that was very inviting, and she sat down upon it with great satisfaction; but she did not rest very long, for she discovered her couch was rather damp, being made of rain drops, and her beautiful pink petticoat became dripping wet.

"I will go and visit the sun,” she said; "he will no doubt let me dry my clothes at his fire; he is a kind old fellow, and is always smiling."

She mounted her broomstick, and off she flew to the sun. He gave her a very warm reception, and she concluded to stay with him a week; but she noticed that whenever anything crossed his path, he grew quite hot at the idea of being eclipsed, and, disturbed by his hasty temper, she made her visit very short.

"I will visit the moon, she seems to have a cooler temper," muttered the old woman. As she drew near to the moon she was surprised to find that fickle lady was making faces at her. "Oh, oh !" said she, "is that the way you do? I've heard poets praise you as being beautiful and fair to look upon; I think you have been spoiled by your many admirers."

Just then she looked about to see if there were any cobwebs to be swept away, and what do you think she saw? Numbers of bright and merry stars, and they were winking and blinking at her.

Shaking her funny old head, she cried out, "You saucy misses, you are very bright, to be sure, but you need not make fun of me, for I have a pretty good broom, and I might sweep you all out of sight."

Just then the old lady heard a great rumbling and clatter. "Hark! what is that?" she asked; "it sounds like thunder. Ah! I see; two immense black clouds were hurrying along, and were not polite enough to turn out of one another's way, and consequently bumped together so hard that a streak of fire flew off, and that was the lightning."

How the old woman laughed; but one big cloud actually wept, and the old woman's mantle was drenched with the drops of water; she hunted about to see where she could hang her mantle to dry, and she discovered the equinoctial line, and, taking a fork of a road for a clothes-peg, she soon had her garments flying in the air.

By this time her broom was nearly worn out, and the sky being so wet she thought she would use a mop; while mopping to and fro, she heard a great buzz, and turning her eyes towards the earth, she saw crowds of men with queer-looking instruments looking up at her mop. She heard them say, "Oh, there is the comet! How swiftly it travels through the sky! How many miles do you suppose it journeys in a minute?"

The old woman laughed to herself, and said: "I am afraid I shall have to use my old broom down there, for there are more cobwebs in their heads than I'll find in the sky."

Overcome with laughing, the old lady sat down on (was it the constellation ?). "I am dry," she exclaimed; "I believe I'll go to the milky way and see what I can find there to drink." (Foolish old woman, to suppose that a collection of stars by that name was a milk dairy. It seems she, too, had a few cobwebs.)

Tired of sweeping and mopping, she thought she would go home;

how to get there was the question. Her broom was worn out, and her mop she most obligingly left for men to wonder about. At that moment she saw an eagle soaring upward. "Stop, fine bird, and let

me ride on your back.'

The eagle, remembering what the poet once sung, "On eagles' wings I take my flight," was willing to oblige the old woman, and drooped his wings, and soon the old lady was mounted. Round and round, higher and higher he soared, till his rider was dizzy; when she murmured at his flight, he suddenly swooped down and landed his burden upon a lone rock. Now she was in trouble; for she could not get down the mountain; a storm was raging overhead, and she waited until it was over, when, seeing a beautiful rainbow at her feet, she seated herself upon it, and gently slid down until she found herself landed in the top of a tree.

This made trouble, for a robin had her nest there, and her birdies were nearly frightened to death by the strange visitor. Mr. Robin flew to the top of the tree, and sang as loud as he could, and this was the meaning of his song. "Friend Wind, come to our aid; a funny, big bird is near our nest; come and blow about the tree to scare our visitor away."

The mischievous wind, ever ready for fun, came and shook the tree, and, while he rocked the baby robins to sleep, he succeeded in shaking the old woman to the ground.

And this is enough of the little old woman and her broom for this time.

THE PET LAMB.

ONE bleak, boisterous afternoon in March a little boy, called Alfred Herbert, was seated by his papa in the gig, driving homewards. Mr. Herbert was a country surgeon, and had been making a long round among his patients. There was nothing that Alfred liked better than to go out in this way with his papa; but this time he had been obliged to go farther than he expected, and it was getting dark and very cold, and they had still a long way to go. Alfred was only five years old. The wind blew in his face, and his cape would open and fly back. Then his toes began to ache and smart, his fingers were quite stiff, and as to his nose, it was as red as a poppy and as cold as ice.

