victs. He sat at the helm looking out upon the waters, and listening to the silent audible." There was a slight motion of the sails, announced by a low whistle from the pilot. In twenty minutes every man was bound fast and gagged, the convicts were armed,—and the vessel was in full sweep for the port of Buenos Ayres! There it arrived a prize to the prisoners! Great noise was made about the vessel seized by women, and brought triumphantly into port. The Lady Shore (for that was the vessel's name), was crowded with South Americans. The bravery of the women was loudly applauded; and in three days the richest young Spaniard in the city offered himself to the bold and beautiful Rose Mae Orne. Her promise to the pilot was forgotten. The ambitious Scotchwoman now wears pearls and diamonds in plenty. Of her sister convicts, some retained their early vices, and died miserable vagabonds; others repented and reformed, and became respectable women.

AN INVITATION TO THE ZOOLOGICAL
GARDENS.

[BY A GENTLEMAN WITH A SLIGHT IMPEDIMENT IN HIS SPEECH.]

I have found out a gig-gig-gift for my fuf-fuf-fair,

I have found where the rattle-snakes bub-bub-breed ; Won't you c-c-c-come, and I'll show you the bub-bubbear,

And the bisons, tit-tit-tigers at fur-fur-fur-feed.

I know where the c-c-co-cockatoo's song

Makes mum-mum-melody through the sweet vale, Where the m-monkeys gig-gig-grin all the day long, Or gracefully swing by the tit-tit-tit-tail.

You shall pip-pip-play, dear, did-did-deli-cate joke,

With the bub-bub bear on the tit-tit-top of his pip-pippip pole;

But observe, 'tis fuf-fur-for-bidden to pip-pip-poke At the bub-bub-bear with your pip-pip-pink pip-pippip-parasol.

You shall see the huge elephant pip-pip-play;

You shall gig-gig-gaze on the stit-stit-ately racoon, And then, did-did-dear, together we'll stray, To the cage of the bub-bub-blue fuf-fuf-faced babbabboon.

You wished (I r-r-r-remember it well,

And I 1-1-1-loved you the m-m-more for the wish) To witness the bub-bub-beautiful pip-pip-pelican swallow the 1-1-live 1-1-little fur-fur-fish.

Then c-c-come, did-did-dearest, n-n-never say "Nun-nunnay;”

I'll tit-tit-treat you, my love, to a bub-bub-buss, 'Tis but a thrup-pip-pip-pence a pip-pip-piece, all the way,

To see the pip-pip-pip--(I beg your pardon)—

To see the pip-pip-pip-pip—(ahem !)——

To see the pip-pip-pip-pop-pop-pop—(I mean)—
The hip-po-po-po-dear me (love, yon know),—

The hippo-pot-pot-pot-('pon my word, I'm quite ashamed of myself)

The hip-pip-pop-the hip-po-pot-
To see the Hippot-potamus.-

Mayhew's English Comic Almanac.

DIAMOND DUST.

By refusing a favour when it is offered you, you may wound more than if you asked one.

MISERIES OF WEALTH.

IT is to have a subscription-paper handed you every hour, and to be called a uiggard if you once refuse your

name.

It is to eat turkey and drink wine at dearer rate than your neighbours.

It is to have every college, infirmary, and asylum make a run upon the bank of your benevolence, and then rail at the smallness of the dividend.

It is to have sectarians contend for the keeping of your conscience, and lawyers struggle for the keeping of your purse.

It is to be taxed for more than you are worth, and laughed at when you say so.

It is to have addition of hundreds, subtraction of comforts, and multiplication of anxieties, end in division among spendthrift heirs.

It is to add interest to principal, until you have interest without principle.

It is to pay the tailor for all his bad customers, and compensate the tradesman for what he loses by knavery or extravagance.

It is never to be allowed to be on easy terms even with a coat or a shoe.

It is to have your son's steps surrounded by "mantraps," and your daughter made a target for the selfish and speculating to aim at.

It is envy gratis, and friendship bought.

It is to purchase a debtor's smile and a knave's flattery.

It is to be invited to drink poor wine, that you may give better in return.

It is to have your wife wretched because another wears a higher feather, or a brighter diamond.

It is to buy green peas for nine shillings, and dislike them because a neighbour gives fifteen.

It is to have sons go to college to buy themes of wiser heads, and your daughter's brains turned by the flattery of fools.

It is to have your sleep disturbed by dreams of fire, and your peace of mind dependent on the blowing of the wind.

