ne behavior. He expected the picture
would be done right away, but Mr. Leatherbee said he would have to send
the plates to Poughkeepsie to his partner, and the pictures would come
soon by the mail. Mr. Leatherbee then put all his apparatus in his wagon
again, and jogged on as he had come.

For the next four days Jimmie went to the post-office about every two
hours.

"Expectin' a love-letter?" said old Mr. Halloway, the postmaster. At
this all the loafers who were sitting on the counter laughed loudly. Jim
made up his mind that Mr. Halloway was a very unpleasant old gentleman,
and vowed all sorts of threats against him. His revengeful plans melted
away, however, when Mr. Halloway handed him a big envelope, and said:
"Here, Bub, yer letter's come."

Jim tore it open, and six photographs dropped out all alike, all
representing Baby eating under a tree. He privately showed one to her
that afternoon. She evidently thought it very handsome, for she
delicately chewed it up out of Jim's hand, to his great amazement. He
says nothing about this when telling how the pony's picture was taken.

MERRY MIKE.

BY FLETA FORRESTER.

[Illustration]

Merry Mike, from his door, bounded out to his play,
With his head in his hat, on a blustering day;
When the wind, of a sudden, came frolicking down,
And lifted Mike's hat from his little round crown.
"He-he!" said Mike, and he said "Ho-ho!
Do you call that funny, I'd like to know?"

[Illustration]

Then he made up his mind to return to the house,
But the merry wind pushed itself under his blouse;
And it roared and it roared, as he puffed and he ran,
Till it just knocked over this queer little man.
"Ho-ho!" said Mike, and he said "He-he!
I'll get up again, Old Wind, you'll see!"

[Illustration]

Then the wind, with a flurry of bluster and racket,
Went crowding and crowding right under his jacket;
And it lifted him off from his two little feet,
And it carried him bodily over the street.
Mike laughed "He-he!" and he laughed "Ho-ho!
Do you call this flying, I'd like to know?"

[Illustration]

But the wind with its antics was plainly not through,
For fiercer and fiercer and fiercer it blew,
Till making one effort of fury intense
It carried Mike neatly right over a fence.
Mike said "Ho-ho!" and "He-he!" together,
"Do you think I am naught but a little hen's-feather?"

[Ill