vement. Now let me hear you play over this exercise
once more."

"But I have played it a dozen times," says Emma. "Let us try something
new."

"You have played it a dozen times; but you must play it two hundred
times more, if you expect to be perfect in it," says Laura.

"Two hundred times! Oh, I can't think of it," exclaims Emma. "Let us
try something new."

Here Mrs. Dean, who from a room near by had overheard the conversation,
came in, and said, "If you cannot obey your teacher, Emma, you must stop
taking music-lessons. Miss Laura is quite right; and I am glad to see
that she does not yield to your whims. The best way in learning is
always to learn one thing thoroughly before passing to another."

Emma gave up the point, and began to play the exercise with a good
grace. She did so well, that, when she had played it over thirty times,
Miss Laura said to her, "That will do for to-day. We will take it up
again in our next lesson. Now we will pass to a new piece."

But Mrs. Dean said, "You have done enough to-day, my children. Now go
and pick some strawberries for yourselves in the garden, and then we
will take a walk in the grove."

And this is what they did. Dora Burnside.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THE ANT'S DAIRY.

Do ants keep cows? Let us see. A little insect named an aphis is found
on the leaf of most every plant. This little parasite lives on the sweet
juice called honey-dew. Now the ants are very fond of this honey-dew,
and know that they can obtain a supply from the body of the _aphis_.

The ants, therefore, climb up trees on whose leaves the _aphides_ have
collected. Then an ant goes close to one of these insects for a drop of
the sweet juice. If this be not soon given out, the ant will gently tap
the body of the aphis, and thus obtain a supply of the sweet fluid.
After feasting on this, the ant will pass to another little aphis and
treat it in the same manner for another drop.

But the ant has sense enough to treat the aphis as we treat our cows.
Our farmers, you know, keep the cows in enclosed meadows, and supply
them with hay and turnips when the grass fails. The ants also take a
number of aphides close to their nests, and there keep them secure and
supply them with suitable food.

Now the lady-birds are also fond of the aphides, and eat them up by
hundreds. But the ant has sense enough to keep the aphis for a supply of
honey-dew instead of killing it as the lady-bird does.