Washington was by no means elated at the prospect. On the contrary, he was extremely reluctant to be President. He was not old; he was fifty-seven years of age when the election took place, but his hard life as a soldier had broken his constitution, and the cares and anxieties he had undergone had made him feel old. "At my time of life," he wrote to Lafayette, "and under my circumstances, the increasing infirmities of nature and the growing love of retirement do not permit me to entertain a wish beyond that of living and dying an honest man on my own farm. Let those follow the pursuits of ambition and fame who have a keener relish for them, or who may have more years in store for the enjoyment." He was perfectly sincere in saying this. He knew that some people would not believe him, and would assert that he was only saying all this to get the credit of humility; but his best friends believed him, and to one of these he wrote: "If I should receive the appointment, and if I should be prevailed upon to accept it, the acceptance would be attended with more diffidence and reluctance than ever I experienced before in my life. It would be, however, with a fixed and sole determination of lending whatever assistance might be in my power to promote the public weal, in hopes that, at a convenient and early period, my services might be dispensed with, and that I might be permitted once more to retire, to pass an unclouded evening, after the stormy day of life, in the bosom of domestic tranquillity." There never was any doubt about the people's choice. Every vote was cast for Washington. (_To be continued._) [Illustration: BEARS EATING CORN: "THIS WAS REALLY THOUGHTFUL OF FARMER JONES, EH?"] [Illustration] TODDLEKINS AND TROT. BY ANNA M. PRATT. "Dear Toddlekins," said little Trot, "May I talk to you a while?" "Why, yeth, of courthe," said Toddlekins, With a bashful little smile. "Now, Toddlekins," said little Trot, "If we should meet a bear"---- "Good graciouth me!" said Toddlekins, "You give me thuch a thcare!" "If we should meet a bear," said Trot, "Would you let me save your life?" "Oh merthy! Yeth!" said Toddlekins, "But I will _not_ be your wife!" [Illustration] OUR ADVENTURE AT THE FLUME. BY W. L. A dark, solemn-looking place it was, and although Fred and I were as dauntless explorers as Stanley or Greely, our courage began to ooze away as we looked in at the gloomy flume from which issued the cold and sluggish water. We had come upon the ruined archway of an old mill, still standing with crumbling walls above the slow-moving waters of its former busy tail-race. The low, dark archway was overhung with birch, witch-hazel, and thimbleberry; and as we peered into its blackness, suggestions of dragons and serpents, castle-dungeons and witches' caverns and monsters' dens came into our minds already sufficiently full of wild, boyish fancies and strange imaginings.