And tried to coax and call,
He drew away, and turned about,
And would not come at all.

With his white fleece and playful ways,
My lamb now all about me praise;
But dearer far to me the sickly,
Poor, shivering thing he used to be;
When to my call he came so quickly
I thought that he was fond of me!
But if I pet him now, I know
He'll take my gifts, and off he'll go;
For I, to my regret, have found
I can no more depend
On one who will go frisking round,
And quite forget a friend.

MARIAN DOUGLAS.

[Illustration]

BILLY AND THE PIG.

HERE is another story about my father's wise old horse, Billy.

One day, when my father wished to go away to the mill, he sent my
brother Robert down to the pasture to catch Billy. Robert brought the
horse up to the house, tied him to the fence in the backyard, and gave
him some oats in a pail.

In a pen back of the house we kept three pigs: two of them were white;
and the other was spotted,--black and white. These pigs had got out of
the pen by pushing off a board from one side of it.

Soon after Billy began to eat his dinner, the two white pigs came
running through the yard. They saw Billy eating his oats; and, thinking
it would be nice for them to have some as well as he, they ran up to his
pail, and without as much as saying, "By your leave," began to help
themselves.

Billy had no idea of sharing his dinner with such company as this: so he
lopped back his ears, looked as cross as he possibly could, snapped at
the pigs fiercely with his teeth, raised his hind-feet from the ground,
as if to kick them, and at last succeeded in frightening them away.

Scarcely had they left the yard, however, before the spotted pig got his
eye upon the pail of oats; and he at once ran for it with all his might.

Billy tried to scare him as he had the others; but Spotty was not so
easily frightened. He took no notice of any thing but the oats.

Finding that threats were of no use, Billy seized him by the back of the
neck, raised him about two feet from the ground, shook him a little, and
then let him drop.

Spotty was satisfied. He lost his appetite for oats, and ran squealing
out of the yard.

EDITH'S PAPA.

JOCKO, THE RAVEN.