worthy of them all--namely Mrs.
Crook herself.

AN EVENING SONG.

BY COUSIN ANNIE.

Twilight dews are gath'ring,
The bright day's done;
Upon thy downy couch
Rest, little one.

Each tiny bird's hieing
Home to its nest;
Each flower-head's nodding
Upon its breast.

Be still now, little heart,
Until the morrow
Brings again its share
Of joy and sorrow.

May angels round thy couch
Be ever nigh,
And over thy slumbers chant
Their lullaby.

[Illustration: {A LITTLE GIRL IN THOUGHTFUL POSE.}]

"BUT THEN."

It was a queer name for a little girl, and it was not her real
name--that was Lizzie--but everybody called her "But Then."

"My real name is prettier, _but then_, I like the other pretty well,"
she said, nodding her short, brown curls merrily. And that sentence
shows just how she came by her name.

If Willie complained that it was a miserable, rainy day, and they
couldn't play out of doors, Lizzie assented brightly,--

"Yes; _but then_, it is a real nice day to fix our scrapbooks."

When Kate fretted because they had so far to walk to school, her
little sister reminded her,--

"_But then, it's all the way through the woods, you know_, and that's
ever so much nicer than walking on pavements in a town."

When even patient Aunt Barbara pined a little because the rooms in the
new house were so few and small compared with their old home, a rosy
face was quietly lifted to hers with the suggestion,--

"_But then_, little rooms are the best to cuddle all up together in,
don't you think, Auntie?"

"Better call her 'Little But Then,' and have done with it," declared
Bob, half-vexed, half-laughing. "No matter how bad any thing is, she
is always ready with her 'but then,' and some kind of consolation on
the end of it."

And so, though no one really intended it, the new name began. There
were a good many things that the children missed in their new home.
Money could have bought them even there; but if the money had not gone
first, their father would scarcely have thought it necessary to leave
his old home. They had done what was best under the circumstances;
still the boys felt rather inclined to grumble about it one winter
morning when they were starting off to the village on an errand.

"Just look at all the snow going to waste, without our having a chance
to enjoy it," said Will; "and the ice too--all because w