, and shared
the honors of all its adventures.

"I tell you now," exclaimed Leo, admiringly, one day when the lads were
preparing for a row, "I don't believe you'd find two such boats in all
the country about here."

A critical observer might have facetiously agreed with him, but the
boys were content with what they had, not being able to obtain anything
better; and is not that one way to be happy?

"Well, they may not be beauties," continued Jim; "and you can't exactly
call them racers; but, somehow, they keep afloat, and one can manage
them first-rate."

"And we've had enough fun with them to repay us for all the trouble we
had in making them," added Rob.

Jack laughed at the recollection.

"Yes," remarked Uncle Gerald, who had just come up, on his way to the
meadow pasture. "And I think, boys, you will all acknowledge that you
learned a good many useful things while building a boat."

A MAY-DAY GIFT.

I.

Early on the morning of the 1st of May, Abby Clayton ran downstairs,
exclaiming by way of greeting to the household:

"A bright May Day! A bright May Day!"

"It isn't very _bright_, I'm sure!" grumbled her little brother Larry,
who clattered after her. "There's no sunshine; and the wind blows so
hard I sha'n't be able to sail my new boat on the pond in the park.
It's mighty hard lines! I don't see why it can't be pleasant on a
holiday. Think of all the shiny days we've had when a fellow had to be
in school. Now, when there's a chance for some fun, it looks as if it
were going to rain great guns!"

"Well, it won't," said Abby, pausing in the hall to glance back at him,
as he perched upon the baluster above her. "It won't rain great guns,
nor pitchforks, nor cats and dogs, nor even torrents. It's going to
clear up. Don't you know that some people say the sun generally
shines, for a few minutes anyhow, on Saturdays in honor of the Blessed
Virgin?"

"This isn't Saturday," objected Larry, somewhat indignantly.

"Yes, but it is the 1st of May; and if that is not our Blessed Mother's
day too, I'd like to know what is!" said his sister.

"I don't believe that about the sun shining," continued Larry. "If you
are ten--only two years older than I am,--you don't know everything.
I'm going to ask mother."

The children entered the breakfast room, greeted their father and
mother, and then slipped into their places.

"Mother," began Larry, as he slowly poured the maple syrup over the
crisp,