is so great that few boats can live
in it. In ordinary circumstances, however, ships can sail right across
the Maelstrom without much danger, and the tales about the vessels and
whales which have been engulfed in the stream are more or less pure
fables.

The Dog and the Telephone.

An intelligent dog was recently discovered wandering about the streets
of an American city, by a gentleman who knew it. He at once asked its
master by means of the telephone whether he had lost his dog. The reply
came "Yes; have you seen it?" To which the further instruction was sent,
"Suppose you call him through the telephone." Accordingly the dog was
lifted up and the ear-piece placed at its ear. "Jack! Jack!" shouted its
owner, whereupon Jack, recognising the voice, began at once to yelp most
vigorously, and licked the telephone in a friendly way, evidently
thinking that its master was inside the machine.

A QUEEN OF THE BEACH.

(_See Coloured Frontispiece._)

We played together on the sands,
We roamed the moors for heather,
We climbed the cliffs with clasping hands
In the wild and windy weather;
And sweet were my little queen's commands
As we merrily played together.

Her eyes were blue as the limpid sea
When the morning sun is on it,
Her locks were bright as the corn might be
With the blaze of noon upon it,
And her scarlet cap was a charm to me,
But her laughing lips outshone it.

So fearless was the little maid,
Not a danger could astound her,
With her bucket and her busy spade,
On the sea-bound shore I found her,
Of the winds and the waves all unafraid
While the sea-gulls floated round her.

And many a house of sand we reared,
The walls with shells adorning,
While boats our happy playground neared,
And breakers gave us warning
That though we neither paused nor feared,
All would be gone next morning.

A. M.

[Illustration]

The "Little Folks" Humane Society.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

The Editor desires to inform his Readers that the names of Officers and
Members of The LITTLE FOLKS Humane Society will be printed in the
Magazine as usual during the next six months, but that after the present
Volume is completed, and when Fifty Thousand Names have appeared, the
publication of the Lists will be discontinued. As, however, the
operations of the Society will still be carried on, and some accounts of
its progress will from time to tim