e caresses me,
How much I love him, for to part
From him I know would break my heart.
C. D. B.
THE FROG AND THE GEESE.
Two wild geese, when about to start southwards for the winter, were
entreated by a frog to take him with them. On the geese consenting to do
so if a means of carrying him could be found, the frog produced a stalk
of long grass, got the two geese to take it one by each end, while he
clung to it in the middle by his mouth. In this manner the three were
making their journey, when they were noticed by some men, who loudly
expressed their admiration of the plan, and wondered who had been clever
enough to discover it. The proud frog, opening his mouth to say, 'It was
I,' lost his hold, fell to the earth, and was dashed to pieces.
_From_ LA FONTAINE.
AN INDIAN CUSTOM.
'Look here!' said a young fellow as he opened the door of the log-house,
in Canada, where he and a friend were 'camping out.' 'See what I have
found dangling from a tree in the forest;' and he held up for his
friend's inspection a tiny pair of leather moccasins gaudily embroidered
with coloured beads.
'You must put those back where you found them,' said his friend quickly.
'They are of no value,' interrupted the other; 'there is a hole in the
toe. I expect some Indian mother hung them there to get rid of them.'
'No! no! they were hung there because the child who wore them is buried
under that tree, and these moccasins are put there for its use in the
next world,' explained his friend.
'Oh, if that's the case!' said the young fellow, 'I will go back at
once, and replace the little shoes, for I would not hurt their feelings
about their dead friends for anything.'
So the little shoes were once more hung on the bough of the big
fir-tree.
Mistaken as are the Red Indian's ideas of the next world, he is yet as
careful as we are to honour the last resting-place of his loved ones.
S. C.
THE BOY TRAMP.
(_Continued from page 15._)
CHAPTER III.
Mr. Turton lent me the newspaper in which he had read the account of the
wreck of the _Seagull_, and upstairs, in the room which I shared with
two other fellows, I sat down on my bed to master it.
It appeared that the skipper of the vessel, with seven of the crew, had
been landed by a British cargo steamer at Hobart Town, Tasmania. The
_Westward Ho!_ had picked them up in a small boat about seven days out
from Capetown.
According to the stor
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