ion of the rest. Nearly all the animals took an
interest in the scheme, and promised to support it, except the hare.
When asked by Reynard the Fox, who had been appointed manager, why he
did not favour the idea, the hare replied: 'There is quite enough
amusement in my own family, and is it likely that I am going to leave
them all in the evening to find what is already provided for me at
home?' The fox for once in his life was taken at a disadvantage, and did
not know what to say.

There are plenty of pleasures at home if we know how to look for them.

CLOUD PICTURES.

Among the grass I love to lie,
And watch the fleecy clouds pass by:
For many pictures there I see,
So clear although so far from me.

Sometimes across the blue there floats
A stately fleet of white-sailed boats;
On shining mountains' rugged crests
The grey-winged cloud-birds seek their nests.

And o'er the sunset's radiant bar,
Lone fairy lands most surely are,
With ruby isles in lakes of gold,
Where towers in crimson light unfold.

The black clouds gather from afar,
As mighty armies march to war,
And when they meet in thunder-crash,
I see their spears of lightning flash.

For ever changing, to and fro,
Blown by the careless wind they go;
No wonder the cloud pictures there
Are always fresh, and always fair.

A HASTY JUDGMENT.

'What is the new step-mother like?' asked Walter Howard. He was cycling
from the station with his friend, Jack Trehane, having just arrived to
spend a few days of the summer holidays.

'No good,' was the short but expressive answer.

'I remember you thought her rather a good sort before your father
married her,' Walter remarked.

'You never know what people are really like until you live in the same
house with them,' said Jack, gloomily.

'Hard lines, when you had such decent holidays with your father alone.
How is it she is not nice to you now, when she used to be so jolly?'

'Oh, she isn't exactly nasty,' Jack explained, 'only I do so hate her
mean, saving little ways.'

Walter's face fell. It would be a nuisance if he had to waste some of
his precious holidays in a place where there was not even enough 'grub!'

However, the food proved to be excellent, so Walter felt that it must be
in some other way that the stinginess would be evident.

'It is such a lovely day,' said Mrs. Trehane the next morning at
breakfast. 'What do you say to an expedition t