"Was not our Lord a little child, And loved He not of heaven to talk What though around His throne of fire The everlasting chant, Be wafted from the seraph choir In glory jubilant? Yet stoops He, ever pleased to mark Our rude essays of love, Faint as the pipe of wakening lark, Heard by some twilight grove." KEBLE. NE day in June the boys and girls were all up in the large play room at the top of the house. The sun shone in and made the room so hot that they could not jump and shout, but they just lay on the floor with their bricks and dolls. There came a loud ring of the bell just at the top of the stairs, out side the play room door. Nurse went down to see what the bell rang for. When she came up she said, "Your Aunt Bell has come, and she wants to see you all; so get up quick and let me brush your hair, and make you neat and fit to be seen." Their aunt was so kind that they were all glad to hear she had come, and each child stood quite still to let nurse brush its hair and wash its face. Pet When they were all quite neat nurse went down stairs first with Pet in her arms. was four years old. Then, next to nurse so that she could hold her gown, came Rose, she was six years old; then came Fred, he was eight; then Loo, who was ten; and last of all Tom, who was twelve. When they were all safe down stairs nurse gave a knock at the room door, and a voice cried out, "Come in." So in they all went and ran straight up to their aunt, who gave each one a kiss. "How thin and pale they all look, poor dears!" she said, with a kind smile, as she took Pet from nurse's arms and sat her on her own lap. "I am sure a few weeks at the sea side would do them a world of good. Would you like to go with me to the sea side, my dears?" 66 Oh, that we should," said Tom, with a jump and a clap of his hands. And then each child gave a jump and a clap, and said, "That we should." "And will you all be good the whole time if I let you go with your kind aunt?" said their mam. "That we will, dear mum," said Tom. And then all the rest said, "That we will." In a few more days the aunt came to the house to fetch them. She took them all with her in two cabs. Nurse went in one cab with Pet and Fred and Loo, and aunt in one cab with the rest; and there was a great big black box and a small box on the top of each cab. They went in the cabs down two or three long streets, and then they got out of the cabs and |