MY LITTLE MAY

My little May was like a lintie
Glintin' 'mang the flowers o' Spring;
Like a lintie she was cantie,

Like a lintie she could sing;
Singing, milking in the gloaming;
Singing, herding in the morn,
Singing 'mang the brackens roaming,
Singing shearing yellow corn!
Oh, the bonnie dell and dingle,
Oh, the bonnie flowering glen,
Oh, the bonnie bleezin' ingle,
Oh, the bonnie but and ben!

Ilka body smiled that met her,
Nane were glad that said farewell;
Never was a blyther, better,

Bonnier bairn frae croon to heel!
Oh, the bonnie dell and dingle,
Oh, the bonnie flowering glen,
Oh, the bonnie bleezin' ingle,

Oh, the bonnie but and ben!

THE LIFE WORTH LIVING

-George Macleod.

Is life worth living? It would be impossible to give an answer that would suit all. Probably there have not been two human beings since the world was made who, could they express their precise opinion on this point, would give exactly the same answer. If by self-mortification, overwork, wear, and worry, I make myself wretched, and fail to make those around me happier, I may well ask, in mournful accents, that idle question. If I not only fail so to make others happier, but make them less happy, and hand on gloom and misery to future ages, I may not only ask it gloomily, but answer it sadly, Life is not worth living. But if by due care and thought of self, by reasonable enjoyment of the bright and pleasant things which life brings to most, I in some degree help to counterpoise such pains and sorrows as life brings to all, and at the same time. help to brighten the lives of those around, and those also of generations as yet unborn, how shall I doubt what answer to give to the question, Is life worth living? Not sad is the answer, but bright and cheering. Life is well worth living.-Richard A. Proctor.

Ay, but give me worship and quietness,

I like it better than a dangerous honor.-Shakespeare.

THE THREE SPINNERS

There was a lazy girl who would not spin; and her mother might say what she would, she could not make her do it. At last anger and impatience overcame the mother so that she struck the girl, and at that she began to cry aloud. Now, the queen was just driving by, and when she heard the crying she had the carriage stop, went into the house, and asked the mother why she beat her

daughter so that one could hear the crying out in the street? Then the woman was ashamed to confess the laziness of her daughter, and said, "I cannot keep her from spinning. She wants to spin all the time, and I am poor and can't get the flax." Then the queen answered, "There is nothing I like to hear so much as spinning, and I am never happier than when the wheels hum. Let me take your daughter to the castle. I have flax enough. There she shall spin as much as she will."

The mother was well pleased at it, and the queen took the girl with her. When they came to the castle she took her up to three rooms, which lay from top to bottom full of the finest flax. Now spin me this flax," she said "and if you finish it you shall have my eldest son for a husband. Though you are poor, I don't mind that: your cheerful diligence is dowry enough." The girl was secretly frightened; for she could not have spun the flax if she had lived three hundred years, and had sat at it every day from morning till evening. When she was alone she began to cry, and sat so three days without lifting a hand. On the third day the queen came, and when she saw that nothing was spun yet she was surprised; but the girl excused herself by saying that she had not been able to begin on account of her great sorrow at leaving her mother's house. The queen was satisfied with that, but she said as she went away, “ Tomorrow you must begin to work."

When the girl was alone again she did not know what to think or to do; and in her trouble she went up to the window, and there saw three women coming along. The first had a broad paddle-foot, the second had such a big under-lip that it hung down over her chin, and the third had a broad thumb. They stopped before the window, looked up, and asked the girl what was the matter. She told them her trouble. Then they offered her their help and said, “If you will invite us to your wedding, not be ashamed of us, and call us your cousins, and seat us at your table, too, then we will spin your flax up, and that quickly." "Gladly," said she: "come in and set to work immediately." So she let the three queer women in, and cleared a little space in the first room, where they could sit down and begin their spinning. One of them drew the thread and trod the wheel, the second wet the thread, the third twisted it and struck with her finger on the table; and as often as she struck, a skein of yarn fell to the floor, and it was of the finest. She hid the three spinners from the queen, and showed her as often as she came the pile of spun yarn, so that the queen could not praise her enough. When the first room was empty, they began on the second, and then on the third, and that was soon cleared up too. Now the three women took their leave, and said to the girl," Do not forget what you promised us. It will be your good fortune."

