at such a great horse could
possibly have gone through it.

When Jim is fed, he sometimes puts his nose in the oats, and throws them
all out on the floor. Then he begins to eat them up, and, after he has
eaten all he can reach standing, he goes down on his knees, and reaches
out with his long tongue, and picks up every oat he can find.

Outside of his stall, on one side, is a watering-trough, where Jim is
taken to drink. The water comes through a pipe, and is turned on by a
faucet. Two or three times the water was found running, so that the
trough overflowed, when no one had been near to meddle with it.

At last the men suspected that Jim was the rogue, and they kept very
still, and watched one night till Jim thought he was all alone. Then
they saw him twist himself almost double in his stall, stretch his long
neck out, take the faucet in his teeth, turn on the water, and get a
good drink. But he could not shut it off again.

Jim is a brave horse to go to a fire; but there is one thing that
frightens him dreadfully, and that is--a feather duster! He is not
afraid of any thing he sees in the streets, and the greatest noise of
the Fourth of July will not scare him; but show him a feather duster,
and his heels will fly up, and he will act as if he were going out of
his senses.

The firemen think Jim a most amusing horse; and they sometimes say that
he understands as much as some people do, and can do most every thing
but talk.

H. W.

[Illustration]

SECOND LESSON IN ASTRONOMY.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star:
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!"

DID any of you find the red star I asked you to look for last month? I
hope you did; for I want you to look at it again while I tell you
something about the "twinkle" of it.

Look very carefully, first at the red star, and then at just as large a
white star; and, if your eyes are bright, you will see that the white
one twinkles the most. I wish I could tell you why; but I think nobody
knows.

Be very careful, though, not to choose a white star that is not a star;
for, as that twinkles very little, you may think I am mistaken.

"A star that is _not_ a star?" I think I hear you say, "How I wonder
what you are!" Well, I will tell you.

Although most of the "diamonds in the sky," commonly called stars, are
real star