For never yet, since that bright spring-time,
Had it ever been taken down from the line.
Over the fence a gray-haired man

Cautiously clim, clome, clem, clum, clamb-
He found him a stick in the old woodpile,
And he gathered it up with a sad, grim smile,-
A flush passed over his face forlorn

As he gazed at the carpet, tattered and torn;
And he hit it a most resounding thwack,
Till the startled air gives his echoes back.
And out of the window a white face leaned
And a palsied hand the pale face screened;
She knew his face, she gasped, and sighed,
"A little more on the under side."

Right down on the ground his stick he throwed,
And he shivered and said, "Well, I am blowed!"
And he turned away, with a heart full sore,
And he never was seen not more, not more.

IPHIGENIA AND AGAMEMNON.-W. S. LANDOR.

Iphigenia, when she heard her doom
At Aulis, and when all beside the king
Had gone away, took his right hand, and said:
"O father! I am young and very happy.
I do not think the pious Calchas heard
Distinctly what the goddess spake; old age
Obscures the senses. If my nurse, who knew
My voice so well, sometimes misunderstood,
While I was resting on her knee both arms,
And hitting it to make her mind my words,
And looking in her face, and she in mine,
Might not he, also, hear one word amiss,
Spoken from so far off, even from Olympus?"
The father placed his cheek upon her head,
And tears dropt down it; but the king of men
Replied not. Then the maiden spake once more:
"O father! sayest thou nothing? Hearest thou not
Me, whom thou ever hast, until this hour,
Listened to fondly, and awakened me

To hear my voice amid the voice of birds,
When it was inarticulate as theirs,

And the down deadened it within the nest?"
He moved her gently from him, silent still;
And this, and this alone, brought tears from her,

Although she saw fate nearer. Then with sighs:
"I thought to have laid down my hair before
Benignant Artemis, and not dimmed

Her polished altar with my virgin blood;
I thought to have selected the white flowers
To please the nymphs, and to have asked of each
By name, and with no sorrowful regret,

Whether, since both my parents willed the change,
I might at Hymen's feet bend my clipt brow;
And (after these who mind us girls the most)
Adore our own Athene, that she would
Regard me mildly with her azure eyes,—
But, father, to see you no more, and see
Your love, O father! go ere I am gone!"
Gently he moved her off, and drew her back,
Bending his lofty head far over hers,

And the dark depths of nature heaved and burst;
He turned away,-not far, but silent still.
She now first shuddered; for in him, so nigh,
So long a silence seemed the approach of death,
And like it. Once again she raised her voice:
"O father! if the ships are now detained,
And all your vows move not the gods above,
When the knife strikes me there will be one prayer
The less to them; and purer can there be

Any, or more fervent, than the daughter's prayer
For her dear father's safety and success?"

A groan that shook him shook not his resolve.

An agéd man now entered, and without

One word stepped slowly on, and took the wrist
Of the pale maiden. She looked up, and saw
The fillet of the priest, and calm, cold eyes.

Then turned she where her parent stood, and cried: "O father! grieve no more; the ships can sail."

HUMILITY.

The bird that soars on highest wing
Builds on the ground her lowly nest,
And she that doth most sweetly sing

Sings in the shade when all things rest;
In lark and nightingale we see

What honor hath humility.

The saint that wears Heaven's brightest crown

In lowliest adoration bends;

The weight of glory bows him down

The most, when most his soul ascends;
Nearest the throne itself must be
The footstool of humility.

BUDGE'S VERSION OF THE FLOOD.-J. HABBERTON. A CHAPTER FROM "HELEN'S BABIES."

That afternoon I devoted to making a bouquet for Miss Mayton, and a most delightful occupation I found it. It was no florist's bouquet, composed of only a few kinds of flowers, wired upon sticks, and arranged according to geometric pattern. I used many a rare flower, too shy of bloom to recommend itself to florists; I combined tints almost as numerous as the flowers were, and perfumes to which city bouquets are utter strangers.

At length it was finished, but my delight suddenly became clouded by the dreadful thought, "What will people say?" Ah! I had it. I had seen in one of the library-drawers a small pasteboard box, shaped like a bandbox; doubtless that would hold it. I found the box; it was of just the size I needed. I dropped my card into the bottom-no danger of a lady not finding the card accompanying a gift of flowers-neatly fitted the bouquet in the center of the box, and went in search of Mike. He winked cheeringly as I explained the nature of his errand, and he whispered:

"I'll do it as clane as a whistle, yer honor. Mistress Clarkson's cook an mesilf understhand each other, an' I'm used to goin' up the back way. Niver a man can see but the angels, an' they won't tell."

