s your little cheek,
So rosy and so cool;
And I will tell you all about
The times I had at school.

I said my tables pretty well,
But missed on five times seven:
In spelling I went to the head
(The word, dear, was e-lev-en).

At recess, Nelly Fay and I
A splendid "teter" made:
O dolly! we went up so high,
_You_ would have been afraid.

And Nelly promised she would come
And spend this afternoon:
So, dolly, I must change your dress,
For she will be here soon.

She'll bring with her her stylish doll,
(Miss Maud May Rosalie)
Who wears real ear-rings and a watch
(As vain as she can be)!

Ah, dolly! by her Paris dress
Yours will look plain, I fear;
But you have twice as sweet a face,
My _ownty_ darling dear!

[Illustration]

IDA'S MOUSE.

ONE morning when Ida went to the closet for the birdseed to feed her
canary, she found a wee brown mouse in the bottom of the bottle where
the seed was kept. Instead of screaming and running away, Ida clapped
her fat little hand over the mouth of the bottle, and mousie was a
prisoner.

[Illustration]

Mamma said mousie should be drowned; but Ida begged so hard to keep him,
that mamma got a glass jar, put mousie into it, with a bit of bread and
cheese to keep him company, tied a piece of tin, all pricked with
little holes, over the mouth of the jar, and set it on the shelf.

Ida spent half the day in watching the mouse.

[Illustration]

When papa came home at night, he brought a funny little tin house for
mousie's cage. Mousie was put into it; and he soon began to make the
wire-wheel go round. He turned the wheel so fast and so long, that he
soon made his nose sore. Ida thought he was very tame; but I think he
only wanted to get out and run away.

[Illustration]

One day mousie managed to get his door open and scamper off. Then Ida
cried and cried, and was afraid her dear mousie would starve. But after
a day or two, as grandma was going up stairs, she saw little mousie
hopping up ahead of her.

He ran into Ida's closet. Ida brought the cage; and mamma and grandma
made mousie run into it.

"Perhaps it is not the same mouse," said grandma.

[Illustration]

"Oh, yes, it is!" said Ida. "I know him by his sore nose."

Ida took good care of mousie til