By Aston Moore.

Toodles was dreadfully meddlesome.  He could not leave things alone.  If you took the slippers away from him, he tried to eat the mat.  If you put the mat outside the door, he tore the corner of the tablecloth.  And when the cloth was folded up, he sharpened his teeth on the legs of the table.

One evening he learned a lesson which made him a better dog.  He was shut in the kitchen, to keep him out of mischief.  The plates and dishes were on the shelves out of reach.  There was no carpet on the floor.  And his sharp teeth could not do much harm to the plain deal legs of the chairs and table.

But there was a lighted candle in a tall brass candlestick upon the table.  Toodles scrambled onto a chair, jumped to the table, and tried to bite the candlestick.  He could not break or tear it, but he soon knocked it over, and the candle rolled to the floor, where it lay burning in a pool of grease.  Toodles ran to play with the candle.  Next moment, he was racing round the room, screaming with pain and fright.  He had burned his paw.

[Illustration:  Toodles.]

If he is mischievous now, you have only to show him a lighted candle.  It makes him quiet and good at once.

THE DOOR OF SPRING.

By Helen M. Richardson.

     April unlocks the door of spring,
     And soon you’ll hear a robin sing. 
     A bluebird perched upon a tree
     Will woo his mate.  Perchance you’ll see
     An early redwing, if you go
     Down to the swamp where catkins grow. 
     For April warden is, of all
     The things that went to sleep, last fall.

     Just where the field mouse and the toad
     Have burrowed; where, beside the road,
     The grasshopper and katydid
     All winter have been safely hid;
     And when the bumblebee will come
     A-booming back with pleasant hum? 
     April can tell you, for ’tis she
     Opens the door that sets them free.

ADOPTING A GRANDMOTHER.

By Mary Starr Coney.

“Oh, Eloise!  Where are you going?” Marjorie Blake rushed down the steps as she caught sight of her friend dressed in her very best clothes and carrying a small valise.

“Guess where!  It’s the best place in the whole world!”

“Away on the train?” questioned Marjorie eagerly.

“Of course.  My grandma doesn’t live here.  Goodness!  I told you!” laughed Eloise.  “Would you have guessed?”

“No, for I didn’t know you had a grandma.”

“Why, of course, I have!  Haven’t you?”

“No, Eloise.”

“How awful!” Eloise dropped the valise in her dismay.  “Why, Fannie Green has two.  I’ve only one, but she is the sweetest, beautifulest grandma you ever saw.  I’m awfully sorry you haven’t got one.  But here comes mamma, so good-by.”