"How long shall we be now, papa?" he had asked about ten times. At last it began to snow, and when he felt the cold flakes come. patting against his cheeks and resting on his poor frozen nose, he could bear it no longer, and began to cry.

Just then they were passing a hedge, and a cow put its head over and gave a loud moo, moo. It was so near that it made Bobby the pony start, and made Alfred stop crying. "Why, the cow seems to have something to say to us," said his papa. "What does it say?" asked Alfred in a lamentable voice. "Don't you think it sounded like 'Moo, moo, how do you do?"" said his papa. At this Alfred laughed so

heartily that he quite forgot the cold, and went on merrily for a quarter of an hour.

But next he began to feel hungry, and to think of the warm room at home, and the bright fire, and Lucy and his mamma; and then he remembered his aching toes again, and very nearly began to cry a second time; but his papa said, "Make haste, Bobby! Trot along and take us home quickly." So Alfred commanded himself, and did not cry. At this minute a little boy stopped them at the corner of a lane, and said he had been waiting to speak to Mr. Herbert. He said his poor father was very ill; his head was bad, and he had had no rest for two nights. "Poor man!" cried Alfred; "let us go and make him well, papa.

Mr. Herbert turned off the road, and went to the poor man's house. Before he went in, he told Alfred to run up and down the lane twenty times, and then get into the gig again. So Alfred ran up and down twenty times with all his might, and just as he was climbing up the step again, his papa came out. "Will the poor man soon be better?" he asked.

"Yes, I think he will," said Mr. Herbert. So Alfred was very glad; and then his papa wrapped him up so warm and snug in a cloak that he called it his nest, and felt quite comfortable, and did not care for the cold at all.

On they went again, and now they came to the common that was just outside the town where they lived. The wind blew across the wide common, and whistled among the thick furze bushes; the clouds scudded away over the sky, and the moon went sailing along, sometimes hiding her face behind them, and then shining out round and clear. Alfred kept watching the bright moon. "Here comes a great black cloud to hide it," he cried.

"See how the black cloud's edges turn all bright and silvery, as they come over the moon," said his papa.

'Now the moon has gone to bed behind a cloud," cried Alfred ; ah, there it comes again!"

"And look," said his papa, "how the white snow sparkles all over when it comes again."

"I can see the lights from the windows in the town now," said Mr. Herbert; "we shall be home in a quarter of an hour." So Alfred began to clap his hands and say, “Ah, mamma, you don't know how near we are to you!"

Just as he spoke, they heard a low baa, baa, quite close to them — so close that it made Mr. Herbert stop the gig. They listened, and it came again, baa, baa, in a soft, pitiful tone. "It must be a lamb," said Mr. Herbert; "but I can see no sheep or any creature near us." "Perhaps it is a poor little lamb that has lost its mother," said

Alfred.

1

Mr. Herbert got out and was going to look by the road side, but Bobby, who was impatient to get to his stable, would not stand still, so that he was afraid to leave him. "Let me go, papa," cried Alfred, jumping up out of his snug nest and bustling down the step; “Ill go and look for the little lamb."

"Climb up the bank by the road side," said his papa, “and look in the ditch."

Alfred was soon at the top of the bank, but he could see nothing. Still the sound went on, fainter and more pitiful than ever. "Shall I get down into the ditch, papa?" said he.

"Yes, if you think you can manage it," answered his papa. So Alfred began to get down, slipping and sliding and jumping, and was soon out of sight.

"I've found the poor little lamb, papa," he soon called out from the bottom of the ditch. Mr. Herbert had now led Bobby to the edge of the bank, and asked Alfred whether he could lift up the lamb. try," answered he.

"I'll

Some time passed, in which the lamb bleated more than ever, and the frosty sticks and snowy dry leaves in the ditch crackled and rustled, but nothing was heard of Alfred. "What are you doing, Alfred?" Mr. Herbert called.

