Part 19 (1/2)

”Yes,” said Death; and the little Nightingale bought the Eed for a song, and this ti Then she sang one , so sweet and so sad that it arden in the churchyard, where he always liked best to be And he rose froh the

When Death was gone, the Ehtingale, you have saved ain Stay withto ale, ”I sing best when I aht when you are quite alone, I will co to you, and tell you everything that goes on in your kingdoht to be helped, and where the wicked people are who ought to be punished Only, dear Emperor, be sure that you never let anybody know that you have a little bird who tells you everything”

After the little Nightingale had floay, the E that he dressed hiold sceptre in his hand And when the courtiers came in to see if he were dead, there stood the Emperor with his sword in one hand and his sceptre in the other, and said, ”Good-!”

MARGERY'S GARDEN[1]

[1] I have always been inclined to avoid, inchildren, the ”how to make” and ”how to do” kind of story; it is too likely to trespass on the ground belonging by right to its more artistic and less intentional kinsfolk Nevertheless, there is a legitimate place for the instruction-story Within its own limits, and especially in a school use, it has a real purpose to serve, and a real desire to enuine taste for such morsels of practical infor and too solid And to the teacher of the first grades, from whom so much is demanded in the way of practical instruction, I know that these stories are a boon

They must be chosen with care, and used with discretion, but they need never be ignored

I venture to give some little stories of this type, which I hope may be of use in the schools where country life and country work is an unknown experience to the children

There was once a little girl naery, who had always lived in the city The flat where herapartreat deal from the s, except clothes-lines on other people's roofs Margery did not know much about trees and flowers, but she loved theo with her mother and father to the park and look at the lovely flower-beds They seeery was alishi+ng she could see theery was nine, her father's work changed so that he could move into the country, and he took a little house a short distance outside the tohere his new position was Margery was delighted And the very first thing she said, when her father told her about it, was, ”Oh, ery's ery's father said he expected to live on their vegetables all the rest of his life! So it was soon agreed that the garden should be the first thing attended to

Behind the little house were apple trees, a plum tree, and two or three pear trees; then caate leading into the pasture It was in the grassy land that the garden was to be A big piece was to be used for corn and peas and beans, and a little piece at the end was to be saved for Margery

”What shall we have in it?” asked hereyes,--”blue, and white, and yellow, and pink,--every kind of flower!”

”Surely, flowers,” said her arden in the arden?” Margery asked

”It is a garden where you have all the things that ery was fond of salads; ”you have lettuce, and endive, and romaine, and parsley, and radishes, and cucu onions”

”Oh! how good it sounds!” said Margery ”I vote for the salad garden”

That very evening, Margery's father took pencil and paper, and drew out a plan for her garden; first, they talked it all over, then he drehat they decided on; it looked like the diagrae

”The outside strip is for flowers,” said Margery's father, ”and the next marks mean a footpath, all the way round the beds; that is so you can get at the flowers to weed and to pick; there is a wider path through the etables”

”Papa, it is glorious!” said Margery

Papa laughed ”I hope you will still think it glorious when the weeding time comes,” he said, ”for you know, you and arden, while I take care of the big one”

”I wouldn't NOT take care of it for anything!” said Margery ”I want to feel that it is my very own”

Her father kissed her, and said it was certainly her ”very own”

Two evenings after that, when Margery was called in from her first ramble in a ”really, truly pasture,” she found the express for you, Margery,” said hernice was happening

It was a box, quite a big box, with a label on it that said:--