r the rushes, and seeing the frog swimming as for
life, laughed quietly to himself.

"How people magnify their own importance!" said he; "as if I were
troubling myself to come after him! I was hoping to find prey of a
very superior description."

J. G.

[Illustration: THE FOX AND THE FROG. (_See p. 288._)]

THE CHILDREN'S OWN GARDEN IN NOVEMBER.

November is a month of very great dulness in Gardening matters, from
a practical point of view, and will probably fully justify the
epithet of "gloomy" so often applied to it. Familiar floral faces
which have been for the past several months brightening us with their
cheerful looks have now vanished, and we once more witness Nature in
her winter aspect. "A garden," says Douglas Jerrold, "is a beautiful
book, writ by the finger of God; every flower and leaf is a letter.
You have only to learn them--and he is a poor dunce that cannot, if
he will, do that--to learn them, and join them, and go on reading and
reading, and you will find yourself carried away from the earth by
the beautiful story you are going through."

* * * * *

One of the best occupations which we can recommend to our young
readers during winter evenings is the perusal of various elementary
books on gardening, and a few of the best seed catalogues which are
issued every spring. Those containing plenty of illustrations should
be preferred, as a figure, even if badly executed, will convey a far
better idea of a plant than the most elaborate of descriptions. We
would, however, remark that mere reading, no matter how wide and
varied, will by no means constitute any one a good or even
indifferent gardener where experience and knowledge are not acquired
by practice. It is probably true that a poet must be _born_ such; but
the case is just the reverse with a gardener, who must in fact be
made one.

* * * * *

The present month is one of the best for making additions to our
little folk's gardens in the matter of nearly all sorts of hardy
perennials, and dwarf-growing shrubs. We would especially name the
Christmas rose; if planted now in a light loamy soil close to an east
wall, plenty of flowers will be produced in succession from the
latter part of December until February, and in order to secure pure
white blooms, the plant, when just commencing to flower, should be
covered over with a bell-glass. If grown exposed to winds