A CHERRY-TREE LESSON.
BY S. S. CONANT.
A naughty little city boy was taken to a farm,
To spend the summer holidays, away from heat and harm;
Where he could roll upon the grass, or chase the little chicks,
Or tease the piggies in the pen by poking them with sticks.
To pull the peacock's feathers out to him was lots of fun;
The geese stretched out their necks and hissed, and made him turn and run;
He didn't dare to plague the dog, for fear that he would bite;
But he was in all sorts of scrapes from morning until night.
One day he climbed a cherry-tree that in the garden grew,
Because it was the very thing he'd been told not to do;
The cherries they were red and ripe, and tasted very sweet—
That naughty boy he swallowed them as fast as he could eat.
But when he'd eaten all he could, and scrambled down again,
He sat upon the ground, and soon began to scream with pain;
And when at last the doctor came he very grimly said,
"Give him a dose of castor-oil, and put him right to bed."
"It isn't nice," said his mamma, "to lie in bed all day;
I hope 'twill be a lesson, Tom, and teach you to obey."
Tom promised solemnly no more that cherry-tree to climb;
And his mamma was very sure he meant it—at the time.
A CHEAP CANOE.
So many lads have written to Our Post-office Box asking for advice and information as to how to build a cheap canoe, that Messrs. Harper & Brothers have just reprinted in a circular the article on this subject which appeared in Harper's Young People April 27, 1880. Messrs. Harper & Brothers will mail the circular and working plans to any address on receipt of a three-cent postage stamp.