written upon it has long been forgotten, and yet it gives itself airs. I sit quietly and patiently here. I know who I am, and I shall remain what I am.'

One day something lay close beside her that glittered splendidly; then the Darning-Needle believed that it was a diamond; but it was a Bit of broken Bottle; and because it shone, the DarningNeedle spoke to it, introducing herself as a breastpin.

"I suppose you are a diamond?" she observed. "Why, yes, something of that kind.”

And then each believed the other to be a very valuable thing; and they began speaking about the world, and how very conceited it was.

"I have been in a lady's box," said the DarningNeedle, "and this lady was a cook. She had five fingers on each hand, and I never saw anything so conceited as those five fingers. And yet they were only there that they might take me out of the box, and put me back into it."

"Were they of good birth?" asked the Bit of Bottle.

"No, indeed," replied the Darning-Needle, "but very haughty. There were five brothers, all of the Finger family. They kept very proudly together, though they were of different lengths. The outermost, the Thumbling, was short and fat; he walked out in front of the ranks, and had only one joint in his back, and could only make a single bow; but he said if he were hacked off from a man, that man was useless for service in war. Dainty-Mouth, the second finger, thrust himself into sweet and sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and gave the impression when they wrote. Longman, the third, looked

at all the others over his shoulder.

Goldborder,

the fourth, went about with a golden belt round his

waist; and little

was proud of it.

Playman did nothing at all, and
There was nothing but bragging

among them, and therefore I went away."

"And now we sit here and glitter!" said the Bit of Bottle.

At that moment more water came into the gutter, so that it overflowed, and the Bit of Bottle was carried away.

But And

"So, he is disposed of," observed the DarningNeedle. "I remain here; I am too fine. that's my pride, and my pride is honorable." proudly she sat there, and had many great thoughts. "I could almost believe I had been born of a sunbeam, I'm so fine. It really appears to me as if the sunbeams were always seeking for me under the water. Ah! I'm so fine that my mother cannot find me. If I had my old eye, which broke off, I think I should cry; but no, I should not do that; it's not genteel to cry."

One day a couple of street boys lay grubbing in the gutter, where they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and similar treasures. It was dirty work, but they took great delight in it.

"Oh!" cried one, who had pricked himself with the Darning-Needle. "There's a fellow for you." "I'm not a fellow, I'm a young lady," said the Darning-Needle.

But nobody listened to her. The sealing wax had come off, and she had turned black; but black makes one look slender, and she thought herself finer even than before.

"Here comes an eggshell sailing along," said the

boys; and they stuck the Darning-Needle fast into the eggshell.

"White walls, and black myself! that looks well," remarked the Darning-Needle. "Now one can see me. I only hope I shall not be seasick!" But she was not seasick at all. "One is proof against seasickness if one has a steel stomach and does not forget that one is a little more than an ordinary person! The finer one is, the more one can bear." "Crack!" went the eggshell, for a hand-barrow went over her.

"How it crushes one!" said the Darning-Needle. "I'm getting seasick now-I'm quite sick."

But she was not really sick, though the handbarrow had run over her; she lay there at full length, and there she may lie.

THE POTATO

By THOMAS MOORE

'M a careless potato, and care not a pin
How into existence I came;

I'

If they planted me drill-wise, or dibbled me in,
To me 'tis exactly the same.

The bean and the pea may more loftily tower,
But I care not a button for them;

Defiance I nod with my beautiful flower
When the earth is hoed up to my stem.

THE QUEEN OF THE UNDER

WORLD

ERES, goddess of agriculture, had one daughter, named Proserpina, whom she loved more than anything else in earth or sky. Sometimes Proserpina accompanied her mother as she journeyed over the earth in her dragon-car, making the corn grow; sometimes she traveled about the earth by herself, tending the flowers, which were her special care; but what she liked best was to stray with her companions, the nymphs, on the slopes of Mount Etna. "I, a maiden, dwelt

With loved Demeter1 on the sunny plains
Of our own Sicily. There, day by day,
I sported with my playmate goddesses
In virgin freedom. Budding age made gay
Our lightsome feet, and on the flowery slopes
We wandered daily, gathering flowers to weave
In careless garlands for our locks, and passed
The days in innocent gladness."

All the year round the maidens enjoyed these pleasures, for never yet had the change of seasons

1. The Greeks and Romans, while they believed in many of the same gods, had different names for them. The Latin names are the ones most commonly used. Thus the goddess whom the Romans called Ceres, the Greeks knew as Demeter, while her daughter, Proserpina, was by the Greeks called Persephone. The poetic quotations used in this story are from the Epic of Hades, by Lewis Morris.

appeared upon the earth; never had the cold, sunless days come to make the earth barren.

"There was then

Summer nor winter, springtide nor the time
Of harvest, but the soft unfailing sun

Shone always, and the sowing time was one
With reaping; fruit and flower together sprung
Upon the trees; and the blade and ripened ear
Together clothed the plains."

One day while they played and laughed and sang, vying with each other as to which could make the most beautiful garlands, they were startled by a strange rumbling sound. Nearer it came, louder it grew; and suddenly to the frightened eyes of the maidens there appeared a great chariot, drawn by four wild-looking, foam-flecked black steeds. Not long did the girls gaze at the horses or the chariotall eyes were drawn in fascination to the driver of the car. He was handsome as only a god could be, and yet so gloomy that all knew instantly he could be none other than Pluto, king of the underworld.

Suddenly, while his horses were almost at full speed, he jerked them to a standstill. Then he sprang to the ground, seized Proserpina in his arms, mounted his chariot, and was off before the frightened nymphs could catch their breath to cry out. Poor Proserpina screamed and wept, but no one was near to help her or even to hear her. On they flew, Pluto doing his best to console the weeping girl, but refusing, with a stern shake of the head and a black frown, her plea that she might be allowed to return to her own home, or at least to bid farewell to her mother.