“ CARROTS.”

may, alas! be twisted and stunted and starved

out of all likeness to the “image” in which it
was created.

Do you understand a little why it seems
sometimes such a very, very solemn thing to.
have the charge of children? When one
thinks what they should be, and again when
one thinks what they may be, is it not a
. Solemn, almost too solemn a thought? Only
we who feel this so deeply, take heart when
we remember that the Great Gardener, who
never makes mistakes, has promised to help.
us, even out of owr mistakes to bring good.

As I have said, the affair of the lost half-
sovereign did not leave any lastingly painful
impression on Carrots; but for some days he
seemed unusually quiet and pale and a little
sad. He had caught cold, too, with falling
asleep on the dressing-room floor, nurse said,.
for the weather was still exceedingly chilly,.
though the spring was coming on; s0, alto-
gether, he was rather a miserable-looking little.
Carrots.