I 
THE FIRST SNOWDROP. 
The early spring had come, 
And in its train 
The swelling buds, the babbling brooks, 
The April rain. 
Her thought robed the few flakes 
With life and grace; 
“ Each is a fairy flower,” she said, 
With flushing face. 
The sun shone clear and bright, 
O’er hill and dell; 
The snow had vanished, for it knew 
Its fate too well,— 
The fairy owners came 
One midnight hour, 
And with their magic wands, each flake 
Turned to a flower. 
Save a few flakes alone • 
In sheltered nook, 
Where on their fragile forms, with ease, 
A child might look. 
Plucked by a mother's hand, 
Showered with tears, 
These Snowdrops, new to earth, soon felt 
Her hopes and fears. 
An only child, and loved; 
But day by day, 
In spite of tender care, she seemed 
Passing away. 
Oh, Snowdrops, fresh and pure 
As morning’s breath, 
You came on earth to greet the sad. 
In house of death. 
The childish voice was hushed; 
Closed the bright eyes; 
They saw not your fair flowers, but those 
Of Paradise. 
Mrs. E. C. W. 
New Ipswich, N. H. 
A “CORNER” IN OLD WASH-STANDS. 
Mary camo in to lunch, looking unusually bright. 
“ Did you have a pleasant call from Miss Marks?” 
“ Charming ! Do you happen to have an old wash- 
stand?” was the answer. 
I think it is Howells who says that only a man is 
ever astonished at the apparent utter irrelevancy of a 
woman’s reply. So Mrs. Hardy placidly helped Mary to 
the strawberries before she answered : 
“Yes, two in the attic, if you mean the kind for 
servants’ rooms, with a hole for the wash-bowl in the 
top, a round for towels on each side, and a shelf with a 
drawer below. They cost a dollar and fifty cents origi¬ 
nally. Why?” 
“ It is vulgar to’ be curious, Mrs. Hardy. Of course 
you are willing I should have them ? ” 
“It is disreputable to beg. However, as one has a 
piece broken off the top, and the other is dreadfully de¬ 
faced, you may have them both.” 
“Thank you. 1 have always said that you were 
generous,” returned Mary, laughing. “They are ex¬ 
actly what I want.” 
Soon aftor breakfast next morning, arrayed in an old 
wrapper, she popped hor head into her sister’s door. 
“ If anybody calls to-day, tell Nora I’m engaged.” 
“For mercy’s sake, what is going on?” exclaimed 
Mrs. Hardy. 
Mary laughed, shook her head mysteriously, and 
vanished upstairs into the attic. Such a sawing and 
hammering as proceeded from that room for two days! 
The household curiosity was on tiptoe. On the third 
day Mrs. Hardy was called down to the music-room. 
Mary pointed in triumph to a pretty ebonized music- 
stand—something she had long been wishing for. It 
was covered with a rich, dark-blue velvetsen, and had 
a fringe of bright Persian colors, in which the “old 
blue ” o'f the velveteen predominated, around the top 
and the shelf below. 
“Perhaps,” cried Mary, laughing, as her sister stood 
admiring, yet with a puzzled air, “ you don’t recognize 
your old pine wash-stand, dear—quite transformed, 
like Cinderella at the ball. I got the idea from Miss 
Marks the morning she called. She says there’s hardly 
one of these wash-stands to be begged or bought now in 
B-, there is such a rage for these Queen Anne tables. 
Every time you look out of the window you find an ex¬ 
press wagon going by with an old wash-stand.” 
“I don’t wonder!” exclaimed Mrs. Hardy, enthusi¬ 
astically. “ Now tell me how you made it.” 
“Inthe first place I took off the back piece from the 
top, and the towel rounds. Then I nailed on a board 
about twenty inches by seventeen to cover the hole and 
make a table of it. I sawed an inch or so off the legs, 
as it was too high. I ebonized it by dissolving an ounce 
of shellac in a pint of alcohol, and when this was 
thoroughly dissolved, adding lamp-black till it was of 
the desired blackness. After I had painted the legs, I 
tacked the velveteen over both shelves, and put this 
straight valance round three sides of the lower shelf. I 
didn’t want the valance to cover the drawer, so I had 
the drawer at the back of my table, and sliall keep my 
manuscript music in it. As the table stands against the 
wall, the drawer will not show. I bought the best 
