table,
and, as no one was near to prevent, she grabbed it quickly, and stole
away with it to give herself and her kittens a breakfast.

Thus the cunning puss and her kitties, you see,
Got the better of those brave fishers three.

COUSIN LUCY.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

BUTTERCUP'S CIRCUS.

FRED and Bertie, two little black-eyed boys, were visiting their Aunt
Susan in a beautiful country village. The large, old-fashioned house,
under a giant elm-tree, was full of wonders to them; but their greatest
delights were in driving the old gray horse, or feeding and petting an
Alderney calf which their Uncle Harry was raising.

This "baby-cow," as little Bertie called her, was kept away from its
mother, old Clover, most of the day, and tied to a cherry-tree in the
side yard. The boys named her Buttercup. They were allowed to feed her
with meal and water; and she soon grew so tame, that they could pat and
caress her as much as they pleased.

One day Fred found an old saddle in the stable; and he proposed to
Bertie to help him put it on the calf, and have a ride the length of
her rope. They succeeded in fastening it upon Buttercup's smooth back;
and Freddie exclaimed with delight, "Now we will have a first-class
circus!"

They brought a chair from the house, and placed it by the side of Miss
Cow, she looking wonderingly at them with great round eyes. The boys
both stood together in the chair, and Fred said, "Now I will count, and,
when I say _four_, we must spring upon the saddle. One--two--three--four;"
and on they went.

But, before they could have said "_five_" Miss Buttercup's heels were in
the air, and her head went down so quickly, that Master Fred felt a
sudden chill, and found himself in a tub of rain-water that stood under
the eaves of the wood-shed; while Bertie went head-foremost into a pan
of meal and water.

A slight noise followed their fall. Their uncle and aunt appeared. The
saddle was sent back to the stable, and the boys did not engage
Buttercup for any more circus performances that summer.

MAMMA MAGGIE.

AT SEA.

BARK "MURRAY," PACIFIC OCEAN, December, 1876.

_Dear Nursery_,--I am making a voyage, on a sailing vessel from San
Francisco to the Sandwich Islands. We have been on the water for three
weeks.

Every day at noon, if the