donkey, so Miss Clare remodeled some of the old ones, substituting "donkey" for "horse," and proceeded in the same manner at game time.

They enjoyed dramatizing some of Æsop's Fables, which contained few characters, such as, "The Ass and the Grasshoppers," "Ass in the Lion's Skin," "Ass and the Wolf," "Ass and Frogs," etc.

They reviewed the Christmas story of the journey to Bethlehem, when Mary's beast was a donkey, and the children brought several little anecdotes from home.

They made mountains in the sand table before school, and sent long trains of paper donkeys (which they had cut, mounted, and colored) over the narrow passes into the valleys below. They made donkey carts, also, and filled them with loads of gay paper boys and girls, gorgeous vegetables, or shining brass milk cans.

There were shoes to be cut and sewed and modeled in clay, and the little beast himself, with quite marvelous results; and when the month closed they agreed with Miss Clare in thinking that the donkey is one of the most useful of our four-footed friends.

THE PIG

Miss Clare and Michael were holding an animated conversation at the teacher's desk.

"Yes'm, six of them, awful pretty," were the words borne to the listening children, followed by 'bout so long," and Michael was measuring with his hands.

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Miss Clare nodded, smiled, said "Yes, indeed," and added, after a glance at the clock, "a quarter of twelve will be a good time;" then Michael walked to his seat with a proud air, nothing more was said, and the classes were called as usual.

Just before noon, however, the teacher said, "Get your hats, very quietly, for we are going a little earlier than usual. Michael has invited us to go home with him for a few minutes. He has something to show us that we know you will like to

Michael lived with his grandfather in a little house down the back alley, not far away, and when

the children came in sight there stood the old man by the gate looking down the street.

"Oh, so they came, did they? All the children and the teacher, too? You are very welcome;" and he led them to the back of the house.

Here was a small yard fenced in with rough boards that Grandfather called a sty. The children climbed up, peeped in, and what do you think they saw? A mother and six little white pigs!

I cannot begin to tell you how pretty and cunning they looked, with their pink skin, soft white bristles, and little curly tails. They were running around and giving little shrill squeals and low grunts.

Grandfather climbed into the sty, picked up one of the little animals, and brought it out so that the children could examine it more carefully. As he held it, they looked at its feet and saw that each one was split into two toes, and that each toe had a hoof; they noticed the number and shape of its legs; its ears, eyes, mouth, and teeth; felt of its tail, and its covering of bristles, which was much stiffer than the hair they had seen on any other animal.

"Look at its odd little nose, children," said Miss

Clare. "See how flexible it is! Piggy can turn it any way he likes. The end of it is called the snout.”

Just then the mother pig (Grandfather called her the sow) gave a loud grunt and began to dig a hole in the ground with her snout; all the little pigs ran up and tried to dig, too, with their little noses.

"If you were to dig a hole, you would want a spade or a hoe, would you not, children? Or maybe some dirty boy would use his hands; but not one of you would think of us ng his nose, I am sure," continued the teacher.

"When pigs are wild they do not have their food brought to them, but must find it for themselves. They live largely upon roots, and their sense of smell, which is keen, helps them to choose the kinds that are best to eat, and they dig these up with their snouts. Pigs can dig real deep holes where the ground is not hard and stony and they will sometimes dig from under their sty when the farmer thinks he has them nicely housed."

"Our old pig did that!" exclaimed Michael, "and we had to chase her all round the alley before we got her back."

"Pigs are contrary creatures," explained Grand