eautiful.

W. P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S., A.L.S.

[Illustration: The Cooking Lesson.]

MARY'S REWARD.

'Mary, we want to ask a favour.'

'And what is that, Miss May?'

'We want to learn how to cook. Mother said perhaps if we were very good,
you would give us a lesson.'

So said little May, the youngest of the Trevor tribe of boys and girls,
who were now at home for the holidays.

'Well, if the mistress is willing, _I_ am,' replied the good-natured
cook. 'Do the young gentlemen want to learn, too?'

The two boys shook their heads. 'No, no,' cried Guy, the elder; 'too
many cooks spoil the broth!'

Mary soon set the girls to work, with the utmost patience and
good-humour, giving her lesson meanwhile. The boys, in spite of the
laughing remarks which they occasionally made, were immensely
interested; as for the girls, they threw themselves into their task
with such a zest that Mary declared, in time, they would all make
first-rate cooks.

'I don't believe any one but _you_, Mary, would have such patience,'
said Ellen, one of the maids, as she passed through the kitchen.

'Oh, Mary will have her reward one day,' laughed Elsie; 'you see if she
doesn't, Ellen.'

But little did Elsie think, as she said these words, of what Mary's
reward would be.

No one looking into the cook's sunny face would dream that she had any
sorrow hidden in her heart; but it was so. Her dearly loved and only
brother had gone away to sea, many years before, and from that day to
this Mary had never heard a word of him. But so unselfish was she, that
she would not allow her trouble to shadow any one else around her.

In the afternoon the girls wended their way to the neat little
cottage-home where dwelt Mrs. Jones and her children. She was the widow
of a sailor, and so poor that but for Mrs. Trevor's kindness she would
often have been in great straits. Her face looked quite bright as she
welcomed her visitors, and showed them into the back room where she had
been sitting at needlework.

'We have brought you some pastry of our own making,' said Elsie, 'and
some other things besides.'

'Then it's very, very kind of you, Miss,' was the grateful reply. 'I am
well off just now, for I have a lodger for a few days, who pays me
wonderfully well. He is a sailor man--a captain, I believe--and he says
he once knew my husband. The children are in with him now,' went on the
woman; 'he has taken a wonderful fancy to them all.'

Then said little