How long she played Miss Celia never minded, but when she stole out to see if Ben had gone she found that other friends, even kinder than herself, had taken the boy into their gentle keeping.  The wind had sung a lullaby among the rustling lilacs, the moon’s mild face looked through the leafy arch to kiss the heavy eyelids, and faithful Sancho still kept guard beside his little master, who, with his head pillowed on his arm, lay fast asleep, dreaming, happily, that “Daddy had come home again.”

(To be continued.)

[Illustration:  A TALK OVER THE HARD TIMES.]

COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD.

BY MARGARET VANDEGRIFT.

  When you’re writing or reading or sewing, it’s right
  To sit, if you can, with your back to the light;
  And then, it is patent to every beholder,
  The light will fall gracefully over your shoulder.

[Illustration]

  Now here is a family, sensible, wise,
  Who all have the greatest regard for their eyes;
  They first say, “Excuse me,” which also is right,
  And then all sit down with their backs to the light.

  But their neighbors, most unhygienic, can’t see
  Why they do it, and think that they cannot agree,
  And always decide they’ve been having a fight,
  When they merely are turning their backs to the light.

SECRETS OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

BY WILLIAM H. RIDEING.

I believe that the youngsters in our family consider my study a very pleasant room.  There are some books, pictures, and hunting implements in it, and I have quite a large number of curious things stored in little mahogany cabinets, including a variety of specimens of natural history and articles of savage warfare, which have been given to me by sailors and travelers.  In one of these cabinets there are the silver wings of a flying-fish, the poisoned arrows of South Sea cannibals, sharks’ and alligators’ teeth, fragments of well-remembered wrecks, and an inch or two of thick tarred rope.

The latter appears to be a common and useless object at the first glance, but when examined closely it is not so uninteresting.  It measures one and one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and running through the center are seven bright copper wires, surrounded by a hard, dark brown substance, the nature of which you do not immediately recognize.  It is gutta-percha, the wonderful vegetable juice, which is as firm as a rock while it is cold and as soft as dough when it is exposed to heat.  This is inclosed within several strands of Manilla hemp, with ten iron wires woven among them.  The hemp is saturated with tar to resist water, and the wires are galvanized to prevent rust.  You may judge, then, how strong and durable the rope is, but I am not sure that you can guess its use.