the village or town a place in
which little goes on, the girl is vexed to find herself a wee bit blue.
She wouldn't let anybody divine it; she shakes herself, and calls
herself names in private, but she has to fight to be cheerful, and now
and then she sits down and writes a long letter to her chum, and
indulges in a good comfortable cry, with nobody to guess that she is not
entirely contented, as indeed all sensible people would say she ought to
be. The chum at Bar Harbor or Put-in-Bay, or some nook in the White or
Green or Blue Mountains, some perch in the Rockies, or springs, or
beach, or other gay resort, has had no time to be blue, and _her_ letter
back will be a complete contrast to Jenny's.

Now, my dear Jenny, listen to me! This fit of low spirits will pass
presently, and you will be none the worse for it, if you will just
credit it to the account of reaction. Take hold of whatever work there
is to do in the house, the harder the better, and do it with both hands.
Read an entertaining book, not a study book, but a bright story, the
novel people are talking about, or else the novel of yesterday, which
you have always felt you ought to read, but have not yet had time to
attack in earnest. Hawthorne, Wilkie Collins, Thackeray, Dickens, choose
your author and your book, and float off into the life of imagination,
which cheats the life of the actual of so much of its pain.

Whatever else you do, resolutely speak brightly and look cheerful. The
brave effort to be bright and cheerful on the outside braces up the
inside wonderfully, soul and body, as you know, being such inseparable
partners.

[Illustration: Signature]

WEATHER INDICATIONS.

If you can't afford a barometer to tell you what kind of weather you are
going to have, perhaps the following old proverbs will prove of use in
helping you to prophesy as to whether it will rain to-morrow or not:

If spiders in spinning their webs make the termination filaments long,
we may, in proportion to the length, conclude that the weather will be
serene, and continue so for ten or twelve days.

If many gnats are seen in the spring, expect a fine autumn; if gnats fly
in compact bodies in the beams of the setting sun, there will be fine
weather.

If the garden spiders break and destroy their webs and creep away,
expect rain or showery weather.

If sheep, rams, and goats spring around in the meadows, and fight more
than usual, expect rain.

If cattle leave o