ALL AMONG THE HAY.
ALL among the buttercups,
All among the hay!
Oh that spring would come again,
With its merry May!
Hasten summer’s pleasant days,
Summer’s pleasant hours;
Send us back the butterflies
And the pretty flowers.
Yes, bright days will come again,
Winter soon will go,
And the smiling sun shall melt
All this dreary snow.
Then beside the flowing stream
Merrily we’ll play,
All among the buttercups,
All among the hay.
THE MOUSE AND CANARY.
A LADY, having gone rather early into an apartment in which she had a fine canary, whose cage hung on the knob of the window-shutter, was much surprised to find the bird sitting asleep in the bottom of the cage, side by side with a live mouse, also asleep. On raising the window-blind, the mouse squeezed itself through between the wires of the cage and fled. The box of seeds, crumbs, etc., intended for the canary was found to be cleaned out, doubtless devoured by the strange companion. On the following evening, while the lady and her husband were sitting quietly by the fireside, they were still further astonished at seeing a mouse (no doubt the same one) climbing nimbly up the shutter and entering the cage between the wires. Thinking it might do harm to the bird, they tried to catch the mouse, but it made its escape as before. The cage was then suspended from a nail, so that the mouse could not gain access. Strange to say, however, on the following morning the canary was found asleep on the floor of the room (the cage door having been left open), and a piece of potato beside him. Most likely the mouse had spent the whole of the night there.
