Calla, gazing in wonder at the handsome lamp which the stranger carried. "Oh," was the reply, "I have seen hundreds of nice babies, just like you, put in the beds and covered up. They always come up beautifully." 9. How do they get out?" asked baby Calla. "Well, they grow-and grow-and grow, until they are quite large enough and strong enough 66 |