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Did the flowers fight for it,
While, undescried,

One selfish daisy

Slipped it aside?

Now has she plunged it in

Close to her feetNice private water-tank For summer heat?

Did spiders snatch at it,
Wanting to look

At the bright pebbles

Which lie in the brook ?

Now are they using it?

(Nobody knows), Safe little diving-bell, Shutting so close!

Did a rash squirrel there,
Wanting to dine,

Think it some foreign nut,
Dainty and fine?

Can he have swallowed it

Up in that oak ?

We, if we listen,

Shall soon hear him choke.

Has it been buried by

Cross imps and hags,
Wanting to see us
Like beggars in rags?

Or have fays hidden it,
Lest we should be.
Tortured with needle-work
After our tea?

Hunt for it, hope for it,

All through the moss;

Dig for it, grope for it,
"Tis such a loss!
Jane finds a drop of dew,
Fan finds a stone,

I find the thimble

Which is mother's own!

Run with it, fly with it,
Don't let it fall;

All did their best for it-
Mother thanks all.

Just as we give it her,

Think what a shame!

Ned says he's sure

That it isn't the same.

From "CHILD-WORLD."

THE ARITHMETIC PRIZE.

"I SAY, Ted, who will get the arithmetic prize this year ?" said a rosy-faced little boy to one of his friends, as they raced out of school.

"What, in the first-class? Why, my brother, of course. Who did you think ?”

"Well, I did not know; but father said, last night at tea-time, that he should ask the committee to let him have a boy out of the first class to help with the little ones: and he said he thought whoever got the arithmetic prize would-but I forgot, I was not to say anything about it."

Well, you have said something now," replied Ted Musgrove. "I hope Phil won't get the place. I should like to see him teaching me! He is always at his books! Father says it frightens him to see Phil's book of figures. He's doing fractions now, denominators, and mixed numbers, and I don't know what all. There is one awful-looking sum, that slopes all over the slate. I did ask him about that, and he said I was to go on dividing till it came to nothing. I don't know what he meant; and when I asked him, he said, 'Don't bother!' Oh, I do hate sums! at least what you do on a slate."

"You mean you like mental arithmetic?" said the schoolmaster's son, who was given to long words.

"Yes, I don't mind reckoning in my head, for then no one can ask how one did the thing, and it comes out right somehow."

"I suppose," said a third boy, who had joined the two others, "Phil does all the books now, doesn't he ?"

"No, he don't; he says he hasn't time; and mother says he is not to be teased, he is so clever; and so I have to help her all I can. Sometimes, I wish Phil wasn't so very clever, he might be of some use; but I forget, I was to go down to the

D

Smiths and ask if they want another cake. Good night!" And the boys separated.

Ted Musgrove came racing home in about half an hour, and found his brother Philip sitting in the corner of the room, with his slate before him. Soon he put it down, and sat staring at the fire without speaking. He was thinking about the examination, and what his chance of a prize might be.

"My Scripture knowledge is all right," thought he, "that's one mercy. No one but me knew who Noah's grandfather was, and young Williams said he never could remember the difference between Elijah and Elisha. I wish they would ask about Asia in geography, or else the tributary streams of the Humber. I know all the places where Saint Paul stopped right off. Then history's safe too. Charlie Smith reads a good bit; but he is such a fool, he likes to bother on with one reign; says it interests him; so of course he don't get time for the important things. I'll see if I can remember the rhyme about the kings-

'First William the Norman, then William his son;
Next Richard and Edward together came on.'

No, that's not it, 'Edwards, one, two, and three. Victoria the loved and the last,' I know it ends. I'm quite sure about my summing, though; but I should like to have time just to finish all these; it would make the gentlemen stare so, to hear I'd done all the fraction sums in a month."

The examination day came. The school-room

was lighted up, and adorned with evergreens and wreaths of flowers. Numbers of parents sat on the back benches, each thinking their own boys were quite sure to deserve the prizes. Among the firstclass boys sat Philip Musgrove, full of delight at the prospect of his own praises.

The first subject was geography. Phil answered well, and heard one of the gentlemen say, "Sharp lad that; son of Musgrove the baker."

"What do

History was the next subject. A different gentleman rose to question the boys. know of William the Third, boys ?"

you

Philip's hand was up instantly. "He invaded England; fought the battle of Waterloo, wherein the Black Prince was slain; and thus England and Ireland, united under-"

The gentleman turned to the schoolmaster and said, "What is the boy saying? I do not understand. Is he an idiot ?"

"Only a parrot," whispered one of the audience. The master, colouring, and much vexed, said, "Sit down, Musgrove. He has got confused, sir.”

And then came the arithmetic. A black board, on which sums were set, was placed before the boys, and they were provided with slates. Each time Philip's was the first filled, and every sum was right. He felt full of hope. Just when it was expected that the winner of the arithmetic prize would be declared, one of the gentlemen stepped to the front of the platform and said,

"Before we can decide who deserves the arithmetic

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