the town lamplighters.

There are at least fifty lamps to be lighted every night; and some of
them are a good deal farther apart than the street-lamps in large
cities. Charles takes the more distant ones for his part of the work,
and drives from post to post in a gig.

Wallace, being a small boy, calls to his aid his father's saddle-horse.
This horse is a kind, gentle creature, and as wise as he is kind. He and
Wallace are about the same age, and have always been good friends.

So when Wallace puts the saddle on him every evening, just before dark,
the horse knows just what is going to be done. He looks at the boy with
his great bright eyes, as much as to say, "We have our evening work to
do, haven't we, Wallace? Well, I'm ready: jump on."

Wallace mounts the horse; and they go straight to the nearest lamp-post.
Here the horse stops close by the post, and stands as still and steady
as the post itself.

Then Wallace stands upright on the saddle, takes a match from his
pocket, lights the lamp, drops quickly into his seat again, takes up the
bridle, gives the word to the horse, and on they go to the next
lamp-post.

So they go on, till all the lamps allotted to Wallace are lighted. Then
they trot home merrily, and, before Wallace goes to bed himself, I am
sure he does not forget to see that his good horse is well fed and cared
for.

This is a true story.

UNCLE SAM.

[Illustration]

FOURTH LESSON IN ASTRONOMY.

BECAUSE our earth has one sun and one moon, you may think all earths
have only one; but wise men have looked through their telescopes, and
have discovered that some of the stars which look to us like single
stars are really double; and many of them are clusters of three or four,
all lighting up the same planets.

Those earths, then, have more than one sun: they have two, three, or
four, as the case may be. Think of two suns. How bright it must be! And
imagine one of them red, and the other blue, as some of them are.
Wouldn't you feel as if you were living in a rainbow?

And how would you like to look out of the window in the evening and see
four moons? The wise men can see through their telescopes that Jupiter
has four and Saturn eight. (You remember I told you Jupiter and Saturn
are two of the earths lighted up by our sun.) Shouldn't you think so
many moons would make the nights so bright that one could hardly go to
sleep?

On the whole,