But, last week, your brother Will's
sharp eyes spied the round ring that marks my nest; and he went and
tore the lid from its hinges, and left my hundred and ten children
without a roof to cover their heads. _How I would like to bite that
boy!_

"I found the lid, and tried to fasten it down again; but a heavy shower
came up, and I could not fix it in the rain. Then my husband came over
from his house. You know our husbands never live with the rest of the
family. They are too cross and get too hungry at times.

"We were not on very good terms; for, some time before, when he thought
I was away from home, he tried to get into my house. I heard him, and,
running up stairs, I put my claws in the two little holes in the lining
of the lid, and braced myself so that he could not pry open the lid. He
said he only wanted to pay me a visit; but I knew he was hungry, and
wanted to eat up our children.

"But now he spoke very kindly to me, and told me that my lid could not
be fixed on; but, as my children were now old enough to care for
themselves, I had better go home with him. I went to his house to talk
it over and forgot to give the children their supper, and tell them to
work for themselves after this.

"My husband told me a few days after that my boys and girls got into a
fight, and, before they quit, ate each other up; but he was away from
home for two days, and looked very full when he came back.

"He may have told the truth; but I can't see how one of my little ones
could eat the other one hundred and nine, and then swallow himself too."

This is what Dick Adams dreamed that a tarantula said to him. He had
seen one on his way to school, and what the teacher told him about the
insect had interested him so much that he found himself dreaming about
it all night.

C. M. DRAKE.
SAN DIEGO, CAL.

[Illustration: DRAWING-LESSON BY HARRISON WEIR.

VOL. XXIII.--NO. 2.]

THREE LITTLE CHICKS.

THREE little chicks, so downy and neat,
Went out in search of something to eat:
Ter-wit, ter-weet!
Something to eat!
And soon they picked up a straw of wheat.

[Illustration]

Said one little chick, "That belongs to me!"
Said the other little chick, "We'll see, we'll see!"
"Ter-wit, ter-weet!
It is nice and sweet,"
Said number three: "let u