go reglar and don’t miss they get big pay for learning to be goed. But
when I ama little bigger I am going to do as pa does and stay at home Sun-
days, and smoke and read the papers and have some of ma’s big dinners.
Ma gets awfully tired too all. the time, and would like to have a little rest.
But then ma is a woman, and pa says it is her duty to betired. Iam glad I

ain’t a woman.

Benneyfit 6. There is a great many more benneyfits to Sunday-sckools

but I don’t know any more.

WG

i

Ghe @ootblack’s @hristmas.

’'M rich! I’ve got a dollar all my own
To spend for Crismus—b’en a-save-
in’ some
Since Fourth July, a little at a time
Doin’ odd jobs, an’ swearin’ off on gum.
An’ now what shall I spend it fer? My stars!
The show-cases is full an’ heapin’ up
With presents fer to give the folks you like;
There’s Mamie now—she'd like a chiny cup.
I know she would—poor'little sickly thing!
She cried one day because she had to drink
Out o’ that mug that’s cracked like anything!
‘Yes, I'll buy that for her. Now le’mme
think—
That’s twenty cents, an’ I'll have eighty left,
An’ Billy’s crazy for a top to spin,
I'll get him one—that’s ten cents more—now
what,
I wonder, shall I buy for Jim?
I guess he’d like a jack-knife best of all—
I'll get one, an’ a good mouth organ too—
(Jim—he’s my pard—he’s got a crippled
foot,
An’ a drunken dad that beats him black an’
blue).

 
 

 

Now I’ve got forty left, and mother wants—

I know she does—a thimble—her’n is old

An full o’ holes, and bent all out o’ shape—

I wish I could get one of solid gold/

That wouldn’t be half good enough for her.

Not if twas edged with diamonds all around,

Best mother ever lived—-I tell you what

The’ ain’t many kids so lucky’s me, I’m
bound!

Now, I’ve got twenty left—Ill buy some
gum

An’ candy ’n popcorn an’ some apples too,

An’ I'll be Santa Claus, an’ have some fun

A fillin’ stockin’s Crismus eve—tell you

Th’ ain’t no picnic in this livin’ world

That’s half so jolly as the one there’ll be

When all the kids come shiverin’ round the
stove

On Crismus mornin’, when they come to see

Them stuffed-out stockin’s hangin’ on the
wall,

Oh, Zow Tl holler “Merry Crismus” then!

How s'prised they'll be! Yes, Merry Crismus
all!

—By HARRIET FRANCENE CROCKER.