everything that has since hurt the souls and bodies of men had been shut up in this strange box.

Now it was impossible that the two children should keep the ugly swarm of Troubles in their own little cottage. Indeed, the first thing they did was to open the doors and windows in hope of getting rid of them, and sure enough away flew the winged Troubles all over the world, and stung and pained the people so that no one so much as smiled for days afterward. And this trouble was all the harder to bear, because it was the very first that had ever been felt.

One day as Epimetheus sat in the corner, and Pandora was crying bitterly, with her head on the box, a sweet little voice spoke from within, "Little Pandora, let me out. I am not like those naughty creatures. Lift up the lid; I am in a hurry to comfort you."

"I will help you lift the lid," said Epimetheus, running across the room. And out of the box flew a fairy-like creature, throwing light wherever she went.

She flew to Epimetheus and laid her

finger on the spot where Trouble had stung him, and the pain was gone. She kissed Pandora, and her hurt was cured. "Pray, who are you, beautiful creature?" said Pandora.

"I am Hope," said the sunshiny thing. "I was put into that box to cure the hurts made by that swarm of ugly Troubles."

"And will you stay with us always?" said Epimetheus.

"As long as you need me," said Hope, with a pleasant smile. "And that will be as long as you live in the world. Now and then you will think that I have gone, but again and again, when you least dream of it, you shall see my wings.

แ

"And now, dear children, I know of something very beautiful that is to be given to you hereafter."

"O, tell us!" they said. "Tell us what it is!"

"Do not ask me," said Hope, putting her finger on her rosy mouth, "but trust my word, for it is true."

- Adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Spell: opened, flight, comfort, enough, loose, wherever.

Review Drill on Sounds, page 40.

What does this lesson teach us we may have to help us bear our troubles? Where have you heard of Nathaniel Hawthorne before?

SOFT TONE DRILL.

And friends, dear friends, when it shall be
That this low breath is gone from me,
Let one most loving of you all

Say, "Not a tear shall o'er her fall.

He giveth His beloved sleep."

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
With the beautiful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast-
World, you are beautifully dressed!

The wonderful air is over me,

And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree;
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.

You friendly Earth, how far do you go?
With the wheat-fields that nod, and the rivers
that flow,

And cities and gardens, and cliffs and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I hardly can think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper within me seemed to say,

"You are more than the Earth, though you are

but a dot;

You can love and think, and the Earth cannot."

Spell: wonderful, world, whirl, curled, isles, miles, dressed, breast, city, cities, ocean, prayer.

Read, if accessible, "Seven Little Sisters."-Jane Andrews.

Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the bluest corn-flower, and very, very deep, the sea-king lives.

We must not imagine that there is nothing at the bottom of the sea but bare, yellow sand.

The strangest plants and flowers grow there. Fishes, large and small, glide between their branches as birds fly among the trees on the land. The sea-king's castle is built of coral, its windows are of pearl, and its roof is made of shells.

One sea-king long ago had six beautiful daughters, lovely as any maidens of the land, and like them, except that their bodies each ended in a long fish's tail.

All day long these mermaidens played in the great halls of the castle, where the windows were always open, and the fish swam in and out as birds come into our porches, and were so tame that they would swim up to the princesses and eat out of their hands, and let themselves be petted.

Often the mermaidens spent hours in their strange sea-garden, where each had her own flower-bed, made in the shape of a whale, or of the sun, or of whatever she thought prettiest.

Sometimes they played with the wonderful things that came down from ships that were wrecked. The youngest mermaid loved best to play with the pretty