HOME FROM SCHOOL.

Come, Meg and El-len, don’t com-plain,
For, see, the geese en-joy the rain,
  And dog-gie does not fret;
    And yet,
The drops come rol-ling down his ears,
And nose, and whisk-ers, just like tears;
  Poor Mop, he’s drip-ping wet! 
Our big um-brel-la co-vers three,
And snug and dry we all may be,
  And chat-ter as we go,
    And show
The grumb-ling peo-ple whom we meet
That nei-ther wind, nor driv-ing sleet,
  Can spoil our tem-pers.—­No,
We will not take such days as this,
Nor any-thing God sends, a-miss,
  But what we can-not cure
    Endure;
And this will prove a Gold-en Rule
To prac-tise as we walk from school—­
  Of that we may be sure.

THE KIT-TENS’ BATH.

One day when Lil-lie saw her cat
  Sit down and lick a kit-ten’s face;
“No, puss,” said she, “don’t wash like that—­
  My bath will be the pro-per place.

“I’ll show you how to wash them, puss.” 
  So in she dipped them one by one;
Poor Min-nie mewed and made a fuss,
  But Lil-lie only thought it fun.

Puss feared her lit-tle kits would drown,
  And did her best to get them out;
While Lil-lie dipped them up and down,
  And splashed the wa-ter all a-bout.

Till nurse came up and saw the mess,
  Took out the kit-tens, and instead
Made thought-less Lil-lie quite un-dress,
  And have her bath and go to bed.

[Illustration:  We find the snow-y Whi-ting most A-bound along our South-ern coast.]

[Illustration:  Who roams through Eng-land’s mea-dows fair May see the Yel-low-ham-mer there.]

[Illustration:  The Xeno-pel-tis has a hide, With spots of man-y co-lours dyed.]

[Illustration:  See, with long tail but scan-ty mane, The Ze-bra gal-lops o’er the plain.]

[Illustration:  The kittens’ bath.]

[Illustration]

TURN-ING THE TRENCH-ER.

If, at this old Christ-mas game,
  Kate, who spins the trench-er, call
Any play-er out by name,
  He must catch it ere it fall.

If “Move all” she should re-peat,
  All sit still; but if she say
“Twi-light,” each must change his seat,
  Or a for-feit he must pay.

THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST.

The East-ern sages watched the sky,
  They looked from night till morn,
There shone a bright, new star on high,
  They knew that Christ was born.

Then up they rose, and came from far,
  They jour-neyed night and day,
Led by the shin-ing of that star,
  And found Him where He lay.

There is not any need for us
  To leave our homes be-hind,
Through dis-tant lands to tra-vel thus
  The Son of God to find.