will expect me home. I'll come home with Amy any time she's alone. Good-by."

Nelly started on her walk, and she missed Amy's pleasant companionship very much, when suddenly she heard a voice saying, "Hallo! little folks, how came you up here? playing truant?"

She looked up, and there was Uncle Frank in a wagon. Dear Uncle Frank! If there was any thing pleasant in this world, it was a ride in Uncle Frank's wagon; and Nelly was sure of an invitation. So she clambered up, and Uncle Frank helped her on to the seat. She came home as fresh and happy as a bird.

Now Nelly's little head was always full of plans of plays, and after dinner she thought she would fit up her baby-house all nicely, and make some new paper-dolls, and then get cousin Susy to come in and play "house" with her; but just as she was starting to go upstairs she saw her mother take out the soldiers' basket, and sit down to fill needlecases. Nelly had often helped her mother at this work; she could braid the thread very

nicely, and she could make pin-balls, and fill them with pins; and she knew very well that her mother loved to have her little girl work with her very much. Nelly had been so good in the morning that Mrs. Morgan thought she would let her do as she pleased now. Nelly started to go upstairs to play, but then she thought, "How selfish I am! I have lots of time to play, and poor mamma works hard almost all the time." So she said to herself, "Dear fairy, hadn't we better go and help her?"

She turned back and said, " Mamma, may I come and help you braid the thread?"

"Yes, indeed, Nelly; I shall be delighted to have you."

While Nelly's little fingers went busily in and out, her mother began talking about the poor soldiers, and how bravely they were fighting for liberty. Then she told her sto

ries of the slaves,

how they learned to find their way by the north star, and hid in the woods all day long for fear of being discovered. Then she told her how the war had

freed the slaves, and good men and women

had gone to them to teach them to read and write, and how old men and little children sat on the same bench and learned to read.

Nelly was so interested in her mother's conversation and her work, that neither of them perceived that a heavy black cloud was rising in the west, and that a thunder-shower was coming on very fast, until her cousin Harry burst into the room, exclaiming, “What is Uncle Morgan about? There's his best lot of grass down, and it's going to rain like sixty."

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Morgan, "he's away off to the village helping to raise the minister's barn, and has every one of the men with him. What shall we do?"

"Dear fairy," said Nelly in her heart, "can you rake hay?"

"I can do any thing that's necessary," was the quick reply; and Nelly said, “Why, mother, we'll go out and rake it up. I've helped papa do it many a time."

Off she ran to the barn and brought the rakes; and cousin Harry, though he was a

Freshman, and had his long coat on, pulled it off and went to work, and mamma helped too; and the little boy who saw them at work ran in and seized a rake and worked as fast as any of them. The fresh shower-wind blew Nelly's curls all about her face, and her skirts and apron fluttered in the wind; and Harry's hat blew off; and her mother laughed so much to see the others, she could hardly work herself. But they got it all nicely raked up into three heaps, and Nelly ran into the barn for the hay-caps to put on them. It was very hard to keep the cloths down, the wind blew so. Nelly would get one corner fastened, and away would go another; but at last, with the help of all, they got them nicely covered up just as the big drops came pattering down; and they had to run into the house for shelter.

"Wasn't that splendid fun?" said Nelly, as she sat down, all glowing with the exercise. "How glad papa will be!"

Mrs. Morgan insisted upon Harry and the little boy staying to tea, and she went to

work to get it. Harry and the little boy began braiding thread, and Nelly set the table, and ran down cellar for butter and milk; and they had all ready when her father came home to supper.

"Why, what witches have you had here?' said he. "I saw the shower coming, but it was just as we were raising, and couldn't one of us come away; and I've worried about that grass all the way home. Hay is so high now, I couldn't bear to have it spoiled. Who's the witch? you, Nelly?"

"No; only a good fairy helped us,” said Nelly, as she jumped into his lap, and made him cuddle her up, just as he used to when she was only four years old. "Thank you,

blessed fairy," she said in her heart.

Perhaps people who board at the Tremont or Revere House would call that a very simple supper, rye-cakes and sweet butter, and strawberries and cream, and good fresh milk; but I don't believe any of them will ever enjoy a meal better than those good people did, as they sat and ate, and talked about