igion.

SIX THINGS BEHIND

"Rufus," said his mother, "did you mail the letter I gave you last
evening?"

"Oh, mother, I forgot it! I meant to, but just then I had to go and get
some new shoe strings, so it went out of my mind."

"Didn't I speak of those strings yesterday?"

"Yes; but just then father called me to ask if I had weeded the pansy
bed the night before."

"And had you?"

"No, mother, I was just writing the letter you said must go to
grandma--"

"I thought you were to write that on Saturday."

"I meant to, but I had to do some examples that I didn't do on Friday,
so I hadn't time."

"Rufus," called his brother, "didn't you nail the broken slat on the
rabbit pen yesterday?"

"Oh!" Rufus sprang up in dismay. "I was just going to, but I hadn't
watered the house plants, and I went to do that, and then--"

"The rabbits are all out."

Rufus hastened to join in the hunt for the pets. In the course of his
search he came upon two tennis rackets which he had "meant to" bring in
the night before, and they were in bad condition.

"There now! It will cost ever so much to get these strung up. Why didn't
I take them in, anyway? I remember I hadn't locked the stable door when
father called me, and then I hurried to do it before he asked me again."

Later in the day, Rufus, with a penitent face, brought to his mother the
letter which should have been mailed. During the rabbit hunt it had
slipped out of his pocket, and one of his brothers had found it in the
damp clover. It was now a sorry-looking missive.

THE OLD BROWN HAND

The hand that pressed my fevered brow
Was withered, wasted, brown, and old;
Its work was almost over now,
As swollen veins and wrinkles told.
No longer brushing back my hair,
It gently rested on my wrist;
Its touch seemed sacred as a prayer
By the sweet breath of angels kissed.

I knew 'twas thin, and brown, and old,
With many a deep and honored seam,
Wearing one little band of gold,--
The only trace of youth's bright dream:

And yet o'er every mark of care,
In every wrinkle's mystic line,
I fancied jewels gleaming there
That wore a beauty all divine!

Another hand my fingers pressed--
'Twas like the lily dipped in snow;
Yet still it gave a wild unrest--
A weariness that none should know.
There pearls with costly diamonds gleamed,
And opals showed their changing glow,
As moonlight on the