Though much alarmed, they did not run,

But walk'd up to the spot; And offer'd for the damage done What money they had got.

When accidents like this arise,
Dear children! this rely on,

All honest, honourable boys

Will act like Dick and Bryan.

Elizabeth Turner.

LOOKING FORWARD

The Lamplighter

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;

It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by; For every night at tea time and before you take your seat, With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be ;

But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do, O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!
Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Pedlar's Caravan

I

WISH I lived in a caravan,

With a horse to drive, like a pedlar-man ! Where he comes from nobody knows,

Or where he goes to, but on he goes!

His caravan has windows two,

And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through ; He has a wife, with a baby brown,

And they go riding from town to town.

Chairs to mend, and delf to sell!

He clashes the basins like a bell;
Tea-trays, baskets ranged in order,

Plates with the alphabet round the border !

The roads are brown, and the sea is green,
But his house is just like a bathing-machine;
The world is round, and he can ride,
Rumble and splash, to the other side!

With the pedlar-man I should like to roam,
And write a book when I came home;
All the people would read my book,
Just like the Travels of Captain Cook !

W. B. Rands.

A Shooting Song

To shoot, to shoot, would be my delight,

To shoot the cats that howl in the night;

To shoot the lion, the wolf, the bear,
To shoot the mad dogs out in the square.

I learnt to shoot with a pop-gun good,
Made out of a branch of elder wood;
It was round, and long, full half a yard,
The plug was strong, the pellets were hard.