his bow; and away they
went,--Harry and Ned, Dick and Gyp,--over stones and fences, bushes and
bogs, in pursuit of something; but whether it was a woodchuck or a cat
they never got near enough to tell. Suddenly it disappeared in a
corn-field.

Dick and Gyp put their tails between their legs, and dropped their ears;
but Ned and Harry spied some pumpkins ripening among the stacked corn.

"Gay for Jack-o-lanterns!" said Harry. "Wouldn't they frighten Belle and
Lucy, though!"

So two of the biggest pumpkins were cut off. "Now let's take 'em home,"
said Harry, thinking of his breakfast. But, oh, how heavy those pumpkins
grew! In getting over a wall, Harry's fell and was smashed: so the boys
took turns in carrying the other one.

Mamma stood on the piazza, in a fresh white morning-dress. She heard
Dick and Gyp, and then she saw her little boys. Oh, what a sight!--the
striped stockings and blue sailor-suits all one shade of yellow brown
earth!

"Did you have good sport?" asked papa, coming to the door.

"Splendid! Found lots of _holes_," said Ned, dumping the pumpkin. And
what they did with the pumpkin, perhaps I'll tell you another time.

MISS A. H. R.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THE SCHOOLMISTRESS.

"THERE are many thousand words in our language," said Ellen, reading
from a book, "and some words are used for one purpose, and some for
another; and the same word may be used in different ways. When your
uncle gave you a lot of shells last December, what did you do with them,
Edwin?"

"I classified them: that is, I put one kind into one heap, and another
kind into another heap; and so on."

"Well, that is just the way we do with words; we put them in classes
which we call Parts of Speech. Now, there is one class of words which is
made up of name-words or nouns; that is, of words that are used as names
of persons or things. In the sentence, 'Birds fly,' _birds_ is a noun,
and _fly_ is a verb."

"I think I knew that much already, Schoolmistress."

"Well, sir, since you know so much, let me hear you correct the mistakes
in the following sentence: 'A pear or peach, when they are ripe, are
good food for the boy or girl who like them.'"

"It should be: 'A pear or a peach, when it is ripe, is good food for the
boy or girl who likes it.'"

"Well done, Edwin! go up to the head of your class."

Edwin walked round his sister, as she sat in her chair, and