by was
half-way across a bridge. The pigeon had lain nestled under Uncle Tom's
coat; and the warmth seemed to make it feel better. First it put one
round bright eye out, then the other, and took a peep at the people
sitting near it.

Then, I think, its back must have ceased aching; for it grew lively, and
stirred around. Uncle Tom felt it moving, and was afraid that it would
presently try to get away: so he held it as close as he could without
hurting it.

But just as he thought how safe he had it, and how tame it would be when
it had lived with its little mistress a while, it popped its head out
again.

It popped so far out this time, that there was nothing to take hold of
but its tail-feathers. Uncle Tom clutched those firmly; but, to his
great astonishment, the pigeon gave another spring, and pulled itself
away, leaving all its beautiful tail-feathers behind it.

Away it flew, down the car, over the heads of the people, out of the
door, past the head of the conductor (who did not know that he had such
a strange passenger), and out over the water, back to Boston.

Uncle Tom was left with only a handful of dark-gray feathers to take
home with him; and little Emily had no pet pigeon, after all.

AUNT EMMIE.

THE CHICKEN AND THE DOG.

Tantalus, as the old Greek fable tells us, was King of Lydia. Being
invited by Jupiter to his table, he heard secrets which he afterwards
divulged. To divulge a secret is to make it vulgar, or common, by
telling it.

Poor Tantalus was punished rather severely for his offence; but he had
sinned in betraying confidence. Sent to the lower world, he was placed
in the middle of a lake, the waters of which rolled away from him as
often as he tried to drink of them.

Over his head, moreover, hung branches of fruit, which drew away, in
like manner, from his grasp, whenever he put forth his hand to reach
them. And so, though all the time thirsty and hungry, he could not, in
the midst of plenty, satisfy his desires.

Therefore we call it to tantalize a person to offer him a thing he longs
for, and then to draw it away from him.

[Illustration]

In the picture, a little chicken is looking up at a spider which sits
over her in the midst of its web. She watches it, hoping that it will
come so near to her little bill, that she can peck at it, and swallow
it.

But the spider is on its guard. To and fro it swings, letting itself
down a little bit, but never so far as to be in a