All things would starve and per-ish then—­
No food for birds, nor beasts, nor men;
Then do not mur-mur, nor com-plain,
God, in His good-ness, sends the rain.

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  “Snap, be good!”]

“Snap, be good!”

“Dear lit-tle Snap, you fun-ny pup,
  I love to see you beg,
So cle-ver-ly do you sit up
  And bend each slen-der leg,
    Drop-ping the paw;
And raise your ears a-bove your head,
  Look-ing so very wise;
You seem to know I have some bread;
  And then, such bright green eyes
    I never saw.

“Your shag-gy coat is long and rough,
  Your tail is rough-er still;
Now, Snap, I think you’ve had e-nough,
  And more would make you ill—­
    In-deed it would. 
But sis-ter Lot-ty has some cake,
  And so if you will sit
Quite still and good, till I say ‘Take!’
  Then you shall have a bit;
    So, Snap, be good!”

THE STRAY KIT-TEN.

“Come, Kit-ty, come; you need not fear,
  Nor make that plain-tive mew;
Don’t be a-fraid, but ven-ture near,
And lap the milk we bring you here,
  For none will in-jure you.

“And, Kit-ty, since you’ve lost your way,
  You need no fur-ther roam;
But stop, and dine with us to-day,
And then, if you would wish to stay,
  Poor Kit-ty, here’s your home.

“And we will feed you fine and fat,
  On fresh new milk and nice;
And, when you grow to be a cat,
You can re-quite us well for that,
  By catch-ing all the mice.”

[Illustration:  Where the wide wastes of o-cean lie, The greed-y Gan-net loves to fly.]

[Illustration:  Though ve-nom-ous, as authors write, The Gek-ko is not known to bite.]

[Illustration:  The Ri-ver Horse a-mong the reeds Of A-fric’s lone-ly ri-vers feeds.]

[Illustration:  A-round our coasts the fish-ers meet With Had-docks, which, when dri-ed, we eat.]

[Illustration:  The Stray Kitten.]

[Illustration:  The first of may.]

[Illustration]

THE MAY-POLE.

  Round the May-pole, on the grass,
  Mer-ry lit-tle foot-steps pass;
  In the mid-dle Bes-sie stands,
  With the May-pole in her hands;
  While her play-mates dance and sing
  Round her in an end-less ring. 
  Soon, in-deed, a feast they’ll make,
  Cow-slip tea, with nice plum-cake—­
And so our leave of them we’ll take.

THE FIRST OF MAY.

The haw-thorn blos-som, snow-y white,
  Hangs thick upon the hedge to-day;
With many flow-ers the fields are bright
  Upon this mer-ry First of May.

So let us ga-ther flow-er-ets fair,
  And blos-soms from the haw-thorn spray,
To deck our May-pole stand-ing there,
  Upon this mer-ry First of May.