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MY SHADOW.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than

I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow —

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward,

you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that

shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun

was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every

buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

QUITE LIKE A STOCKING.

Just as morn was fading amid her misty rings, And every stocking was stuffed with childhood's precious things,

Old Kris Kringle looked round and saw on the elm tree bough

High hung, an oriole's nest, lonely and empty

now.

་་

'Quite like a stocking," he laughed, "hung up there in the tree,

I didn't suppose the birds expected a visit from me."

Then old Kris Kringle who loves a joke as well as the best,

Dropped a handful of snowflakes into the oriole's empty nest.

-Anon.

THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat;

They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the moon above,

୧୧

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love! What a beautiful Pussy you are You are,

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the owl, "You elegant fowl!
How wonderfully sweet you sing!

Oh, let us be married-too long we have tarried

But what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away for a year and a day To the land where the Bong-tree grows, And there in a wood, a piggy-wig stood With a ring in the end of his nose His nose,

With a ring in the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one

shilling

Your ring?" Said the piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined upon mince and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon, And hand in hand on the edge of the sand They danced by the light of the moon The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

-Edward Lear.

FORGET-ME-NOT.

When to the flowers so beautiful the Father gave a name

Back came a little blue-eyed one, all timidly

it came;

And, standing at the Father's feet and gazing in His face

It said, in low and trembling tones and with a modest grace,

Dear God, the name Thou gavest me, alas,

I have forgot."

The Father kindly looked Him down and said, "Forget-me-not."

—Anon.

WHO STOLE THE BIRD'S NEST.

"To-whit! To-whit! To-whee!

Will you listen to me?

Who stole four eggs I laid,

And the nice nest I made?"

"Not I," said the cow,

moo-oo!

Such a thing I'd never do.

I gave you a wisp of hay,

But I did not take your nest away:
Not I," said the cow, "moo-00 !

Such a thing I'd never do.”

[blocks in formation]

Now, what do you think?

Who stole a nest away

From the plum tree to-day?"

"Not I," said the dog, "bow-wow!

I wouldn't be so mean,

I vow.

I gave some hairs the nest to make,
But the nest I did not take.
Not I," said the dog, "bow-wow!
I wouldn't be so mean, I vow."

"Coo-oo! Coo-coo! Coo-coo !
Let me speak a word or two:
Who stole that pretty nest,
From little Yellow-breast?"

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