By _Victor Bluthgen_ 29
CATSKILL-MOUNTAIN HOUSE By _Anna Livingston_ 31
SLEEPING IN THE SUNSHINE (_Music by Robert Mills_) 32

EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.

The present number begins the eighteenth half-yearly volume of "The
Nursery;" and we are happy to inform our friends that the magazine was
never so successful as it is to-day. Thus far, we have entered upon
every new volume with an increased circulation. We look for a still
larger increase in the future; for there are thousands and thousands of
children not yet supplied with the work, for whom no other magazine can
take its place. We have something in preparation for coming numbers
which will make the eyes of our little readers sparkle with delight. Now
is the time for canvassers to go to work with a will.

The illustration by Merrill of the "Three Little Culprits" who were kept
after school to study their spelling-lesson, is one of those happy
touches of nature that every one can appreciate. The poem by Miss
Wadsworth is worthy of the picture.

Children who are trying to learn to draw, will be pleased with the
beautiful subject in our present number. By giving half-an-hour a day to
drawing now, they will acquire a facility and a skill that will not only
be of service to them, but a great pleasure to them, all their lives.

If parents or teachers would like to know of two books by the use of
which teaching may be made a pleasure instead of a task to children,
they cannot do better than order "The Easy Book" and "The Beautiful
Book;" the former containing pieces in prose, and the latter, pieces in
verse, and both of them richly and copiously illustrated with
appropriate pictures. These books are published at "The Nursery" office
by John L. Shorey.

Children who enjoy making paper dolls, will find an advertisement at the
end of this number which is worthy of attention.

[Illustration]

THE LOST RABBIT.

Bunny was a little rabbit, the youngest of a large family. His home
was in an old wood, where the trees were very high, and wild-flowers
grew in great abundance. His mother had given him to understand that
he must not stray away from her, lest he should get lost, and not be
able to find her.

But Bunny, like some young children, was self-willed. He thought his
mother was over-careful; and so, one day, when nobody was watching him,
he slipped away from her, and sat down amid the grass, under two high
beech-