It is to have relations wish you a short life and a long will. Į It is to insure your widow's tears by making her fortune depend upon her widowhood.

It is to contract the heart, and stretch the conscience. It is to have greater temptations than others in this world; and to find the entrance to a better more difficult than the rest of mankind.

To read much and practise nothing, is to be always hunting and catch no game.

SOME men are wise and some are other-wise.
IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE-Getting married.
NEVER light your match before your fire is laid.

THE man who cannot forgive, breaks the bridge over which he will want to pass.

Printed by Cox (Brothers) & WYMAN, 74-75, Great Queen Street, London; and published by CHARLES COOK, at the Office of the Journal, 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street.

PATTY MORRICE.

A SIMPLE STORY.

PATTY MORRICE was seven years old when she first went to school. She was a thin, pale, meagre little girl, but had a pretty face and a dark bright eye. Her mother was a widow, and ill-supported herself and child at slopworking. This will account for Patty's being so thin and pale. She had not enough to eat, and the room in which they lived, deep down in a damp and dismal alley in the purlieus of Shoreditch, received the light and air which it would be mockery to say they enjoyed, through windows thick-coated with dust and smoke. Two chairs, a small deal table, neither in a very good state of repair, and a mattress on the floor, included the whole of her furniture. On the mantelpiece stood a brass candlestick, an unglazed plaster of Paris figure of a lion, one or two little earthenware nick-nacks, and a few tattered books, the souvenirs of days anterior to her widowhood. Behind the scenes, in an old cupboard that stood beside the fireplace, the shelves displayed a scanty row of plates and dishes, a tea-pot and milk-jug, and one or two appendages. Her wardrobe was in a similar condition.

But the mother of Patty Morrice was superior in many respects to her neighbours. Though struggling with poverty, she loved cleanliness, and though not well-educated herself, she felt the importance as well as the benefit of education. Her apartment, therefore, though scanty of furniture, was kept neat and tidy as far as her means would allow, and the idea of comfort almost suggested itself from the order and the arrangement of the few things that were in the room. Patty also was taught to keep herself clean, and in spite of many drawbacks contrived to do so; and whilst engaged in the incessant laborious occupation by which she gained her living, her mother found time to teach her little daughter to read.

One morning towards the end of March her mother said to Patty, "If I send you to school for a few hours every day, my child, would you like to go?" This was said in a voice and accompanied with a gesture that seemed to anticipate the answer.

The pale girl's countenance brightened up with delight as the question was put to her, and in her childish ecstasy exclaimed, "Oh, what delight!" at the same time clapping her hands at the idea. But a moment after, her eyes lost their brilliancy, her head was hung down as if in reflection, and she was silent, until, with a sudden impulse,

[PRICE 1 d.

Patty, running to her mother's knees and throwing back her head so as to look up into her mother's face, added inquiringly, "But you will have to give money for it?" "Yes, my child," replied her mother, "but I can easily contrive to raise enough. The nights now are not so long as they were, and what it has cost a week for light and firing will go far to send you to school." That was to a national school, where a small sum is paid by each of the pupils per week. Patty made no further observation on the possibility of ways and means; she was not old enough to understand all the privations of poverty, and she accepted her mother's argument without inquiring whether any extra sacrifice were necessary to enable her to go.

And Patty went to school. It was a bright spring morning. There had been a frost during the night, but it had only served to freshen the face of nature and the pulse of man; and the sun that had been risen some two hours was gaining sufficient strength to melt away the thin crystal layers of rime that covered the slanting roofs, and penetrate with warm quickening beams into bodies and substances now torpid for many months. At a brisk pace Patty threaded the streets, holding her mother's hand, and at length arrived in front of a newly-built church, by the side of which were two commodious-looking buildings. In fact, they were excessively plain, without architectural ornament of any kind; but what of that? To Patty they seemed palaces, as she read over the doorways carved in the stone-National Schools. Her mother went to the left, which led to the entrance for the girls. Patty did not observe the trembling nervousness of her mother's step as they drew near the doorway. Her whole mind was intent upon the new scene that was to open upon her, upon the things she was to learn, upon the playmates she was to have, upon the masters and mistresses, or, as she expressed it, "the great folks "whose acquaintance she was to make, and from whom she expected nothing but kind words and sweet smiles. All these things were sufficient to engross her little heart; but her mother did approach with trembling steps. The consciousness of her poverty and the habitual humiliating treatment she had been subject to by her employers had more than subdued her, it had destroyed the sense of her own natural rights, and made her timid and faint, even in the presence of a good action. She entered, however. The charge she had clinging to her gown suggested at once the object of her coming, and as she stood hesitating on the

threshold a kindly-spoken middle-aged woman with a beaming countenance came up to her:

"You are about to add one more to our little flock, I presume," she commenced, recognising Patty's presence by patting her on the head.

