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ship went along more smoothly, and one day the hold was opened, we were all swung out, and I found we were landed at Liverpool. Then I thought all my troubles and travels were over, and that I would be allowed to see the sunshine once more, and have a peep at the strange country they had carried me to, but instead of that I was put into a train again, and taken off to London, where I stood in a dark, damp warehouse for what seemed a long time. I was beginning to think I should never more be looked at, when one morning the barrel was opened, and after long discussion we were all bought and carried off to a fruiterers' shop. We were then sorted into different classes, and many of the best of us placed in the window. One day a young girl came with a basket. She wore a pretty white apron and cap, her eyes were bright, her cheeks rosy, and she looked altogether sweet and pleasant. She asked for a dozen of apples.

"They're beauties; just look at that,' the man said, taking me up and putting me into her basket,

and with eleven others I was carried away, and put into your mamma's store-room, and this evening she sent me up by nurse for little Miss Agnes' supper; and now, I'm cooked, I'm cooked, I'm cooked! and very nice and soft I am, and I hope you will enjoy me very much,”—and the apple gave such a violent splutter, that nurse turned round and took it from the fire.

"Come, wake up, dearie!" she said, shaking Agnes. "Supper's ready," and Aggie stood up, and rubbed her eyes, and wondered very much whether the apple had really told her the story of its adventures, or whether she had only been dreaming all the time. If it were only a dream it was a very true one, for she learned from her papa, that nearly all the large rosy apples we see in the fruit-shops are grown in the State of New York, then come across the ocean, packed in barrels and stowed away in the holds of ships, and little boys and girls in England love American roast apples very much. H. J. B. H.

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FOX who was prowling about in search of poultry got one of his legs entangled in a rope that was dangling from a corn-bin. This was the more provoking as on the other side of the partition he could hear a hen clucking to her chickens, and a cock crowing cheerfully. He raised himself on his hind legs, and managed to look over the board.

"Good morning," said the fox to the cock, who had bristled up his feathers, and was looking fiercely at the intruder. "I am in a little trouble on this side of the barn-door, and I shall be obliged if you can help me out of it."

"What's the matter?" asked the cock a little gruffly, whilst all the poultry about him fled away as fast as they could to a place of safety.

"Why, the fact is," returned the fox, "there's a tiresome rope down here, and I've got my hind legs entangled in such a hopeless manner that I fear I can't get them free before one of the stablemen comes; and if that happens there's an end of me." "I should think with your sharp teeth you might gnaw through the knots," observed the cock.

"Indeed, indeed I can't," replied the fox; "if you will just mount up you will see I am speaking the truth. Your sharp beak would pick out the knots in no time. And I should be so grateful to you.”

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"And would make a meal of me," responded the cock. "No, I should not like to trust myself so near."

"I am speaking the truth, indeed I am," said the fox; "I am bound fast and can't get off. If you will only help me to escape I will make a solenn promise never to touch you or one of your family, even though I should be dying of hunger."

The cock crowed contemptuously.

"It is easy to make promises," he said, "but it is not easy to keep them. No; my family being in safety, I am going to follow their example, and leave you on the other side of the door."

"Oh, help! help! help!" cried the fox; "there's one of the men coming-I'm speaking the truth.” But the cock did not believe him; he thought it was only another of Reynard's stratagems to make an easy prey of him.

Therefore he quickly departed to a place where he might be out of danger.

In the meantime the stableman came along. "Ah," said he, when he saw the fox, "so you're caught at last, my fine fellow. No more poultrystealing for you."

So saying he quickly put an end to the fox, who died saying, "For once in my life I spoke the truth, and I die because I was not believed."

So it is that those who are in the habit of telling falsehoods will find that when they do speak the truth no one pays any attention to it. J. G.

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ND now Meg Ferry had returned with her

jug of water. She had not in reality been long absent, but it seemed a very long while indeed to little Nell.

Eight o'clock! And that was the very time, too, when mother used to read aloud the evening prayers in her own sweet, though generally

tired, voice. And little Nell thought of her happy days at home.

Dear old mother! Were they saying prayers now? she wondered. Were they asking that she might one day again be found? Oh! were they indeed recollecting their little Nell?

"Poor child!" and Meg Ferry's hand found its way kindly to Nell's shoulder. "Don't take on like that; don't. I'll do all I can to help you. I've just got an idea about you in my head, though maybe it's a funny one. You shall hear all about it by-andby, when I've thought a little more about it."

