merry talk and
laughter; nothing but coarse salt-junk and hard ship-biscuit, hastily
snatched among rough, unsympathetic men, who neither knew nor cared
anything about him. And as soon as the meal was over, back again to his
weary toil in the coal bunker, which was fated, however, to be cut short
in a way that he little expected.

For a time he worked away manfully; but the heat of the room and the
monotony of his occupation combined to make him careless. Little by
little his thoughts wandered away to his pleasant home beside the
Hudson, and the little garden patch where he used to work, and the cozy
fire, in the ashes of which he and his brothers roasted their chestnuts,
and--

"Look out there!"

The warning cry came too late. There was a sudden shock--a deafening
crash--and poor Frank was seen lying on his back senseless and half
buried beneath the huge heap of coal that blocked the doorway.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

WHAT THE BOYS AND GIRLS PLAYED TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

BY HATTIE B. CRAFTS.

Do you ever think about the little boys and girls who lived so long ago?
Well, in the celebrated country of Greece they were as fond of sports as
children of the present day, only they had not so many wonderful toys
made for them as are manufactured now. But could we look back upon them
at some of their sports, we should find them very happy children, and it
might surprise you to know how many games have been played century after
century, and are still played and enjoyed to-day.

The babies had their rattles and bright-colored balls, the children
their hoops and balls, and what we call "Blindman's-buff" was a favorite
game among them. Perhaps you know about the old giant Polyphemus, who
was master of a race of one-eyed giants, and who devoured the Greeks
that were round his cave, until they succeeded in putting out his eye,
and how he still groped around and endeavored to find them, but in vain.
Well, the boys and girls of Greece used to represent this story by this
very game of "Blindman's-buff." The one blindfolded was called
Polyphemus, and the others would hide and pretend they were the Greeks
whom he was to find. Another way of playing this game was for the
children to run round about the blindfolded person, and one of them
touch him. If he could tell correctly who it was, the two exchanged
places.

In Athens, and in other cities and towns as well, you might almost any
day see a whole group of children hoppi