The child jumpt up, and cried, "Oh, I can see it too; how pretty it is!"

Well," continued the Bramble, "on that little beach there are hundreds of pebbles, of âll shāpes and sizes; there they lie summer and winter, all the year round, and there I suppose they lay years before I was born."

"How tiresome it must be!" said the little gîrl; and again shē jumpt up from the grass.

"Now do sit down," said the Bramble, and she pull'd her by the pinafōre-" Perhaps you think so, for you don't seem to like sitting still; but I think they have variety enough (pr. enuf) in the weather and the seasons.-the blue sky in summer with the clouds as white as my blossoms floating over head, and then the rain, making them shine like jewels in the sun. Autumn, perhaps, is a dull tīme, when the fog hangs upon the trees and loosens the red leaves; but when Winter sets in the frost is busy (pr. bizzy), and wherever there is the tiniest blāde of grass or little weed growing he hangs them with crystals of the prettiest forms, and he sings some old tune to the lake at night that hushes it to sleep; and șō it lies for days, cōld and still, not a wave coming ashōre to play; then down come the hailstones, claiming cousinship with the pebbles, and a merry

dance they lead among them, and ōver the sleepy lake."

"but

"I like âll that," said the little gîrl; why have you wool hanging about you this warm weather?"

"Oh!" said the Bramble hastily, "the sheep leave it sometimes, when I've told them a story. But you shouldn't interrupt mē.'

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Well," said the child, gō on.'

وو

Sō she did. "There were once three Pebbles that were friends. They lived close together on the beach, and they were all discontented, and every day they said, "Oh, why were we born pebbles?"

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One of them had fâllen in love with a Water Lily that lived in the lake; and every summer when the Lily lifted up her head, and her white dress gleam'd in the sunshine, hē sigh'd, 'Oh, why was I born a pebble? If I had wings, I would fly to the Lily.' And sō he fretted and pined, but he did not grow much thinner on that account, for that is not in the nature of stōneṣ.

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The second Pebble did not care for the Lily at âll; hẽ had a passion for calculation, and thought he could distingüish himself in arithmetic. He fancied he knew exactly how many Pebbles lived on the beach, and he calculated how much cleverer he was than all of

them put together, and that amūṣed him, and hē said, 'If I could only meet with some clever person who understood my worth, I should ċertainly be taken to the village yonder, and might be of great service in the schools."

The third Pebble knew nothing of love, still less about figures. He prided himself upon his shape and color; he was always saying, 'Why must I lie here among common Pebbles? I am sure, if I were examined, I should prove a most valuable specimen for a muṣēum; but nō one comes here except the cattle.'

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"So the three Pebbles complain'd to each other, and sometimes they grew räṭher tired of each other's repinings and wishes. 'Oh, that I could fly to the Lily!' sigh'd the first. If she loved you, she would come ōver the lāke to ÿoü,’ said the calculating Pebble, in a provoking way.

Alas, that is impossible,' replied the first; 'do you not know that she has ties of the most binding nature in her peaceful hōme,—it is impossible-she cannot break them—and were they broken, how could sō refined a creature püt up with the vulgarity of this stōny multitude?'

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"I would I were on the first shelf of a great mūṣēum,' said the gay-color'd Pebble again. "Hush' said the first, dont you see something? perhaps our time is come.' Then

they all lookt up eagerly, in spite of their blunt neighbors, who never believed a word they said about lucky Pebbles that had come to honor and distinction. And so one fine summer afternoon three little boys went down to the beach to play. They were rōsy-cheekt little fellows, with clean pinafōreș, and straw hats âll stuck över with burs. And when the three friends saw them they whisper'd that thēṣe must bē princes or elves of some kind, because they lookt sō beautiful and happy. The other Pebbles heard their whisperings, and when they saw the boys run about the shore in their coarse pinafōreş and clumsy shoes (pr shooz), they laughed (pr. läft) till they cruncht and rattled again. After a while the boys sat down close by the three friends, and began to arrange the burs on their hats like crowns.

ઃઃ

"You see we are right,' whisper'd the three Pebbles all together.

One of the boys lookt down just then for a bur that had fâllen, and cried out, 'See what a capital duck-and-drāke stōne!' and he took it up and show'd it to his brothers.

"Duck-and-drake stōne!' thought the Pebble, not very much pleased at the praișe, for hẽ was jealous of the graceful Swan that swam

ōver the lake every evening to the home of the Wâter Lily.

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I'll try it, said the boy; so he got up and swung his ärm, and away the Pebble flew—ōh happiness!-bounding lightly over the clear wâter, skimming the blue ripples, many and many a time, and reaching the White Lily at last.

"His friends said, 'He is happy;' but the other Pebbles âll declared he was drown'd.

"Meantime another of the boys was searching busily (pr. bizzily) among the Pebbles, and he said, I've lost mỹ slate pencil, and I must find another to take to school tomorrow;' and presently he took up the calculating Pebble, saying, 'Here's one that will do famously;' and hē māde a sum with it, to find out how much his new pencil would cost less than the ōld one, and then put it in his pocket to tāke to school.

"The gay-color'd Pebble was now the only one left, and not in the best of humors at being so long overlookt. When the boys were going away, the youngest took him up, and tost him high in the air without so much as looking at him first, Down he came into a gärden, where a little girl was walking with her doll; shē couldn't think where the Pebble had come from,