[Illustration: THE BELL HAS A TONGUE THAT IS EASILY HEARD.] EASTER LILIES. A STALK of tall white lilies Bloomed out in a garden fair; Their breath, so sweet and fragrant, Scented the ambient air. As Easter day came on apace, It seemed as if they tried To grow still sweeter, for the morn When rose the Crucified. When dawned the holy Easter tide, And they were full in bloom, A sad-eyed woman gathered them And laid them on a tomb. And as she knelt in deepest woe Beside the flower-decked mound, And felt that all her hope was dead, The lilies’ fragrance stole around. It stole into her wounded breast; The sacred odors seemed to be A message for her bleeding heart— “The Crucified pities thee.” CAROLINE STRATTON VALENTINE. [Illustration: THE BELL HANGS IN THE TOWER.] CHARACTER STUDIES. I. EDWARD STEADMAN was at home for the Christmas holidays. Everybody was glad to see him, of course, particularly his mother; because in the first place mothers always are a little bit more glad over the home-coming of their boys than anybody else in the world can be, and secondly because she needed some help very much, and knew that he could give it. She explained matters to him that morning: “I want to get Grandma’s room all in order, Edward, and her new carpet down, and every thing, before Christmas, you know; and we shall have to work like bees. I’m so glad you came home this week, instead of stopping at your uncle’s first. To-day we can hang all her pictures, and put up the curtains and the wall-pockets, and do things of that kind; they will not make a speck of dust in putting down the carpet—it is new, you know. I want to get all those things done to-day, they are so puttering—take a great deal of time and judgment. I’m so glad to have you to depend upon; you are such a tall boy that you can reach where mother can’t; and Dick is so clumsy I hate to have him stumping about Grandma’s room. Your father was going to help me, though he did not know how to spare the time; he was as pleased as could be when I told him that you could do it all. ‘Sure enough!’ he said; ‘we have got a boy to depend upon once more; how good it seems!’” The sentence closed with a fond smile, and such a look in the mother’s eyes as ought to have made a boy happy. Edward was happy; he whistled as he went down the stairs, and thought to himself that there were not many fellows who had such a mother as his, and that he would show her just how tall, and how handy and how wise he was. She called after him as she heard the street door open. “Where are you going, Edward? We ought to get right to work; it will be an all-day job, do the best we can, and the light is good in Grandma’s room now for hanging the pictures. Must you go to the post-office first? O, well! that is but a short distance; run along, and get back as soon as you can.”