"Oh, I never can do it!" he said. "Mother, you try too, and see if you can write one." So she took his list and wrote this true story,-- "A little _boy_ with roguish _black eyes_ was sitting on the floor, playing with some spools that he had taken from his mother's work-_basket_, which she had left in a _chair_. All at once he saw a cow coming up the yard. He dropped every thing, and ran to drive her out. She threw up her head, and looked so fierce, that he was afraid she would _hook_ him, and back he ran to the house. "Then he spied a fruit-_knife_ on the _ground_, where he had left it when he was eating an apple in the morning. He picked it up, and carried it to his mother, who had just _begun_ to _write_, and she _said_, that, if he would keep still about _two_ minutes, she would attend to him." "There," said mamma, "I have put in all the words: now you try, Charlie." Charlie then wrote:-- "I saw _two hooks_ and _eyes_ just as I had begun to _write_. Johnny brought mother's _knife_, which he found lying on the _ground_. He joggled mother's _chair_, and she _said_, 'There's a _black_ mark on my paper, and oh, dear! the _boy_ has tipped over my _basket_.' That's all." His mother read what Charlie had written, and said, "Pretty good for the first time;" and off he went to play. L. J. D. [Illustration: THE PEDLAR.] THE PEDLAR. Music by T. CRAMPTON, Chiswick, W. London. [Illustration: Music] 1. I wish I liv'd in a caravan With a horse to drive like a pedlar-man, Wherever he comes from nobody knows, But merrily thro' the town he goes. 2. His caravan it is painted blue, With a chimney small where the smoke comes thro'; And there is his wife with baby so brown, And onward they go from town to town. 3. "Old chairs to mend, and new jugs to sell," How he makes the basins ring like a bell! With baskets and tea-trays glossy and trim, And plates with my name around the brim. 4. A pedlar-man I should like to roam, And a book I'd write when I came back home; And all the good folks would study my book, And famous I'd be like Captain Cook. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: The July edition of the Nursery had a table of contents for the next six issues of the year. This table was divided to cover each specific issue. A title page copied from this same July edition was also used for this number and the issue number added after the Volume number.