AX was not one of Toots' "really truly friends," so Toots said, but mamma and cousin Hattie were kind to Max. He needed friends badly. He had no mother, and his father was a cruel, wicked man. One day when Toots and his mother were spending the day with cousin Hattie, the latter said, "I have some very bad news to tell you. Some wicked boy has torn down my little bird-house which papa put in the maple tree for me, and my dear little birds have gone away."

"How cruel!" said Toots.

"Who could climb over your high wall?" asked his mamma.

"I cannot guess," replied cousin Hattie, "but my roses are trampled, and papa says it must be a boy, as he measured the footsteps."

"You had better watch for the thief, and, perhaps, we can coax him to behave better in future." Miss Hattie and the servants watched in vain for a week, but one day while the ladies were reading in the library the servant knocked to say that a queer-looking boy had just slid down the fence, and perhaps he was the thief.

The ladies went out at once and found him. He looked ragged and neglected, but his face was a good one if it had only been clean and happy.

"I am sorry you climbed over that way," said cousin Hattie; "whenever you would like to see my garden you shall come in if you will ring the bell." The boy looked very much ashamed. "Please tell me your name."

"Max," was the brief reply.

"It is a very nice name," said cousin Hattie. "Now Max, if you will come with me into the kitchen I will find some lunch for you." Max followed her in, but he could not eat much; the cook looked at him sharply.

"I know him, miss," said she, "he is called Max the Meddler. He never lets a poor bird or cat have any rest where he is, and he is prying about everywhere. I am sure he took your bird-house."

Cousin Hattie said, "Never mind, cook; he will never do it again; perhaps he will earn a new name and a better one." After he had eaten his lunch the young lady took him out into the garden and told him the story of her birds—how much she loved them, how her papa put up their house, and how sorry she was to have them disturbed. Max looked more than ever ashamed. At last he said: "I will never do so again, lady, and if you will let me come and work in your garden I will pay you for the little house, which I sold to another boy."

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