, you know; they'll be so
glad, they won't know what to do."

So I staid; and pretty soon there was a great scampering, and bustling,
and climbing up on chairs, to fasten a large sheet over the opening of
one of the doors, and then the grandest of the company--which consisted
of Charley, the TREMENDOUS DOG, and myself--were put, with a great many
polite speeches, into the best places in front; and the rest shook, and
jumped, and tumbled themselves into seats behind us--and all the lights
were put out, and everybody was in a perfect state of delightful
expectation, as they shouted: "Here we are, mamma, with all our eyes
staring at the sheet ready for the show."

Then the little mother went into the next room with the magic lantern,
and lighted a lamp inside, and placed it close to the sheet. In a
moment, a large, bright circle of light appeared on the sheet--and in a
moment more, we saw a splendid picture of Daniel in the Lions' Den; the
lions with their fierce-looking mouths wide open, and their sharp claws
spread out as if they would snap up Daniel the very next instant--upon
which the children raised such a shout that I thought my head was coming
off--and it was quite fortunate that the picture was changed to one of
Moses in the Bulrushes, which delighted the children beyond every thing;
but when there came a picture of little Samuel praying--a low murmur
of--"Oh! how lovely! what a good little Samuel! how I love him!"
sounded softly through the room.

There was one picture of a cross old school ma'am, with a great hook
nose, and a long whip, looking so savage at three poor little children
that did not seem to know their lessons--that Minnie cried out:

[Illustration: THE PICTURE IN THE MAGIC LANTERN.]

"Oh! see the poor chillens! they don't know their A, B, C. Ah! I so
sorry for them!" and then all the children said: "Poor things! why
don't they run away--I would! Because she looks so cross! let's scratch
a smile on her face with a pin, and _make_ her look pleasant."

But the best picture of all was Noah's Ark. First the ark came on
alone--then a plank seemed to be put down--then came the great
elephants, lions, tigers, and bears, marching up the plank two and two
into the ark--and after them all the rest of the animals in the world,
getting smaller and smaller, until little wee monkeys, and kittens, and
mice, and robins, and grasshoppers, and blind beetles, and big spiders,
and tumble-bugs, ran and hopped, and