"I'm coming," he was answered out of the ditch in a panting voice as if quite out of breath; "It's very difficult to get up the side." Mr. Herbert took the reins over his arm, and leaned as far as possible over the bank; and then, with great effort Alfred contrived to raise the lamb up within his reach, and to give it to him. Then he clambered up himself.

"Will the poor little lamb live?" said he, looking at it as it lay quite quiet over his papa's arm.

"It is stiff with the cold, and most likely nearly starved," said Mr. Herbert; "it is very young not more than a week old, I should think." "Let us make haste home," cried Alfred; "mamma will make it get well."

Mr. Herbert lifted Alfred in, put the lamb on his knees, covered them both with the cloak, jumped in himself, and off went Bobby as fast as he could trot. They were at their own door in no time. Out ran little Lucy, before they had even rung the bell; out came James, the groom, to take the pony to the stable; then out came mamma to the door to welcome them, and it all looked bright and warm inside. Mr. Herbert lifted Alfred out, and he went tottering along with his poor little lamb in his arms, too full of anxiety about it to speak a word.

"Where did you get this poor little lamb?" asked Lucy; " and what is the matter with it?

"We found it in a ditch," answered he, " and it is cold and hungry. Come, mamma, and tell us what to do to make the lamb well."

Their papa and mamma soon came in, and found the two children sitting by the lamb, stroking and petting it. Their mamma sent directly for a blanket to lay it on, and moved it further from the fire. Then she

brought a saucer of warm milk and held it close to its mouth, but it could not drink; so she dipped her fingers in, and put them into its mouth, and it began to suck them. Then in a minute, to the great joy of the two children, it began to lap up the milk, and did not stop till it had finished it all. "Now do not fear." she said; "it will get well, I think."

Lucy patted and kissed it, and then Alfred pulled off his worsted

glove and stroked it; but when his cold little hand lay on the white, soft wool, they all laughed, for it was as red as the worsted comforter, which he still had on.

"My dear little fellow," said his mamma, "now we must take care of you; why, how cold you are!" So first she made the tea, and ran for the toast and fresh eggs, and then put put on the bread and milk to boil; and then she took Alfred on her lap, and took off his cap and cape and comforter, and kissed his bright, rosy cheeks; and then she pulled off his boots and socks, all wet with clambering in the ditch; and then Lucy went for dry ones for him, and she put them on. Then they all sat down to tea, and told their adventures, and laughed and talked away. Every now and then Lucy and Alfred stole on tiptoe to look at the lamb, which had fallen fast asleep. Before they went to bed it had another saucer of milk, and then they got a basket with some hay in the bottom, and placed the little creature in it, blanket and all, and left it there for the night.

The very first thing in the morning the two children went, hand in hand, to look at the lamb. It started up and stood on its feet when they went near it, then bleated and seemed frightened; but when it felt their soft hands patting and stroking its head, it seemed to get quiet; and when they brought some milk, it drank out of their hands, and finished all up. After breakfast, as it was a sunny morning, Mr. Herbert said it might go out into the garden; so Lucy tied a pretty blue ribbon round its throat for a collar, and it was tethered to a stake on the lawn. It jumped about and frisked now and then; sometimes it bleated and pulled at its cord, but then the children went and stroked it, and said, "Be happy, little lamb!" and gave it more milk.

Mr. Herbert found out the farmer to whom it belonged; but he said he should like the little boy to keep it, as he had saved its life. Alfred said it should be Lucy's lamb too; and it grew prettier and stronger and more playful, and they called it Daisy. It soon became so tame that it would come into the room, and follow them in their walks, and they were very fond of it, and always took care of it.

POLITENESS. Boys and girls must be polite. When you come down stairs in the morning, say, "Good-morning," to all in the room. When you go up stairs to bed be careful to say, "Good-night," in the same way. If you see older persons looking for chairs, try to help them if you can. Little boys should lift their hats politely when they are spoken to in the street, and they should always take off their hats when they go into a house. These may seem like small things, but a true gentleman or lady will never forget them. Be polite in small things. Be as polite at home as when away from home. Always be ready to do a kindness to any one who may need it. You know that you like to have people kind to you. Do to others as you would have them do to

you.