Only a boy with his fearful tread,
Who cannot be driven, must be led!
Who troubles the neighbors’ dogs and cats,
And tears more clothes and spoils more hats,
Loses more kites and tops and bats
Than would stock a store
For a week or more.
Only a boy with his wild, strange ways,
With his idle hours or his busy days,
With his queer remarks and his odd replies,
Sometimes foolish and sometimes wise,
Often brilliant for one of his size,
As a meteor hurled
From the planet world.
Only a boy, who may be a man
If nature goes on with her first great plan—
If intemperance or some fatal snare,
Conspires not to rob us of this our heir,
Our blessing, our trouble, our rest, our care,
Our torment, our joy!
“Only a boy!”
BIRD NEEDLEWORK.
MAY R. BALDWIN.
There is a class of workers in India who have always held to needlework, useful and ornamental, through the changes of the long years, and have never had the help of machines.
These workers are “Tailor Birds.” Specimens of their handiwork have excited the admiration of many travelers in the country where they are found.
Their needlework is seen in the construction of their nests, which vary in size and appearance.
The beak of the bird answers for a needle; and for thread—and this is the wonderful thing about sewing—they use the silken spiders’ webs. These threads are made secure by fastening them with silken buttons, made by twisting the ends. Think of that! spiders’ webs for thread! How marvelous would the work of the fair ladies all over the land seem, if the door screens and the window hangings and the dresses and the laces were decorated with designs worked with spider’s web thread!