Is blow-ing bub-bles with pipes of clay.

Tom took a ba-sin deep and wide,
And Har-ry brought his mug be-side;
They fil-led them quite with soap-suds white,
And each to blow the big-gest tried.

Poor Tom, he blew with might and main,
And so, of course, he blew in vain;
For all his trou-ble he made no bub-ble,
But Tom was brave and tried a-gain.

Till Har-ry said, "Dear Tom, you see,
You blow too hard; now--look at me.
There! that will rise to-ward the skies,
And float a-bove the li-lac tree."

A-PRIL SHOW-ERS.

"Thou makest the earth soft with show-ers: Thou bless-est the spring-ing
there-of."--PSALM lxv. 10.

When A-pril skies be-gin to frown,
And the cold rain comes pelt-ing down,
We must not grum-ble nor com-plain,
Nor i-dly say, we hate the rain.

God sends the rain; the dust-y ground
It soft-ens in the fields a-round;
The mois-ture ev-e-ry plant re-ceives,
And springs a-fresh in flow-ers and leaves.

Should God for-bid the show-ers to fall,
Nor send us any rain at all,
The ground would all grow hard and dry,
And ev-e-ry liv-ing plant would die.

All things would starve and per-ish then--
No food for birds, nor beasts, nor men;
Then do not mur-mur, nor com-plain,
God, in His good-ness, sends the rain.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: "SNAP, BE GOOD!"]

"SNAP, BE GOOD!"

"Dear lit-tle Snap, you fun-ny pup,
I love to see you beg,
So cle-ver-ly do you sit up
And bend each slen-der leg,
Drop-ping the paw;
And raise your ears a-bove your head,
Look-ing so very wise;
You seem to know I have some bread;
And then, such bright green eyes
I never saw.

"Your shag-gy coat is long and rough,
Your tail is rough-er still;
Now, Snap, I think you've had e-nough,
And more would make you ill--
In-deed it would.
But sis-ter Lot-ty has some cake,
And so if you will sit
Quite still and good, till I say 'Take!'
Then you shall have a bit;
So, Snap, be good!"

THE STRAY KIT-TEN.

"Come, Kit-ty, come; you need not fear,
Nor make that plain-tive mew;
Don't be a-fraid, but ven-ture near,
And lap the milk we bring you here,
For none will in-jure you.

"And, Kit-ty, since you've lost your way,
You need no fur-ther roam;
But stop, and dine with us to-day,
And then, if you would wish to stay,
Poor Kit-ty, here's your home.

"And we will feed you fine and fat,
On fresh new milk and nice;
And, when you grow to be