little child,--
It was summer when he smiled;
Down he went into the sea,
And the winter bides with me,
Just a little child was he.

EUGENE FIELD.

STEVENSON'S BIRTHDAY.

"How I should like a birthday!" said the child,
"I have so few, and they so far apart."
She spoke to Stevenson--the Master smiled--
"Mine is to-day; I would with all my heart
That it were yours; too many years have I!
Too swift they come, and all too swiftly fly"

So by a formal deed he there conveyed
All right and title in his natal day,
To have and hold, to sell or give away,--
Then signed, and gave it to the little maid.

Joyful, yet fearing to believe too much,
She took the deed, but scarcely dared unfold.
Ah, liberal Genius! at whose potent touch
All common things shine with transmuted gold!
A day of Stevenson's will prove to be
Not part of Time, but Immortality.

KATHERINE MILLER.

A MODEST WIT.

I learned "A Modest Wit" as a reading-lesson when I was a child. It has
clung to me and so I cling to it. It is just as good as it ever was. It
is a sharp thrust at power that depends on externalities. Selleck
Osborne. (----.)

A supercilious nabob of the East--
Haughty, being great--purse-proud, being rich--
A governor, or general, at the least,
I have forgotten which--
Had in his family a humble youth,
Who went from England in his patron's suit,
An unassuming boy, in truth
A lad of decent parts, and good repute.

This youth had sense and spirit;
But yet with all his sense,
Excessive diffidence
Obscured his merit.

One day, at table, flushed with pride and wine,
His honour, proudly free, severely merry,
Conceived it would be vastly fine
To crack a joke upon his secretary.

"Young man," he said, "by what art, craft, or trade,
Did your good father gain a livelihood?"--
"He was a saddler, sir," Modestus said,
"And in his time was reckon'd good."

"A saddler, eh! and taught you Greek,
Instead of teaching you to sew!
Pray, why did not your father make
A saddler, sir, of you?"

Each parasite, then, as in duty bound,
The joke applauded, and the laugh went round.
At length Modestus, bowing low,
Said (craving pardon, if too free he made),