THE LAST DAY AT THE SEA-SIDE.—Drawn by Jessie Shepherd.

"RIGHT ABOUT FACE."

BY MARY D. BRINE.

"Now, right about face!" September cries,
"Right about face, and march!" cries she;
"You, Summer, have had your day, and now,
In spite of your sorrowful clouded brow,
The children belong to me.

"Come, fall into line, you girls and boys,
Tanned and sunburned, merry and gay;
Turn your backs to the woods and hills,
The meadow ponds and the mountain rills,
And march from them all away.

"Are you loath, I wonder, to say farewell
To the summer days and the summer skies?
Ah! time flies fast; vacation is done;
You've finished your season of frolic and fun;
Now turn your tardy eyes

"Toward your lessons and books, my dears.
Why, where would our men and women be,
If the children forever with Summer played?
Come, right about face," September said,
"And return to school with me."

SOMETHING ABOUT SHIPS.

Sailing vessels carry either square-sails or fore-and-aft sails. A square-sail is one the head of which is "bent" or made fast to the jack-stay—an iron rod on a yard. Fore-and-aft sails, instead of being bent to yards, are mostly supplied with a boom or gaff, or both. The lower corners of square-sails are called clews. The fore-sail and mainsail are often called the courses. Sail is seldom carried on the cross-jack (pronounced krojik) yard, the lowest yard on the mizzenmast.

The courses, when "set," are kept down by means of ropes leading from the clews fore and aft, called tacks and sheets. Above the courses come the topsails; above the topsails, the top-gallant-sails; and next above, the royals. Some very large ships carry still loftier sails, called sky-sails.

Most merchant ships carry double topsails, one above the other, for greater ease in handling; but on men-of-war, having large crews, single topsails are the rule.

The head-sails are those which the bowsprit and the booms it supports carry forward. These are the foretopmast stay-sail, the jib, and flying-jib. Large vessels carry even more head-sails. The spanker, or driver, as our merchantmen sometimes call it, is a fore-and-aft sail, and is the aftersail of a ship or bark.

A compass being divided into thirty-two points, sailors consider the horizon at sea as having an equal number of divisions, and speak of a ship as sailing within five or six points of the direction the wind is blowing from.

When the sails of a ship are filled with wind, they are said to be drawing or full. A good sailor is never so happy as when with a whole-sail breeze he sees all his canvas spread and drawing, and feels himself "off before it."

THE BROKEN VASE.

BY MRS. W. H. SNYDER.

"Now," said Mary, impatiently, as she came in from school, "I shall have to draw another hateful old design, for she wouldn't accept the one I took in this morning. She said it was drawn carelessly, and that I hadn't followed her directions, and that I had made thick lines, and hadn't properly erased my guide lines. She was ever so hard to please, and I hate her."

"I am sorry to see my little girl in such a bad humor to-day," said mother. "I thought I heard her say this morning that Miss Jones was 'so nice.'"

"Oh yes, but she isn't always nice. She's dreadfully particular sometimes—at least with me. She was pleasant enough to Jenny Kirkland and Clara Sackett, and she almost always says to those two girls, 'You have done very well, and you deserve a great deal of credit.' And to make matters worse, Miss Howland had to go and say, 'Mary, you must bring in a better design to-morrow, or I shall have to discredit you.' Well, I'll bring her in