t, "Billy, boy,
You never will annoy
Anybody, by your shooting at a mark;
With an arrow and a bow,
I just would like to show,
I can reach the bull's-eye nearer in the dark."

Just then an arrow flew,
That pierced it thro' and thro'
Which made Miss Bunny start, and jump, sky high!
She cried, "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
It's safer in the rear;"
And scampered off and never said,--"Good-bye."

You see the reason why,
'Tis always best to try,
Tho' others laugh and slander all the same;
For be it late or soon,
They'll always change their tune,
When they see your arrow doesn't miss its aim.

A FISH STORY.

HOPE LEDYARD.

Six eager faces, all crowding around to "see the picture!" Four of the
faces belong to girls--Edith and Mamie, Birdie and Jeanie, while Al
and Dick, who are pretty big boys, "over ten," lean over the back of
the chair.

"_He's_ had a good catch," says Al.

"_He's_ not caught those," says Dick, while the girls look first at
the picture and then at the boys. "I guess that fellow standing up in
the boat is his father. The men have caught the fish and the boy takes
them to sell. Why, a fish as big as one of those fellows could pull a
boy right into the water, easy!"

"My brother Dick _knows_," whispers Jeanie, proudly. "He took me
fishing once and I caught two fish."

The little girls look as if they could hardly believe this, so Jeanie
pulls mamma's arm and asks, "Didn't I catch two fish last summer?"

"Indeed she did," says Dick, before mamma has time to answer. "She
caught two sun-fish. I never saw any one do it better. Mother fried
'em for her dinner, too."

"My sister goes to a cooking school and learns to bake fish," says
Edith, "and she is teaching me at home. I know the verse about cooking
fish."

We all begged Edith to say the verse, so, after a little coaxing, she
repeated:

"Our lesson is fish, and in every dish
We would like to meet our teacher's wish.
But many men have many minds,
There are many fishes of many kinds;
So we only learn to boil and bake,
To broil and fry, and make a fish-cake.
And trust this knowledge will carry us through
When other fishes we have to 'do.'"

Edith is a little orphan girl who lives with her grandmother and
sister Minnie. We are all so interested about the cooking class, that
she tells us about how they learn to bake bread