"Yes, ma'am," replied the poor widow, in a low tone of voice.

"Your daughter ?" inquiringly continued the mistress, with a good-humoured smile. The mother assented, and then, encouraged by a little further conversation, went into detail respecting her life and her wishes regarding Patty. She said that she herself had seen better days--it is an old story that her husband had been master of a small vessel that plied along the coast; that he had been shipwrecked five months before the child was born, and that she had struggled hard to obtain enough to live on, until, failing in other employment, she was obliged to take up with the ill-requited business of slopworking. She dilated, with maternal eloquence, on the virtues of little Patty, on her cleanliness, on her cheerful disposition, on her love of books, and so on, all which the schoolmistress heard with that kind of complacency and that amount of credulity which a good-tempered person, accustomed to a repetition of the similar virtues, and similar accomplishments in almost every boy and girl a mother has had to place with her, is likely to do.

Patty was at first a little awestruck by the multiplicity of eyes that were fixed upon her, as, after her mother had left, she was led down to the other end of the room. But soon those eyes were exchanged for busy voices, most of them expressive of joy; and laughter occasionally burst forth. This gave Patty her nsual vivacity and confidence, and it was not long before she was chatting and laughing herself with several of the little girls who, attracted by her pretty face and fine black glossy hair, flocked around her. She was in the midst of a long account of herself, which she unconsciously embellished— for all is golden to the eye of youth-without any sign to her apparent, the little group around her dispersed as if by magic; every one hastened to a seat, and the most profound silence ensued. The time for work had begun. Patty was left alone where she had been standing, but it was not long before a place was found for her, and what she had to do pointed out. Her instructress in this respect was a tall girl of fifteen or sixteen, with a face pitted with smallpox, but lustrous with a most amiable expression. Such an expression was enough to win the heart of Patty at once, and when she was again by herself she resolved to do her duty as well as she could, if it were only to please a person who bore so benignant a countenance.

Every little incident to Patty was a matter of importance, gilded as it already was in her eyes with the gloss of novelty. Little things made her heart leap, and a word or a sign produced an unusual sensation on her. During the course of the day two gentlemen, both in black clothes with white cravats about their necks, came into the school. The eldest had thin silvery hair flowing from under his hat; he was of a fair complexion, inclining, however, to redness, and walked with an affected pomposity down the room, now talking to this girl and now to that, and occasionally asking questions about them of the mistress. The other was much younger, not exceeding thirty years of age.

Patty was standing up at class as they entered. It was the first time she had ever been in a class, and the first time that she had ever braved the countenance of a mistress. It was her turn to read just as the two strangers arrived to where she was standing. "What!" exclaimed the pompous gentleman, who, with all his corpulent pomposity, intended to be kind, "what! at the bottom of the class, my little girl? oh, fie! oh, fie!" An undeserved rebuke has shaken the philosophy of many a wise man. Patty felt

too the injustice of the observation, became disconcerted, and would fain have cried, for her amour propre was wounded, but it was explained in time that she had only that morning entered it. "Then begin, my little lady," pleasantly said the officious gentleman, trying to make amends for his unfortunate exclamation by a mildness in his manner and voice. "Let me hear how you can read?" Patty, timid at first, felt her courage revive as she proceeded. She read with great fluency and freedom from that monotonous twing-twang style which has been unfortunately introduced, heaven knows why! into many of our national schools. When she had finished, the silverhaired gentleman complimented her on her cleverness, asked her questions about herself and her mother, expressed himself satisfied with her replies, and encouraged her with some sage predictions to the effect that if she were a good girl she would be loved, and that naughty children came to a bad end. After school Patty learnt that these gentlemen were the vicar and the curate of the parish, who occasionally came in this manner to observe how things went on.

Thanks to her mother's teaching, before the day was over, Patty was at the head of the class she had entered in the morning.

