red in our family.

About a year ago we bought an upright grand piano, and after we had
had it a few months we noticed that one of the keys would stay down
when touched, unless struck very quickly and lightly, and the next
day another acted in the same way. That evening, after the boys had
gone to bed, father and myself were sitting by the grate fire, when
we thought we heard a nibbling in the corner of the room where the
piano stood. I exclaimed, "Do you think it possible a mouse can be
in the piano?" "Oh no!" he said; "it is probably behind it." We
moved the piano, and found a little of the carpet gnawed, and a few
nut-shells. Then we examined the piano inside, as far as possible,
but found no traces there. I played a noisy tune, to frighten the
mouse away, and we thought no more about it.

Two or three days after, more of the keys stayed down, and I said,
"That piano must be fixed." The tuner came, and the children all
stood around him, with curious eyes, as he took the instrument
apart. Presently I heard a great shout. What do you think? In one
corner, on the key-board, where every touch of the keys must have
jarred it, was a mouse's nest, with five young ones in it! Those
mice must have been fond of music! The mother mouse sprang out and
escaped; but the nest and the little ones were destroyed.

Well, what do you suppose the nest was made of? Bits of felt and
soft leather from the hammers and pedal; and the mouse had gnawed
in two most of the strips of leather that pull back the hammers!
So, when the piano had been fixed, there was a pretty heavy bill
for repairs.--Very truly yours,

P. L. S.

RATTLE-BOXES.

You'd hardly believe how old-fashioned rattle-boxes are,--those noisy
things that babies love to shake. Why, they are almost as old-fashioned
as some of the very first babies would look nowadays. A few very ancient
writers mention these toys, but, instead of calling them, simply,
"rattle-boxes," they refer to them as "symbols of eternal agitation,
which is necessary to life!"

Deacon Green says that this high-sounding saying may have been wise for
its times, when the sleepy young world needed shaking, perhaps, to get
it awake and keep it lively. "But, in these days," he adds, "the boot is
on the other leg. People are a little too go-ahead, if anything, and try
to do too m