arms around Rover's shaggy neck and kissed his head.

31. Then the Cruel Giant got them into their carriage, Rover and all, and took them home.

SNOWDROPS

LAURENCE ALMA-TADEMA

1. Little ladies, white and green,
With your spears about you,
Will you tell us where you've been
Since we lived without you?

2. You are sweet, and fresh, and clean,
With your pearly faces;

In the dark earth where you've been,
There are wondrous places:

3. Little ladies, white and green,
Are you glad to cheer us?
Hunger not for where you've been,
Stay till Spring be near us!

1. Once upon a time there was a poor widow who had a son named Jack. Mother and son lived together in a small red cottage just off the big road. All they had in the world was a small garden and an old, red cow.

2. One day the widow found she had no flour for bread and no money to buy it. She did not know what to do. Her health was so poor she could not work and earn money. Jack was always ready for strange pranks but did not like hard work. The only thing they could sell was the old cow.

3. So the widow told Jack to drive the cow to the butcher and sell her. Jack started up the road, driving the cow before him.

4. Very soon he met a man on horseback with some bags on the saddle before him. "Where are you going with your cow?" he asked Jack.

5. "I am going to sell her to the butcher," said Jack.

6. "She is old and poor," said the man on horseback, "and you will not get much for her. Now I have a bag of the finest beans in the world on my saddle and I will trade you some of them for your cow."

7. At first Jack would not think of trading; but the more they talked of it the more he wanted some of those beans. After a time the man turned his horse and rode on after the cow and Jack ran home with his hat full of beans.

8. His mother did not know what had She went to the. door to meet him. When she heard that he had sold the cow for a hatful of beans she was very angry.

brought him back so soon.

9. She gave Jack a sound box on the ear.

She seized the hatful of beans and dashed them out of the window. She sank into a chair, threw her apron over her head and cried for a long time. As there was nothing in the house to eat, mother and son went to bed without any supper.

PART TWO

10. The next morning, when Jack awoke, it was almost dark in his room. Before this a great flood of sunshine came into his room every morning as the sun came up. Now only narrow shafts of light could find their way through something that darkened his window.

11. He sprang out of bed and dressed quickly. He ran to his window and looked out. The beans thrown into the garden had taken root and had grown up by the side of his window!

12. Jack leaned out as far as he could and looked up and down the stalks. They ran way up so high that he could not see the

tops. They were grown together in such a way that they made a ladder leading up to the sky.

13. Without a moment's pause, Jack stepped out upon the beanstalks. the beanstalks. He climbed upward and upward till he grew very grew very tired. He rested for a time and then again climbed upward and upward.

14. After many long hours he came to the top. A level country lay around him. But it was quite bare. bare. Not a tree nor a plant

nor a bird nor a beast could be seen.

15. Jack sat down upon a rock and rested a while. Then he started up the road that ran away in the distance. Hour after hour he trudged along. Near night he came in sight of a great castle.

16. A woman stood at the castle gate. Jack told the woman he was very hungry and would be glad to have something to eat.

17. "Here you are more likely to be eaten than to get something to eat," said the woman. "My husband is a great giant who