only two pupils; but he hopes to have more. They pay him two pins a
lesson; not a high price. I fear that Peter will not get rich very soon
at that rate.

[Illustration]

But he is no miser. He loves to do good, and to teach to others all the
good he knows. So he says to Tom and Harry, "This that I am drawing now
is what we call a horizontal line; and this is a curved line. Do you
know what a circle is, Tommy?"

"A circle is something round, isn't it?" replies Tommy.

"A circle," says Peter, drawing one on paper,--"a circle is a plane
figure, bounded by a single curved line called its circumference, every
part of which is equally distant from a point within it called the
centre."

"How can I remember all that stuff?" said Harry.

"Stuff! Do you call it _stuff_, sir?" said Peter, snapping him twice on
his closely-shorn head: "I will teach you not to call my definitions
_stuff_."

"What's a definition?" asked Tommy.

"A definition," said Peter, "is what I say to you when I tell you what a
thing means. If I ask you what _green_ is, and I tell you it's the color
of fresh summer grass, I give you a definition."

"School is out!" cried Harry. "Peter uses too many big words for us.
Hallo! there's Bob, the butcher's dog. I'm going to have a frolic with
him. Good-by, drawing-master!"

And so the school was broken up. "Never did I see boys behave so in
school-time," said the teacher.

I hope his pupils will be more attentive the next time he tries to teach
them how to draw.

UNCLE CHARLES.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

LITTLE MOSQUITO.

LITTLE Mosquito she sits on a sill,--
Whee, whee, whee!
And longs for the time when the people are still,
That she, in the darkness, may stab them at will,--
Whee, whee, whee!

She whets up her dagger, and looks at the moon,--
Whee, whee, whee!
She says to herself, "I'll begin pretty soon
To look for my victims, and sing them a tune,"--
Whee, whee, whee!

With a hum and a flutter, the way to prepare,--
Whee, whee, whee!
She rises and circles about in the air;
Then settles herself with a great deal of care,--
Whee, whee, whee!

But one,--more awake than he seeks to appear,--
Whee, whee, whee!