THE YOUNG BUILDERS.

RANDPA has sent Bertie and Maude a box of building toys to remind them of his birthday, for he cannot come to see them

as he did last year. They are much pleased with his kind gift, and are now very busy, as you see. They have nearly finished, and Maude would wish to help put up the chimney; but her brother says, "Please don't let me." Will they quarrel, do I think? Oh dear, no; they love each other too well to do that.

The boy replied; "I'll take good heed to do whate'er you say."

Then uncle took his hat and stick, and went to pay a call;

Whilst Ned, against the walls of brick,

sent high his bouncing ball.

Still as he played, the thought increased of uncle's words to him.

Might he not even peep at least within that study dim?

How nice to see the living frogs, the

toads, the spiders tame, Stuffed crocodiles, and apes, and dogs, and birds of foreign name !

At last, no longer could he bear from such delights to stay;

With cautious step he climbed the stair, to peep, and run away :

But ah! the door was bolted fast, no entrance could he find;

So he went down again, but cast most longing looks behind.

Out in the garden, thinking still of wondrous sights within,

He climbed up to the window-sill, and found he could get in!

Oh, joy! oh, joy! in yonder nook, the crocodile he spied.

Was that a toad on uncle's book? Ned's blue eyes opened wide.

Then did the voice of conscience say, as hesitant he stayed—

"Oh, Neddy, Neddy, come away! a promise you have made.”

“I won't touch anything, indeed; to look I'm satisfied:"

So back to conscience did he plead, and then he jumped inside.

The toad behind the bookcase hid, but Neddy soon gave chase,

To hunt it out by shelf and lid into some open place.

Alas! within a corner dark it ran. A

match he raised;

Within a jar there fell a spark-and up gunpowder blazed!

Oh, what a hissing! what a fire! oh, what a roaring cry!

The angry light leaped fiercely higherpoor Ned must surely die.

No, no! but he was sadly hurt, and raised a grievous wail.

In rushed the maids with garden squirt, and jug, and can, and pail.

And Uncle Fred, who saw the light across

the fields, ran home;

His study was a dreadful sight, and words would scarcely come.

"The toad is safe," said trembling Ned; "the spiders too are here."

"Thank Heaven," said gravely Uncle Fred, "that you are safe, my dear." Loudly lamenting, Master Ned the doctor now must see,

Who said he must stay long in bed ere better he would be ;

So through the summer there he lay, but uncle gently came

And sat beside him every day, without reproach or blame.

"But oh, my boy," at last he said, "whenever we do wrong

We suffer in some way,

seen it all life long.

dear Ned-I've

Oh, may you, lad, henceforward live in

truth's unclouded light;

Pray Heaven your falsehood to forgive, and lead your steps aright."-M. S. M.

A SMALL SCHOOL.

"I hope my dear little boy will never know what heartache is. It is different to all other aches," his mother said.

Mike thought a little while, and then spoke again.

"Could not Dr. Brine give you some medicine for it if I asked him? I know where he lives."

"No, Mike; the doctor cannot cure heartache."

Next day being a half-holiday, the

teacher took the school-children into a beautiful wood to spend the afternoon, and to gather wild flowers which grew there in great abundance.

A tiny girl ran to her teacher, and holding a flower up to her, said—

"Here's a pretty 'ikle, pansy, teacher!" "It is a heartsease, love," the teacher said; "but is very like a pansy."

And the little one went her way again, softly murmuring, "Heartsease!"

When Mike, who was by, heard the word "Heartsease," he instantly thought of his mother, and he resolved that he would take her as many of these little blossoms as he could gather, for he believed they were the cure she needed for her ailment.

When the children saw what a large handful he had of the pretty heartsease, first one, and then another cried

"Give me just one, Mike! Oh, you are greedy!" till at last the little boy could bear their teasing no longer, and he sobbed aloud.

He said, "I gathered them for my mother because she has the heartache. and Dr. Brine cannot do her any good!" Mike's grief awed the children into silence, and awakened their sympathy. Many little ones held out their bunches of flowers for him to take all the heartsease out of them, but Mike thanked them and said he had as many as he could carry.

When he got home he found his father sitting by the fire, looking very sullen and ill-tempered; this was no new thing.

"What rubbish have you got there?" he asked roughly, when he saw Mike enter.

"They are flowers I've gathered out of the wood for mother," explained the little boy. "She has had heartache, you know, father, and these heartsease will

make her better, I hope. I believe God lets them grow in the woods on purpose so that the poor people can gather them as often as they need, for the doctors cannot ease that pain, mother says. What makes heartache, father? do you know?" You'll know soon

"Many things. enough, Mike, without telling," answered | his father.

"Do you ever have it, father?" “Aye," was the laconic reply. And then the man lapsed into moody silence again.

"Mother must have it worse than you do, father, for I never see you cry," Mike said softly, as he ventured to lean against his father's knee unrebuked.

The man's better nature had been touched, and while he gazed into the fire, he thought of his misspent life, and all the heartache he had caused his loved and faithful wife to suffer.

His little boy gathering heartsease in the wood to give ease to her troubled heart humbled him to the dust, and his tears bedewed the flowers he held in his hand. Mike saw them, and he stroked his father's face with his little hand, saying in a sad and pitiful tone

"I feel sure you have that bad pain now, poor father! Perhaps mother can spare you some of her flowers."

Soon Mrs. Walton, who had been out on some necessary errand, came home again, and it was not little Mike, but his father who gave her the heartsease, saying as he did so

"God grant that Mike's prescription may give you ease, my dear."

And truly it did, for from that day sunshine came back to her home, and the mother and father knew no more heartache.

SARAH LOUISA MOORE.