Old Granny Cricket's rocking-chair, Creakety-creak, creakety-creak!-- Back and forth, and here and there, Squeakety-squeak, squeakety-squeak!-- On the hearth-stone, every night, Rocks and rocks in the cheery light. Little old woman, dressed in black, With spindling arms and a crooked back, She sits with a cap on her wise old head, And her eyes are fixed on the embers red; She does not sing, she does not speak, But the rocking-chair goes creakety-creak! Cheerily sounds the rocking-chair, Creakety-creak, creakety-creak!-- While it swings in the firelight there, Squeakety-squeak, squeakety-squeak! Old Granny Cricket, rocking, rocking, Knits and knits on a long black stocking. No matter how swiftly her fingers fly, She never can keep her family, With their legs so long from foot to knee, Stockinged as well as they ought to be; That's why, at night, week after week, Her rocking-chair goes squeakety-squeak! * * * * * HOW I WEIGHED THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY. BY G. M. SHAW. "Here, sir! Please take this bird around to Albro's, and see how much it weighs." The idea! What would the folks over the way say, to see the "professor" walking out with a big turkey under his arm? That was the way the thing presented itself to the good-natured college-student acting as private tutor in the family. But Mrs. Simpson, the portly and practical housewife, had no such idea of the fitness of things. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the farmer who had agreed to supply her with a turkey had brought it, but had not weighed it, and, of course, they could not agree on its weight, all of which ended in the startling proposition with which we began. "Well, if you aint the laziest man--! Just as though it was going to hurt you any to take this bird to the corner and back!" she went on, as she saw me looking, apparently, for a hole to crawl into, but, in reality, for the broom, which, when I found, I made use of in putting into execution a plan I had formed for weighing the turkey at home. I hung the broom-handle to the gas-jet by a wire loop, and slid it along in the loop until it balanced. By this time all were curious to see what I was about. I then fixed a wire to the turkey's feet and hooked it so that it would slide on the broom-handle. Next I got a flat-iron and fixed it in the same way. When the broom was nicely balanced, I hung the turkey on the broom end of the stick, two inches from the balancing loop. Then I hung the flat-iron on the other side, and shoved it along until it balanced the turkey. Next I measured the distances of the turkey and flat-iron from the balancing loop, and found that the turkey hung two inches and the flat-iron eight inches from the balancing loop. That was all. I had found the weight of the turkey, and told them: Twenty-four pounds.