Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: up briskly, and the tree sighed so deeply that eveiy sigh went off like a little gun-shot. The children left off playing, and came and sat before the fire, and looked at it, saying, ' Pop ! pop ! ' But at every pop, which was a deep sigh, the tree was thinking of some summer's day in the forest, or of some winter's night when the stars shone brightly, and of the merry Christmas-eve; and then the tree was burned to ashes. The boys played in the garden, and the youngest wore upon his breast the gilt star that the tree had worn on the happiest evening of its life. But that was now all over, as all was over with the tree, and must be with this story, as all stories must have an end at last. WHY SHOULD NOT I BE MERRY ' The sun is careering in glory and might, 'Mid the deep blue sky and the clouds so bright; The billow is tossing its foam on high, And the summer breezes go lightly by: The air and the water dance, glitter, and play, And why should not I be as merry as they ? The linnet is singing the wild wood through, The fawn's bounding footsteps skim over the dew; The butterfly flits round the blossoming tree, And the cowslip and blue-bell are beat by the bee: All the creatures that dwell in the forest are gay, And why should not I be as merry as they ? VAIN WISHES. 'I Wish I could get the place of kitchen-maid at the hall, ' said Peggy Parkes, as she lazily carried a pail of milk on her head to her mother's cottage; ' for, if I could, I should soon get on; but I can't get on here.' 'You are not likely to get on anywhere, ' cried out her mother, sharply; for she happened to be just behind her as she spoke. ' A pretty kitchen-maid you would make, either up at the hall or anywhere else, creeping and cra ling about as you do. Give me a girl that has so..