wn the ends of the bars, for they were only poles, and then Jenny
would hold her head so that he could slip off the halter.

"Well, one time it was near night when I came home, and your papa was
gone to the bars as usual, so it was growing dark when I saw him coming
back."

"'What took you so long?' I asked. 'Didn't Jenny hold her head down
good?'

"'Oh, yes,' he said; 'but I saw a black calf out there in the bushes,
and I thought I'd put the halter on him and lead him home.'

"'There's no calf in the pasture,' I said.

"'Yes, there was,' he persisted--'a funny-looking black calf! I went up
to him and tried to put on the halter, but he wouldn't hold his head
down when I told him to; and then he turned around and went off into the
woods, so I came home.'

"I remembered then that a bear had been seen not far from us a few days
before, and I wondered if my little boy had been trying to put a halter
on a bear!

"I called the hired man, and got my gun, and we went over there. It was
not so dark but that we could see the bear's tracks in the mud about the
rock, and right among them were the tracks of your papa's little shoes!"

Both boys' eyes were "as big as saucers."

"Did papa do that, really?" asked Willie.

"Yes, he did, for this is a true story."

"He didn't know any better, he was so little," said Arthur. "I wouldn't
want to try it."

"I think," laughed grandpa, "that even your papa wouldn't want to try it
now, old as he is!"

MAISIE PLAYS THE GOOD FAIRY.

BY COE HAYNE.

Often did Maisie play the good fairy when out in fields. When she saw a
lamb caught in the fence, she freed it; when a little bird fell from its
nest she replaced it; when a wee chick lost its mother, she helped it
out of its misery. So did she try each day to make the world happier.

One day as she was roaming about, she saw something dark in the grass.
She stooped and picked up a pocketbook. Her eyes opened wide with
excitement when she found inside of the pocketbook several five-dollar
bills and some silver.

[Illustration: Maisie finds a pocketbook.]

"Who could have lost it?" she asked herself.

Maisie was going to run to the house to show her mother what she had
found when she caught sight of a boy lying face downward upon the ground
beside the road.

[Illustration: Maisie caught sight of a boy lying face downward upon the
ground.]

She ran to the boy and knelt beside him. Touching him lightly upon the
cheek w