II. Ah! she is our only darling, All her little ways are witty; And when she sings her little ditty, Not another in the city III. You don't think so-never saw her;Wish you could See her with her playthings clattering, Love her just as well as I do, IV. Every grandma's only darling, I suppose, Is as sweet and bright a blossom, Heavenly Father, spare them to us, 14 LXXIX.-PRESENCE OF MIND. A LITTLE presence of mind in times of dan ger is often worth more than any amount of strength. 2. Two young artists, whom we shall call Fritz and Carl, were once decorating the inner walls of a lofty church in Germany. A staging of boards had been slung up for them to stand upon, about forty feet from the ground. 3. Carl was painting a beautiful picture of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses in the bulrushes. 4. "Ah, Fritz!" he cried, "I never painted such a face before. It is lovely. It will make me famous. One more touch-a little shading there in the dimple by the mouth." 5. The touch was given, and Carl, absorbed and enraptured by his own painting, quite forgot for a moment where he was. He stepped backward in order to take a view of it from a little distance. 6. Fritz noticed the movement, and saw with horror that, by taking one step more, his friend would walk off the staging and be dashed upon the pavement below. To speak would only increase the danger. What was to be done? 7. "Marvelous! superb!" Carl was saying, as he gazed intently upon the creation of his hands and raised his foot to take the fatal step. 8. "That for your pic. ture!" cried Fritz, flinging his brush at the face of Pharaoh's daughter. 9. "Madman!" shrieked Carl, springing forward too late to save his precious work. "Oh, Fritz!" 10. "It is you who are the madman," replied Fritz, calmly. "Don't you see? if I had not attacked your picture, in another instant you would have been lying dead upon the stones down yonder. Your Pharaoh's daughter was indeed superb; but better that the face should be spoiled than that my friend's body should be dashed to pieces.' 11. “Ah, Fritz, you have saved me!" said Carl, bursting into tears as he clasped the hand of his friend. "I thought how delighted my mother would be at the fame I should win. But how little could my fame have consoled her if I had lost my life, as I certainly should have done, but for your presence of mind!" 12. The lovely face in the painting was indeed spoiled, but Carl lived to paint still better and nobler pictures, and to delight his mother and his friend Fritz by the fame and fortune which they brought him. LXXX.-BEAST AND MAN ARE BROTHERS. L I. ITTLE one, come to my knee! Hark! how the rain is pouring Over the roof in the pitch-black night, Then pay for the story with kisses, II. High up on the lonely mountains, Where the wild men watched and waited, Wolves in the forest and bears in the bush, And I on my path belated, The rain and the night together Came down, and the wind came after, Bending the props of the pine-tree roof, And snapping many a rafter. III. I crept along in the darkness, IV. Little one, be not frightened! I and the wolf together, Side by side, through the long, long night, Hid from the awful weather. His wet fur pressed against me; Each of us warmed the other; Each of us felt, in the stormy night, That beast to man is brother. V. And when the falling forest No longer crashed in warning, |