The sunbeams then in through the windows crept
To the children in their beds;

They poked at the eyelids of those who slept,
Gilded all the little heads.

"Wake up, little children," they cried in glee,
"And from dreamland come away!

We've brought you a present: wake up and see;
We have brought you a sunny day!"

CLASS RECITATION.

HOW THE LEAVES CAME DOWN.

-The Kindergarten.

"I'll tell you how the leaves came down,"
The great Tree to his children said,
"You're getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,
Yes, very sleepy, little Red:

It is quite time you went to bed."

"Ah!" begged each silly, pouting leaf,
"Let us a little longer stay;

Dear Father Tree, behold our grief;
'Tis such a very pleasant day,
We do not want to go away."

So just for one more merry day

To the great Tree the leaflets clung,
Frolicked and danced, and had their way,
Upon the autumn breezes swung,
Whispering all their sports among.
"Perhaps the great Tree will forget,
And let us stay until the spring,

If we all beg and coax and fret."

But the great tree did no such thing;
He smiled to hear their whispering.

"Come children, all to bed," he cried,
And ere the leaves could urge their prayer,
He shook his head and far and wide,

Fluttering and rustling everywhere,
Down sped the leaflets through the air.
I saw them; on the ground they lay,
Golden and red, a huddled swarm,
Waiting till one from far away,

White bed-clothes heaped upon her arm,
Should come to wrap them safe and warm.
The great, bare Tree looked down and smiled,
"Good-night, dear little leaves," he said,
And from below each sleepy child

Replied "Good-night," and murmured,
It is so nice to go to bed.”

-Susan Coolidge.

THE LITTLE CLOUD.

A pretty little cloud away up in the sky,
Said it didn't care if the world was dry;
It was having such a nice time sailing all around,
It wouldn't, no it wouldn't, tumble to the ground.

So the pretty little lilies hung their aching heads,
And the golden pansies cuddled in their beds.

The cherries wouldn't grow a bit; you would have pitied them;
They'd hardly strength to hold on to the little slender stem.

But by and by the little cloud felt a dreadful shock
Just as does a boat when it hits upon a rock;

Something ran all through it, burning like a flame,

And the little cloud began to cry as down to earth it came.
Stern old Grandpa Thunder as he growled away,
Said, "I thought I'd make you mind before another day;
Little clouds were meant to fall when the earth is dry,
And not go sailing all around away up in the sky."

And busy Grandma Lightning flitting to and fro,
Said, "What were you made for, I should like to know,
That you spend your precious time sailing all around,
When you know you ought to be buried in the ground."
So the lilies and the pansies all began to bloom,
And the cherries grew and grew and took up all the room,
And by and by the little cloud, with all its duty done,
Was caught up by the rainbow and allowed a little fun.
-Canada School Journal.

ONE, TWO, THREE.

It was an old, old, old, old lady,
And a boy who was half-past thre;
And the way they played together
Was beautiful to see.

She couldn't go running and jumping,
And the boy, no more could he,

For he was a thin little fellow,

With a thin, little, twisted knee.

They sat in the yellow sunlight,
Out under the maple tree;

And the game that they played I'll tell you,
Just as it was told to me.

It was hide-and-go-seek they were playing,
Though you'd never have known it to be-

With an old, old, old, old lady,

And a boy with a twisted knee.

The boy would bend his face down
On his one little sound right knee,
And he'd guess where she was hiding,
In guesses One, Two, Three!

"You're in the china-closet!"

He would cry, and laugh with glee-
It wasn't the china-closet;

But he still had Two and Three.

"You are up in Papa's big bedroom,
In the chest with the queer old key!"
And she said, "You are warm and warmer;
But you are not quite right," said she.

"It can't be the little cupboard,

Where Mamma's things used to be-
So it must be the clothes-press, Gran'ma?"
And he found her, with his Three.

Then she covered her face with her fingers,
That were wrinkled and white and wee,
And she guessed where the boy was hiding,
With a One and a Two and a Three.

And they never had stirred from their places,
Right under the maple tree-

This old, old, old, old lady,

And the boy with the twisted knee

This dear, dear, dear old lady,

And the boy who was half-past three.

