At last she started up, and found she had been lying on the bed.  The faint light of the early dawn was coming through the eastern window-panes.  Where was baby?  Oh! what had Nellie done with him?  She jumped from the bed, ran here and there, but could not find him.

At last she looked in the cradle, and there he was, lying snugly asleep.  Without knowing what she had done, she had put him in the cradle, and had covered him up, and then, without undressing herself, had gone and lain down on the bed.  “Oh, you darling, you darling!” cried Nellie; but the tears came to her eyes, and she could say no more.

MARY ATKINSON.

[Illustration]

  ANNIE’S WISH.

  “I wish I were a fairy,—­
    A fairy kind and good,
  I’d have a splendid palace
    Beside a waving wood. 
  And there my fairy minstrels
    Their golden harps should play;
  And little fairy birdies
    Should carol all the day.

  “A hundred fairy minions
    On my commands should wait;
  And want and pain should never
    Be known on my estate. 
  I’d send my fairy heralds,
    To solace, soothe, and aid;
  And love and joy and pleasure
    Each dwelling should pervade.”

  “But, ah! you’re not a fairy,
    Dear little Sister Ann;
  So pray now be contented,
    And do the best you can. 
  To parents, friends, and teachers,
    Be docile, true, and fond,
  And you will work more wonders
    Than with a fairy’s wand.”

GEO. BENNETT.

[Illustration:  Outline Drawing by MR. HARRISON WEIR, as a drawing lesson.]

[Illustration]

  GRANDPA’S PIGS.

Mamma says that I am only a little boy; but I think I am quite big.  I shall be six years old next May.

Last summer, mamma took me to grandpa’s, to stay a few weeks.  When we got to the house, I asked grandpa if I might go with him every day to feed the pigs.  He said, “Yes.”

So the next morning I went.  There were four large pigs, and six little ones; and, when the food was put into the trough, they were all so eager to get it, that they kept tumbling over one another.

One morning, there was not a pig in the pen.  We hunted everywhere, but could not find them.  At last, grandpa said, “They must be in the turnip- garden.”  Sure enough, there they were.

The moment they saw us, they scampered; but, after a while, we got them all back in the pen.  Then grandpa said he wanted to know how they got out:  so we hid in the barn.

By and by, an old pig peeped around, to see if anybody was watching.  As he saw no one, he grunted, as much as to say, “All right,” and started for a large hole beneath the fence.  But, before he could get out, grandpa nailed a plank over the hole.

I wanted a pig to take home
with me; but grandpa said it
would not live in the city.