ers are all gone. Last
night there was a frost. Almost all the birds have flown away, and I am
restless. Something calls me, and I feel that I must fly away, too."

[Illustration: Two birds flying over a field]

"Let us fly away together!" the mother bird said.

Then they rose silently up in the air. They looked to the north; far
away they saw the snow coming. They looked to the south; there they saw
green leaves.

All day they flew. All night they flew and flew, till they found a land
where there was no winter. There it was summer all the time; flowers
always blossomed and birds always sang.

--HENRY WARD BEECHER

BOB WHITE

There's a plump little chap in a speckled coat,
And he sits on the zigzag rails remote,
Where he whistles at breezy, bracing morn,
When the buckwheat is ripe, and stacked is the corn:
"Bob White! Bob White! Bob White!"

Is he hailing some comrade as blithe as he?
Now I wonder where Robert White can be!
O'er the billows of gold and amber grain
There is no one in sight--but, hark again:
"Bob White! Bob White! Bob White!"

Ah! I see why he calls; in the stubble there
Hide his plump little wife and babies fair!
So contented is he, and so proud of the same,
That he wants all the world to know his name:
"Bob White! Bob White! Bob White!"

--GEORGE COOPER.

HOW MARY GOT A NEW DRESS

Mary lived a long time ago. She was a little girl when your
great-great-grandmother was a little girl.

In those days all cloth had to be made at home. Aunt Dinah, Aunt Chloe,
and Aunt Dilsey were kept busy spinning and weaving to make clothes for
the whole plantation.

One day Mary's mother said, "Aunt Dilsey, Mary needs a new dress, and I
want you to weave some cloth at once. Can you weave some very fine
cloth?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Aunt Dilsey. "I have some cotton I've been saving to
make her a dress."

Aunt Dilsey got out the cards and carded the cotton smooth and fine.
Then she fastened a roll of this cotton to the spindle and sent the
wheel whirling around with a "Zum-m-m-m--Zum-m-m-m!"

Mary stood and watched the old woman.

[Illustration: Mary watching Aunt Dilsey at spinning wheel]

"Aunt Dilsey," she said, "the spinning wheel sings a song, and I know
what it says. Grandmother told me. It says,

'A hum and a whirl,
A twist and a twirl,
This is for the girl
With the golden curl!
Zum-m-m-m-m-m!
Zum-m-m-m-m-m!'"

"And that means