summer's day
Grows short, and more cold the weather.
Calm is our work now, quiet our play,
We take them apart as best we may,
For they come no more together!

DORA GREENWELL.

[Illustration: {A COLLECTION OF LEAFY PLANTS.}]

WINDOW GARDENING.

Many a home, now dark and cheerless, might be made bright and cheery
by a few plants in the window, or bunches of ferns and bright autumn
leaves, fastened on the wall, or on the pictures.

Homes cannot be made too bright and home-like for the husband and the
children; and these little things cost little or nothing, and add much
to the general appearance.

A novel and pretty window ornament can be made in this way: Take a
white sponge of large size, and sow it full of rice, oats and wheat.
Then place it, for a week or ten days, in a shallow dish, in which a
little water is constantly kept, and as the sponge will absorb the
moisture, the seeds will begin to sprout before many days. When this
has fairly taken place, the sponge may be suspended by means of cords
from a hook in the top of the window where a little sun will enter. It
will thus become a mass of green, and can be kept wet by merely
immersing it in a bowl of water.

"CHEER UP."

BY ANNA ELIZABETH C. KELLY.

"Oh, it is too bad; too bad! that mother should be so troubled for the
want of a little money," said Mabel.

"Cheer up! Cheer up!" rang out a voice close at hand, "pretty Poll;
cheer up!" and a bright green parrot with a yellow breast began to
beat against the bars of his cage as if he would like to get out.

"That is a good omen, Polly," said Mabel, as she rose and opened the
door of the cage, "but it is not Poll who ought to 'cheer up' but I,
you pretty bird." Poll hopped out and perched upon her finger and
looked so knowingly at her, that it almost broke down the resolution
she had formed. Mabel was accustomed to take Poll out and talk to her,
and brother Ben, who was an amateur photographer, had taken a picture
of the pretty pair, so Polly was already immortalized.

"Poor Ben! Poor Ben!" said Polly. "'On Linden when the sun was
low'--ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Poor Ben! Poor Ben!" laughed and shouted
Polly.

"Poor Ben, indeed!" said Mabel, "though the Ben you first heard about
was another Ben, and used to break down with his recitation and be
laughed at. I wonder where he is now, and whether he is dead, my brave
soldier uncle! If he were alive,