One trait in Patty's character we have omitted to mention. Although so young, her affectionate heart told her that her mother was in great distress; she was, therefore, eager to do what her little hands had power to do, to assist; and where there is a will there is a way. Besides running on errands, which saved her mother time, she washed the things they had used for their scanty meals, scrubbed the floor, and kept the room in order. But she was not eight years old when she engaged, of her own accord, in a more arduous undertaking that was to help her mother in the disagreeable work she had to do. When the winter set in Patty could no longer go to school. The expense of candle and fuel was too serious an item. They knew of no charitable person to assist them, and Patty's mother had too sensitive a heart to beg. However, by what they could both do together they shielded themselves against many of the rigours of the winter season, and when spring-time came round again, with its warmer suns and longer days, Patty went regularly to school. Thus three years or more passed away.

The fourth winter, however, was a very severe one. Their united efforts could not save them from feeling to its full extent the bitterness of the cold and the pinching wretchedness of poverty. The price of provisions also rose, whilst even the obtainment of work became a doubtful chance. Tickets for coal and soup, however, came to their relief, and societies for the distribution of blankets mitigated, in some measure, their frightful suffering. ! Every day Patty was accustomed to go to the Kitchen to obtain her mother's share of potage. On her way to and fro, however, Patty used often to be annoyed by boys who, idling about the causeways and the streets, have nothing else to do than to block up the path, to the inconvenience of passers-by. One morning, as she was returning laden with a smoking bowl of soup, she saw approaching her a boy who had frequently tormented her. Crossing over to the other side, she hoped to avoid him. But, alas! it. was in vain, for he pushed up against her, upset the basin, and spilt the soup. He then burst out into a hoarse laugh, whilst Patty began to weep at the idea of the dinner she and her mother had lost. But the triumph of the boy was not long; scarcely had he caused the catastrophe, when he was set upon by another about his own size, who, seeing the malicious attempt, rushed out from a shop close at hand and revenged the offence. shop was a bookbinder's, and the boy who inflicted this summary punishment an apprentice belonging to it. Poor Patty, recovering from her vexation, thanked her de

The

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fender, and went home to tell the sad tidings to her hungry mother. That day was a day of sad fasting.

We pass over a period of four years or more, in which Patty continued to go off and on to the schools where she had in the interval gained several prizes for good behaviour and general knowledge. It happened about this time that in the National School which she had frequented so long, a monitress or under-governess was wanted. There was a slight salary attached to the office, and the person lived in the house with the mistress. The idea struck Patty that she was capable of fulfilling the duties of it, and why should she not try to obtain it? The idea was only conceived to be put into execution. Without saying a word to her mother she dressed herself as well as her scanty wardrobe would allow, and stole away one afternoon to call upon the clergyman's wife. This was for her a bold step, but Patty had by nature the faculty of reading character, and argued from what she had seen of her at the school, which she occasionally visited, that she was a kind-hearted woman. Accordingly, there was no timidity or shrinking in the manner of the poor girl when shown into the presence of Mrs. Mendham. She explained the object of her coming in a few simple words, and pointed to the prizes she had gained and the written testimonials that had been given her as proofs of her capacity, moral and intellectal. reply, however, which she received gave her little information. It was couched in an ambiguous style, and Patty left, hardly knowing whether to hope or to despair.

The

However, the morning arrived when the board of inspectors were to meet for the despatch of business, and amongst other things the election of the monitress. It was a matter of little excitement to the many; yet Patty determined to be at school that day. The council met in a room adjoining the school-room. Several candidates were called in, examined, and dismissed. On their countenances as they came out nothing could be read. However, the court broke up at twelve o'clock, and now it only wanted ten minutes of the hour. The hand of the clock was hastening on. It was now five minutes to twelve, and no notice had been taken of her petition. Two minutes more were gone, when a voice from behind called her and told her to follow. It was the clergyman's wife. She followed, and was led into a room, where eight or nine gentlemen were sitting round a table overspread with a green baize cloth. She curtsied as she entered, and a trepidation came over her. It did not continue long, however. The silver-haired gentleman in the black clothes with a white cravat about his neck was there, and his presence gave her assurance. They asked her many things, all of which she answered in an artless but at the same time a firm manner. Although one or two gentle. men objected to her age, the others considered there was so much decision of character in her manner, and so much modesty in her behaviour, that they carried the day, and she was elected.

