CARD HOUSES.

THE prettiest way of making these is to put two cards together, touching at the top, and spread at the bottom, like a tent; place four of these close to each other; upon the top of all of them lay a couple of cards flat, to form a new floor; on the floor place three more little tents: then make another floor of cards laid flat; then put two little tents; then another floor; then one tent. Here you must stop; for a new floor will not rest on one point.

If you can have a whole table to yourself, you can make a fence all around it, by making cards stand in and out, resting against each other, like a Virginia fence; other little tents standing about may represent barns, summer-houses, &c. And if you have any little wooden dogs, cows, milk-maids, &c. you can make it look quite like a little farm-house.

HEADS OR POINTS.

LITTLE girls often hold two pins in their hands, and ask, “Which is uppermost, heads or points?" If the one asked guesses right, she takes one of the pins; if she guesses wrong, she gives a pin.

PUSH PIN.

Two pins are laid upon the table; each one in turn pushes them with her finger; and she who throws one pin across another is allowed to take one of them. Those who do not succeed must give a pin.

NECKLACES.

THE hard red seed-vessels of the rose, strung upon strong thread, make quite a pretty necklace; children likewise string those little round hollow pieces of sea-weed, which look like beads; and the feelers of a lobster cut into small bits.

A PARTY.

As children always like to imitate what they see, nothing pleases them more than to play giving a party; bowing and courtesying, and handing round their little plates, &c. &c.

HOUSE-KEEPING.

LITTLE girls are very fond of arranging small furniture in such a manner as they see them arranged by older people. A small table with little cups and saucers and plates, with little chairs around it, and perhaps dolls in the chairs, is a very pretty sight. In the country, they often take acorns for cups and saucers, and split peach-stones for plates.

SCHOOL-KEEPING.

THIS is likewise a favourite amusement with little children. One acts the part of the schoolmistress, and all the others must obey her. They read, say lessons, bring their work to be fitted, are ordered to stand in the corner of the room for whispering, &c. Sometimes they vary this play in the following manner: The schoolmistress says, "Ah, Mary, you

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are a naughty little girl, you tell tales out of school." The one addressed says, Who told you so, ma'am?" If the schoolmistress says, My thumb told me," Mary must answer, "She knows nothing at all about it;" if she say, "My fore-finger told me," Mary replies, "Do not believe her;" if she says, "My middle finger told me," Mary says, "Let her prove it ;" if the fourth finger, the answer is, "She is an idle gossip ;" if the little finger, the whole school must exclaim, "Ah, that lying little finger!" If any one makes a mistake in these replies, the schoolmistress orders some droll punishment, that will make the others laugh. Care must be taken to order and do every thing with good-nature and propriety.

CAT'S CRADLE.

A PIECE of thread, or small cord, about three quarters of a yard long, is firmly tied together. Two sit opposite each other, and by taking it off each other's hands, with different fingers, and different motions, they change it into a great number of forms-sometimes a cradle, sometimes a cross, a diamond, or a spider's web. It is impossible to describe how this is done; but every little girl will find some friend kind enough to teach her.

INTERY, MINTERY.

A COMPANY of children all place the fore-fingers of their right hands, side by side, upon the knee of the one who is

to begin the game. This one touches each finger by turns, saying, "Intery, Mintery, Cutery-corn, Apple-seed, and Apple-thorn; Wire, Brier, Limber-lock; five geese in a flock; sit and sing, by a spring, o-u-t and in again." The one whose finger she happens to touch when she says, again," must pay any forfeit the others please to appoint. Sometimes she runs away, and the others have hard work to catch her.

"In

MELON SEED BIRDS.

WATER-MELON seed are strung in the form of a diamond for this purpose; that is, first one seed, then a row of two seeds, then a row of three, then a row of four; then a row of three again, of two, and of one. At one end stick a little feather, for a tail, and in the other a morsel of wood for a beak. Leave the string three or four inches long at the mouth, tie the strings together, and pull them up and down; they look very much like two birds fighting.

THE dressing of dolls is a useful as well as a pleasant employment for little girls. If they are careful about small gowns, caps, and spencers, it will tend to make them ingenious about their own dresses, when they are older. I once knew a little girl who had twelve dolls; some of them were given her; but the greater part she herself made from rags, and her elder sister painted their lips and eyes. She took it into her head that she would dress the dolls in the costumes of different nations. No one assisted; but, by looking in a book called Manners and Customs, she dressed them all with great taste and propriety. There was the Laplander, wrapped up in furs; the African, with jewels in her nose and on her arm; the Indian, tattooed, with her hair tied