Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net Music by Linda Cantoni. THE NURSERY _A Monthly Magazine_ FOR YOUNGEST READERS. VOLUME XIV.--No. 2 BOSTON: JOHN L. SHOREY, No. 36, BROMFIELD STREET. 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by JOHN L. SHOREY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. BOSTON: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY RAND, AVERY, & CO. [Illustration: CONTENTS.] IN PROSE. PAGE. The Mother's Prayer 33 Coosie and Carrie 36 The Fourth of July Cake 38 How our School came to have the Nursery 42 Where the Dandelions went 43 The Bird's Nest 44 Meditations of a Shut-out One 46 Dreaming and Doing 48 Prairie Dogs 51 A Journey to California 55 A Letter to George 58 The Blackberry Frolic 60 IN VERSE. PAGE. Charley's Opinion 35 Song of the Brook 41 Bobolink 50 Dear Little Mary 53 Little Jack Homer (_with music_) 64 [Illustration] [Illustration: THE MOTHER'S PRAYER.] THE MOTHER'S PRAYER. [Illustration: O]NCE there was a good mother whose chief prayer for her little boy in his cradle was that he might have a loving heart. She did not pray that he might be wise or rich or handsome or happy or learned, or that others might love _him_, but only that _he_ might love. When that little boy, whose name was Edward, grew up, it seemed as if his mother's prayer had been answered, and that, in making it, she had been wiser than she knew or dreamed. She had not prayed that he might be _wise_; but somehow the love in his heart seemed to make him wise, and to lead him to choose what is best, and to remember all the good things he was taught. She had not prayed that he might be _rich_; but it turned out that he was so anxious to help and serve others, that he found the only way to do that was to get the _means_ of helping: and so he became diligent, thrifty, and prompt in business, till at last he had the means he sought. Edward's mother had not prayed that he might be _handsome_; but there was so much love and good-will manifest in his face, that people loved to look on it: and its expression made it handsome, for beauty attends love like its shadow.