Well, dolly, here I am again, Just home from school, you see: Let's come down to our cubby-house Beneath the willow-tree. There, dolly, now we're snug and safe, Away from horrid boys; Oh! don't we hate their teasing tricks, Their rudeness and their noise! Come, let me press your little cheek, So rosy and so cool; And I will tell you all about The times I had at school. I said my tables pretty well, But missed on five times seven: In spelling I went to the head (The word, dear, was e-lev-en). At recess, Nelly Fay and I A splendid "teter" made: O dolly! we went up so high, You would have been afraid. And Nelly promised she would come And spend this afternoon: So, dolly, I must change your dress, For she will be here soon. She'll bring with her her stylish doll, (Miss Maud May Rosalie) Who wears real ear-rings and a watch (As vain as she can be)! Ah, dolly! by her Paris dress Yours will look plain, I fear; But you have twice as sweet a face, My ownty darling dear!

IDA'S MOUSE

One morning when Ida went to the closet for the birdseed to feed her canary, she found a wee brown mouse in the bottom of the bottle where the seed was kept. Instead of screaming and running away, Ida clapped her fat little hand over the mouth of the bottle, and mousie was a prisoner.

Mamma said mousie should be drowned; but Ida begged so hard to keep him, that mamma got a glass jar, put mousie into it, with a bit of bread and cheese to keep him company, tied a piece of tin, all pricked with little holes, over the mouth of the jar, and set it on the shelf.

Ida spent half the day in watching the mouse.

When papa came home at night, he brought a funny little tin house for mousie's cage. Mousie was put into it; and he soon began to make the wire-wheel go round. He turned the wheel so fast and so long, that he soon made his nose sore. Ida thought he was very tame; but I think he only wanted to get out and run away.

One day mousie managed to get his door open and scamper off. Then Ida cried and cried, and was afraid her dear mousie would starve. But after a day or two, as grandma was going up stairs, she saw little mousie hopping up ahead of her.

He ran into Ida's closet. Ida brought the cage; and mamma and grandma made mousie run into it.

"Perhaps it is not the same mouse," said grandma.

"Oh, yes, it is!" said Ida. "I know him by his sore nose."

Ida took good care of mousie till warm weather came, and it was time to go into the country for the summer. Then she took the cage outside the back-gate, and opened mousie's door. Mousie was very quiet at first; but soon he peeped out, and, seeing nothing to hinder, he ran away as fast as his little legs could carry him.

I am glad that he was set free; for I do not think he was happy in the cage. I hope he will keep away from traps and cats, and live to a good old age.

Auntie May.

ALMOST LOST

Soon after school had commenced, it began snowing so, that the mistress dismissed all the scholars, and they started for their homes.

Among the girls were two little sisters, Julia and Emily Burns, who lived a mile and a half from the schoolhouse, and had to cross a wide field, and pass through a wood, before they could reach the well-known road that led up to their own house.

They had an umbrella with them; and Julia, the elder sister, had a leather bag on her arm, containing their luncheon. Soon the snow began to fall with blinding force: the wind blew, and they could not see their way.

They were by this time near the entrance to the wood. Emily began to cry with alarm; but Julia said, "Do not be afraid. See! there is the little old shanty where the wood-choppers used to go in winter to eat their dinners. We will go in there, and stop till somebody comes for us."

So they went in; and, as good luck would have it, Julia found some matches in an old box on the shelf. There were plenty of pine-chips, too, lying in the corner of the one room, which was all that the shanty afforded.

Soon Julia had a merry fire blazing on the hearth; then Emily began to laugh. They sat down on a log, and warmed themselves; and Julia drew forth their luncheon from the leather bag, and they ate a hearty meal.

What do you suppose the sisters did after that? Why, they began to sing songs, and tell stories, and repeat riddles; and they were in the midst of this, when they heard the sound of voices.

"Oh, dear! what's that?" cried Emily.

"It sounds very much like papa's voice," said Julia; "and that bow-wow sounds like the voice of old Tiger. Yes, here they come."

And the next moment the children's father, with two big boys, sons of one of their neighbors, burst into the room; and papa exclaimed, "Why, you little rogues, how I have worried about you! And here you are as comfortable as a mouse in a meal-bag!"

Then old Tiger began to frisk round them, and to jump up as if to kiss them. "Down, old fellow!" said Mr. Burns: "you told us where they were; didn't you, old Tiger?"

Tiger barked loudly, as much as to say, "Yes, I told you where they were; and I think I am the smartest dog that ever lived. Bow-wow! Of all the dogs ever told about in 'The Nursery,' I am the wisest, the bravest, the handsomest, and the best. Bow-wow!"

Mary Elmore.

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The Nursery, March 1873, Vol. XIII.

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MOLLY TO HER DOLLY

IDA'S MOUSE

ALMOST LOST

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