Oh, ho, hum! my sakes alive! Where is my old 'rithmetic? Here 'tis: five times one are five. This most makes a fellow sick! Let me see: well, four times eight, Guess I'll have to take a look; I'm _so sick_ of this old slate. Wish the scamp that made this book Had to sleep on stacks of rules, Covered up with multiplication! Don't see who invented schools-- Meanest things in all creation! [Illustration: KEPT IN FOR STUDY.] It must be done before I go! To-morrow's lesson's harder still.-- What's that! the boys are balling snow. Oh, dear! I wonder if I ever will, Think out this sum, in time for tea! [Illustration] Press on! surmount the rocky steeps; Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch; He fails alone who feebly creeps; He wins who dares the hero's march. Be thou a hero! let thy might Tramp on eternal snows its way, And through the ebon walls of night, Hew down a passage unto day. [Illustration] [Illustration] FAIRIES--OR FIRE-FLIES. MRS. S. M. B. PIATT. Let's see. We believe in wings, We believe in the grass and dew, We believe in the moon--and other things, That may be true. But are there any? Talk low. (Look! What is that eery spark?) If there _are_ any--why, there they go, Out in the dark. [Illustration] Nay, speak no ill, but lenient be To others' failings as your own; If you're the first a fault to see, Be not the first to make it known; For life is but a passing day, No lip may tell how brief its span; Then, oh! the little time we stay, Let's speak of all the best we can. THE AMBITIOUS TWIG. AN ALLEGORY. LUCIE COBBE. [Illustration] Many years ago, two little branches grew in a hedgerow; they were brothers, but their tastes were different. The younger one was lazy, and liked to stay in the shade; but the elder one kept pushing steadily upwards, and making all the haste to grow that he could. He had seven leaves each side, but his brother had only three. "Why can't you stay where you are?" said the younger one; "you are well in the middle of the hedge." "I want to get higher," sighed the elder twig; "there is plenty to be seen outside." And he kept growing taller and taller. "You are going beyond us," cried his sister twigs, "bend down a little, brother." "If I bent my back I should stop growing," said the twig; and he listened to catch their voices. "Conceited fellow! he is trying to grow the tallest!" said some of the twigs; and a murmuring swept through the hedge. One day more of pushing and striving, and he was nearly at the top of the hedge. He could no longer see his brother, but he called to him down through the branches. "Brother, where are you?" he cried, "and what do you see down there?"