grown large, the hen hatched
another brood. These, too, at first sight of the water, went in for a
swim. The old hen was not quite as frightened as before, but stood and
looked at them, clucking a little to herself, as if to say, "Strange
chickens these of mine; but yet, if they like it, I don't know as I need
care, so long as they don't ask me to go with them." So, after a while,
that brood grew to be big ducks.

One day last summer, as I sat on the bank of the river, looking at the
pretty blue rippling water, who should come walking proudly down to the
water's-edge but, Mrs. Hen with another brood of little, waddling,
yellow ducks behind her! She led them clear to the edge of the water,
saw them start off, and, turning away, went contentedly to scratching at
some weeds on the shore, taking no more notice of her little family. She
had come to regard this swimming business as a matter of course.

Now one little duck, for some reason,--maybe he was not so strong as the
others,--had not gone into the water with the rest, but remained sitting
on the shore. Presently the mother-hen, turning round, happened to spy
him. She stopped scratching, and looked at him as if she were saying,
"All my chickens swim: now what is the matter with you? I know it must
be laziness; and I won't have that."

Then spreading out her wings, and making an angry clucking, she flew
towards the unlucky duckling, took him by the back of his neck in her
beak, and threw him as far as possible into the water. As she walked
back to her weeds again; it seemed almost as if I could hear her say,--

"The chicken who can swim and _won't_ swim must be made to swim."

L. W. E.

[Illustration: Music]

SONG OF THE CAT.

Words by A. LLOYD. Music by T. CRAMPTON

1. The cat and her kittens recline in the sun,
Mew! mew! mew!
They're fond of their food and they're fond of their fun;
Mew! mew! mew!
Their old mother says they must sit in a row,
The biggest is Jack and the little one Joe,
And now altogether they make the place ring,
With the one song they know and the chorus they sing:
Mew! mew! mew! . . .
Mew! mew! mew!

2. My dear little kittens when you are well grown,
Mew! mew! mew!
Some day you will each ha