"I've spun a piece of hempen cloth, And I want to spin another,

A little sheet for Mary's bed,

66

And an apron for her mother.'

And with that I could not help but laugh,
And I laughed out loud and free;

And then on the top of Caldon-Low
There was no one left but me.

"And all on the top of the Caldon-Low
The mists were cold and
gray,
And nothing I saw but the mossy stones
That round about me lay.

"But as I came down from the hill-top,

I heard, afar below,

How busy the jolly miller was,

And how merry the wheel did go.

"And I peeped into the widow's field,
And sure enough were seen

The yellow ears of the mildewed corn
All standing stiff and green.

"And down by the weaver's croft I stole, To see if the flax were high;

But I saw the weaver at his gate

With the good news in his

eye.

This is an excellent poem to teach the lesson of unseen helpers. Note the persons helped," the poor old miller," "blind old widow," and "the poor lame weaver." Why should the fairies select these to receive help?

What part did the brownie take in this helping-hand society? Note the effect of the laugh. Was it all a dream?

XL.-HOW TO SELECT A BOY.

A gentleman advertised for a boy, and nearly fifty applicants presented themselves to him. Out of the whole number he selected one and dismissed the rest.

"I should like to know," said a friend, "on what ground you selected that boy, who had not a single recommendation ?"

"You are mistaken," said the gentleman; "he has a great many. He wiped his feet when he came in and closed the door after him, showing that he was

careful. He gave his seat instantly to that lame old man, showing that he was thoughtful. He took off his cap when he came in and answered my questions promptly, showing that he was gentlemanly.

"He picked up the book which I had purposely laid on the floor and replaced it on the table, and he waited quietly for his turn, instead of pushing and crowding, showing that he was honorable and orderly. When I talked to him I noticed that his clothes were brushed, his hair in order. When he wrote his name I noticed that his finger-nails were clean.

"Don't you call those things letters of recommendation? I do; and I would give more for what I can tell about a boy by using my eyes ten minutes than by all the letters he can bring me."

XLI.-TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the world's masses Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear
Your portion of labor and worry and care?

XLII. THE OLD SCRAP-BOX.

The Pansy.

Mr. Peters, a somewhat eccentric old merchant, stuck up a notice in a window of his store that there was a "boy wanted," and the card remained there a great while before he got the boy he was after. John Simmons and Charley Jones, and one or two besides, were taken for a few days, but none of them stood trial.

Mr. Peters had a peculiar way of trying them. There was a huge long box in the attic, full of old nails and screws, and miscellaneous bits of rusty hardware, and when a new boy came the old gentleman presently found occasion to send him up there to set the box to rights, and he judged the quality of the boy by the way he managed the work. All pottered over it more or less, but soon gave it up in disgust, and reported that there was nothing in the box worth saving.

At last Crawford Mills was hired. He knew none

of the other boys, and so did his errands in blissful ignorance of the "long box" until the second morning of his stay, when in a leisure hour he was sent to put it in order. The morning passed, dinner-time came, and still Crawford had not appeared from the attic. At last Mr. Peters called him. "Got through ?" "No, sir; there is ever so much more to do."

"All right; it is dinner-time now; you may go back to it after dinner."

After dinner back he went. All the short afternoon he was not heard from, but just as Mr. Peters was deciding to call him again, he appeared.

"I've done my best, sir;" he said, "and down at the

very bottom of the box I found this." "This " was a five-dollar gold piece, which Crawford handed to Mr. Peters.

"That's a queer place for gold," said Mr. Peters; "it's good you found it. Well, sir; I suppose you will be on hand to-morrow morning?" This he said putting the gold piece into his pocketbook.

After Crawford had said good-night and gone Mr. Peters took the lantern and went slowly up the attic stairs. There was the long, deep box in which the rubbish of twenty-five years had gathered.

Crawford had evidently been to the bottom of it; he had fitted in pieces of shingle to make compartments, and in the different tills he had placed the articles, with bits of shingle laid on top, labeled thus: