stmas and a Happy New Year to
you all!"

IDA FAY.

[Illustration]

HELP ONE ANOTHER.

ONE day, passing through a meadow, I saw a sheep much troubled by flies.
Presently I saw it walk to a small pond where there were some young
ducks, and stand there quietly. Soon the ducks took notice of the flies,
and, coming out from the water, began snapping them up, as if to punish
them for worrying the poor sheep.

By and by a starling, from a tree near by, flew down, lighted on the
sheep's back, and helped in the good work of ridding her of the flies.

This, thought I, is a clear case of putting into practice the golden
rule of "Help one another." Perhaps you will say, that the ducks and the
starling wanted to make a meal of the flies; but I like to think that
some less selfish motive was mingled with their work.

ALFRED SELWYN.

THE FAITHLESS FRIEND.

MY little lamb, in early spring,
Was but a timid, weakly thing:
His old sheep-mother did not own him:
He would, no doubt, have soon been dead,
If I had not some pity shown him,
And seen that he was warmed and fed.
I was the only friend he knew,
And fond of him each day I grew;
And, as I stroked his woolly head,
"Wherever you may be,
I know, my little lamb," I said,
"You will remember me."

But, when the fields grew green in May,
They sent my little pet away
To pasture, where the brooks were flowing
Through yellow beds of cowslip flowers,
Where purple violets were growing,
And scented blossoms fell in showers
From off the shading chestnut-trees,
And daisies nodded in the breeze:
And many mates my lambkin found,
As young and gay as he,
And all day long they frisked around
And gambolled full of glee.

But when the robin-redbreasts flew,
And loud and shrill the north-winds blew,
Back from the pastures hard and frozen,
Through winter in the barn to keep,
The little lamb that I had chosen
They brought with all the other sheep;
And, oh! how glad my face to see,
I thought, my pretty pet will be!
But when to meet him I went out,