o be happy and prosperous, and they kept up
the celebration of Sweet Marjoram Day as gayly as when they were all
ordinary-sized people.

In the whole country there were only two persons, Corette and the
Pirate, who really believed that they were condensed.

"SING-A-SING!"

BY S.C. STONE.

[Illustration]

Listen! and hear the tea-kettle sing:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"
It matters not how hot the fire,
It only sends its voice up higher:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!
Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"

Listen! and hear the tea-kettle sing:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"
As if 't were task of fret and toil
To bring cold water to a boil!
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!
Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"

NOW, OR THEN?

BY GAIL HAMILTON.

I suppose the wise young women--fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years
old--who read ST. NICHOLAS, who understand the most complex vulgar
fractions, who cipher out logarithms "just for fun," who chatter
familiarly about "Kickero" and "luliuse Kiser," and can bang a piano
dumb and helpless in fifteen minutes--they, I suppose, will think me
frivolous and unaspiring if I beg them to lay aside their
science,--which is admirable,--and let us reason together a few minutes
about such unimportant themes as little points of good manners.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of talking with a gentleman who
thought he remembered being aroused from his midnight sleep by loud
rejoicings in the house and on the streets over the news that Lord
Cornwallis had surrendered the British to the American forces. He was
only two years old at that time; but, he said, he had a very strong
impression of the house being full of light, of many people hurrying
hither and yon, and of the watchman's voice in the street penetrating
through all the din with the cry--"Past twelve o'clock and Cornwallis
is taken!"

Among many interesting reminiscences and reflections, this dignified
and delightful old gentleman said he thought the young people of to-day
were less mannerly than in the olden time, less deferential, less
decorous. This may be true, and I tried to be sufficiently deferential
to my courtly host, not to disagree with him. But when I look upon the
young people of my own acquaintance, I recall that William went, as a
matter of course, to put the ladies in their carriage; Jamie took the
hand luggage as naturally as if he were born for nothing else; Frank
n