his newspaper, and taking her on his knee.

"Oh, you dear papa, I am so tired, so tired!" murmured Lily. "Oh, do sing me 'Flow gently, sweet Afton,' and let me go to sleep on your lap."

But mamma said, "No, Lily. You must go to bed while you can keep your eyes open."

And so Lily kissed papa, and was borne off to bed. I think she will wait till she is older, before she will care much to go to another "children's party."

THE HERONS.

A very shy bird Is the heron, my dear; It will run fast away, If you come very near: It has a sharp bill, A neck slender and long; It is fond of small fish, And goes where they throng. It builds a snug nest On some very high tree, And there lays its eggs, Where the boys cannot see. Woods marshy and wet, It likes to frequent; For there it finds food, And there lives content. No sportsmen with guns Come often to kill: And when they appear The heron keeps still; It keeps still and hides On a lofty bough near, Till the fowler says, "Well, I can find no birds here." Then he and his dogs Go off in the dumps, And the heron flies down To the bushes and stumps; There flaps its big wings, Right glad to have cheated The life-seeking foes, Who now have retreated.

EMMA AND THE BOOK.

THE BEAR AND HER CUBS.

"Are there any people besides Esquimaux in the snow-country?" asked Harry, one day.

"Not many," said I. "There is a small Danish settlement in Greenland; but, with that exception, the Esquimaux and the bears have the country pretty much to themselves."

"Tell me about the bears," said Harry. "I saw a bear last summer at the White mountains. He was chained to a tree."

"But the bear that roams about over the snow and ice of the Arctic regions, is much larger and more savage than the common black bear that you saw. It is of a dingy white color. When full grown, it sometimes measures nine feet in length."

"Didn't I see one in Barnum's menagerie?"

"I think not, Harry; for the polar bear suffers so much from heat, even in our coldest winters, that it will not live long in this climate.

"There is one thing very interesting in the bear nature, and that is the affection of the female for its young. This has often been noticed. Here is a picture showing an instance of it.

"A Greenland bear with two cubs, was pursued across a field of ice by a party of armed sailors. At first she tried to urge the young ones along by running before them, turning around and calling them to her; but finding that the pursuers were gaining upon them, she pushed and threw the cubs before her, one after the other, until she effected their escape.

"Each cub would place itself across her path to receive the impulse, and when thrown forward, would run onward until overtaken by the mother, when it would adjust itself for another throw."

"Well, that shows that even a bear has some good feeling," said Harry, "and some common sense too. I'm glad that the sailors did not catch them. What would those cubs have done without their mother?"

BROWN BILLY SOLD.