OOD ARE WE;
BUT OUR HIVE YOU MUST NOT SEE.

VOL. XXII.--NO. 1.]

THE WILD BEES' HOME.

WILD bees of the wood are we;
But our hive you must not see:
Here behold our happy home,
Where we labor, where we roam.
Brooks that on their shining bosoms
Catch the overhanging blossoms;
Banks all bright with clustering flowers,--
Here is where we pass our hours.

Seldom on this solitude
Does a girl or boy intrude;
Few among you are aware
What a home is ours, so fair!
In the brook are little fish;
You would like them on a dish:
Keep away, and bring no hooks
To these happy, murmuring brooks.

You would like to find our hoard
Of honey-comb and honey stored;
You would track us, if you could,
Through the field, and through the wood,
Till, within some hollow tree,
You our waxen cells could see.
But beware now what you do;
Treat us well, and we'll treat you.

DORA BURNSIDE.

[Illustration]

PERCY AND THE OXEN.

SUMMER came, and the city streets were dry, dusty, and noisy, and the
bricks made everybody's eyes ache.

So mamma took little Percy, who was only three years old, and the rosy,
fat one-year-old baby, and went away in the steam cars to the green,
fresh, cool, sunny country. Grandpa was left all alone in the still city
home, with good old 'Titia to keep house for him until the family should
come back in the fall.

Well, those who could go to the country had just as much fun as they
could wish for,--sitting out under the trees all the sunny days, and in
the barn, when the sun was too hot for them to want him to shine on
them.

One day, great-aunt Hannah was giving her nephews and nieces a dinner of
corn and beans, and apples and cream, and nice bread and butter, and
they all sat at the table a long time, talking and laughing, and
enjoying themselves.

All at once little mamma said, "Why, where's Percy?" and sprang up, and
ran to the side-door, which opened on to the green.

No Percy was to be seen there: so all began to hunt through the
sitting-room, even through the parlor (where he never played), out in
the kitchen, farther out through the long wood-shed, still farther out
in the carriage-house; b