"Out of the cupperty-buts, Mamma!" said Jessy, "out of the cupperty-buts! and it's all for you, every bit of it! Dear Mamma, now you will be happy, will you not?

"Jessy," said Mrs. Gray, "have you lost your senses or are you playing some trick on me? Tell me all about this 5 at once, dear child, and don't talk nonsense.'

But it is n't nonsense, Mamma," cried Jessy, "and it did come out of the cupperty-buts!"

And then she told her mother the whole story. The tears came into Mrs. Gray's eyes, but they were tears of 10 joy and gratitude.

"Jessy dear," she said, "when we say our prayers at night let us never forget to pray for that good gentleman. May Heaven bless him and reward him! for if it had not been for him, Jessy dear, I fear you would never have 15 found the 'Buttercup Gold."

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QUESTIONS AND HELPS

1. Who wrote this story? 2. Who was Mrs. Richards's father and what did he do? 3. Who was her mother and what did she do? 4. Tell about the other children in the family. 5. Tell about the dolls. 6. Tell about Pistachio. Why do you suppose he was considered an invalid and what did they do to him?

7. What did Jessy mean by "cupperty-buts"? 8. Why did she think they were gold? 9. What is meant by "Mother Nature's mint"? 10. Why did Jessy look anxious and troubled as she gazed at the flowers? 11. What were the unspoken

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thoughts that were in her mind? 12. Why did Jessy's mother look sad as she went out? 13. How did Jessy plan to get gold out of the buttercups? 14. What did she see when she opened the kettle? 15. What did she hear while she was crying? 16. Tell in your own words about the old gentleman and what he did. What do you think of him?

Other easy stories by Mrs. Richards are in "Five-Minute Stories," "More Five-Minute Stories," and "Golden Windows."

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

[Nearly every American child knows about Mr. Longfellow and remembers just how his picture looks and can name some of the poems that he wrote. He is called the children's poet, not because he wrote only for children but because he loved children and because he had the heart 5 of a child.

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He was born in Portland, on the coast of Maine, in 1807. When a boy he used to love to watch the sea dashing upon the rocks and the clouds floating in the sky. He liked also to walk along the wharves and look 10 at the strange ships and the sun-browned sailors and wonder from what land they came and what sort of trees and houses and people were there and how they all looked.1

At first he went to a school kept by an old lady called 15 Ma'am Fellows. She never allowed the children to smile during school hours, and was so strict that little Longfellow was glad when he grew big enough to go to a school for older pupils. The last school which he attended in Portland was called Portland Academy. One of his teachers there 20 was Jacob Abbott, the man who wrote the "Rollo Books,"

1 In "My Lost Youth."

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for children. Maybe you have heard of these books. They were very famous in their day.

While Longfellow was in the academy he wrote his first poem. It was called "The Battle of Lovell's Pond." He 5 wanted to have it published in one of the two Portland newspapers, but he was afraid to take it to either of the editors. At last he went one night to one of the newspaper offices and dropped it through a hole in the door. The next morning, and every morning for many weeks, he 10 looked anxiously for it in the paper, but it did not appear.

By that time he had grown much braver, so he went to the editor and asked him to give back the poem. Then he took it to the editor of the other paper and there it was published. After that he wrote poetry whenever he could, 15 and it was always published.

When only fourteen years old he went to Bowdoin College, and was in the same class with Hawthorne and with several other young men who afterward became famous. He was a fine scholar and stood near the head 20 of his class.

After finishing his college course he traveled in Europe, studying the languages and hearing a great many interesting old tales which he afterward told again in his poems. Then he taught in college for nearly twenty years - first 25 at Bowdoin and afterward at Harvard University in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Cambridge he lived in a