is adversary. Bang! went
the pistol, and the Stork had won. His adherents crowded around him
cheering vociferously, and raising him aloft upon their shoulders above
the crowd. Even the Cassowary came forward and shook hands with him.

"Recollect, hereafter," said the successful Stork to the poor Crane, who
stood dejectedly to one side, "not to scorn and undervalue qualities in
any one, because they are not flaunted in the eyes of the world."

The Crane's adherents maintained that it was a foul start, while the
Stork's friends answered that when two birds ran a race, it could not
well be anything else.

The frogs, the mice, and most of the small birds, were divided among the
successful betters; and, altogether, it was a day of rejoicing, except
to the frogs, the mice, and most of the small birds.

* * * * *

WINTER FIRE-FLIES.

BY MRS. W. N. CLARKE.

One by one appearing
In their lower sky,
Come a host uncounted
Like the stars on high,
Flashing lights uncertain,
Ever changing place,--
Tricksy constellations
That we cannot trace!

Throbbing through the elm-tree
Little heart of fire!--
One in lonely longing
Rises ever higher;
Flits across the darkness,
Like a shooting star,
While the changeless heavens
Calmly shine afar.

When the flames are lighting
All the chimney dark,
When the green wood hisses,
And the birchen bark
In the blaze doth redden,
Glow and snap and curl,
Fire-flies, freed from prison,
Merrily dance and whirl.

Children on the hearth-stone,
Peering up the flue,
See a mimic welkin,
Lights that twinkle through,--
Sparks that flash and flicker,
Little short-lived stars,
On the sooty darkness
Glowing red as Mars!

Eager eyes a-watching
Fain would have them pause.
Catch these fire-flies--can you?--
In a web of gauze!
Ever upward flying
Toward the chimney's crown--
Up to meet the snow-flakes
As they flutter down!

THE ARMS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

BY SUSAN ARCHER WEISS.

My young readers have doubtless often observed upon familiar objects,
such as books, china and steelware, etc., the device of a lion and a
horse (sometimes represented as a unicorn) supporting between them a
shield, surmounted by a crown. On the shield are certain divisions
c