marched out of the house, headed by President Eunice, the secretary and treasurer following, while the editor, all in a flutter, carrying the precious paper laid flat in an atlas, brought up the rear. The president sat down, gravely, in a big chair reserved for her, while the secretary took a seat by her side, though she cast a longing look at the hammock, which was regarded as undignified. The editor, vainly trying to control her smiles and restrain her dimples, stood behind the table, and began.
"I copied the top part of it from a real newspaper, auntie," she said, opening the sheet. "Now, boys, remember, if you laugh the least bit, I"ll stop. And, oh, auntie, I forgot to say that the boys wrote some of the atoms."
"Atoms?" repeated Auntie Jean, puzzled.
"_Atoms!_ Miss Scricket, oh, ho!" called Archie; then, recollecting himself just in time, he clapped his hands over his mouth.
"That"s what you said they were, I thought," said Cricket, anxiously.
"Don"t you know, auntie, those little things that come between the stories, and all that? General atoms. I have written it down."
"Items, dear," said auntie, soberly.
"Items--atoms," repeated Cricket, thoughtfully, comparing the sounds.
"Yes, of course. How silly of me. I"ll change it right away. Well, the boys wrote most of them, anyway. Now, I"m all ready," and Cricket cleared her throat, and began.
The Echo.
SERELLA CARLILLIAN, _Editor_.
NO. 1. _Marbury, Wednesday, July 15th, 18--._ VOL. I.
DELL"S COMPOSITION.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Dell Ripley, "next Friday is Composition Day, and I"ve got to write a composition. What subject shall I take, mamma?"
"Are there not any subjects in your school composition-book?"
asked Mrs. Ripley, a pleasant looking lady of apparently thirty-five.
"Yes"m, but not any I want. Oh, it seems to me that I saw a book up-stairs in the garret with something about compositions in it," and, shaking back her floating curls, the little girl bounded from the room. She ran up the garret stairs, and then began to look for the book. At last she found it, and eagerly opened it, and, as she opened it, a paper fluttered to the floor.
She picked it up, and saw the name "Amy Willard" on it. "Why,"
she thought, "it"s something of Aunt Amy"s," and she read it. It was a composition.
"Joan of Arc," cried Dell, "splendid subject, and splendid composition. I wish I could write one as nice."
"Why not take this one?" asked the tempter. Then there was a very long struggle in Dell"s heart, but the tempter conquered, and Dell carried the composition down to her own room to copy it. When she had finished it, she read it over, trying to think that it sounded just like any of her own, and that no one would ever know it.
"It sounds just like mine," she said, trying to get rid of that uneasy feeling. "I guess I"ll just change this sentence and that one."
"Have you written your composition, dear?" asked Mrs. Ripley, pleasantly, as Dell came slowly down-stairs, and out on the piazza.
"Yes"m," answered Dell, very low.
"You look tired, dear."
"I am."
"What shall I do if I am found out?" thought Dell.
When she went to bed that night she was very unhappy. Her conscience troubled her very much. She wished she had never found the composition, and almost made up her mind to confess, but, alas, only almost.
She turned and tossed till nearly ten o"clock, and then fell asleep, and dreamed that, just as she was reading the composition before the school, her Aunt Amy appeared, and claimed it as her own, thus showing her niece"s wickedness. She awoke with a scream that brought her mother to her bedside.
Dell"s first thought was to tell her mother all, and, without waiting a moment, she confessed her sin.
After that, Dell"s compositions were her own.
ESMERALDA MURIEL LE GRAND.
POLLY"S NECKLACE.
"Oh, mamma," exclaimed little Polly More. "To-morrow is my birthday, and what are you going to give me for a present?"
"What do you want?" asked Mrs. More.
"I should like a necklace of some sort. Oh, papa," bounding toward her father, "are you going to give me something?"
"What would you like me to give you?"
"Oh, anything," said Polly.
So the next morning, Polly found by her bedside, when she woke up, a pretty little coral necklace, and a red purse with seventy-five cents in it, and a penknife.
Three or four weeks after, Polly went to visit her uncle, who lived in the country. He was a farmer, and it was haying time, and he was getting in the new hay, and Polly liked to play in the hay with her cousin May. One day, as they were playing there, her coral necklace came unclasped and fell into the hay.
She hunted a long time, but could not find it.
Polly went home the next week sorrowing, but the next spring, when the cows had eaten up all the hay, the news came that May had found the necklace, and Polly was happy again.
HILDEGARDE GENEVIEVE MONTAGUE.
POETRY.
TO MY MOTHER.
(_A Lament._)
Oh, mother dear, why hast thou gone, And left thy Cricket all alone?
The tears flow often from my eye, And oft, indeed, I almost cry.
Should danger chance to come to thee, While thou are sailing on the sea, With sorrow would our hearts be torn, And we would be here all forlorn.
Perhaps thou may fall from the deck, Before papa thy fall could check, Perhaps they could not rescue thee, And then, alas! what grief to me.
Of course papa might pull thee out, Or else some burly sailor, stout.