The chief, I might say the only object, for it was that which had engrossed her whole thoughts, which Patty had had in view in seeking the situation, was, that she might be placed in a position in which she could assist her mother. This she intended to do by devoting the small salary attached to the office, which hardly amounted to five pounds per annum, to her use. Besides being no longer a burden, for the monitress was lodged and boarded in the house belonging to the school, there was a possibility that as she became more intimate with the ladies who frequented the school she might obtain a lighter kind of work for her mother, and which would at the same time be more lucrative. When her good fortune was made known to her, however, she could scarcely credit it, so difficult is it to believe news that we have set our heart

down a gloomy dismal alley, black with filth, and unhealthy with the effluvia of drains, where the moral pollution was still greater than the physical, and which every one seemed to avoid, whose mother was an unknown slopworker, who had hardly more than rags upon her back, and who, though tidy and clean, could not give the look of newness to old things, and who was obliged to patch up her clothes until her frock seemed made of twenty different pieces-was it possible that people would regard her petition?

No sooner had the announcement been made known that Patty was to be monitress, than surprise and congratulations poured in upon her from every side. Children older than herself, and little ones much younger, came forward to kiss her and greet her, not so much, they declared, on her account as their own. They all exclaimed how happy they should be with her as their monitress.

On her return home Patty had another scene of delight to go through. She was the messenger of her own plans and its success. The trembling words of congratulation which broke forth from the quivering lips of her mother penetrated into the deepest cells of her affectionate heart, and in her happiness she felt the richest sources of her

own.

All the schemes she had planned for the relief of her mother were put into execution as soon as possible. She saw her mother removed to a healthier locality and a more airy lodging. She was enabled to obtain what she anticipated, lighter work for her, which rendered her independent of the selfish, cruel, and dissatisfied taskmasters whose bond-slave she had been so long, and this neverforgetful daughter came as frequently as she could to cheer by her company the lone evenings of her mother.

The quiet gossip of these two, however, was frequently broken in upon by a third person, too important to be omitted. This was William Wellsent. Since the day of the incident above related, he had never lost sight of Patty and her mother. He had frequently assisted them in their severest trials in his small way, and his visits had latterly become so regular, and looked for with such eagerness, that his occasional absence seemed almost unpardonable. And what was his attraction? To tell the truth, a girl of eighteen, with a fine open countenance, a pale face and pleasing features. These were the outward and visible attractions. The inward and invisible links were an affectionate heart, a quick intelligence, a cheerful disposition, an unwearied energy—in a word, all those virtues and all those affections that would create love in one less ardent than himself.

Thus passed five years. Patty Morrice had become too old for her situation, and was talking about going into service.

"That shall never be," cried William Wellsent, "whilst these hands can work and Patty consents to be mine."

Patty smiled the same smile that she had given him a hundred times before in confirmation of her affection for him. Her mother put off her spectacles from her nose, and with a sigh that seemed to say, "We none of us can look into the future," desired William to tell again the story he had told them the night before.

No, mother," said William, "I will never go abroad till want compels me; then, and not before, I will seek a home on the other side of the globe. For honest hearts and honest hands there is enough to be done yet."

Patty's mother sighed again as much as to say, "Have I not been honest all my life, and how have I been punished and persecuted by poverty ?"

"But, mother," continued William, " Patty and I have agreed, with your loving permission, to fix next Whitsuntide for our wedding-day. It is barely six weeks, and we can make all ready by then." The blushing maiden who stood at the window now turned round, and threw in

some petit objection, but before the evening was over it was all arranged. That day six weeks accordingly Patty Morrice became Patty Wellsent, and she and her husband lived as all would wish them to live. Both had learned to regulate their desires and their tempers-the philosophy of domestic happiness, and with their mother, who now only laboured for her own gratification and to have a little pin-money in case of need, enjoyed the fruits of mutual forbearance.

FRITZ AND HIS FRIENDS.

A FAIRY TALE FOR OUR YOUNG READERS.

(From the German.)

HONEST Fritz had worked hard all his life, but ill luck befell him; his cattle died, his barns were burned, and he lost almost all his money. So at last he said, "Before it is all gone I will buy goods, and go out into the world, and see whether I shall have the luck to mend my fortune."

The first place he came to was a village where the boys were running about, crying and shouting. "What is the matter?" asked he. "See here!" said they, we have got a mouse that we make dance to please us. Do look at him; what a droll sight it is! how he jumps about!" But the man pitied the poor little thing, and said, "Let the poor mouse go, and I will give you money.' So he gave them some money, and took the mouse, and let it run; and it soon jumped into a hole that was close by, and was out of their reach.

Then he travelled on and came to another village; and there the boys had got an ass, that they made stand on its hind legs, and tumble and cut capers. Then they laughed and shouted, and gave the poor beast no rest. So the good man gave them too some of his money to let the poor thing go away in peace.