When the girl showed the queen the empty rooms and the great heap of yarn, she prepared for the wedding; and the bridegroom was delighted to get such a clever, industrious wife, and praised her very much. "I have three cousins," said the girl; " and since they have been very kind to me, I should not like to forget them in my happiness. Permit me to invite them to the wedding and to have them sit with me at the table." The queen and the bridegroom said, "Why should not we permit it?" Now when the feast began, the three women came in queer dress, and the bride said, "Welcome, dear cousins." "Oh," said the bridegroom, "how did you get such ill-favored friends?" Then he went to the one with the broad paddle-foot and asked, “Where did you get such a broad foot?" "From the treadle," she answered; "from the treadle."

Then the bridegroom went to the second and said, "Where did you get that hanging lip?" "From wetting yarn," she answered; "from wetting yarn." Then he asked the third, “Where did you get the broad thumb?" "From twisting thread," she answered; "from twisting thread." Then the king's son was frightened and said, "Then my fair bride shall never, never touch a spinning-wheel again." And so she was rid of the horrid spinning.-Grimm Brothers.

THE PRINCESS WHO DIDN'T SPIN

In Grimm's story of "The Three Spinners" there is a moral which all who run may read. If one overworks—if one “slaves "-then the body, which God has fashioned in symmetry and beauty, must pay the penalty. At the same time, do not shirk a noble task. If the task is worth it, pay the penalty. Work, but do not drudge. To do the last, if you can possibly help it, is a sin against your body, which is God's temple. Think of it reverently. Make and keep it beautiful as far as you can. Think of your body as something sacred and holy which God has made.

Do your duty whatever comes and God will look out for the rest. Nobody, of course, should try to escape labor by subterfuge-as did Grimm's Princess. It is better to hurt the body than the soul.

A CHILD'S HAPPINESS

How little it takes to make a child happy! So, we see, happiness, after all, consists in disposition and not in possession. Read what Kipling says it took to make a little Hindu happy:

"Little Toonai attended to Kala Nag's supper, and at evening wandered through the camp unspeakably happy, in search of a tom-tom. When an Indian chief's heart is full, he does not run about and make a noise in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all by himself. And little Toonai had been spoken to by Petersen Sahib! If he had not found what he wanted I believe he would have burst.

"But the sweetmeat seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom-a drum beaten with the flat of the hand-and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala Nag as the stars began to come out, and he thumped and he thumped. There was no time and no words, but the thumping made him happy."

Reflect that life, like every other blessing,
Derives its value from its use alone;
Not for itself, but for a nobler end.

The Eternal gave, it and that end is virtue.

FAIR ELEANOR

When the birds were mating and building,
To the sound of a pleasant tune,
Fair Eleanor sat on the porch and spun
All the long, bright afternoon.

She wound the flax on the distaff,

She spun it fine and strong;

She sang as it slipped through her hands, and this

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Was the burden of her song:

"I sit here spinning, spinning.

And my heart beats joyfully,

Though my lover is riding away from me
To his home by the hills of the sea."

When the shining skeins were finished,
And the loom its work had done,
Fair Eleanor brought her linen out
To spread on the grass in the sun.
She sprinkled it over with water,

She turned and bleached it white;
And still she sang, and the burden
Was gay, as her heart was light:
"O sun, keep shining, shining!

O web, bleach white for me!
For now my lover is riding back

From his home by the hills of the sea."

MERRY BRIDGET

Two girls were on the road to a large town. It was fair time, and they had each to carry a heavy basket full of fruit on their heads. One girl was heard to groan and grumble all the way; the other was happy and merry. Bridget," said one, how can you sing and be merry? Your basket is just as heavy as mine, and you are not stronger than I am." But Bridget said: "I have a secret by which I put something into my load, which makes it so light that I can scarcely feel it." "Ah," said her companion, "and what can that be? I wish I had your secret, to make my basket lighter; do tell me what it is." It is a thing of great price which I have put in my load, but it cannot be bought. I call it Patience."-G. S. Bowes.

I am glad to think

I am not bound to make the world go right,

But only to discover and to do

With cheerful heart what God appoints. -Jean Ingelow.