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“ Who is it*?” said Neina.
“ She is the Spring-Nymph,” said
Minna. “Do you not hear that music,
that brought us down here?”
The lady then came towards them,
leading the two lovely little girls, called
Lizzie and Cona.
She told them that they were to be
companions, and must love each other.
She then dressed Minna and Neina, and
sung for them, that they might forget
everything but her and their now beau
tiful home.
When she had finished, she led them
out to their morning meal. They feast
ed on delicate fruits, and other things
delightful and good.
After their breakfast, she led them out
into the garden. She showed them mar
ble pools, with gold and silver fish in
them, sporting in the clear water.
The happy little girls threw them
crumbs of white bread, and held their
hands down beneath the water, that they
might feel the nibbling of the gentle
things.
After that, she took them where the
flowers grew. They plucked them to
dress their rooms with. Roses and jas
mine, honeysuckles, lilies and verbena,
snow-white pinks, red amaryllis, besides
clusters of the pink rhododendron, were
taken in by them, to make more beau
tiful their captivity.
For fear they should think, she carried
them from one pleasure to another all
the time, and when they had arranged
the flowers, she opened the doors of the
pearl cabinet. When she did it, Minna
and Neina looked at her with wonder
and delight, and when she laid before
them those beautiful dolls, they thought
that their happiness was complete.
Minna and Neina chose the blue-eyed
and fair-haired as their favorites. Lizzie
and Cona preferred the black-eyed and
raven haired as their pets.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SYLVAN SHORE.
Now were the children thoroughly be
guiled to love the nymph who had sur
rounded them with such beauties.
Neina had gotten rid of the forest,
and Minna was forgetful of her father,
her mother, and all the associations of
the hut under the forest trees.
While they played joyously, and am
used themselves in different ways, the
birds sang them their sweet songs from
the windows. The gilded cages resound
ed all day long with their clear and
melodious notes ; for while some of
them stopped to peck at the white su
gar, or to take bird seed, or water from
the clear glass balls, others regaled
them with joyous music.
Daily was the same returning visit of
the spring nymph. The early morning
found her ever gay. She sang to the
children while she dressed them gaily in
their silken attire, and their bands of
gold and pearl. She then daily took
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
them the round of amusements, the gar
dens, the fish ponds, the flowers, and
sometimes the whole morning would be
spent in sporting on the green grass, by
the edge of a sylvan brook.
She came to them one day and. said,
in a voice of glee :
“I come to send you away to the
sylvan shore that skirts my Island of
Roses. You must go to-day, dear girls,
but beware of an old lady that lives
there. She always wants to tnake chil
dren ’’see double like herself. She is
cross, and ugly, and old.”
“Is it over the water?” asked Cona.
“Come, come,” said Lizzie, “we
want to go over the water.”
“ No, no, you are not to go over the
water. Do you think I would trust you
to go over the water without me? Catch
me at that, my pretty little lady-bird,”
said the lady, tying a silken shade over
the child's sunny hair.
“Come, Minna and Neina, get your
gold-colored shades, and hasten before
the sun gets warm.”
“We will go with a skip, Lady Belle,”
said Neina, gathering her rose-colored
skirt over her arm ; “we will go with a
skip—we will go with the fairy bells
over the border.”
“ Not over the border,” said the lady.
“ Not into a ship, or over the water,”
said Cona.
“ But we will go to the fairy dell,”
said Neina, “to gather the roses we
know so well.”
“ Come on, girls, and let us be gone,”
said Minna ; and they went tripping off,
laughing one moment and singing the
next.
A Good Name.
Children, choose it ;
Don’t refuse it;
’Tis a precious diadem.
Highly prize it ;
Don’t despise it;
You will need it when you’re men.
Love and cherish,
Keep and nourish,
’Tis more precious far than gold ;
Watch and guard it,
Don’t discard it,
You will need it when you’re old.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
“I DIDN’T THINK.”
Os course ydu did not, else you would
not have spoken the unkind word which
brought tears to the eyes of your little
sister. Charley would not, for anything,
have left the door open that cold, windy
morning, so that the wintry air blew up
on his poor old rheumatic grandfather,
but “he didn’t think.” John’s father
told him to be sure to shut the garden
gate, when he went in or came out, but
“he didn’t think,” and left it open, so
that the cow got in and ate ever so many
of the early vegetables. Little Mamy
“ didn’t think,” and left the pantry door
open, and the cat went in and drank up
all the milk. Half the mischief done in
the world comes from this too common
habit of not thinking. Aunt Edith.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE CORAL JEWELRY.
