how ugly it was till I saw you
behave so yourselves. And please, if it is true, don't ask the fairy to
make me little again, for I mean to be good now."

As for Winnie, darling Winnie, she lay all night in Bessie's arms, her
head hugged close to her breast. And the piece of whalebone stood
bolt-upright in Bessie's match-box, where she had stuck it that it might
always remind her of the lesson of that day.

[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S WELCOME TO GENERAL GRANT.--DRAWN BY A. B.
FROST.--[SEE PAGE 94.]]

HOW AUNT PAM BECAME A SMUGGLER.

BY MRS. FRANK McCARTHY.

My name is Tom Barnes, and I live on the other side of the river, just
far enough from New York to go there once in a while with pa to a show.
That's all the city's good for, anyway. We can't get up shows here very
well; but when it comes to other fun, we can beat you city folks all
hollow. You see, you haven't got the things to work with that we
have--the woods and water and things. But I'll tell you about Aunt
Pam--her name is Pamela, I think, but we call her Pam for short. She
wasn't ever married, though I guess she's old enough. Somebody once said
Aunt Pam was an old maid; but that can't be, for old maids are always
cranky, and get out of bed backward every morning. Now Aunt Pam was
never cranky in her life; and I know she gets out of bed like everybody
else, for I've slept with her many a time. And nobody in their senses
would call Aunt Pam old, and you'd better believe she's jolly. The house
ain't anything without Aunt Pam.

My sisters are all girls, you see, and so taken up with worsted-work,
and practicing, and one thing and the other, that I don't know what I'd
do without Aunt Pam. I tell her everything; but I couldn't about the
smugglers' cave, because the fellows wrote it all down in black and
white, and we took a solemn promise to keep it a secret. We all live
close to the water; and having everything handy, we made up our minds
we'd make a smugglers' cave. We got to work lively; and while some of
the fellows were digging out the bank, others chopped down small trees
and bushes, and made a covered archway to crawl under, so that the
opening of the cave couldn't be seen. We pulled the young twigs and
vines down over the chopped ones, rolled logs inside for seats, and
things began to look quite ship-shape.

It was no easy job, I can tell you. We worked like beavers to get the
cave the way we wanted it; but when it was done, it was wha