The dawn of the day was now appearing, and old Thor told one of his companions to row me across the lake, and put me on my right road. [Illustration] [Illustration] TWO LITTLE KITTENS. Two little kittens, one stormy night, Began to quarrel and then to fight, One had a mouse, the other had none, And that was the way the quarrel begun. "_I'll_ have that mouse," said the biggest cat, "_You'll_ have that mouse, we'll see about that," "I _will_ have the mouse" said the eldest son. "You _shan't_ have that mouse," said the little one. I told you before 'twas a stormy night, When these two little kittens began to fight; The old woman seized her sweeping broom, And swept the two kittens right out of the room. The ground was covered with frost and snow, And the two little kittens had nowhere to go, So they laid them down on the mat at the door, While the old woman finished sweeping the floor. Then they both crept in as quiet as mice, All wet with snow and cold as ice; For they found it was better, that stormy night, To lie down and sleep, than to quarrel and fight. [Illustration: "OUCH!"] [Illustration] THE LABOR OF AUTHORSHIP. David Livingstone said: "Those who have never carried a book through the press can form no idea of the amount of toil it involves. The process has increased my respect for authors a thousand-fold. I think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book." "For the statistics of the negro population of South America alone," says Robert Dale Owen, "I examined more than a hundred and fifty volumes." Another author tells us that he wrote paragraphs and whole pages of his book as many as fifty times. It is said of one of Longfellow's poems that it was written in four weeks, but that he spent six months in correcting and cutting it down. Bulwer declared that he had rewritten some of his briefer productions as many as eight or nine times before their publication. One of Tennyson's pieces was rewritten fifty times. John Owen was twenty years on his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews;" Gibbon on his "Decline and Fall," twenty years; and Adam Clark on his "Commentary," twenty-six years. Carlyle spent fifteen years on his "Frederick the Great." A great deal of time is consumed in reading before some books are prepared. George Eliot read one thousand books before she wrote "Daniel Deronda." Alison read two thousand before he completed his history. It is said of another that he read twenty thousand and wrote only two books. [Illustration] [Illustration] "SHE WAS SOMEBODY'S MOTHER." [Illustration]