A,” said Laura Paine,
r’SNjNt&l"'' fwJ ' ’
jyYjffjKCLgy w ho sat between her
father and mother, ga
gvjjw-y zing at the red coals
in the sitting-room
grate; “Pa, have you thought of my
birthday? It is only a week from to
morrow.”
“Certainly, certainly,” said Mr.
Paine, good-humoredly; “your tenth
birthday is my fortieth. How could I
help thinking about it, little one?”
Laura left her little chair, and seating
herself on her father’s knee, said:
“Well, I’ve thought of it, too, and I
want a certain thing for my present.
Will you give it to me?”
“Can’t leap without looking,” said
Mr. Paine, laughingly.
“Well, I’ll tell you anyhow; I want
a set of coral jewelry.”
“Coral jewelry!” said Mr. Paine,
lifting his hands in mock surprise ;
“ why what would my little ten-years
old girl do with a set of coral jewelry ?”
Laura laughed aloud as she replied,
“ Why, I’d wear it.”
Mrs. Paine seemed amused, but Aunt
Hannah, the Quakeress, said:
“My dear child, thee should not ask
after such vanities.”
“Well, well, well 1" continued Mr.
Paine. “ Would my little Laura put
rings in her ears, like the Asiatics and
Africans?”
“ Oh, dear pa, do not make so much
fun of me. Other people wear ear
rings, and you know how pretty coral
is.” Laura looked up coaxingly: “Do,
pa, give me the ear rings and breast
pin.”
“Not ear rings, daughter, for I can
not endure them.”
Laura was almost ready to cry with
disappointment, for just then she re
membered how thin and smooth and
shining were the red leaves of the coral
roses which adorned the ear rings of her
young friend, Lula Reid.
“ But,” continued her father, “ I will
give you a brooch and necklace if you
will do something to earn them.”.
“How? how? What must I do?”
joyfully asked the little girl.
“ Learn something about coral.”
Laura’s eyes brightened. “Oh, I
know something now. Shall I tell it
to you ?”
“ Not until your birthday.”
“You are a dear, kind papa, and 1
thank you for such an easy task.”
The next week passed
quickly away, an and the
birthday dawned clear and
mild as spring. Laura
had, with her own hands,
braided a pair of slippers
for her father, and when
she was dressed she took
them down to the dining
room and laid them beside
his breakfast plate. Then
ran off to the green
house, and,from the flower
pots which she called hers,
gathered a beautiful bou-
quet of geranium leaves and scarlet
fusehias. This she placed near the
slippers, just as a servant came to call
her to the sitting-room. Here were as
sembled mother, father, and Aunt Han
nah, with their warm kisses and kind
words, and—something more. Aunt
Hannah was first to present her birth
day gift. It consisted of a drawing
book, some pencils, and a box of water
colors.
“ Thank you, dear aunt,” said Laura,
“but I can’t draw.”
“ Those are but a part of thy present.
The other part is, that I will teach thee
the use of them.”
A thousand thanks were expressed in
the hearty kiss which Laura gave her
aunt, and in the grateful looks with
which she received from her mother a
lovely picture of Mary, the Mother of
Christ.
“ Well, young miss,” said Mr. Paine,
putting on a comical look, “it is high
time for your examination. Begin im
mediately. What is coral ?”
Laura smilingly gave her answer :
“ It is a hard substance made by little
animals which live in the sea. They
are called polyps. Usually great num
bers of them are found united to each
other by the coral they have formed.
This coral then looks so much like the
branching stems of plants that the polyps
are called plant-animals.”
“Very good, so far. Tell me now
where the coral animals are found?”
“ In the sea.”
“ But what sea?”
“Oh, —in the Pacific Ocean, mostly.
In that ocean there are thousands of is
lands and reefs which they have built.”
“How do they build these islands?”
“They attach themselves to rocks,
about twelve yards under the water.
Then they increase, and form new
branches of coral on the old, until the
surface of the water is reached, when
the little animals die and leave their
work. After a while, the sea brings
sand, shells, and all sorts of trash, until
a soil is formed.”
“ Very well done, my little girl. Now
answer one more question : you say
coral is mostly found in the Pacific
Ocean, where else is it obtained?”
“All the fine coral, which people