, the teeth would
catch the roots. At last Garry exclaimed, "Grandma, let me take it. I
can make it all right."

I gave it to him, and the dear little boy took it behind a log, and was
very busy and quiet for several minutes. Then I called, "Come, Garry, I
don't believe you can help it."

"Oh!" said he, "you just wait a little, and you will see." And, to be
sure, in a very short time he brought me the rake, with a hard green
apple on each outer tooth, pushed on just so far that the other teeth
would catch the litter of leaves and sticks without disturbing the
grass.

Wasn't that a bright idea for a little boy five and a half years old?

M.

CROSSING THE BROOK WITH HARRY.

NOW, Harry, don't fear,
I will carry you, dear:
So keep very quiet and steady:
The brook is not wide,
Nor swift is the tide:
Now, for it, my pet--are you ready?
So over the stones we will go,
With step very careful and slow.

I never have slipped
As o'er them I tripped;
But then I had nothing to carry:
Now I must take heed,
The more haste, the worse speed;
For I bear in my arms little Harry:
So over the stones we will go,
With step very careful and slow.

Almost every bird
That ever I heard,
On the bank there seems now to be singing;
And I smell the sweet hay
From the field by the way;
The wind all its odor is bringing:
So over the stones we will go,
With step very careful and slow.

[Illustration]

EMILY CARTER.

A TRUE STORY OF A PARTRIDGE.

I WONDER if any of the children who read "The Nursery" have ever been in
the woods of Maine. There grow the tall old pine-trees, with tops which
seem to touch the sky, and thick interlacing branches, making a very
dark shade overhead.

[Illustration]

There, too, grow the fragrant cedar-trees, with their bright green
boughs, and trunks so hard and stout; and, loveliest of all, the
graceful maple, whose green leaves turn crimson and gold when autumn
comes.

All these and many other trees grow in the great Maine forests; and
birds build their nests and bring up their young among the branches; and
und