d her hand on the child's
mouth; "don't you want Ben to tell us a story?"

"Oh, yes!" cried little Phronsie, in which all the others joined with
a whoop of delight; so a most wonderful story, drawn up in Ben's best
style, followed till bedtime.

The first thing Polly did in the morning, was to run to the old
cupboard, followed by all the others, to see if the cake was safe; and
then it had to be drawn out, and dressed anew with the flowers, for they
had decided to have it on the breakfast table.

"It looks better," whispered Polly to Ben, "than it did yesterday; and
aren't the flowers pretty?"

"It looks good enough to eat, anyway," said Ben, smacking his lips.

"Well, we tried," said Polly, stilling a sigh; "now, boys, call mamsie;
everything's ready."

Oh! how surprised their mother appeared when she was ushered out to the
feast, and the full glory of the table burst upon her. Her delight in
the cake was fully enough to satisfy the most exacting mind. She
admired and admired it on every side, protesting that she shouldn't have
supposed Polly could possibly have baked it as good in the old stove;
and then she cut it, and gave a piece to every child, with a little posy
on top. Wasn't it good, though! for like many other things, the cake
proved better on trial than it looked, and so turned out to be really
quite a good surprise all around.

"Why can't I ever have a birthday?" asked Joel, finishing the last crumb
of his piece; "I should think I might," he added, reflectively.

"Why, you have, Joe," said Ben; "eight of 'em."

"What a story!" ejaculated Joel; "when did I have 'em? I never had a
cake; did I, Polly?"

"Not a cake-birthday, Joel," said his mother; "you haven't got to that
yet."

"When's it coming?" asked Joel, who was decidedly of a matter-of-fact
turn of mind.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Pepper, laughing; "but there's plenty of time
ahead."

TROUBLE FOR THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE

"Oh, I do wish," said Joel, a few mornings after, pushing back his chair
and looking discontentedly at his bowl of mush and molasses, "that we
could ever have something new besides this everlasting old breakfast!
Why can't we, mammy?"

"Better be glad you've got that, Joe," said Mrs. Pepper, taking another
cold potato, and sprinkling on a little salt; "folks shouldn't complain
so long as they've anything to eat."

"But I'm so tired of it--same old thing!" growled Joel; "seems as if I
sh'd turn into a meal-ba