THE GRATEFUL SWAN.

PART II.

All summer they lived

Thus together-the swan
And peddler and peddler's wife,
Jannet and John.

At length, when the leaves

In the garden grew brown,

The bird came one day

With her head hanging down,

And told her kind master
And mistress so dear,

She was going to leave them,
Perhaps for a year.

"What mean you?" cried Jannet.

"What mean you?" cried John.

"You will see, if I ever

Come back," said the swan.

And so, with tears

Rolling down drip-a-drop, She lifted her snowy wings,

Flippity-flop,

And sailed away, stretching

Her legs and her neck, Till all they could see

Was a little white speck.

Then Jannet said, turning
Her eyes upon John,
But speaking, no doubt,

Of the bird that was gone:

"A wing like a lily,

A beak like a rose;
Now good luck go with her
Wherever she goes."

The winter was weary,
But vanished at last,

As all winters will do;

And when it was past,

And doffies beginning

To show their bright heads,

One day, as our Jannet

Was making the beds,

The beds in the garden,

I'd have you to know,

She saw in the distance

A speck white as snow.

She saw it sail nearer

And nearer, then stop, And land in her garden path Flippity-flop.

One moment of wonder,
Then cried she, "O John!
As sure as you're living, man,
Here is our swan.

"And by her sleek feathers, She comes from the South. But what thing is this

Shining so in her mouth?",

"A diamond," cried Johnny;
The swan nearer drew,
And dropped it in Jannet's
Nice apron of blue;

Then held up the mended leg

Quite to her crop,

And danced her great wings about

Flippity-flop.

"It's Uncle Fritz, and if we all laugh loud, he will be sure to come in," said Emil.

A wild burst of laughter followed, and in came Uncle Fritz, asking, "What's the joke, my lads?''

"Caught! caught! you can't go out until you've told us a story," cried the boys, slamming the door.

"So that is the joke, then? Well, I have no wish to go, it is so pleasant here, and I will pay my forfeit at once," which he did by sitting down and beginning instantly :

"A long time ago your grandfather went to lecture in