y would grow;
Bet you they'd fool everybody in town!
But mother--she says they need lickin', an' so
They're too busy hollerin' to git up an' grow!

"RINGWORM FRANK"

BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Jest Frank Reed's his _real_ name--though
Boys all calls him "Ringworm Frank,"
'Cause he allus _runs round_ so.--
No man can't tell where to bank
_Frank_'ll be,
Next you see
Er _hear_ of him!--Drat his melts!--
That man's allus _somers else_!

We're old pards.--But Frank he jest
_Can't_ stay still!--Wuz _prosper'n here_,
But lit out on furder West
Somers on a ranch, last year:
Never heard
Nary a word
_How_ he liked it, tel to-day,
Got this card, reads thisaway:--

"Dad-burn climate out here makes
Me homesick all Winter long,
And when Springtime _comes_, it takes
Two pee-wees to sing one song,--
One sings '_pee_'
And the other one '_wee_!'
Stay right where you air, old pard.--
Wisht _I_ wuz this postal-card!"

THE COLONEL'S CLOTHES

BY CAROLINE HOWARD GILMAN

Every man has some peculiar taste or preference, and, I think, though
papa dressed with great elegance, his was a decided love of his old
clothes; his garments, like his friends, became dearer to him from their
wear and tear in his service, and they were deposited successively in
his dressing-room, though mamma thought them quite unfit for him. He
averred that he required his old hunting-suits for accidents; his summer
jackets and vests, though faded, were the coolest in the world; his
worm-eaten but warm _roquelaure_ was admirable for riding about the
fields, etc. In vain mamma represented the economy of cutting up some
for the boys, and giving others to the servants; he would not consent,
nor part with articles in which he said he felt at home. Often did mamma
remonstrate against the dressing-room's looking like a haberdasher's
shop; often did she take down a coat, hold it up to the light, and show
him perforations that would have honored New Orleans or Waterloo; often,
while Chloe was flogging the pantaloons, which ungallantly kicked in
return, did she declare that it was a sin and a shame for her master to
have such things in the house; still the anti-cherubic shapes
accumulated on the nails and hooks, and were even considered as of
sufficient importance t