for her but to watch and to listen.

Presently, going off early to labor,--
Bowing politely, as neighbor to neighbor,
When he caught sight of this little old woman,--
Sailed by a honey-bee, serge-clad and common.

"Are you so scornful because I am humble?
Many a time your rich relatives, Bumble,
Pause in their flying to chat for an hour!"
She called out after him, half gay, half sour.

"O, no," he cried. "I am off to discover
What I can find fresh in the way of white clover;
But since your window is cosy and shady,
I _will_ sit down half a minute, dear Lady."

Little Dame Spider arose with a rustle,
Welcomed him with ceremonious bustle;
Quick as a flash threw her long arms around him,
Heeded no buzzing, but held him and bound him;

Tied knots so tight that he could not undo them;
Wove snares so strong that he could not break through them;
Then, with a relish, stood chuckling and grinning,
"This is to pay me for my early spinning!"

At the home-hive the bees going and coming
Kept up all day their industrious humming,
Nor did it one of their busy heads bother
That Madame Spider had dined off their brother.

HICKORY DICKORY DOCK.

by

Clara Doty Bates

Tick-Tack! tick-tack!
This way, that way, forward, back,
Swings the pendulum to and fro,
Always regular, always slow.
Grave and solemn on the wall,--
Hear it whisper! hear it call!
Little Ginx knows naught of Time,
But has heard the mystic rhyme,--
"Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock!"

Tick-tack! tick-tack!
White old face with figures black!
So when dismal, stormy days
Keep him from his out-door plays,
Most that he cares for is to sit
Watching, always watching it.
And when the hour strikes he thinks,--
(A dear, wise head has the little Ginx!)
"The clock strikes one,
The mice ran down!"

Tick-tack! tick-tack!
This way, that way, forward, back!
Though so measured and precise,
Ginx believes it full of mice.
A mouse runs up at every tick,
But when the stroke comes, scampering quick,
Mice run down again; so they go,
Up and down, and to and fro!
Hickory, dickory, dock,
Full of mice is the clock!

DAME FIDGET AND HER SILVER PENNY.

Versified by Mrs. Clara Doty Bates.

A Wee, wee woman
Was little old Dame Fidget,
And she lived by herself
In a wee, wee room,
And