TOMMY'S TEMPTATION.

Mr. Allen's early apples were almost ripe. They were uncommonly pretty apples--yellow, streaked with red. How tempting they looked! Ripe apples in August are always tempting.

Mr. Allen knew that, so he had put up a sign to warn the boys off. For boys were very apt to help themselves to ripe apples. Somehow they think that taking a few apples is not stealing.

So, as I said, Mr. Allen put up a board with these words on it--"Trespa.s.sers prosecuted." That meant, if he caught any boy near his apple-tree, he would carry him off to a justice of the peace, for stealing.

Early one morning Tommy Tilden was walking through the lane. He had just driven the cows to pasture and was coming home. He stopped and looked at the apples. How good they did look, to be sure!

He searched on the ground to see if any had dropped into the lane.

But he could not find one. Then he looked at the tree again. "I wish I had one," he thought.

Ah, Tommy, Tommy, the best thing for you to do is to run away as fast as you can!

But Tommy didn't do any such thing. He kept looking at the apples and wishing he had one. Then he thought, "I'll just climb up and look at them."

And now, of course, you can guess what happened. Tommy climbed up, and tried the apples with his thumb to see if they were ripe. Then he reached out to get a fine big one, and the branch broke, and over he went, with the branch, and the sign, and a shower of apples, into Mr.

Allen's garden.

The dog ran out barking furiously, and Mr. Allen, who was just eating his breakfast, came out too, and little May Allen, to see what was the matter.

How ashamed Tommy felt! "Trying to steal some of my apples, were you, eh?" said Mr. Allen, and Tommy could not answer a word.

Little May Allen felt very sorry for him. "Can't you give him some apples, papa?" she said.

"No," said Mr. Allen; "if he had come and asked me I would have given him some gladly. But he ought to be ashamed to try to get them in this way. But he can go. I sha'n't punish him."

So Tommy picked up his hat and went home. He told his mother all about it.

"Tommy," she said, "you shouldn't have stood and looked at those apples, and wished for them, when they were not yours. It is always best to run away from temptation."

A BEAR STORY.

When mother was a young girl, she taught school in Illinois. Very few people lived there at that time. The settlements were far apart. The schoolhouse was built of rough logs, and the c.h.i.n.ks were filled with clay and straw. Instead of gla.s.s windows, they had oiled paper to let in the light.

One night mother staid late at the schoolhouse, to help the girls trim it with evergreens. It was almost dark when she started for home. She walked very fast, as she felt lonely. Her way lay through a thick, tall woods, and the path was narrow.

All at once she saw a big animal in front of her. What was it? A calf?

No; it was a big black bear.

Was she afraid? Of course she was afraid. Shouldn't you be afraid if you met a big bear in the woods? She had an umbrella in her hand, and she held the point close to the bear's nose, and opened and shut it as fast as she could. She called him all the bad names she could think of, and he walked off, growling.

He was a brave bear, wasn't he, to be afraid of an umbrella? Mother hurried on, and just as she got to the edge of the woods, out he came again. Then she opened the umbrella at him again, and shouted as loud as she could, and away he went.

Mother was so tired and frightened she almost fainted when she got home. "I don't believe it was a bear; it must have been neighbor Clapp's big heifer," grandma said.

But just as she said it, they heard a loud squeal. They ran to the door, and there was the bear carrying off a pig. He had jumped into the pen and got it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BEARS AT THE ZOoLOGICAL GARDEN.]

Aunt Stella seized the dinner horn and blew a loud blast. That was the way they used to call the settlers together when anything was the matter. There was a great rush for grandfather's house, and when the men heard about the bear they said. "We must kill him as soon as possible."

So they had a great hunt for him. They hunted all that night and the next day. They found him, at last, sitting upon the stump of a hollow tree, and they killed him.

What do you think they found in the hollow stump? Three little cubs.

The hunters brought the cubs to grandfather's farm, and uncle Stephen kept one of them for a pet.

My little daughter Anna often asks to hear the story of how the "Bear wanted to eat grandma." Last summer I took Anna to the Zoological Garden. There we saw a family of bears.

One old bear was sitting in a tree, with his arms folded.

"Why, how pleasant he looks," said Anna. "I don't believe he would eat anybody."

"No, I don't think he would," I said. "He is tame, and he would rather have a sweet bun to eat than anything else."

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A LIZARD ON A GRa.s.sY BANK.}]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHETLAND PONIES AT HOME.]

ANNA'S BIRTHDAY GIFT.

"Anna, Anna!" shouted Harry. "Come quick, do! O such a!"--But mamma clapped her hand right over his mouth, and he couldn't say another word.

"Pat, pat, pat!" Anna heard a queer sound of feet on the veranda, and in at the open windows trotted just the dearest little Shetland pony all saddled and bridled. Harry was leading it. A card hung from the saddle, and on it was printed, "A birthday gift for my little Anna, from Grandpa."

"There! what do you think of that?" asked Harry.

"I think," said Anna, as soon as she could speak, "that no little girl ever had such a splendid, _splendid_ grandpa as mine!"

"Isn't he, though!" said Harry. "And now I'll get out Boy Blue and we'll ride over and thank him." Boy Blue is Harry's pony.

Do you know where these lovely little Shetland ponies live when they are at home? They live in the northern islands of Great Britain.

RALPH AND THE b.u.t.tERFLIES.