You'd hardly believe how old-fashioned rattle-boxes are,--those noisy things that babies love to shake. Why, they are almost as old-fashioned as some of the very first babies would look nowadays. A few very ancient writers mention these toys, but, instead of calling them, simply, "rattle-boxes," they refer to them as "symbols of eternal agitation, which is necessary to life!" Deacon Green says that this high-sounding saying may have been wise for its times, when the sleepy young world needed shaking, perhaps, to get it awake and keep it lively. "But, in these days," he adds, "the boot is on the other leg. People are a little too go-ahead, if anything, and try to do too much in too short time. Real rest, and plenty of it, is just as necessary to life as agitation can be." Remember this, my chicks, all through vacation; but don't mistake laziness for rest. A MOTHER WITH TWO MILLION CHILDREN. No, not the old woman who lived in a shoe,--though old parties of the kind I mean have been found with their houses fixed to old rubber high-boots,--but a quiet old mother, who never utters a word, and whose house is all door-way, as I'm told. Every year she opens the door and turns two million wee bairns upon the world. Away they rush, the door snaps shut behind them, and they can never come back any more! They don't seem to mind that very much, however, for they go dancing away in countless armies, without ever jostling, or meeting, or even touching one another. And how large a ball-room do you suppose a troop of them would need? One drop of water is large enough for thousands upon thousands of them to sport in! The mother is the oyster, and her children are the little oysters, and a curious family they must be, if all this is true, as I'm led to believe. A CHINESE FLOATING VILLAGE. The Little Schoolma'am wishes you a good and lively vacation, and sends you a picture of a Chinese Floating Village,--a cool and pleasant kind of village to live in through the summer, I've no doubt, with plashing water, and fresh breezes, all about you. She goes on to say: "In China, where there are about four hundred and fifty millions of people, not only the land, but also much of the water, is covered with towns and streets; and, although the Chinese are more than eleven times as numerous as the people of the United States, their country is not half as large as ours,--even leaving Alaska out of the count. So that China is pretty well crowded. [Illustration: A CHINESE FLOATING VILLAGE.] "In the picture, the little boats belong to poor people, but the big ones, called 'junks,' belong to folks who are better off. Sometimes junks are used by rich people for traveling, and then they are built almost as roomy, and fitted up quite as comfortably, as the homes on shore.