Jamie Canfield is a three-year-old boy who lives in Lawrence, Kansas, the prettiest town in the State. He and Freddy Bassett, a four-year-old neighbor, love to play in the dirt; and their mammas allow them to do it, because it is so healthy.

It certainly has proved to be so in Jamie's case; for he was quite pale and delicate in the spring, and now he is brown and rugged, and ready to eat all the food he can get. But dear me! he used to get so dirty!

What was the use of washing him, and putting on clean dresses and aprons, when he was constantly throwing aside his other playthings, and making mud pies, or carting earth in his little red wagon?

His papa laughed and said, "Oh, never mind! Dirt is good for him." But mamma thought it was not very good for his clothes; and, besides, she wanted him to be clean enough to kiss without being washed every time he came into the house.

So she said one day to his papa, "James, I think it would be a good idea to get a load of sand for Jamie to play in. It will at least be cleaner than that dust-heap."

That very day up came a load of yellow, shining sand. It was heaped into a shady corner by mamma's bedroom-door, and Jamie and Freddy dived into it at once.

They made pies; they dug holes, and filled them with water for wells; they made mountains with caves in their sides, and every thing else they could think of. When dinner-time came, Jamie had to be coaxed away from his sand-heap; and mamma said she believed he would sleep in it, if he were allowed to.

After dinner, as soon as he waked from his nap, he went straight to his sand again. Freddy was there before him; and soon Minnie Rich, a little girl eleven years old, came out, and played with them.

She knew how to work sand better than any of them. First she wet it. Then she made a house with holes in the sides for doors and windows, and a chip for a chimney. Then she made a smooth lawn in front of the house, and some hills and valleys in the rear, fenced in a yard, and set out some flowers.

The boys were delighted; and mamma went to the door more than once to look at the plantation, as Jamie called it, before it was finished. It was really quite a pretty thing, and Jamie declared his intention of keeping it just as it was. But the hot sun dried the sand, so that the house crumbled away; and the two boys were soon digging and shovelling in their own way as before.