t chat in the
porch, making her guest's visit a happy holiday by confiding several
plans and asking advice in the friendliest way.

(_To be continued._)

[Illustration]

"HAPPY FIELDS OF SUMMER."

BY LUCY LARCOM.

[Illustration]

Happy fields of summer, all your airy grasses
Whispering and bowing when the west wind passes,--
Happy lark and nestling, hid beneath the mowing,
Root sweet music in you, to the white clouds growing!

Happy fields of summer, softly billowed over
With the feathery red-top and the rosy clover,--
Happy little children seek your shady places,
Lark-songs in their bosoms, sunshine on their faces!

Happy little children, skies are bright above you,
Trees bend down to kiss you, breeze and blossom love you;
And we bless you, playing in the field-paths mazy,
Swinging with the harebell, dancing with the daisy!

Happy fields of summer, touched with deeper beauty
As your tall grain ripens, tell the children duty
Is as sweet as pleasure;--tell them both are blended
In the best life-story, well begun and ended!

THE DIGGER-WASPS AT HOME.

BY E. A. E.

July had come again, and brought with it such warm, sultry days that it
almost seemed as if no living creature could stir abroad. Nevertheless,
there was a wonderful deal going on in our garden. Through the air and
over the flower-beds hastened hundreds of little people. Some lived in
the trees and bushes, others in the ground, and all were hard at work.

One morning, especially, there seemed to be something unusual going on;
the buzzing, and humming was fairly deafening.

Whirr-r-r! whirr-r-r! What was that great creature that darted past my
face? And here came another, and another; why, the garden was full of
them!

Big brown-and-yellow wasps these strangers were, and all in a most
desperate hurry. Scores of them were already hard at work digging away
in the firmly packed sand of the path.

As these new-comers seemed to care very little who watched them at their
work, I sat down on an upturned flower-pot in the shade of a friendly
lilac, determined to make their acquaintance.

Hardly had I settled myself before one of the wasps approached. She
seemed searching for something, for she flew rapidly back and forth, now
alighting for a moment--now darting away again. At last she dropped upon
the ground close to me and began to bite the earth with her strong jaws.
When quite a little heap lay