up and moved the eggs round with her feet, to arrange them as
she wished before she would settle down; but when Bobby and Betty
peeped in, a little later, she was all comfortable for her long wait
of three weeks. Joe put grain and water near by, and Bobby and Betty
peeped in almost every day.

One day when the children went near the nest, they heard little
peeping sounds, and ran to tell Joe. He came and lifted up the little
bantam hen, although she scolded and pecked at him; and in the nest
Bobby and Betty saw six little pheasant chicks and one egg that did
not hatch. The pheasant chicks were little brown downy things, and Joe
took hen, chicks, nest and all, and made a little coop for them under
the orchard trees. The little chicks were very lively and very
shy--not like hen chicks; they loved to run away and hide in the
grass, and the children could hardly find them at all when they looked
for them. Mother Bantam would cluck and run back and forth in the coop
and call to them, she was so afraid something would happen. At last,
one day, Joe decided to let the little bantam run with her brood, and
show them how to scratch and find worms. So he took away the slats
from the foot of the coop, and Mrs. Bantam stepped out.

The children saw the hen and chicks in the orchard grass. The little
pheasants ran through the orchard and the little bantam hen followed
them. What became of them nobody knew, and they have never been seen
since. Joe thinks they are still out in the woods, and that the little
pheasants are teaching their mother how to get her own food
there.--_Selected_.

* * * * *

"Not mighty deeds make up the sum
Of happiness below:
But little acts of kindliness,
Which any child may show."

* * * * *

[Illustration]

WHERE THE JASMINE BELLS WERE RINGING

BY ALICE MILLER WEEKS

The pine woodland was dark and sweet and cool, and grandmother and
little Emily were walking through it, hand in hand, enjoying its peace
and fragrance. The trees grew so closely on either side of the narrow
path that hardly a glimpse of blue sky could be seen overhead, and not
a shaft of golden sunlight was bold enough to shine down through the
glossy pine needles, as both were thinking.

"Why, yes there is!" little Emily called suddenly, as if answering her
own thoughts aloud. "There's a sunbeam over there--right where the
trees are thickest!"