ou marry me?"

Mary only blushed rosier then ever. But she and the author always
thereafter took their tea cosily together.

As for the romance, the author took it and threw it into the
fire, which roared a genial acknowledgment, and in five minutes
had made itself thoroughly acquainted with every page. There
remained a bunch of black flakes, and in the center one soft
glowing spark, which lingered a long while ere finally taking
its flight up the chimney. It was the description of the little
country girl.

"The next book I write shall be all about you," the author used
to say to his wife, in after years, as they sat together before
the fire-place, and watched the bright blaze roar up the chimney.

--_Julian Hawthorne._

_A FROSTY DAY._

Grass afield wears silver thatch,
Palings all are edged with rime,
Frost-flowers pattern round the latch,
Cloud nor breeze dissolve the clime;

When the waves are solid floor,
And the clods are iron-bound,
And the boughs are crystall'd hoar,
And the red leaf nail'd aground.

When the fieldfare's flight is slow,
And a rosy vapor rim,
Now the sun is small and low,
Belts along the region dim.

When the ice-crack flies and flaws,
Shore to shore, with thunder shock,
Deeper than the evening daws,
Clearer than the village clock.

When the rusty blackbird strips,
Bunch by bunch, the coral thorn,
And the pale day-crescent dips,
New to heaven a slender horn.

--_John Leicester Warren._

* * * * *

Those who come last seem to enter with advantage. They are
born to the wealth of antiquity. The materials for judging are
prepared, and the foundations of knowledge are laid to their
hands. Besides, if the point was tried by antiquity, antiquity
would lose it; for the present age is really the oldest, and has
the largest experience to plead.--_Jeremy Collier_.

[Illustration: COMING OUT OF SCHOOL.--VAUTIER.]

_COMING OUT OF SCHOOL._

If there be any happier event in the life of a child than coming
out of school, few children are wise enough to discover it. We do
not refer to children who go to school unwillingly--thoughtless
wights--whose heads are full of play, and whose hands are
prone to mischief:--that these should delight in escaping the
restraints of the school-room, and the eye of its watchful