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13 
PICTURES. 
0 say, have you seen my new pictures, 
All shining in silver and gold ? 
They sav that Jack Frost was the artist: 
He paints with the wind and the cold. 
He snatches his hues from the rainbow; 
His pencil, a ray from the stars; 
He enters our doors and our windows, 
Regardless of bolts or of bars. 
He pinches our fingers and noses, 
And savagely nips at our toes, 
And then, for a moment, he lingers, 
While at ns, the pitcher, he throws. 
And now, having done with his mischief, 
And watched till we’re soundly asleep, 
He steps softly up to the window— 
I wish I might just take a peep— 
And paints there such beautiful pictures 
Of mountains, and bridges, and trees!— 
O say, among all your bright treasures, 
Are any so lovely as these ? 
O star, with your silvery pencil! 
0 sun, with your crimson and gold! 
O wind, with your sighing and moaning! 
To me the strange secret unfold. 
And now. may I keep my new pictures, 
All shining in silver and gold; 
The pictures Jack Frost, the bright artist, 
Did paint with the wind and the cold? 
M. H. E. 
How Lieut. Fitch. Got the Consent of Minnie 
Sherman’s Father.— Since the marriage, says a 
Washington paper, we have heen let into the secrets 
of the courtship a little. The young man was not over¬ 
sanguine, when the young lady referred him to her pa, 
and he approached the awful presence, feeling uncer¬ 
tain whether he would succeed, or he tried by a court- 
martial. However, he managed to ask for what he 
wanted, and stood waiting for the verdict. The Gen¬ 
eral heard him, and then turned upon him abruptly 
with the question, “What can you do?” 
“Do? Why, I can build an engine, put it up and 
run it!” 
“Give me your hand. You are the hoy forme. 
Now go and ask Min. what she thinks about it.” 
That is the way the General got rid of that appli¬ 
cation. It is almost too late in the day to speculate 
as to what Min. thought about it. 
“Another Husband.”— A lady was reading to 
her five-year old hoy the story of a little fellow, whose 
father was taken ill and died, after which the young- 
Mending the 
Feelings. — Ce¬ 
lia Burleigh says, 
iu one of her lec¬ 
tures, that “ call¬ 
ing on a friend 
one day, I found 
the usually sunny- 
faced pet of the 
household con¬ 
vulsed with sobs. 
A glance into the 
play-room, where 
I had many a fro¬ 
lic with the small 
mamma and her 
large family of 
dolls, showed 
what was amiss. 
‘ The destroyer,’ 
in the shape of a 
big "brother, had 
‘ come down, like 
the wolf on the 
fold,’ and all the 
dollies were doing 
duty as Blue 
Beard’s slaught¬ 
ered wives. Some 
were suspended 
by the hair, oth¬ 
ers by their necks, 
while several had 
heen beheaded. 
Social Contrasts.—Christmas Stocking of the Lofty and the Lowly. 
and were scattered in ghastly confusion about the floor. | ster set himself diligently to work to support himself 
sion robes were in order, and all were listening for the 
chariot-wheels, a good couple had retired one night— 
the man somewhat visionary, hut his wife practical 
enough. In the ebb of a midwinter night he awoke, 
hearing a slight noise, and gently nudged his sleeping 
partner. “ Wife, I hear the chariot-wheels of God.” 
“ Lie still John, you old fool; the Lord would not 
come on wheels, with such good sleighing.” 
“ Everything goes wrong,” said an Illinois farmer, 
wiping his eyes. “ The grasshoppers cum, the hired 
man broke his leg, wife died, the barn burned, and I’ve 
rid for three days and can’t find a woman who wants 
to marry! ” 
A Baptist church in Newark, N. J., is called the 
“ Aquarium.” The pastor is H. C. (sea) Fish, D. D. 
A man, who was taking the registry of births in a 
neighboring city, went to the house of a somewhat 
coarse, hard man, and not finding any one at home, 
asked a young lady, who was just coining out of a 
neighboring house, if there had heen any births in 
that house the past year? “No,” she replied imme¬ 
diately; “but the 
man who lives 
there ought to he 
horn again.” 
A little hoy in 
Springfield, 111., 
after his custom¬ 
ary evening pray¬ 
er, a night or two 
ago, continued, 
“and bless mam¬ 
ma, and Jerry, 
and Uncle Ben¬ 
ny,” adding, after 
a few moment’s 
pause, the expla¬ 
natory remark, 
“his name is Hop¬ 
kins.” 
A youngster, 
seven years old, 
who happens to 
he one of a dozen 
bright children, 
was saying his 
evening prayer, a 
day or two ago, 
while in a rather 
sleepy condition. 
It is his custom to 
begin with, “ 0 
Lord, bless father 
and mother,” and 
On this occasion 
‘Never mind, darling,’ said the mother—‘never mind, 
brother Will has only ripped off their heads; I can 
easily mend and make them just as pretty as they j 
were before.’ ‘Yes, mamma,’ sobbed the little one; 
‘hut you can’t mend their feelings.’ And just here is 
the trouble; a child’s feelings, wounded by injustice, 
are difficult to mend. I once saw an elegant woman 
draw herself up proudly, on hearing the name of a 
gentleman who had asked to he presented to her: 
‘Excuse me,’ she said, ignoring the proffered hand; 
‘when I was a very little child, I received at your 
hands the one injury which I have never forgiven. 
You may have forgotten the jest of coiling a dead 
snake about a little girl’s arm, hut the little girl has 
not forgotten it, and never will.’ It would he well to 
remember that no impressions are so enduring, as 
those made upon the mind of a child.” 
and his mother. When she had finished her story, 
she said: 
“Now, Tommy, if pa were to die, would not you 
work to help mamma?” . 
“Why, ma,” said the little fellow, not relishing the 
idea of work, “what for? Ain’t we got a good house 
to live in, and everything so nice?” 
“Oh, yes, my child,” said the mother; “hut we 
can’t eat the house, you know! ” 
“ Well, ain’t we got plenty of things in the pantry?” 
said the young hopeful. 
“Certainly, my dear,” replied the mother; “hut 
they will not last long—and what then ?” 
“Well, ma,” said the little incorrigible, “ain’t there 
enough to last till you can get another husband;’ 
Ma gave it up. 
Long ago, during the Millerite fever, when ascen- 
then go through the rest by name, 
he got as far as father and mother, when his sleepiness 
overcame him, and he finished up as follows, “And 
I’m in a hurry, bless the whole crowd;” and, iu the 
twinkling of an eye, was between the sheets. 
i 
A schoolboy spelled “sob,” and when asked to de¬ 
fine it, blundered out: “It means when a feller don’t 
want to cry, and it hursts out itself. ” Another de¬ 
fined a comma as “a period with a tail.” 
“How much is your stick candy?” inquired a hoy of 
a candy dealer on Tuesday. 
“ Six sticks for five cents.’” 
“Six sticks for five cents, eh? Now, lem’me see. 
Six sticks fer five cents, five fer four cents, four fer 
three cents, three fer two cents, two fer one cent, one 
fer nothin’. I’ll take one.” And he walked out, leav¬ 
ing the candy man in a state of bewilderment. 