"Very well, Mike; here's a dollar for you; you'll find the box on the hat-rack, in the hall."

Toddie disappeared somewhere, after supper, and came back very disconsolate.

“Can't find my dolly's k’adle,” he whined.

"Never mind, old pet," said I, soothingly. “Uncle will ride you on his foot."

"But I want my dolly's k'adle," said he, piteously rolling out his lower lip.

"Don't you want me to tell you a story?"

For a moment Toddie's face indicated a terrible internal conflict between old Adam and mother Eve; but curiosity finally overpowered natural depravity, and Toddie murmured: "Yesh."

"What shall I tell you about?"

*'Bout Nawndeark."

"About what?"

"He means Noah an' the ark," exclaimed Budge.

“Datsh what I shay-Nawndeark,” declared Toddie.

66

Well," said I, hastily refreshing my memory by picking up the Bible-for Helen, like most people, is pretty sure to forget to pack her Bible when she runs away from home for a few days-" well, once it rained forty days and nights, and everybody was drowned from the face of the earth excepting Noah, a righteous man, who was saved with all his family, in an ark which the Lord commanded him to build."

"Uncle Harry," said Budge, after contemplating me with open eyes and mouth for at least two minutes after I had finished, “do you think that's Noah ?"

Certainly, Budge; here's the whole story in the Bible." "Well, I don't think it's Noah one single bit," said he, with increasing emphasis.

"I'm beginning to think we read different Bibles, Budge; but let's hear your version."

"Huh?"

"Tell me about Noah, if you know so much about him."

"I will, if you want me to. Once the Lord felt so uncomfortable cos folks was bad that he was sorry he ever made anybody, or any world or anything. But Noah wasn't bad; the Lord liked him first-rate, so he told Noah to build a big ark, and then the Lord would make it rain so everybody should be drownded but Noah an' his little boys an' girls, an' doggies an' pussies an' mamma-cows an' little-boy-cows an' little-girl-cows an' hosses an' everything; they'd go in the ark an' wouldn't get wetted a bit when it rained. An' Noah took lots of things to eat in the ark-cookies an' milk an' oatmeal an' strawberries an' porgies an’—oh, yes, plumpuddings an' pumpkin-pies. But Noah didn't want everybody to get drownded, so he talked to folks an' said, 'It's goin' to rain awful pretty soon; you'd better be good, an' then the Lord'll let you come into my ark.' An' they jus' said, 'Oh! if it rains we'll go in the house till it stops;' an' other folks said, 'We ain't afraid of rain; we've got an umbrella.' An' some more said they wasn't goin' to be afraid of just a rain. But it did rain though, an' folks went in their

houses, an' the water came in, an' they went upstairs, an' the water came up there, an' they got on the tops of the houses, an' up in big trees, an' up in mountains, an' the water went after 'em everywhere an' drownded everybody, only just except Noah an' the people in the ark. An' it rained forty days an' nights, an' then it stopped, an' Noah got out of the ark, an' he an' his little boys an' girls went wherever they wanted to, an' everything in the world was all theirs; there wasn't anybody to tell 'em to go home, nor no kindergarten schools to go to, nor no bad boys to fight 'em, nor nothin'. Now tell us 'nother story."

"An' I want my dolly's k'adle. Ocken Hawwy, I wants my dolly's k'adle, tause my dolly's in it, an' I wan to shee her,* interrupted Toddie.

Just then came a knock at the door. "Come in!" ] shouted.

In stepped Mike, with an air of the greatest secrecy. handed me a letter and the identical box in which I had sent the flowers to Miss Mayton. What could it mean? I hastily opened the envelope, and at the same time Toddie shrieked :

"Oh, darsh my dolly's k'adle-dare tizh!" snatched and opened the box, and displayed-his doll! My heart sickened, and did not regain its strength during the perusal of the following note:

"Miss Mayton herewith returns to Mr. Burton the package which just arrived, with his card. She recognizes the contents as a portion of the apparent property of one of Mr. Burton's nephews, but is unable to understand why it should have been sent to her.

"JUNE 20, 1875."

"Toddie," I roared, as my younger nephew caressed his loathsome doll, and murmured endearing words to it, "where did you get that box?".

On the hat-wack," replied the youth, with perfect fearlessness. I keeps it in ze book-case djawer, an' somebody took it 'way an' put nasty ole flowers in it."

"Where are those flowers?" I demanded.

Toddie looked up with considerable surprise, but promptly replied:

"I froed 'em away-don't want no ole flowers in my dolly's k'adle. That's ze way she wocks-see?"