r the door, almost
crazy with the new idea.

"My wife said I'd ought to have a boy, too," he thought, almost running
toward the spot where he had left the cart, Jack, and the solitary
figure in the great coat. Joe grasped the boy. "I've got a plan for
you, John Harper. I want a boy to help me; the dealer says so, my wife
says so, and I say so. You must go home with me to-night. We'll carry
this load to the store-house; then pitch in your baggage and start for
a better place than this, my lad!"

It was, indeed, "a better place" for "the boy in the box,"--a place
where he found rest and food and shelter. After a little, he grew into
the hearts of the childless couple that they called him their own.
John went to school winters, and helped Mr. Somerby summers, and got
ahead so fast in his happy surroundings that ambitious Mrs. Somerby had
him educated. He is now a prosperous merchant, and a text for old Joe
to enlarge upon when his wife gets too spicy.

"You wan't nowheres around when I found our John," he often says, "and
he's the best bargain I ever made, next to you!"

THE COCK AND THE SUN.

BY J.P.B.

[Illustration]

A cock sees the sun as he climbs up the east;
"Good-morning, Sir Sun, it's high time you appear;
I've been calling you up for an hour at least;
I'm ashamed of your slowness at this time of year!"

The sun, as he quietly rose into view,
Looked down on the cock with a show of fine scorn;
"You may not be aware, my young friend, but it's true,
That I rose once or twice before you, sir, were born!"

[Illustration: "GRUN-SEL, GRUN-SEL, GRUN-SEL!"]

THE LONDON CHICK-WEED MAN.

BY ALEXANDER WAINWRIGHT.

Birds and flowers do much to enliven the dusky house-windows of the
London streets, and both are attended to with great care. The birds are
treated to some luxuries which our American pets scarcely know of at
all, in their domestic state, and among these are two small plants
called chick-weed and groundsel, which grow abundantly along the hedges
and in the fields on the outskirts of the smoky city. Both chick-weed
and groundsel are insignificant little things, but the epicurean lark,
canary, or goldfinch finds in it a most agreeable and beneficial
article of diet, quite as much superior to other green stuff as--in the
minds of some boys and girls--ice-cream and sponge-cake are superior to
roast-beef and potatoes.

On Sunday afternoons and holidays, t