DAN BEARD AND THE BOYS 



313 



queer little creatures destined 

 for the crystal prison. 



At low tide is the time to 

 hunt under the stones and sea 

 weeds for the little sea people 

 left by the tide, and many a 

 happy day can be spent in this 

 way. 



The fresh-water aquarium is 

 much more simple, but none the 

 less interesting, and here we 

 have a couple of lads landing a 

 fish much too big for any pri- 

 vate tank. 



From the expression on the 

 boys' faces it looks as if there 

 will be little doubt that the 

 landing-net will soon slip under 

 the flopping fish and become the 

 prize of the two boys — a prize 

 of which they may well be 

 proud, for it is such a goodly 

 fish that it makes me want to 

 drop my pen, take my rod and 

 let the magazine run itself. 



Just here I want to impress 

 upon you boys what lucky chaps you are to 

 be boys. Think of it, there is probably not 

 a man in this whole country who would not 



AT LOW TIDE. 



By J. G. McCurdy. 



LUCKY CHAPS. 



gladly change places with any healthy boy, 

 even if he should have a very red head and a 

 face so freckled that he looks like a cow had 

 coughed bran in his face. 



Men go swimming and have a good time 

 after their fashion, but bless you, they don't 

 have the real rollicking fun that the boys 

 enjoy. The pebbles on the bottom hurt the 

 men's tender feet, or they are afraid of the 

 mud getting on to their clothes. Yes, and 

 their clothes are so much more trouble than 

 the boys' are to them. When a lad wears 

 only a hat, shirt and a pair of trousers it is 



not much trouble to go a-swimming early 

 and often. 



But if I remember aright, boys have trou- 

 bles of their own, and it is often hard to ex- 

 plain satisfactorily how one's shirt happens 

 to be put on wrong side out, or how one's 

 back became so blistered by the sun that the 

 only way to sleep is face downward. 



Did you ever own a crow? 



If not you have missed more than a cart 

 load of innocent fun. I have owned all sorts 

 of pets in my life, from pet beetles to coons, 

 dogs and deer, but none gave the all around 

 satisfaction of the crow. 



AFTER LILIES. 



By Herman lilies. 



