Now summer is near,
And the boys will be here;
But I fly or I run,
When I look on a gun,
Tho' I am the daring kingfisher, kingfisher!

EMILY CARTER.

[Illustration]

PLAYING SOLDIER.

LITTLE Mary lives in Boston. She has no brothers or sisters to play with
her, and no mother. But her papa plays with her a great deal.

There is one game she has with him that is very entertaining to others
who are looking on. At least so her aunts and uncles thought on
Thanksgiving evening, when it was played for their amusement. I have
called the game "Playing soldier." Mary was the captain; and her papa
was the soldier.

This is the way it was done: Mary went to her papa, who was standing,
and placed herself in front of him, with her back against him. "Shoulder
arms!" shouted the little captain; and her tall soldier immediately put
her on his left shoulder, in imitation of the real soldier, who holds
his musket or gun against that place.

"Forward march!" shouted our little captain again; and her soldier
marched forward with a quick step.

"Halt!" cried she after he had marched back; and he stopped at once.

"Ground arms!" was the next command; and the soldier put his captain
down on the floor in front of him just as she had stood before--and the
play was over.

M.

MADIE'S VISIT AT GRANDMA'S.

MADIE is a dear little girl who lives in a pretty village in the State
of New York. Every summer she goes to visit her grandmother, whose home
is at Bay View, near a beautiful body of water called Henderson Bay, a
part of Lake Ontario.

She is very happy at Bay View; for, besides grandma, there are an uncle
and two aunts, who are never too busy to swing her in the hammock, out
under the maples, or play croquet with her on the lawn.

Sometimes she drives out with her uncle behind his black ponies; and, if
the road is smooth and level, he lets Madie hold the reins. But she
likes better to go with him on the water, in his fine sail-boat,
"Ildrian," which is a Spanish name, and means "fleet as lightning."

When the weather is fine, and the water is calm, her aunts take her out
rowing in their pretty row-boat, "Echo." As they row along by the shore,
stopping now and then to gather water-lilies, Madie looks at the pretty
cottages and white tents nestled among the green