THE CHILDREN'S PARTY.
Will you come to our party to-day, Carrie Wynn?
The party is all ready now to begin;
And you shall be mother, and pour out the tea,
Because you're the oldest and best of the three.
My white cups and saucers that came Christmas Day
Are all set out nicely on Hatty's gilt tray;
Real milk in the cream-jug, and real sugar too;
But only play-tea—we pretend that it's true.
We've got a whole orange, and three macaroons,
And some blue-mange—we'll eat it with Hatty's new spoons;
And we've carried our table out under the trees:
So come, Carrie Wynn, to our party, do, please!
Hatty'll sit at one end, and the other you'll take;
And I'll cut the orange, and she'll help the cake:
You'll see something funny—the reason, don't ask it—
When we've eaten the cake, we can eat up the basket!
We invited the dolls; but they both have the mumps;
And yesterday mine got two terrible bumps:
So we left them in bed; and I do not much care,
For dolls never will sit up straight on a chair.
Then, nicest of all, when our party is done,
We'll wash up the dishes; and won't that be fun!
Then scrub sticky fingers and sugary thumbs;
And the sparrows and robins may clear up the crumbs.
Elizabeth Sill.
DANDY THE BEAR.
We have a dancing bear in our village. His name is Dandy. He belongs to Mr. Werner, a German, who leads him about the streets, and makes a show of him. We children all give Dandy some of our spare cents when we see him; for a bear has to be fed like you and me.