just take it in your head
To have such things all growing in a lovely garden bed?

[Illustration: {DRINKING FROM A LEMONADE SPRING.}]

"And then I should have planted (if it only had been me)
Some vines with little pickles, and a great big cooky tree;
And trees, besides, with gum-drops and caramels and things;
And lemonade should bubble up in all the little springs.

"I'd like to have the coasting and the skating in July,
When old Jack Frost would never get a single chance to try
To nip our cheeks and noses; and the Christmas trees should stand
By dozens, loaded!--in the woods!--now, wouldn't that be grand?

[Illustration: {PICKING UNUSUAL PLANTS.}]

"Ah! what a world it would have been! How could you, madam, make
Such lots of bread and butter to so very little cake?
I'd have it just the other way, and every one would see
How very, very, very, very nice my way would be.

"But, as I cannot do it, will you think of what I say?
And please, ma'am, _do_ begin and alter things this very day.
And one thing more--on Saturdays don't send us any rain.
Good-by. If I should think of something else, I'll write again."

SYDNEY DAYRE.

[Illustration: {A BOY PLAYING A PIPE TO A DOG.}]

[Illustration: {A BOY AND A GIRL.}]

OUR MAY-DAY AT THE SOUTH.

Out in the woods we went to-day:
Mamma and Nannie, Freddie and May,
Charlie and I, and good old Tray,
Out in the greenwood to romp and play.

To-day, you know, is the first of May;
And we meant to be so jolly and gay:
And celebrate in so merry a way
That we could never forget this holiday.

So first we chose the loveliest queen,
The dearest and sweetest that ever was seen;
For mamma herself was Her Highness Serene,
And we crowned her with rosebuds and evergreen.

Then we kneeled around and vowed to obey
All the laws she made, not only to-day,
But all the year through. Then she waved a spray
Of lilac bloom, and bade us all be gay.

Oh the games we played, and the races we run!
The bars we leaped, and the prizes we won!
Oh the shouting, the singing, the laughter and fun,--
It were hard to tell who was the happiest one!

Then, rosy and tired, we gathered around
Our beautiful queen on the mossy ground;
The hungriest group in the land, I'll be bound.
As the sandwiches, cookies,