ake with the rheumatism."

"We're going to sing to you, too," was Tommy's rejoinder.

Then he and Jessie sang "It's coming, coming nearer, that lovely land
unseen," and "O, think of the home over there" and Phoebe's favorite:

"In the far better land of glory and light
The ransomed are singing in garments of white,
The harpers are harping and all the bright train
Sing the song of redemption, the Lamb that was slain."

Jim wiped his eyes as they finished. He and Phoebe had once had a
little boy and girl, but both had long, long been in the "better land."
Yet though he wept it was in gladness, for the reading and singing had
seemed to open a window through which he might look into the streets of
the heavenly city.

Thus Tommy and Jessie had brought sunshine to the cottage on that rainy
Sunday afternoon. They had given the cup of cold water--surely they had
their reward.

How Sammy Earned the Prize.

BY MRS. M.E. SANGSTER.

"And now," said the Principal, looking keenly and pleasantly through his
spectacles, "I have another prize offer to announce. Besides the prizes
for the best scholarship, and the best drawing and painting, and for
punctuality, I am authorized by the Trustees of this Academy to offer a
prize for valor. Fifty dollars in gold will be given the student who
shows the most courage and bravery during the next six months."

Fifty dollars in gold! The sum sounded immense in the ears of the boys,
not one of whom had ever had five dollars for his very own at one time,
that is in one lump sum. As they went home one and another wondered
where the chance to show true courage was to come in their prosaic
lives.

"It isn't the time when knights go round to rescue forlorn ladies and do
brave deeds," said Johnny Smith, ruefully.

"No, and there never are any fires in Scott-town, or mad dogs, or
anything," added Billy Thorne.

"But Sammy Slocum said nothing at all," Billy told his mother. "Old
Sammy's a bit of a coward. He faints when he sees blood. Of course he
knows he can't get the prize for valor, or any prize for that matter.
His mother has to take in washing."

"William," said Billy's father, who had just entered, "that is a very
un-American way of speaking. If I were dead and buried your mother might
have to take in washing, and it would do her no discredit. Honest work
is honest work. Sammy is a very straight sort of boy. He's been helping
at the store Saturday mornings, an