Continuing my artistic career, I soon came to the conclusion that a rag makes a very good laborsaving machine indeed, but requires a little practice if one would use it to the best advantage. For instance, if one gets a more closely packed and inkier wad at one end, and a sort of flowing skirt to trail off at one side or to sweep freely about, there will be much more likelihood of accomplishing a group of figures, or trees, or hop-toads, with an effective background of sky, water, or garden vegetables. A fine effect of strong lights and shadows, such as one sees in Rembrandt's etch FELIS ANGORA ACCIDENTALIS. and I was beginning to feel discouraged, when I thought I saw, upside down, something like a picture. I turned it around, felt encouraged, and went on, having frequently to replenish the saucer. Then all at once the rag, and the ink, and I, together, without consulting one another, produced a picture, to copy which would puzzle a Chinaman. It was a veritable Felis Angora accidentalis (you will not find that in any zoölogical work). On the whole it proved to be so fair a representation of an Angora cat that I shall give it to you now without a single additional touch. This was inspiring; the more so as it was followed by two or three other masterpieces (with only a failure or two between), and each one showing a certain "freedom of handling," "grasp of subject," and "range of style," that would have made Turner mad with envy. I made up my THE HIGHEST UNKNOWN MOUNTAIN PEAK. mind that the first magazine that wanted to employ so masterly a rag must pay me my own price,-and the price advanced with each new masterpiece. REMBRANDT RANGE. ings, may be attained by putting a great deal of decision into the ink, rolling the rag into small compass, and striking the paper in such a way as to take it entirely by surprise. A "Claude Lorraine" can not be made in so simple a way, however; that takes much dexterous wrestling with the rag; and the result is apt to be smudgy, even after all your painstaking efforts. For clear art, altogether untrammeled by subservience to any school or system, I can heartily recommend the method already described in this paper. A still better way, especially if one wishes to keep within a limited field of action, is to have two rags and two saucers of fluid - one a little lighter than the other. The first, if used moderately dry, lightly wrung out, will provide the sky and back BOY byes George Cooper Birch He was not at all particular To keep the perpendicular, While walking, for he either skipped or jumped. And, when he went to bed, awhile He dove among the pillows, which he thumped. "This is Funviest part, you know. ELSIE'S PET. BY JANET E. RUUTZ-REES. DID you ever see a Bullfinch? It is such a pretty bird. One day little Elsie was very good, and Mamma gave her a present. It was a sweet little Bullfinch, in a cage. He could whistle a tune. Elsie loved him very much, and she liked to listen to him. Besides, he was very clever. He soon learned to know Elsie, and when she called, "Bully! Bully!" and chirruped to him, he would put his head on one side and look so knowing! If she took a seed between her rosy lips. and held them near the cage, Bully would look first one way and then another, with his bright eyes, and hop, hop, hop,- until he came quite near, and then he would give a quick, little peck with his beak, catch the seed, and eat it up! Oh, he was a bright little bird! Every evening, when Elsie went to bed, Mamma opened his cage and |