er was commencing to boil.

"And I say again," said Kate, calmly, "that every egg it lays for you
_shall_ be of pure gold."

"Well, then, what _is_ the matter?" said the king, scratching his nose in
great perplexity.

[Illustration: "THE KING SAT UPON A CHAIR OF STATE, WITH A LEARNED JUDGE
AT EACH SIDE."]

"Why, your majesty," bellowed the baron, losing all control of himself,
"_it is a gander_!"

The king burst into a roar of laughter.

"Faith!" said he, turning to Kate, "thou art the shrewdest maiden in the
world." Then, to the baron: "The maid was right, and every egg the goose
lays shall be of pure gold." And so Baron Von Dunderhead and his case were
dismissed.

Catherine had made a great impression upon the king, both on account of
her shrewdness and beauty; so, being a jolly monarch, he conceived the
notion of marrying her to the heir apparent. The heir apparent had no
objection, and so the ceremony was consummated with great state.

Even to this day the good folk of the kingdom of Kaboutermannekensburg
look back with longing to the time when Catherine the Wise was queen, and
ruled not only her husband, but his kingdom also.

As for Peter, he was appointed lord chief justice, for one did not have to
be very wise to be a judge in those days.

Open the snowy little bed,
And put the baby in it;
Lay down her pretty curly head,
She'll go to sleep in a minute.

Tuck the sheet down round her neck,
And cover the dimples over,
Till she looks like a rose-bud peeping out
From a bed of sweet white clover.

HOW THE STONE-AGE CHILDREN PLAYED.

BY CHARLES C. ABBOTT.

Not long since I wandered along a pretty brook that rippled through a
narrow valley. I was on the lookout for whatever birds might be wandering
that way, but saw nothing of special interest. So, to while away the time,
I commenced geologizing; and, as I plodded along my lonely way, I saw
everywhere traces of an older time, when the sparkling rivulet that now
only harbors pretty salamanders was a deep creek, tenanted by many of our
larger fishes.

How fast the earth from the valley's slopes may have been loosened by
frost and washed by freshet, and carried down to fill up the old bed of
the stream, we will not stop to inquire; for other traces of this older
time were also met with here. As I turned over the loose earth by the
brook-side, and gathered here and there a pretty pebble, I chanced