"Reins!--what does a girl do with reins?" I think I hear somebody ask. Why, she plays horse with them, to be sure. She has a brother Charles. He is the horse sometimes; and sometimes he is the driver, and Ellen is the horse. Either way, it is good fun. One fine June day, her elder brother, Ned, took part in the play. He said there should be a span of horses. He and Charles would be the span, and Ellen should drive. "No," said Ellen, "I would rather be one of the horses." [Illustration] So Nelly and Ned were harnessed together, and Charley took the reins. "Get up!" said he, and away they went. As they crossed the lawn, they passed a lawn-mower, and the horse Ned shied badly. If he had not had such a steady horse as Nell by his side, there might have been an accident. As it was, Charles held him in with a tight rein, and the two horses came trotting back to the starting-point at full speed. If Charles had had a watch to time them by, I think he would have found that they made a mile in less than three minutes. A. B. C. [Illustration] [Illustration] JACK. Jack was not a handsome dog. His best friends could not call him a beauty; but as he was a very wise, good dog, we were all very fond of him. One afternoon, some of the younger members of the family were sitting on the piazza, waiting for papa, who was expected home on the five-o'clock train. Jack was lying beside them. At last, the whistle sounded in the distance; and the little four-year-old "flower of the family" said, "Run, Jack, to meet papa at the station." Jack looked up, listened intently for a moment, and then lay down again with a sigh of disappointment. "Oh, what a lazy fellow!" said six-year-old Annie. "If mamma would only trust us to go to the station, we would not wait, or play sleepy." But the train passed on, and papa had not come. In a little while, another whistle sounded; and this time, without a word of command, Jack sprung off the steps, dashed down the street, and returned in a few moments, escorting his master. How did Jack know that the time-table had been changed that day, and a freight-train had taken the place of his master's train? Another time, an uncle, who was visiting the family, had occasion to stay in town until the last train. Jack refused to be shut up, and, at eleven o'clock at night, went in the dark to the station, and escorted our guest up to the house. How did he know what train to meet? and what instinct impelled him to do his part towards keeping up the courtesy of the family? [Illustration: ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON.] [Illustration] A LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.