dancing all the time, and whisking Susie about the room in such a lively way, that the child has to laugh in spite of herself. Susie soon gets in great glee, and always wants to have another dance.
"What!" says Ann. "Haven't you had dancing enough? Well, then, how would you like a fancy dance? Mind your steps now. Do as you see me do. Keep time with the music.
"Up and down, fast and slow,
Hop and skip, and away we go;
Round and round, and jump Jim Crow:
Oh, won't we dance the polka!"
So the little girl is danced about until she has to stop to take breath; and by that time she is so full of fun, that there is no room for a frown on her pretty face.
JANE OLIVER.
FIVE LITTLE SPARROWS.
Five little sparrows sitting in a row
Under a bench, in the darkness and the snow,
Homeless and cold in the lonesome city square:
What are the little birdies doing there?
Huddled up close in a wretched little heap,
Uttering only a soft and plaintive "cheep,"
Crowding together to keep each other warm,—
Poor little birdies hiding from the storm!
Up in the tree-boughs, high above their heads,
Are their pretty houses with straw and feather-beds:
Why do the birdies leave their shelter warm
To cuddle on a snow-bank, and shiver in the storm?
But, in the morning when the sun came out,
Then we could see how the trouble came about:
Several saucy squirrels, the very day before,
Had moved into their houses, and turned them out of door!