TIRED LITTLE MOTHER.

Tired mother! sweetly sleeping,
All her cares and troubles o'er,
Angels near her, watch are keeping;
May they leave her nevermore !

Household cares, and Dolly's dresses,
All forgotten.-Nothing now

Troubles mamma, with her tresses
Ruffled, tangled o'er her brow.

Gentle zephyrs, kissing lightly
Lips as red as ruby light,
Lull to slumber eyes that brightly
Glow with childhood's visions bright.

Dreamless sleep, now holds her tightly:
Rest-the rest for which all pine,
Nothing troubling; all things lightly
Press upon her childish mind.

Can we know the many troubles

That have caused her anxious thought? We may think them light as bubbles, But how dearly they are bought!

Childhood's troubles !-How they linger
With us as the days roll on!
And how Time's unerring finger
Marks the scars-though youth is gone!

A dreary place would be this earth

Were there no little people in it;

The songs of joy would lose their mirth
Were there no children to begin it.

"WIDE AWAKES АТ ТЕА.

Miss Ross has a class of little boys and girls whom she calls her "Wide Awakes." There are in the class, Lucy and Lillie, Willie and Charley, Etta, Bert, and Tom.

Their bright eyes are not only wide open, but their active young minds are looking out of them, as out of clear windows, upon everything around them.

How many wonderful things pass before the brightest eyes, without being seen by them! This is because the mind within is sleeping, lazy, or too playful to take notice.

But the minds of our young "Wide Awakes" see through their eyes, and their lips are always asking such questions as these: What is this? What use is it? Where did it come from?

If they cannot answer these questions themselves, they ask Miss Ross.

Miss Ross has just begun to tell them about tea. Shall we listen to her?

"Tea," she is saying, "is the leaf of a plant which grows in China and Japan. "The leaves are pointed at the ends, and of a dark green color. The flowers are white.

"If you should go to those countries, you would see the south side of almost every hill covered to the top with the tea-plant, growing, not so much in large fields, as in small gardens.

"Each of these is some cottager's teagarden. The tea which the Chinaman does not use, he sells to buy food and clothing for his family."

"Do they plant the tea, or does it come up of itself?" Willie asks.

"The tea-plant is raised from seeds which are planted in rows," replies the teacher. "The young plant has to be cared for and weeded for three years, and then the planters may gather their first crop of leaves."

"Do the leaves fall off as do those of our forest trees ?" This question, Bert asks.

"No," says Miss Ross, "the plant is an evergreen; but the leaves can only be gathered at times.

harvests a year."

There are three

Lillie now wants to know if the leaves get dry upon the trees, and curl up before they are picked off.

"O, no; the long leaves are fresh and green, and are very carefully picked," answers Miss Ross.

"They are dried in iron pans over the fire. While drying, the leaves are stirred quickly, and as soon as they begin to crack, they are taken out and spread upon a table.

"Then the work-people roll the leaves in the palms of their hands to press the juice out of them.

"After being rolled, the leaves have to go into the pan again, and over the fire. There they begin to curl up, and at last they look as we see 'tea' in this country."