19. Will held it up with a comical look, and the boys laughed and cheered as loudly as they dared in the school-house.

20. "See here," said Howard, "let us throw it away, and fill the basket with coal; it will be such fun to see him

open

it."

21. To this the boys agreed, and soon the basket was filled, and the napkin placed carefully on the top, as before.

22. Ned Collins was the last to leave the room; but no one noticed it, for he was in his seat as soon as any of them.

CAPITAL FUN.-CONTINUED.

1. Noon came, and there was the usual rush to the clothes-room for dinner-baskets, but instead of going out to the yard, the boys lingered about the door and hall. Straight by them marched Ned Collins, with his pail on his

arm.

2.

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3. "Home," said Ned, laughing. "I saw Aunt Sally making a chicken-pie this morning, and they can't cheat me out of my share of it."

4. "Ask me to go, too," shouted Howard Colby; but just at that moment they spied Joe Green carrying his basket into the school-room.

5. "I should think he would suspect something," whispered Will Brown, "that coal must be heavy."

6. Joe disappeared in the school-room, and the curious eyes that peeped through the crack

of the door were soon rewarded by seeing him his basket.

open

7. "Hope his dinner will not lie hard on his stomach," whispered Howard Colby. But apparently Joe only wished to get his paper to read, for he took it by the corner, and pulled, but it was fast.

8. He looked in surprise, and then, in a sort of bewildered way, took out a couple of Aunt Sally's great crispy doughnuts, then one of the delicious round pies he had so often seen in Ned's hands, bread and butter, such honey as nobody's bees but hers ever made, and the plump, white breast of a chicken.

9. It was a dinner fit for a king; so poor Joe thought, and so the boys thought, as they peeped wonderingly from their hiding-place.

10. But Joe did not offer to taste it; he only sat there, and looked at it with a very pale face, over which the tears began presently to flow very fast.

11. Then he laid his head on his desk, and Freddie Wilson, one of the smallest of the boys, whispered, "I guess he is praying;" so they all stole away to the play-ground without speaking another word.

12. "That is some of Ned Collins's work,"

said Will Brown, after a while; "it is just like him.'

13. "I am glad of it, any way," said Sam Merrill. "I have felt as mean all the forenoon as if I had been robbing a hen-roost.. The Greens are not to blame for having only cold potatoes to eat, and I do not wonder Joe did not want all of us to know it."

14. "I like Joe Green best of any boy in school," said little Freddie Wilson, "and I think it was too bad to try to make fun of him."

15. "Nobody asked you what you thought," said Will Brown, fiercely; "wait till your opinion is called for.”

16. The little boy looked very meek, and ate his dinner in silence; but the fact was, Will Brown began to feel uncomfortable.

17. "Father says Mr. Green was the bravest man in the company," said Sam Merrill, "and that he would not have been killed had he not thought of every one else before himself."

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18. "I tell you what, boys," said good-natured Tom Granger, "I move and second that we are all ashamed of ourselves; all in favor of this motion will signify it by giving three

cheers for Ned Collins! There he comes this minute, brimful of chicken-pie."

19. The boys sprang to their feet, and swinging their caps in the air, gave three hearty cheers for Ned Collins, and even Will Brown joined in the chorus with as loud a "hurrah" as any of them.

20. Sam Merrill explained the whole matter to Ned, and he only said in reply, "I have often heard Aunt Sally say that 'it was a poor kind of fun that must be earned by hurting somebody's feelings,' and what Aunt Sally says is almost always so."

1. Nellie Hall was seated very comfortably on the lounge, in the sitting-room, reading, when her brother George came in.

2. "Ah, Nell, you are the very one I have been looking for. I do believe I have had

my