Prepared to follow the noisy crew,
  And never before or since, I ween,
  Was ever beheld such a hunting scene! 
  The Hare was swift; and the papers went
  This way and that, to confuse the scent;
  But Tony, keeping his nose in air,
  In a very few moments betrayed the Hare,
  Which the children told him was hardly fair.

  I cannot tell you how long they played,
  Of the fun they had, or the noise they made;
  For the best of things in this world, I think,
  Can ne’er be written with pen and ink. 
  But Bridget, who went on her daily rounds,
  Picking up after the “Hare and Hounds,”
  Said she didn’t mind hearing their lively capers,
  But her back was broke with the scraps o’ papers.

  Carrie, next day, couldn’t raise her head;
  Frank and Lulu were sick in bed;
  The dog and cat were a used-up pair,
  And all of them needed the doctor’s care. 
  The children themselves can hardly fail
  To tack a moral upon this trail;
  And I guess on rather more level grounds
  They’ll play their next game of “Hare and Hounds.”

[Illustration]

JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.

So, here’s October come again.  Another pleasant year gone by, another lot of sermons done, and nobody the worse!  Dear, dear, how time does fly in cheerful company, to be sure!

Well, my dears, keep a bright lookout for the new volume, and, meantime, don’t open your eyes too wide while I bring to your notice

THE LARGEST MAN.

    Albany, N.Y.

DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT:  Perhaps some of your other boys, who, like myself, wish to grow big and strong, would like to hear about the largest human being ever known,—­Goliath of Gath,—­a person almost large enough to need introduction by installments, but he is so well known that the ceremony is needless.

As nearly as I can make out, he was between ten and eleven feet high.  When he went to battle he wore a coat-of-mail weighing one hundred and fifty-six pounds,—­as heavy as a good-sized man; and the rest of his armor amounted to at least one hundred and fifteen pounds more.  The head of his spear weighed eighteen pounds,—­as heavy as six three-pound cans of preserved fruit,—­and this he carried at the end of a long and heavy shaft!

Think what might happen if a man equally big and strong should live among us now, and insist on taking part in our games and sports?  If he joined a boat-club, a curious six-oared crew could be made up, with him at one side and five other men opposite.  And just imagine him “booming along” on a velocipede!  If he joined the champion Nine, and hit a ball, where would that ball go to?  If he called for a “shoulder-high” ball, wouldn’t the catcher have to climb a step-ladder to catch behind the giant?  And if he threw a ball to a base-man, wouldn’t he be apt to throw it clean through him?

    Probably no one can answer these questions, but they are interesting
    all the same, to yours sincerely,