ment was a
little jacket of tissue-paper. When fished out and placed upon the
pin-head, he boldly started out upon the wire over which his little
clawed toes seemed to fit. In the middle, and over the terrific abyss,
he balanced up and down for a second, stood upon his longest legs, and
then moved on, crossing in safety, and thus ending the circus, at least
for that occasion.

ROCK-A-BYE.

BY MARY N. PRESCOTT.

"Rock-a-bye, babies, upon the tree-top,"
To her young the mother-bird sings,
"When the wind's still, the rocking will stop,
And then you may all use your wings."

"Rock-a-bye, babies, under the eaves,"
The swallow croons to her brood,
"Here you are safer, my children, from thieves
Than if I had built in the wood."

"Rock-a-bye, babies, the river runs deep,"
The reed-bird trills to her flock,
"The river stirs only to sing you to sleep,
The wind your green cradle to rock!"

WHAT BERTIE SAW IN THE FLOWERS.

BY L. G. R.

[Illustration]

Buttercup! Buttercup!
Hold your shining clusters up!
In each little house of gold,
What is this that I behold?
Twenty soldiers, straight and slim,
Golden-helmeted and prim.
All day long so still they stand,
Never turning head or hand;
No one guesses where they stray
In the moonlight nights of May.
When the fairies are abroad,
These small men keep watch and ward;
Round the fairy ring they pace
All night long, to guard the place;
But when morning comes again,
Back are all the little men.

KEEPING THE CREAM OF ONE'S READING.

BY MARGARET MEREDITH.

My plan dates from a few delightful weeks which I spent with a girl
friend, long ago. We were devoted to poetry and to reading aloud; and in
that occupation we had the aid of a brilliant, accomplished young woman.
She selected for us from Coleridge, Shelley, and several other authors,
whose entire works she knew we would not care to read, all the specially
fine poems or passages, and these we read and discussed with her over
our fancy-work. It was charming. At last, she suggested that, as I was
soon to go away and leave the books and clippings with which I had been
growing familiar, it would be helpful for me to write down the choicest
bits, and try in that way to keep in some degree what I had gained. This
I did, putting the extracts in a school copy-book whi