heir troubles, as well as their joys.
Then give us vacation forever,
If we must forever be boys!

BEVERLY MOORE.

[Illustration: "ESCAPED FROM THE THRALDOM OF STUDY,
WE TURN TO THE BABBLE OF BROOKS."]

UNCLE JOHN'S SCHOOL-DAYS.

This picture reminds me, children, of some funny stories that I have
heard your uncle John tell, when he and I were boy and girl together,
of his exploits as a schoolboy. According to his account, not only he,
but most of his schoolfellows, used to lead merry lives enough at
school. They had what they called the "Academy Band," and grand music
it made, with a hat-box for a drum, cricket-bat for violoncello, and
paper flute and trumpets. You would not recognize Uncle John, whom you
know only as a man six feet high, in that little lad on the left side
of the picture with a battledore for a fiddle. They had a great deal
of what he called excellent fun, though I am afraid it sometimes
bordered upon mischief or naughtiness. I used to consider that he and
his schoolfellows were regular heroes as I listened to his stories
when he came home for the holidays; and even now I must confess I
cannot help laughing when I think of some of his naughty pranks.

Uncle John first went to a large school when he was eleven years old,
and I remember now the tremendous hamper of good things he took with
him. The boys who slept in his bedroom were so pleased with the
contents of his hamper that they determined to make a great feast. To
add to their enjoyment, they imagined themselves to be settlers in the
backwoods of America or Australia. They built a log hut with bolsters,
and had a sort of picnic. One of them mounted on the top of the log
hut to look out with his telescope for any approaching savages, while
the others enjoyed their suppers in and about the hut. When their fun
was at its height, the door softly opened, and in walked Dr. Birchall,
spectacles on nose and cane in hand. What followed may be imagined.

You know that Uncle John is an engineer now, and even as a little boy
he had a great turn for mechanical inventions. Well, he pondered over
some means by which such a sudden interruption to the enjoyment of
his schoolfellows might be prevented in future; and I will tell you
what he did.

It happened that the large room in which he slept formed the upper
floor of a wing of the house which had been added to it when it became
a school; and