am
pleased with the interest which you seem to manifest in your school and
studies, and with the industry and application shown by your ready
responses. But for prompt, correct, and distinct answers, which her
teachers tell me have been uniform throughout the term, I award to Miss
Nannie Harvey the first prize." And as Nan, bright and unconscious as
ever, stepped forward to receive it, an almost audible smile passed
round the room, mingled with a murmur of applause.

But after this, as they trudged home together, Patty was almost as
forgetful as Nan of the shabby dress and thick half-worn shoes.

[Illustration]

BLUE VIOLETS.

BY K. M. M.

Listen! No; you can not hear them;
Never do they make a sound,
All these thousand sweet blue flowers
Starting up from out the ground.

Scattered are they up the hill-side,
Hidden in the woodland nooks,
Sprinkled over sunny meadows,
Nestled close by sparkling brooks.

Where, I wonder, have they sprung from?
Do they live in worlds below?
Have they slept the livelong winter
Underneath the soft white snow?

Ah! if only they had voices,
What strange stories they might tell
Of the land where winsome fairies
With the flowers love to dwell!

Oh, you dainty wee blue flowers!
Brightest roses June may bring,
But they can not match your sweetness,
Gentle messengers of spring.

WORK FOR GIRLS.

AN EMBROIDERED WORK-BAG.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--EMBROIDERED WORK-BAG.]

This pretty work-bag has a foundation of splints, wicker-work, Manila
braid, or whatever material of the kind may be found most convenient,
fourteen inches and seven-eighths long and ten inches and a half wide,
which is sloped off on the corners, and trimmed with two strips of
embroidery, separated by a bias strip of blue satin, which is turned
down on the edges an inch wide on the wrong side, and gathered so as to
form a puff. The embroidered strips are worked on a foundation of white
cloth as shown by Fig. 2. For the corn-flowers use blue silk, and work
them in chain stitch. The calyxes are worked in satin stitch with moss
green silk, and the lilies-of-the-valley with white silk. The stems and
sprays are worked in tent and herring-bone stitch with green silk in
several shades. For the ends cut of blue satin two pieces each six
inches and a half wide and seven inches and a quarter high, fold down
the upper edge an inch and a quarter