And think of the bargain, Ladies and Gents: This pin for a dollar and fifteen cents!"

Then Ned's eyes burned, and his heart beat fast;

He thought of his mother, and visions passed

Before him of her, whom he held so dear, Wearing that pin. He could almost hear Her voice, as she looked in the box to see His gift (and he knew what her smile would be)

"Why, Ned, is this beautiful pin for me?"

The man went on: "I say it's the chance Of a lifetime. You can see at a glance These gems are beauties, Ladies and Gents, And all for a dollar and fifteen cents!"

. That settled Ned. He made up his mind, If he could borrow, or beg, or find

A dime and a nickel- the dollar was there. But what did he own, from his boots to his hair,

Worth three whole nickels? His kerchief? No; His mother embroidered the letters. Oh!

VOL. XXIV.-87.

lunch.

And there, by good luck, was cross-eyed Pete, Always hungry, and ready to eat. Ned called, as Pete lazily passed the tents: "Say, want my luncheon for fifteen cents?" The fat boy eagerly looked it through. There were cinnamon rolls and crullers, too; And hungry and hungrier he grew.

He searched his pockets many a time,
But all he could find was a little dime.
The voice of the man grew loud and high;
But he watched from the corner of his eye
To see if the youngster meant to buy.

At last he called, in a jocular way: "Look here, you, sonny, come here, I say; I see that you want this pin; well, then, "I'll sell it to you for a dollar ten."

'T was done. Pete took the lunch and was off. The man was seized with a sudden cough, As he put the dollar and ten-cent piece In a wallet, by no means free from grease. And he held the pin in the sun's bright rays Till every gem seemed to flash and blaze Before little Ned's enchanted gaze.

ONE beautiful morning in the month of May, last year, when the school children of the city of Minneapolis awoke, their eyes were eagerly turned to the east for a token of the weather; for should the day be fine, they were to take part in an event unique in all their school life. Indeed, it is not likely that any children the world over ever engaged in so strange an enterprise. They were to move with their own hands an old dwelling-house-the first one erected in their city — from its site to a city park five miles away. For weeks they had been planning for the event, which was to be in the nature of a public celebration. The project was the result of the enterprise of a newspaper,one of the evening papers of Minneapolis,- and the whole city had entered into the plan with interest. The publishers of the paper had bought the building some time before, and had given it to the city. Following this, the novel plan was proposed of having the school children of the city, between the ages of nine and eighteen years, draw the building to its final home in a park at Minnehaha Falls, the beautiful little cataract so happily described in Longfellow's 'Song of Hiawatha.”

66

The mayor of the city declared a public fêteday; the municipal offices, the public library, and the like, were closed; and the publicschool children had a holiday. If it had rained on the morning of the moving, five great steamwhistles in as many parts of the city were to be blown loud and long to notify the children of a postponement; but the weather was favorable, and more than ten thousand young people gathered at the school buildings in various parts of the city at fifteen minutes after eight o'clock, and then marched to their appointed stations. Many other thousands who would have liked to help pull assembled along the line of march; they would have assisted in the drawing of the building had it not been that not more than

ten thousand could be utilized, and the first applicants were selected.

The relays were from one thousand to fifteen hundred strong. They were distributed along the course so that no relay would travel further than suited the strength of the scholars.

The old house had been mounted upon wide moving-trucks, whose broad wheels would easily roll over the pavements. To spare the strength of the children, eight sturdy horses were attached to the wagon upon which the building had been loaded; but save as they aided in giving the proper direction and in steadying the movement of the line, they were not needed. In fact, there were several times when the children pulled the house fairly upon the haunches of the horses, and the drivers were at their wits' ends to guide their steeds.

Two ropes, each six hundred feet long, were attached to the ends of the wagon-poles of the teams; a double row of children, representing the first relay, formed in line under direction of the teachers of their schools; a stirring blast from the horn of a bugler rang out; and just at the stroke of nine the children gave a tremendous pull, and the old house moved off as handsomely and as royally as though it had been the chariot of a king. Thousands of people gathered along the route as the strange procession passed; and yet, while there were thousands of children, besides those who did the pulling, hurrying and scurrying along in a whirl of excitement, not an accident occurred.

Once in a while the children at the ropes would get so excited by the novelty of the whole affair that before the drivers would be able to check the movement, the children would pull the horses into a trot, and then there was great tumult and many cries and loud yells from the policemen along the route; and sometimes it took heroic measures to stay the youngsters in their mad course. At the