THE PAIRIES OF - TO-DAY.

HE first fairy was looking out of her mother’s window

when she spied a pale-faced lady, alone, at a window

opposite. She kissed her hand; the lady smiled, but wiped
her eyes. Somebody said that lady had lost her children.

“Mamma,” said the first fairy, ‘you say my bright eyes
find lost things! May I help that lady find her children ?”

“You may, dear Sunbeam !”

And when Sunbeam shone into the quiet room across the
street, the lady grasped the little hand, which led her down
the street, around a corner into a dark alley.

“There are so many children here,” she said, “if your
lost babies are not among them, you can help yourself !”

The sunbeam and the lady’s gold lighted up the alley,
and a Day Nursery grew out of the first fairy’s heart.

The second fairy was dancing among the flowers when
she saw an old man going by ; all bent with troubles. The
fairy filled his hands with flowers. Looking down upon her
smiling face, he breathed the sweetness of her lilies and
roses, until “e smzled/ Only a fairy could make old Mr.
Moneybags smile.

The third fairy saw little Sammy Bowlegs hobbling upon
his ankles, before his mother’s door.

“What makes him walk so queerly?” the fairy asked.

Mrs. Bowlegs (so the street-boys called her) answered
from the door:

‘“T wash all day, honey ; and Sammy takes care of him-

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