Soon little baby-birds will come out of those eggs. If the eggs should get cold the baby-birds would die.

The father-bird comes and sings to the mother-bird. She is very patient. Day after day she sits there.

In about two weeks she hears a little pecking sound. The baby-birds are knocking to come out. Soon the shells crack and the birds are in the nest.

How glad the old birds are! They are busy now getting food for their babies. See how they get the worms for their breakfast.

The young birds grow stronger every day. They are not pretty when they are little.

FINDING THE BITS OF STRING.

They perch on the branches. Their What color are the robins? Are Watch them and see.

BESIDES the ever-useful "Thirty days hath September," there are several less known rhymes that are often in the minds of certain classes of men. There are the sailors' rules of the road, of which the best known version is:

Both side lights you see ahead,

Port your helm and show your red.
Green to green and red to red,
Perfect safety. Go ahead.
If on your starboard red appear,
It is your duty to keep clear,

To act with judgment, think it proper
To port or starboard, back, or stop her.
Both in safety, but in doubt,
Always keep a good lookout.
In danger, with no room to turn,
Ease her, turn her, go astern.

And the rider's rule:

Keep up your head and your heart;

Your hands and your heels keep down; Press your knees close to your horse's sides And your elbows close to your own.

And the driver's (in England):

The law of the road is a paradox quite,
In riding or driving along;

If you go to the left, you are sure to go right,
If you go to the right, you are wrong.

And the schoolboy's Latin one about prepositions governing the ablative:

A, ab, abs, absque, de, Coram, palam, cum, ex, e, Sine, tenus, pro, and præ.

Brewer, in his "Reader's Handbook," gives a rhyme he composed for remembering the "Seven Wise Men of Greece":

First Solon, who made the Athenian laws;
While Chilo, in Sparta, was famed for his saws;
In Milétos did Thales astronomy teach;
Bias used in Priéne his morals to preach;

Cleobulos, of Lindos, was handsome and wise; Mitylene 'gainst thralldom saw Pittacos rise; Periander is said to have gained through his court The title that Myson, the Chenian, ought.

And this for the "Seven Wonders":

The pyramids first, which in Egypt were laid;
Next, Babylon's garden for Amytis made;
Then Mausolos's tomb of affection and guilt;
Fourth, the Temple of Dian, in Ephesus built;
The colossos of Rhodes cast in brass to the sun;

Sixth, Jupiter's statue by Phidias done;
The pharos of Egypt, last wonder of old,
Or palace of Cyrus cemented with gold.

In learning history a number of rhymes have been used; but only one is fairly well known. That is the one about the kings and queens of England:

First William the Norman, then William his son,
Henry, Stephen, and Henry, then Richard and John.
Next Henry Third, Edwards One, Two, and Three;
Again, after Richard, three Henrys we see.
Two Edwards, third Richard, if rightly I guess,
Two Henrys, Sixth Edward, Queen Mary, Queen Bess,
Next Jamie the Scot; then Charles, whom they slew,
Then Oliver Cromwell, another Charles, too;
Then James, called the Second, ascended the throne;
Then William and Mary, and William alone;
Then Anne, Georges four, fourth William, all passed -
God sent then Victoria—may she long be the last!

I have found these lines easy to learn, and, more important still in a memory-rhyme, easy to recall when not quite committed to memory.

The first line gives all the Norman kings; the third and fourth lines give the Plantagenet kings, and end with a Richard. Lines five and six give in two even divisions the three Lancastrian and the three Yorkist kings, and also lead up to a Richard. He suggests Bosworth, and this leads to "slain" and "Tudors' reign." The Tudors just fill one line; and the peculiar use of "Bess" suggests the beginning of the Stuart lines, which (except for Cromwell, who is recalled by "war's distress " rhyming to "Bess") continue till the rhyme for Anne foretells the Brunswick house "began." The concluding lines record the new fact that this year Victoria attained the longest reign.

It is impossible to foretell the fate of a memory-rhyme. Only experience can determine whether it will serve a useful purpose; but I hope this one will be an aid in disentangling the skein of Henrys, Edwards, and Williams who have reigned in England.

There have been some attempts to make a memory-rhyme of the Presidents, but none has reached a wide circulation. Here is my attempt to make a short bit of verse which, while it is not absolute nonsense, is mainly intended to give the initials of the Presidents' surnames in their order. Hence all the initials are capitals:

We Are Just Men, Men All Judged Vast.
Held True, Praised Too; Few Put Brains Last.
Judged Great, Held Good; All Chiefs High Classed.

It is easier to pick flaws in this than to remedy them in the same space. It is enough to say that the lines are very easy to remember, and that they enable one to name the Presidents without much difficulty.

For convenience of comparison, here is the list of names:

First line: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren. Second line: Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln. Third line: Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland.

As for Mr. McKinley, he can be added without difficulty by the youngest. There are eight presidents in each line-so Lincoln was the sixteenth. The two T's in the second line may be confusing, but if you will remember that Harrison was called "Tippecanoe," "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" is a rhyme that will put Tyler after Harrison, and Taylor after Polk.

Another and final rhyme which has long served young whist players, but is now made useless by the many new leads, is that which is given by Pole, beginning:

If you the modern game of Whist would know
From this great principle its precepts flow.
Treat your own hand as to your partner's joined,
And play not one alone but both combined.

And so on; but my attempts to recall the lines meant to regulate the leads during whist-playing have usually been futile, for fear of keeping the others waiting.