monds,"
exclaimed Ralph.

"Oh Grandma! Please do hurry breakfast. We are going out to build a
fort," cried the boys, bursting into the dining-room.

Grandma smiled and told them to eat a good breakfast, for building a
fort was hard work.

They were soon out in the snow, and what a splendid time they did have.

The fort did not grow very fast, for they had to stop so often to
snow-ball each other.

When Grandma called them in to dinner they wondered where the time had
gone since breakfast.

After dinner, Ralph was looking out of the window, when he spied two
little birds cuddled up on a branch of a pine-tree.

"Oh, Edward! come here," he called. "See those poor little birds. They
look half frozen and so hungry."

"Poor little things," replied Edward. "Doesn't it make you feel mean to
think what a jolly time we had this morning out of the snow which has
covered up the places where they get their food?"

"Let us get some food from Grandma and throw it out to them," said
Ralph. "Perhaps they will find it."

The little birds were soon chirpping and flying about merrily and Ralph
said it sounded as if they kept saying, "thank you."

Will not other little children be as kind as Ralph and Edward?

A KIND HEART.

The day Ethel Brown was seven years old she had a tea party.

Mrs. Brown had sent tiny cards of invitation to all the little girls on
the street to come and bring their dolls. She also sent one to Nellie
Day, her washer-woman's little girl, at Ethel's special request.

"She is a nice little girl," said Ethel, "and doesn't ever go anywhere
like me. May I have her at my party?"

"That is right, little daughter," said Mrs. Brown. "Always be kind to
those who have less pleasure than yourself. Of course she may come to
your party."

They all arrived at four o'clock and looked very pretty in their white
dresses and bright ribbons, and the dolls looked nearly as pretty as the
little girls themselves.

Ethel noticed that Nellie Day did not have a doll with her. "So," thought
she, "I will ask her to pour the tea and then she won't feel bad because
she hasn't one."

The little girls talked and played games and Ethel's grown up sister
played on the piano and then they sang.

"Now," said Mrs. Brown, coming into the room, "if you will choose
partners, Florence will play for you and you can march out to tea."

During the confusion Ethel said to her mamma, "I shall ask Nellie to
pour the tea because s