Master Tommy probably looks on while the repairs are being made, and is much interested by the dexterity with which the mender does his work.  The old and broken canes are cut away, and the new strips are woven into a firm fabric, with little eight-sided openings left in it.  The overlapping ends of the ribbons are trimmed with a sharp knife, and the chair-seat is as good as new.

It seems so easy that Tommy thinks he could have done it himself; but when he experiments with a slip of cane that the mender gives him, he finds that chair-mending is really a trade that must be learned.

Some chair-menders are blind men, and it is still more interesting to watch them at their work.  The plaiting of the canes is done as unerringly by their unseeing fingers as by the men who can see, and with wonderful quickness.  Occasionally the business is combined with that of basket-making, and should we follow poor old “Chairs-to-mend” home, we might discover his family busy weaving reeds and willowy branches with the same cleverness the father shows in handling the canes.

TWO KITTIES.

BY JOY ALLISON.

[Illustration]

  Two little kitties
    Wandered away
  Into the prairie
    One summer day. 
  One on two feet,
    Rosy and fair,
  Almost a baby,—­
    “Golden Hair.”

  Four feet,—­useless,
    Eyes fast closed,
  Borne in a basket
    The other dozed. 
  Searching in terror
    Far and wide,
  “Golden Hair’s” mother
    Moaned and cried.

  Mother Puss calmly
    Following slow,
  Listening,—­calling
    Meoh!—­Meoh!—­
  Mother Puss found them,
    A little heap,
  Down in the deep grass
    Fast asleep.

“HARE AND HOUNDS.”

[Illustration]

  “What shall we do?” the children said,
  By the spirit of frolic and mischief led,
  Frank and Lulu and Carrie, three
  As full of nonsense as they could be;
  Who never were known any fun to stop
  Until they were just about ready to drop.

  Frank, whose “knowledge-box” surely abounds
  With games, spoke up for “Hare and Hounds.” 
  “Down the cellar, or up the stair,
  Here and there, and everywhere,
  You must follow, for I’m the Hare!”
  Lulu and Carrie gave quick consent,
  And at cutting their papers and capers went,
  For the stairs were steep, and they must not fail
  To have enough for a good long trail. 
          Away went the Hare
          Right up the stair,
  And away went the Hounds, a laughing pair;
          And Tony, who sat
          Near Kitty, the cat,
  And was really a dog worth looking at,
          With a queer grimace
          Soon joined the race,
  And followed the game at a lively pace! 
          Then Puss, who knew
          A thing or two,