ly they seemed--it made him so cross--
The pleasures of life were nothing but dross,
So he hastened away in a fit of despair;
All things were against him and "nothing was fair."
And now, little people, does any one know
A child who is cross, and always acts so?
Who cries with a pout--"I say I shan't play,
Unless you do everything just as I say."
If beaten at games, he says "It's not fair"--
And takes of good things far more than his share.
If you know such a child, I'm sure you will find
He is sour and unhappy, because he's unkind;
To be happy, be gentle, good tempered and sweet
To playmates and elders and all whom you meet.

What is the Use of Trying?

"What is the use of trying?
I never can learn to fly,
See how the lark goes floating
Up to the sunlit sky;
He never failed as I have,
See how he flies at ease,
Light as a down of thistle
Tossed on the tremulous breeze.
I have been foolishly trying,
Thinking I, too, might rise,
I'll stay down here in the hedges,
And leave to the lark the skies."
So he stayed in the crowded hedges,
And lived through the summer long,
Only a common sparrow--
One of a common throng.
"What is the use of trying?
Pouring o'er book and slate,
I fail, and shall keep on failing,
For men are created great.
'Tis folly to think that study
For so many hours a day
Is going to make out of boys and girls,
Wise women and men alway.
So what is the use of trying?
A common lot shall be mine;
Why muddle my brain with study?
I never was meant to shine;"
So away in the closet cupboard
The books kept gathering dust,
And the mind they were meant to nourish
Was buried and lost in rust.
So the hedges go gathering sparrows,
And the larks still mount to the sky,
And out from the crowded byways
Few souls gain the mountains high.
Have courage and keep on trying,
Though a sparrow, a lark cannot be,
The highways that lead to the Pisgahs
Are open to you and to me.

[Illustration: "ONLY FIVE"]

Only Five

I've had a birthday party--
Of course I'm only five--
But I had the jolliest time
Of any boy alive.
I got some little chickens,
The roosters cannot crow;
But on my mamma's table
I stand them in a row.

I got the funniest bank--
A man, all mouth and eyes,