hand.

Zip Coon was very fond of raw eggs. He would take one up in both his hands, and pound it down hard on the wood-house floor. This would crack the shell. Then he would turn the egg around, hold it to his mouth, and suck the inside out, just as you would suck an orange. After he had sucked the shell clean, he would put one little hand inside, scrape the empty shell, and then lick his fingers so as to eat every bit of the egg-meat.

One day, Isabella's sister Ellen gave Zippy a nice, large, fresh egg. He was very glad to get it, you may be sure, and ate it as I have told you. Then he wanted another, just as you sometimes want another orange. So he took hold of Ellen's hand with one of his hands, and with the other felt way up her sleeve and peeped up with his sharp eyes.

When he found no egg in the sleeve he was angry. He looked up in Ellen's face in a very wicked way, then stooped down and buried his teeth in her wrist. Then he turned and ran into the house, clanking his chain after him.

Zippy was not always so wicked as this, even after he had to be chained up; but he was very mischievous. Once, the servants in the kitchen heard a terrible racket in the wood-house. They went out there and found Zippy on a high shelf where the blacking-brushes were kept. He was throwing the blacking-boxes and brushes down, as fast as he could, and there they lay scattered about the floor. His chain was so long, that he had climbed up on the shelf and was having a good time.

But, after a while, Zip Coon became so fierce that Isabella didn't know what to do with him. She was afraid he would do something terrible to somebody: so she gave him to a man who carried him way off where Isabella and her sisters never saw him any more. And this is all I have to tell you about Zip Coon.

SAM AND HIS GOATS.

One day, when Sam was playing in the yard, his papa came driving home from town, with something tied in the bottom of the wagon. When he saw Sam, he stopped the horse and called, "Sam, come here, I have something for you."

Sam ran there as fast as he could, and—what do you think?—papa lifted two little goats out of the wagon, and put them down on the ground. One goat was black and one was white. Sam was so glad he did not know what to to do. He just jumped up and down with delight.

Then the dog Jack came running out to see the goats too; but he did not like them much. He barked at them as hard as he could; but the goats did not mind him at all.

Pretty soon mamma came to see what Sam had. When she saw the goats, she said, "Why, papa, what will become of us if we have two goats on the place?" But she was glad because Sam was glad; and Sam gave his papa about a hundred kisses to thank him for the goats.

For some weeks, the goats ran about the yard, and ate the grass; and Sam gave them water to drink, out of his little pail, and salt to eat, out of his hand. He liked to feel their soft tongues on his hand as they ate the salt. The goats would jump and run and play, and Sam thought it was fine fun to run and play with them. Jack would run too, and bark all the time.

But by and by Sam began to get tired of his goats, and his mamma was more tired of them than Sam was. They ate the tops off of her nice rose-bushes; they ran over her flower-beds; and one day, when the door was open, one of them ran into the parlor and jumped up on the best sofa.

Mamma said this would never do: so the next day papa found a man who said he would give Sam fifty cents for the white goat. As Sam wanted to buy a drum, he was glad to sell the goat; and with fifty cents in his pocket he felt very rich.

Then the other goat was put in the orchard, and he liked it there very much. He liked to have Sam come and play with him. As soon as he saw Sam coming, he would run to meet him, and push him with his head, in play, and try to jump on him.

The goat grew very fast,—much faster than Sam did; so that soon he was quite a big goat, while Sam was still a very small boy. He got to be so much stronger that Sam, that Sam was a little afraid of him.

One day, when they were playing, the goat hit Sam with his head, and knocked him down. Sam was scared. He got up, fast as he could, and tried to run to the gate; but the goat ran after him, and Sam had to climb into a tree. It was a nice apple-tree. Sam had often sat up there before, and liked it; but, now that he was forced to sit there, he did not like it at all.

The goat staid at the foot of the tree, and, when Sam tried to come down, he would shake his head at him, as if to say, "Come down if you dare." Sam did not dare. "Oh, dear!" said he, "what shall I do?"

There were some green apples on the tree; and Sam thought, that, if he threw them at the goat, he could drive him away: so he began to pick the apples, and throw them at the goat.

The first one hit the goat right on his head; but it did not hurt him at all. He just went to where the apple lay, and ate it up; and every time that Sam threw an apple at him the goat would eat it, and then look at Sam, as if to say, "That is good. Give me some more."

At last Sam said, "Oh, you bad, bad goat! I wish you would go away. If you don't go away, I'm afraid I shall cry." Then he thought of Jack, and called, "Here, Jack! Here, Jack!" Jack came running up to see what Sam wanted. Sam said, "At him, Jack! At him, Jack!"

Jack ran at the goat, and barked at him and tried to bite him; but the goat kept turning his head to Jack, so that Jack could not get a chance to bite him. At last the goat got tired of hearing Jack bark, and thought he would give him one hard knock, and drive him away.

So he took a step or two back, and then ran forward, as hard as he could, to hit Jack. But, when his head got to where Jack had been, Jack was not there: he had jumped away. The goat was going so fast, that he could not stop himself, but tumbled over his head, and came down on his back with his legs sticking up in the air.

Sam laughed so hard that he almost fell out of the tree, and Jack was so glad, that he jumped and barked, and tried to bite the goat's legs. At last the goat got up and walked over to the other side of the orchard as far as he could go. Then Sam jumped down out of the tree, and ran to tell