"You won't send me out into the streets again to-night, will you ?" and Nell shivered from head to foot.

"No, little lady. I could scarcely ask God to forgive me if I did such a thing."

Ah, how grateful Nell felt!

And yet she knew full well that there was nothing for her even to lie upon at night, but that poor hard-looking mattress; and that, still more, her companion would be the old woman whom she had never seen until that day.

She seemed to have lost her wits entirely, andwhat indeed added to her unhappiness-she could not in the least remember the name of the place in which she lived.

"And please don't call me 'little lady;'" and Nell looked up archly. "I'm not a lady at all."

"A lady is that lady does. Why, what a funny little girl you are. I judged you by your

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"Frock," interrupted Nell quietly, as if she took this quite as a matter of course.

"No, child, no; not a bit of it." "By what, then, please, Mrs again Nell broke off suddenly.

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?" and then

"By your way of speaking, then, child, if you must have an answer to your question. But I'll call you whatever you like, little dear. It doesn't matter to me, it doesn't."

"You see, we're poor-very," began Nell.

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Are you? It's of that sort of people, I'm beginning to think, God mostly makes the world," pursued Meg Ferry.

Her speech was rather too difficult for Nell to understand. She showed this by her face. "I mean, then, that there are far more poor people than rich in the world, little one."

"Oh, yes! so mother says;" and Nell went on with the subject that was now uppermost in her thoughts. "Mother keeps a school, and-and we help her."

A curious sort of smile flitted across Meg Ferry's face. Perhaps she was wondering as to what possible sort of help Nell could give in her mother's school.

"You're quite right to help her, dearie. That's what God sends us all into the world for-to help those belonging to us. And if I'm not very much mistaken either, she won't be very well able to get on without you."

Meg Ferry's voice quivered a moment, and then she began to arrange the couple of plates and knives that she had just taken out of the cupboard.

The meal was ready-simply the remainder of a loaf of bread and a piece of dried-up cheese. "It's ready now," said Meg Ferry. "Thank God"--and she folded her thin wrinkled hands an instant-" for food which He alone can give."

It was Meg Ferry's grace; and Nell, as she had always been taught to do at home, folded her hands also, and said "Amen."

Had it been a grand and handsome meal, with two or three servants, too, standing behind their chairs for the purpose of waiting upon them, the grace could not have been a more earnest one.

"But you're not eating, child-dearie. You don't like it that's it, I can see. And I've nothing else to offer you."

The old woman now really looked distressed.

Instead of Nell setting herself to work at once upon the bread and cheese which had been placed

upon her plate-and by far the larger half, too, of either the child's hands rested helplessly upon the table, and tear after tear ran down her round cheeks.

"I can't eat it, please," choked Nell. "You don't like it?"

"Oh, yes, please! I don't know, indeed I don't!" "You can't tell, at any rate, until you've tried." "I did try, and-and-it choked me, I think." "Poor little thing!" came tremblingly and softly. "Who would have thought it? And I shan't have

now, half leaning against the table, and watching the speaker.

"Where is it? where is it?" she repeated. "I declare if I hadn't forgotten all about it! It must be back here somewhere-can't be anywhere else."

And she thrust her long, thin, bony arm as far back as ever it would go into the damp, now empty, shelf of that dingy corner cupboard.

"Of course! of course! why, here it is!" and she dragged something forward as she spoke.

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anything better either until the morning, and then it will only be a cup of coffee at the coffee-stall at the corner of the street. Stay, stay, though!" She started up, and spoke really joyfully. "Of course of course I have something else-something quite dainty, too. How came I ever to forget it? Why, I must have been out of my mind! Anybody would think from my doing so that I had at least food enough by me to last for a twelvemonth, instead of nothing but these scraps ;" and she pointed towards the two small quantities of bread and cheese.

Nell, too, had quitted her seat-was standing

Little Nell naturally began to feel rather curious. She felt, too, at that instant as if she could never again eat a morsel of anything. But the old woman's way of going to work had served to awaken her interest.

What could she be about to drag forth out of that funny old cupboard?

And then what did she see?

A small jar that had once perhaps been white, but was now almost black, the top carefully tied down with a large piece of oilskin and twine.

"It's what? Guess, now," said Meg. Nell shook her head at first in reply, then

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