es will brighten and cheer.

E. G. C.

[Illustration: ANNIE.]

ANNIE.

I've a sweet little pet; she is up with the lark,
And at eve she's asleep when the valleys are dark,
And she chatters and dances the blessed day long,
Now laughing in gladness, now singing a song.
She never is silent; the whole summer day
She is off on the green with the blossoms at play;
Now seeking a buttercup, plucking a rose,
Or laughing aloud at the thistle she blows.

She never is still; now at some merry elf
You'll smile as you watch her, in spite of yourself;
You may chide her in vain, for those eyes, full of fun,
Are smiling in mirth at the mischief she's done;
And whatever you do, that same thing, without doubt,
Must the mischievous Annie be busied about;
She's as brown as a nut, but a beauty to me,
And there's nothing her keen little eyes cannot see.

She dances and sings, and has many sweet airs;
And to infant accomplishments adding her prayers,
I have told everything that the darling can do,
For 'twas only last summer her years numbered two.
She's the picture of health, and a southern-born thing
Just as ready to weep as she's ready to sing,
And I fain would be foe to lip that hath smiled
At this wee bit of song of the _dear little_ child.

IF; OR, BESSIE GREEN'S HOLIDAY.

It seems absurd to say so, and at first sight almost impossible, that
that one little word of only two letters could have so much power, and
yet there is no doubt that the constant use of "_if_" spoilt Bessie
Green's holiday and took away from it all the enjoyment and pleasure
which she imagined a long summer day spent in the country would give.
How she had thought about it and looked forward to it for weeks
beforehand! Her parents were poor, hardworking people who rarely left
home, and so the very idea of a treat like this was delightful, and
she scarcely slept the night before, so afraid was she of not being
ready in time. I cannot tell you how often she got up in the course of
the night, either to see what o'clock it was or to look out of the
window and wonder whether it was going to be a fine or a wet day, but
it seemed to her as if morning would never come. However, long before
six she was up and dressed, and with one last good-bye to her mother
through the kitchen door was off to the stati