The Nursery, August 1873, Vol. XIV. No. 2

"What a fuss you girls make about trifles!" cried Robert Wood. "Who but a girl would think of being frightened at a bridge like this?"

"Stop that, Robert," said Harry Thorp. "I will help them across in a way that will prevent all danger."

Harry plucked up a stout bulrush that grew near by, and held it out over the plank to the girls to serve as a kind of support for them to hold by. Susan Maples was the first to lay hold of the thick end of the bulrush, by which Harry led her across. Then the other girls followed; but, just as Nelly got on, Robert Wood shook the plank, and tried to scare her.

He did not succeed in this; for Nelly was thinking of her dear brother at home with his broken leg, and she felt that she would not be afraid of a much more dangerous crossing than that over the plank.

After a walk of a mile, they came to the edge of the wood. "Jewels of jet! Look here!" cried Harry Thorp. "See the bouncers! Here's sweetness! Here's blackness! Here's richness!"

And, true enough, there they were. Never were high-bush blackberries finer or riper; but the largest and ripest seemed always the hardest to get at. The boys cut hooked sticks, with which they pulled down the branches; and their mouths were soon black with the juice of the berries. Then the girls began filling their baskets.

The sun was low in the west when Nelly remembered her promise to Martin, and said, "Now for home!" to which the rest cried, "Agreed!"

But the girls had not gone far before they began eating the berries from their baskets, and offering them to one another,—all but Nelly Ray. She did not eat any of her blackberries, nor did she give any away; and yet she had the best basketful of all.

She had, besides, a branch of a bush, with berries on it, which she was carrying very carefully; so that she kept a few steps behind the other girls.

When Nelly reached home, she looked in at the open door, and saw Martin down stairs for the first time since his accident. He was wrapped in shawls; and Nelly said, as she put the full basket on his knees, and waved the branch before his eyes, "Why, brother, they have wrapped you up so, and your face is so pale, that you look like a girl."

"Looks are nothing: behavior is all," said Martin, laughing. "Why, Nelly, what a splendid feast we shall have! What big ones! Thank you, dear, dear sister."

As she heard those words, and saw his pleased looks, Nelly felt she was well repaid for all her trouble.

    Ida Fay.

LITTLE JACK HORNER

2

"I don't like cold lamb;
Give me raspberry-jam:"
But old Mother Hubbard said, "No!
If a boy cannot eat
Such nice, wholesome meat,
To bed without food he must go."

3

So little Jack Horner,
Who cried in the corner,
Was washed clean, and put into bed:
After sleeping all night,
He awoke fresh and bright,
And was glad to eat plain meat and bread.