"He calls us and gives us crumbs.

"Now it is bed time for chickens and ducks and rabbits and kitties and dogs and babies."

They ran in their downy nightgowns till they came to the porch. There lay baby Ray in his mamma's arms. He was just closing his eyes. She was telling him this story:

"One dog that was given him to keep, keep, keep,

Two little kitty-cats, creep, creep, creep,
Three little rabbits, leap, leap, leap,

Four ducks from the duck pond, deep, deep, deep,

Five downy chickens, peep, peep, peep,
All saw baby Ray asleep, sleep, sleep."

-EUDORA BUMSTEAD (Adapted).

thirst'y

pur'ple cool get

A fox was going through the woods one day. He had run far. The day was warm, and he was very thirsty.

"How thirsty I am!" said he.

His long, red tongue was hanging out, as he ran along. He looked

around for water, but not a spring nor a brook

could he find.

At last he stopped to rest under a tree. A grapevine grew around the tree, and out along the branches. Just over the fox's head, purple grapes were hanging from the vine.

"Here are good purple grapes," said the fox, looking up into the tree. "I can find no water. Maybe some grapes would cool my tongue. I will get some and see."

He jumped, but could not reach the grapes. He jumped again. Still he could not reach them. How cool and good they looked! He wanted them more and more.

He lay down and rested. Then he jumped again. The grapes were just a little too high for him to reach. He jumped and jumped and jumped, but not a grape could he get.

"I don't care," he said, as he trotted away. "I don't want the grapes. They are sour."

66

May we go to see grandma and grandpa to-day, father?" asked Jo and Ethel one summer

trees. The air was cool.

Bob trotted fast; for he too likes to go to grandma's. He was thinking of the grass and clover in grandpa's pasture. How good it was!

The children had a fine time that day. They played in the barn and hunted eggs for grandma. They fed the pigs and the chickens. They climbed the old apple trees for apples to eat

When the day was over, grandma placed a basket of big, red apples in the cart, and the children started for home.

"Good-bye, grandma! Good-bye, grandpa!" they called, as Bob trotted down the road. "Next time we come, we will bring mother."

Before they reached home, Bob lost a shoe. Soon he began to limp. The stones in the road hurt his foot, and he walked slowly. More than once, Jo let him stop to rest in the shade.

"In

"The pony must have another shoe, Jo," said Mr. Gray, when they reached home. the morning, ride over to the blacksmith's shop, and ask the blacksmith to shoe him again."

The next morning, when Jo ran down to the

barnyard, he could not find Bob.

had fed him only a short time before.

Mr. Gray

He had