At the next village he came to the young people were leading a bear that had been taught to dance, and were plaguing the poor thing sadly. Then he gave them too some money, to let the beast go; and Master Bruin was very glad to get on his four feet, and seemed quite at his ease and happy again.

But now our traveller found that he had given away all the money he had in the world, and had not a shilling in his pocket. Then said he to himself, "The king has heaps of gold in his strong box that he never uses; I cannot die of hunger; so I hope I shall be forgiven if I borrow a little from him, and when I get rich again I will repay it all."

So he managed to get at the king's strong box, and took a very little money; but as he came out the guards saw him, and said he was a thief, and took him to the judge. The poor man told his story; but the judge said that sort of borrowing could not be suffered, and that those who took other people's money must be punished; so the end of his trial was that Fritz was found guilty, and doomed to be floated on the lake, shut up in a box. The lid of the box was full of holes to let in air; and one jug of water and one loaf of bread were given him.

Whilst he was swimming along the water very sorrowfully, he heard something nibbling and biting round the lock. All on a sudden it fell off, the lid flew open, and there stood his old friend the little mouse, who had done him this good turn. Then came the ass and the bear too, and pulled the box ashore; and all helped him because he had been kind to them.

But now they did not know what to do next, and began to lay their heads together, when on a sudden a wave threw on the shore a pretty white stone, that looked like an egg. Then the bear said, "That's a lucky thing; this is the wonderful stone, whoever has it needs only to

wish, and everything that he wishes for comes to him at once." So Fritz went and picked up the stone, and wished for a palace and a garden, and a stud of horses; and his wish was fulfilled as soon as he had made it. And there he lived in his castle and garden, with fine stables and horses; and all was so grand and beautiful that he never could wonder and gaze at it enough.

After some time some merchants passed by that way. See," said they, "what a princely palace! The last time we were here it was nothing but a desert waste." They were very eager to know how all this had happened, and went in and asked the master of the palace how it had been so quickly raised. "I have done nothing myself," said he; it is "the wonderful stone that did all." "What a strange stone that must be !" said they. Then he asked them to walk in, and showed it to them.

They asked him whether he would sell it, and offered him all their goods for it; and the goods seemed so fine and costly, that he quite forgot that the stone would bring him in a moment a thousand better and richer things; and he agreed to make the bargain. Scarcely was the stone, however, out of his hand before all his riches were gone, and poor Fritz found himself sitting in his box in the water, with his jug of water and loaf of bread by his side.

However, his grateful friends, the mouse, the ass, and the bear, came quickly to help him; but the mouse found she could not nibble off the lock this time, for it was a great deal stronger than before. Then the bear said, "We must find the wonderful stone again, or all we can do will be fruitless."

The merchants, meantime, had taken up their abode in the palace; so away went the three friends, and when they came near the bear said, "Mouse, go in and look through the keyhole, and see where the stone is kept: you are small, nobody will see you." The mouse did as she was told, but soon came back and said, "Bad news! I have looked in, and the stone hangs under the looking-glass by a red silk string, and on each side of it sits a great black cat with fiery eyes, watching it."

Then the others took counsel together, and said, "Go back again, and wait till the master of the palace is in bed asleep; then nip his nose and pull his hair." Away went the mouse, and did as they told her; and the master jumped up very angrily, and rubbed his nose, and cried, "Those rascally cats are good for nothing at all; they let the mice bite my very nose, and pull the hair off my head." Then he hunted them out of the room; and so the mouse had the best of the game.

Next night, as soon as the master was asleep, the mouse crept in again; and (the cats being gone) she nibbled at the red silken string to which the stone hung, till down it dropped. Then she rolled it along to the door; but when it got there the poor little mouse was quite tired, and said to the ass, "Put in your foot, and lift it over the threshold." This was soon done; and they took up the stone, and set off for the waterside. Then the ass said, "How shall we reach the box?" "That is easily managed, my friend," said the bear: "I can swin very well; and do you, donkey, put your fore feet over! my shoulders ;-mind and hold fast, and take the stone in your mouth;-as for you, mouse, you can sit in my

ear.

Thus all was settled, and away they swam. After a time Bruin began to brag and boast: "We are brave fellows, are not we?" said he ; "what do you think, donkey?" But the ass held his tongue, and said not a word. 'Why don't you answer me?" said the bear; 'you must be an ill-mannered brute not to speak when you are spoken to." When the ass heard this, he could hold no longer; so he opened his mouth, and out dropped the wonderful stone. "I could not speak," said he, "did not you know I had the stone in my mouth? Now