"We're obliged to do this in midsummer," remarked the keeper, alluding to the clearing-out process, "to give the largest numbers a chance; we must git through with the boys, for after six the men'll be comin' along, tired and dusty, from their work."
"What do you think of the free baths, boys?" asked Uncle Fritz, as they crossed the Battery.
"I'm mighty glad that poor boys have as good a chance as we rich fellows," replied Dick, clinking some silver in his pocket, with the air of a banker.
"Then it keeps them from the sharks," remarked Poddie, thoughtfully.
"And makes them clean and healthy, besides giving them any amount of innocent pleasure," added their uncle.
ROSE AND CATERPILLAR.
"Oh, caterpillar," said a rose
One lovely summer day,
"Your constant eating drives me wild;
I wish you'd go away.
I really can not see what use
You and your kind can be;
You naught but mischief do, and are
Unpleasant things to see."
A moment after that same rose
Smiled on a butterfly
That stopped to show his rainbowed wings
As he was passing by.
Oh, if she only could have known—
The pretty, dainty rose—
He was a caterpillar too,
Arrayed in splendid clothes!