A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY—­IN TWO PARTS.

[Illustration:  PART I.]

  “MOTHER! from this moment, behold me, my own master! 
  Yes, madam, I am old enough.  I mean just what I say.”

[Illustration:  PART II.]

  AND, but for a sudden and unforeseen disaster,
  The puppy might have kept his resolution to this day.

* * * * *

THE STICKLEBACK BELL-RINGERS

BY C. F. HOLDER.

A certain pond in the country was once peopled with a number of turtles, frogs, and fishes which I came to consider my pets, and which at last grew so tame that I fed them from my hands.  Among them, however, were four or five little sticklebacks that lived under the shade of a big willow, and these were so quarrelsome that I generally fed them apart from the rest.  But sometimes all met, and then the feast usually was ended by the death of a minnow.  For, shocking to say, whenever there was a dispute for the food, some one of the little fishes was almost sure to be devoured by the hungry sticklebacks.

These stickleback-and-minnow combats, after a while, came to be of daily occurrence, and the reason for this was a singular one, which I must explain.

Under the willow shade, and from one of the branches, I had hung a miniature “belfry,” containing a tiny brass bell, and had led the string into the water, letting it go down to a considerable depth.  At first, I tied bait at intervals upon the line, and the sticklebacks, of course, seized upon it, and thus rang the bell.  Generally the ringing was done in a very grave and proper way, although sometimes, when the bait was too tightly tied, the quick peals sounded like a call to a fire.

[Illustration]

I kept up this system of baiting the string for about a week, until I thought they understood it, and then replaced the worms by bits of stone.  As I expected, the next morning, as I looked through the grass and down into the water, tinkle! tinkle! rang the bell, and I knew my little friends were saying, “Good-morning!” and expected a breakfast.  You may be sure they got it.  I put my hand down, and up they came, and got one worm apiece; and as I raised my hand, down they rushed, and away went the bell, in an uproarious peal, that must have startled the whole neighborhood.  I was quick to respond, and they soon learned to ring the bell before coming to the surface; in fact, if they saw me pass, I always heard their welcome greeting.  But to return to the minnows.