e spring and summer came,
Her studio grew so dull and tame
She sought the rural solitudes
Of winding streams and shady woods;
For painters' works contract a taint
Unless from Nature's self they paint.

So out Miss Arabella went,
To sketch from Nature fully bent.
It was a lovely summer's day;
A lovely scene before her lay;
Her folding-stool and box she took,
And, seated in a quiet nook,
Her white umbrella o'er her head
(Like a tall giant mushroom spread),
Began to paint; when, lo! a noise
She heard. A troop of idle boys
Came flocking round her, rough and rude.
Some o'er her shoulders leaned; some stood
In front of her, and cried: "Paint _me_!--
_My_ picter I should like to see."
Some laughed, some shouted. "What a set!"
Said Arabella, in a pet:
"And no policeman within hail
To send these ruffian imps to jail."
In fine, she could not work, so went
Straight homeward in great discontent.
She had no brother to defend her,
Nor country cousin to attend her.

[Illustration]

A plan occurred to her next day
To keep these idle scamps away.
An easel by her side she placed,
And over it she threw in haste
A hat and cloak:--and there it stood
In bold and threatening attitude.
The rabble at a distance spied
The scare-crow standing by her side;
And, thinking 't was the town-police,
They left Miss A.V. Brown in peace.

MORAL.

Sometimes, an innocent pretense
Is the best means of self-defense,
And if a scare-crow keeps the peace,
What need to summon the police?

[Illustration: BY THE SAD SEA WAVES.]

UNDER THE LILACS.

BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT.

CHAPTER XXI.

CUPID'S LAST APPEARANCE.

A picnic supper on the grass followed the games, and then, as twilight
began to fall, the young people were marshaled to the coach-house, now
transformed into a rustic theater. One big door was open, and seats,
arranged lengthwise, faced the red table-cloths which formed the
curtain. A row of lamps made very good foot-lights, and an invisible
band performed a Wagner-like overture on combs, tin trumpets, drums, and
pipes, with an accompaniment of suppressed laughter.

Many of the children had never seen anything like it, and sat staring
about them in mute admiration and expectancy; but the older ones
criticised freely, and indulged in wild speculations as to the meaning
of various convulsions of nature going on behind the curta