heir really wonderful instincts, but there is nothing
more curious in this respect than the habits of the little chickens,
which most of us have opportunities of noticing,--if we choose to take
the trouble. These little creatures, almost as soon as they are born,
understand what their mother "clucks" to them; they know that they must
hide when a hawk is about; they often scratch the ground for food before
they see their mother or any other chicken do so; they are careful not
to catch bees instead of flies; and they show their early smartness in
many ways which are well worth watching.

But, sometimes, a brood of these youngsters find something that puzzles
them, as when they meet with a hard-shelled beetle, who looks too big to
eat and yet too small for a playmate.

[Illustration]

RAIN.

BY EDGAR FAWCETT.

Oh, the Rain has many fitful moods
Ere the merry summer closes,--
From the first chirp of the robin-broods
To the ruin of the roses!

Through the sunshine's gold her glitter steals,
In the doubtful April weather,
When the world seems trying how it feels
To be sad and glad together.

Now and then, on quiet sultry eves,
From her low persistent patter,
She would seem confiding to the leaves
An extremely solemn matter.

Then, again, you see her from the sky
Such a mighty flood unfolding,
That you wonder if Old Earth knows why
It receives so hard a scolding!

Yet we learn to fancy, day by day,
As we watch her softly shining,
That she has no cloud, however gray,
But it wears a silver lining!

For in autumn, though with tears she tells
How the lands grow sad and darken,
Yet in spring her drops are tinkling bells
For the sleeping flowers to hearken!

And her tinted bow seems Love's own proof,
As it gleams with colors seven,--
Like a stately dome upon the roof
Of her palace, high in heaven!

SNEEZE DODSON'S FIRST INDEPENDENCE DAY.

BY MRS. M.H.W. JAQUITH.

The usually quiet town of Greenville was in a hurly-burly of excitement
on this Fourth of July morning, because of the great Sunday-school
picnic, which was to take place on a fine ground, two miles distant. In
the fervor of patriotism and the bustle of preparing for the
picnic-celebration, almost every house in the village resounded with
shouts and noises; and all the children were on the tip-toe of
expectation and delight. Deacon Ebenezer Dodson