-H. C. Bunner.

FALL FASHIONS.

"The Maple owned that she was tired of always wearing green, She knew that she had grown of late too shabby to be seen!" The Oak and Beech and Chestnut then deplored their shabbiness, And all, except the Hemlock sad, were wild to change their dress. "For fashion-plates we take the flowers," the rustling Maple said. "And like the Tulip I'll be clothed in splendid gold and red!" "The Cheerful Sunflower suits me best," the lithsome Beech replied; "The Marigold my choice shall be," the Chestnut spoke with pride. The sturdy old Oak took time to think-"I hate such glaring hues, The Gilly flower, so dark and rich, I for my model choose." So every tree in all the grove, except the Hemlock sad, According to its wishes ere long in brilliant dress was clad.

And here they stand through all the soft and bright October days; They wished to look like flowers-indeed they look like huge boquets. -Edith M. Thomas, in Wide Awake.

TOMMY'S SCHOOL.

"Geography's a nuisance, and arithmetic's a bore!"

Said Tommy, with a frown upon his face.

"I hate the sight of grammars, and my Latin makes me roar;

It's always sure to get me in disgrace.

"When I'm a man he added," as he threw his school-books down,

"I'll have a school that boys will think is fine!

They need not know an adject ve or adverbfrom a noun,

Nor whether Cæsar bridged the Po or Rhine.

"I don't care if they do think that George the third was King of Spain, When those old fogies lived so long ago.

Or if they all should answer that the Volga is in Maine,

What difference would it make, I'd like to know?

"But instead of useless things, I'll teach 'em how to coast and skate;

They shall all learn to row and sail a boat,

And how to fire a pistol, and to shoot a rifle straight,

And how to swim, and how to dive and float.

"We'll play at tennis and at cricket all the livelong day;

And then there's polo, and-oh, yes, foot-ball;

And base ball they shall every single one learn how to play;
For that's the most important thing of all.

"I tell you," finished Thomas, "I'l have one of just that kind;
Then all the boys, you see, will want to go.

They will not run away and say my school's an 'awful grind,'
Or call the lessons dull and hard, I know."

IN China a man who killed his father was executed, and along with him his schoolmaster for not having taught him better.

WE earnestly commend the following pathetic lines to the prayerful consideration of those who have forgotten to pay for THE SCHOOL JOURNAL:

Lives of poor men oft remind us

Honest men don't stand a chance;

The more we work there grows behind us
Bigger patches on our pants.

On our pants, once new and glossy,
Now are stripes of different hue;

All because subscribers linger

And won't pay us what is due.

Let us then be up and doing;

Bring your mite, however small,

Or when the winds of winter strike us

We shall have no pants at all.-Ex.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

The State Association of County Superintendents at its last meeting resolved "That it is the sense of this Association that the school book law of this state should be amended so as to require the school book companies to place the text-books used in the schools of this state in the hands of local dealers, and that county superintendents and trustees be relieved from all responsibility concerning the same without imposing any extra duties upon the school book companies." The legislature that enacted the present school book law of this state, in order to secure cheap books for the people devised a plan by which the books were to be distributed for nothing, or nearly nothing. This plan left out the local bookseller entirely and provided that books be shipped directly to the trustees and that he provide for their distribution. The method was an experiment and has proved unsatisfactory. The trustees are not usually prepared to keep and handle the books and are generally not located so as to be easily accessible to the people. The trustee cannot afford to give his time and the people cannot afford the time to make special trips for books. Neither can teachers afford to turn booksellers on the first day of school when a thousand other things are claiming their attention. The last legislature tried to relieve this def. ct in the law by a supplemental act providing that the trustee shall pay five per cent, out of the special school fund, in order to secure the handling of the books by the trade, when the contractor shall agree to pay five per cent. for the same purpose.

The contracts under law, of course, cannot be changed except by mutual agreement, but we are informed that the Indiana Book Co., which supplies most of the books has agreed to the proposition and is willing to pay its part of the cost, so that the people may get their books through the regular trade channels. The trustees ought to jump at this chance and make the arrangement at once. The cost to each