ler.

As he threw away the coat, he slipped off the wig and false beard
he wore; and the children found, to their surprise, that the old
man was Mr. Lee, who had dressed himself up in this disguise to
please them.

The supper was now ready, and all the children were invited to the
tent. They had played so hard that all of them had excellent
appetites, and the supper was just as nice as a supper could be.

It was now nearly dark, and the children had to go home; but all of
them declared the birthday party of Flora was the best they ever
attended.

"Only to think," said Flora, when she went to bed that night, "the
old fiddler was my father!"

[Illustration: Flora's good-bye.]

LIZZIE.

Mother, what ails our Lizzie dear,
So cold and still she lies?
She does not speak a word to-day,
And closed her soft blue eyes.
Why won't she look at me again,
And laugh and play once more?
I cannot make her look at me
As she used to look before.

Her face and neck as marble white,
And, O, so very cold!
Why don't you warm her, mother dear,
Your cloak around her fold?
Her little hand is cold as ice,
Upon her waveless breast,--
So pure, I thought I could see through,
The little hand I pressed.

Your darling sister's dead, my child;
She cannot see you now:
The damps of death are gath'ring there
Upon her marble brow.
She cannot speak to you again,
Her lips are sealed in death;
That little hand will never move,
Nor come that fleeting breath.

All robed in white, and decked with flowers,
We'll lay her in the tomb;
The flower that bloomed so sweetly here,
No more on earth will bloom;
But in our hearts we'll lay her up,
And love her all the more,
Because she died in life's spring time,
Ere earth had won her o'er.

Nay, nay, my child, she is not dead,
Although she slumbers there,
And cold and still her marble brow,
And free from pain and care.
She slept, and passed from earth to heaven,
And won her early crown:
An angel now she dwells above,
And looks in triumph down.

She is not dead, for Jesus died
That she might live again.
"Forbid them not," the Saviour said,
And blessed dear sister then.
Her little lamp this morn went out
On earth's time-bounded shore;
But angels bright i