OLD EASTER-EGG NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
Sometimes the surface of the egg is divided into spaces, to be filled up according to the taste and skill of the designer. One may contain the name and age, another a landscape, the third a good wish, the fourth, if you have so divided it, a likeness or flower. In some parts of England eggs simply dyed and dotted with tallow are presented to the Junior Class at college, and in Germany they have a way of adorning eggs with foliage, all in transparent work, which is cut out with aqua fortis. In Rome, the Easter-eggs are carried to the parish priest, who blesses them, and sprinkles them with holy water, and on Easter-day at dinner the cloth is adorned with sweet herbs and flowers, and the first thing eaten are the blessed eggs; they are painted by the nuns, and sold in the streets.
In New York, fancy candy eggs are to be had in the confectioners'; but those we make ourselves are worth twice as much, even if we are not artists enough to decorate them alone, but are forced to use decalcomanie, chintz, or onions.
There are some Easter-eggs that have come down to us in history; and who can be sure that the ones you are making this year may not lead to great things. So, children, be careful that if you give an Easter-egg, it bears no sorrowful or unhappy memory, and that in after-years you will not be ashamed to own it as yours.
Not many of you can give a silver one, as Charles the Second did to one of his favorites, nor will there be many who can make them as beautiful as that shown in the engraving, which is copied from one in the British Museum, that was presented to a lady of high rank nearly two hundred years ago. It was sawed open, the inside of the shell being cleaned and dried, and then lined with gold paper, and decorated with the figures of saints done in silk. It opens and shuts, and is tied together with green ribbons. But if this is beyond your power or skill, you can at least make an Easter offering of your own design that will be much more acceptable to your friends.
[A PASSING CLOUD.]
BY M. J.
A little cloud went slowly sailing
Across the sunny sky;
A woful little-wind went wailing
Through the tree-tops high:
A sudden sunbeam danced across the shadows,
And so the shower went by.
A little frown came stealing after
A gusty little sigh;
A pearly tear-drop drowned the laughter
Of a merry eye:
A sudden smile danced in the baby dimples,
And so the shower went by.