  A HOLE in the pocket's a very bad thing, And brings a boy trouble faster Than anything under the sun, I think. My mother, she calls it disaster. For all in one day, I lost, I may say, Through a hole not as big as a dollar, A number of things, Including some rings From a chain Fido wore as a collar, My knife, a steel pen, a nice little note That my dear cousin Annie had sent me. The boy who found that, pinned it on to his hat, And tries all the time to torment me. I'd lost a new dime That very same time, But it lodged in the heel of my stocking; And one thing beside, Which to you I confide, Though I fear you may think it quite shocking: The doctor had made some nice little pills For me to take home to the baby; But, when I reached there, I was quite in despair, They had slipped through my pocket, it may be. Aunt Sallie, she, As cool as can be, Said, a hole in a boy's reputation, Is harder to cure, And worse to endure, Than all pockets unsound in the nation. Still a hole in the pocket's a very bad thing, And I am sure a real cause of disaster. But baby is well; so you must never tell; Perhaps he got well all the faster. —Gwinnet Howard, in Independent. double line decoration Round the Family Lamp AND now we must begin to confess, very reluctantly it is true, that the long evenings we have had the past few months around the Family Lamp are slowly growing shorter and shorter. Before we can have time to realize it very deeply somebody will say, "Oh! don't light the lamp just yet, it is so much pleasanter to sit in the twilight," and then it won't seem but about ten minutes, and the children and young folks will be whisked off to bed, and the games will be crowded entirely off the programme, and the Family will feel as if it had no good-night frolic at all. So we must get all the fun we can, and to-night we propose as a grand bit of sport— A BUBBLE PARTY.Choose all your players if you can beforehand, so as to have each one select his and her color. As far as possible, wear as much of that color, putting away all other colors, on dress, in button-hole of coat, or scarf around in Highland fashion on the boys' coats, and be sure to tie a bright bow of ribbon of same color on stem of pipe. A player can decorate himself or herself in any way he or she chooses. Variety makes the game all the more brilliant. A cap trimmed with one's color is always pretty for the girls, and toques or soldier caps for the boys. Dissolve a quarter of an ounce of Castile or oil soap cut up in small pieces, in three quarters of a pint of water, and boil for two or three minutes; then add five ounces of glycerine. When cold, this fluid will produce the best and most lasting bubbles that can be blown. Now make your soap-bubbles in a big bowl, and choose your sides, an equal number on each, and range them opposite each other, and begin. The side that can make and keep unbroken the largest number of bubbles, is the winner. To keep tally, one of the party must be chosen as judge. You will have plenty of sport. I wish some of you would write me all about your fun. Margaret Sidney. double line decoration
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