ll you; for I am sure you would never guess.

When the house came to be still with the night-stillness, and every one
was in bed, an old rat had come out of his hole, and gone foraging
around for his supper. As he walked majestically along, swinging his
long tail after him, it happened to switch into a clam's opened shell,
when, presto change! the clam was no longer only a clam: it was a
rat-trap.

It pinched hard; and I am sure it hurt the old rat very much. He ran
across the cellar to his hole; and the clam bounced on the bricks as he
went; and that was what my mother had heard. The rat could not get the
clam into the hole. It held him fast by the tail all the rest of his
life, which was not long; for he was killed soon after.

LIZZIE'S MAMMA.

TO SEA IN A TUB.

HERE is a picture of a boy trying his new boat in a tub of water. His
brothers and sisters are looking on. His elder brother seems to be
pointing out some fault in the rig of the boat. Perhaps he thinks the
sails are too large. The dog Tray takes a good deal of interest in the
matter. I wonder what he thinks of it.

But the story I am going to tell you is about a little girl named Emma,
and what happened one day, when she went out in the yard to play. Her
mother had told her not to go outside the gate: so she looked around the
doorway to see what she could find to play with. There stood a great tub
full of water; and there, close by, was a pile of chips. "Boats!" said
Emma to herself: "I'll sail boats!"

It didn't take a minute to get six of the nicest chips well afloat; but
after all they were not much better than rafts.

"I must put on sails," said Emma. And running into the sitting-room,
and getting some pins, and then putting a bit of paper on each pin, and
sticking a pin upright in each chip, at last she had her little boats
with little sails, going straight across the tub with a fair wind.

[Illustration]

Once a fly alighted on one of the boats, and took quite a long voyage.
That made Emma think of trying to find other passengers; and she picked
up a great ground beetle, and put him aboard. Poor beetle! he didn't
want to go, and he wasn't used to it. He tumbled about on the deck; the
boat tipped under him, and the next thing Emma knew he was overboard.

"Oh, he mustn't drown!" she cried. "I must get him out!" And she stooped
over in great haste to save the poor beetle. But it was a large