the wrists. But he soon got tired, and cried out, "Wait a moment. I must let you go till I spit on my hands, to hold faster." You may know what came of the other boys.

A SHEPHERD boy kept his sheep on a common, and would often, in foolish sport and play, call out, "The wolf! the wolf!" The shepherds, hearing him, ran once and again to his help, but finding that he was only tricking them, they said to themselves that they would not heed his cries any more.

One day, however, the wolf did come, and the boy cried out in earnest, but no one came near him, and the wolf flew at the boy and tore him, so that he died.

He who tells lies is not believed, even when he speaks the truth.

I MET a little cottage girl;

She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl

That clustered round her head.

"Sisters and brothers, little maid, How many may you be?"

"How many? Seven in all," she said,
And wondering looked at me.

"And where are they, I pray you tell?"
She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.

"Two of us in the churchyard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And in the churchyard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother."

"You run about, my little maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the churchyard laid,
Then ye are only five."

"Their graves are green, they may be seen," The little maid replied,

"Twelve steps or more from mother's door,

And they are side by side.

"My stockings there I often knit,

My kerchief there I hem;

And there upon the ground I sit,—
I sit and sing to them.

"The first that died was little Jane; In bed she moaning lay,

Till God released her of her pain,

And then she went away.

"So in the churchyard she was laid;
And all the summer dry,

Together round the grave we played.
My brother John and I.

"And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide,

My brother John was forced to go,

And he lies by her side.'

"How many are you then," said I,

"If they two are in heaven?"

The little maiden did reply,

"O master, we are seven.”

"But they are dead; these two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!"

'Twas throwing words away; for still

The little maid would have her will,
And said, "Nay, we are seven."

LONG ago there came two young men, Edmund and Oswald, before a judge. Edmund said to the judge, "When I went away, three years ago, I gave Oswald, whom I thought my best friend, a costly ring, with precious stones in it, to keep for me, but now he will not give me the ring back again."

Oswald laid his hand on his heart, and cried, "I swear on my honour that I know nothing about the ring! My friend Edmund must be out of his head to say he gave it me." The judge said, "Edmund, have you any witness to your giving him the ring ?" "Indeed," said Edmund, "there was no one by when we took leave of each other, under an old oak tree, and I gave him the ring." Oswald said, "I am ready to take my oath that I know as little of the oak tree as I do of the ring."

Then said the judge, "Edmund, go and bring a twig from this oak tree, I should like to