f this favorite bird, assuring you of peace around,
and of the full hour that still remains for you to pursue your walk in
security! How often have I enjoyed this pleasure and how often, in due
humbleness of hope, do I trust that I may enjoy it again."

[Illustration: A SCHOOL GROUND WORTH MANY TIMES WHAT IT COSTS.]

[Illustration: BIRD HOUSES.]

In addition to its great esthetic value of song and plumage, the
Cardinal has another important character which should endear it to the
husbandman. Its food is various, consisting of wild fruits such as
grapes, berries, mulberries, cedar berries, seeds of grasses and of
many species of weeds, also large numbers of adult beetles,
grasshoppers, crickets, flies, ants and their larvae; it is especially
fond of rose-bugs. The Cardinal is from every point of view a bird of
great interest and value, and any person who makes its intimate
acquaintance will form a life-long friendship.

--_Reprinted from Bird-lore._

THE HERMIT THRUSH.

While walking through a lonely wood
I heard a lovely voice:
A voice so fresh and true and good
It made my heart rejoice.

It sounded like a Sunday bell,
Rung softly in a town,
Or like a stream, that in a dell
Forever trickles down.

It seemed to me a voice of love,
That always had loved me,
So softly it rang out above--
So wild and wanderingly.

O Voice, were you a golden dove,
Or just a plain gray bird?
O Voice, you are my wandering love,
Lost, yet forever heard.

--_Arvia Mackaye, 9 years old._

MY LITTLE BO-PEEP.

My little Bo-Peep does not cry for lost sheep--
O no! She is sobbing for bread;
Her hands are so tired, so weary her feet,
That she sighs, "I wish I were dead."

My little Bo-Peep does not wander away
O'er meadows so grassy and green;
'Mid the factory din, face wan, white and thin,
My little Bo-Peep can be seen.

My little Bo-Peep does not dream of white sheep--
Her day's work reaches into the night;
On her pallet of straw, a few hours of rest--
For her task she is up with the light.

O let's find a day for my Bo-Peep to play--
Let's give her a breath of fresh air;
Somehow we'll feel better when giving our thanks
To God for our blessings in prayer.

Marion, Ohio.

--_Isabella Virginia Fr