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He accepted the invitation, but instead of climbing the fence, as on the night before, went around by the passage between the house and the cattleyard. Lydia met him, and picked for him the finest clusters she could find. He thanked her, and, wishing to be alone, made off again toward the stable.

She followed him, however, with her hands full of lovely Delawares and Concords, which she ate herself, and continued to urge upon him.

"I gueth you 're fond of hortheth!" she remarked, seeing how absent-mindedly he let his longing eyes wander in the direction of the stalls.

Kit confessed that circumstances had caused him lately to take a lively interest in those useful animals.

"My father bought a firtht-rate one for a mere thong, two or three dayth ago,” she said, plucking grapes one by one from a bunch. "Have you theen him?"

"Your father showed him to me," replied Kit. "It's a pretty fair-looking horse. Is he easy under the saddle?"

He saw himself riding triumphantly through East Adam village, waving his cap at his mother as she ran to the door or window in answer to his gleeful call; and finally astonishing Uncle and Aunt Gray, as he swung himself from Dandy's back at their door. And what was to prevent him from taking Duckford and Maple Park on his way?

But could he repay Miss Badger's kindness by such an act of seeming treachery? Strange as it may appear, her tempting proposal made it still more difficult for him to take possession of Dandy in an underhand way.

He had tried his hand once at stealing him,— for he remembered how much it had seemed like stealing when he was betrayed into acting against the dictates of his conscience by Branlow's persuasive cunning. Would it seem less like it now,secure his uncle's property by fraud or force, with or without Lydia's innocent coöperation?

to

He could imagine her parting smiles, as she saw him set off for his "little ride"; then the growing solicitude with which she would watch for his return, her anxiety becoming alarm, as the con

"I don't know," said Lydia. "I never ride viction was gradually forced upon her mind that, horthback, do you?”

"Sometimes; once in a great while," Kit answered dryly.

"Do you like riding?" she asked, turning her beaming face full upon him, while she squeezed a plump Concord between her lips.

"Yes, if I don't have too much of it at once," he replied, negligently eating the last of his

Delawares.

"Pa 'th got a thaddle thomewhere," she went on, as they stood in the stable door. "You can take a little ride, if you think you would fanthy it. Would n't you like to?"

Here was his temptation again, in a more terrible form even than at first. Once on Dandy's back, and starting off for a little ride,—with Miss Badger's smiling acquiescence, would he be able to stop before he had ridden once more safely into Uncle Gray's front yard?

if not a grape-thief, their youthful, honest-seeming guest was what was worse,- - a horse-thief in disguise! Then he could foresee Eli's rage on coming home and learning what had been done in his absence.

"Thank you," said Kit, hesitatingly; "I don't think -- I care to ride."

He had mastered the temptation in its most enticing shape. And surely the proposed exercise was not such a novelty to him just then that he should desire merely to be jounced up and down by a hard-trotting horse.

"I thuppothe you don't feel like it tho thoon, after latht night," said the sympathizing Lydia.

"I'm afraid it would be a little too much for my nerves" (meaning his good resolution), he replied, in a regretful tone.

"I'm thorry!" said Lydia, sweetly. "I'd be tho glad to thee you have a nithe ride!" (To be continued.)

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II. NEW ORLEANS, 1885.

III.

TRIUMPH of the builder's art,

Tower and turret spring and start

Prize the glorious relic then, With its hundred years and ten,

As if reared by mighty genii for some Prince of By the Past a priceless heirloom to the Future

Eastern land;

Where the Southern river flows,

And eternal summer glows,

handed down.

Still its stirring story tell,

Till the children know it well,

Dedicate to labor's grandeur, fair and vast the From the joyous Southern city to the Northern

arches stand.

And, enshrined in royal guise, Flower-bedecked 'neath sunny skies;

Quaker town.

Time that heals all wounds and scars, Time that ends all strifes and wars,

Old and time-stained, cracked and voiceless, but Time that turns all pains to pleasures, and can where all may see it well; make the cannon dumb,

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THE SCHOOL-SHIP "NEW HAMPSHIRE," OFF COASTERS' ISLAND.-A BOAT-LOAD OF SCHOLARS STARTING FOR
A HOLIDAY ON SHORE. (SEE PAGE 684.)

ion, little Decatur stood on the pier at the foot of
West Twenty-third street, New York, where a sea-
soldier (called a "marine"), stood on guard at the
landing and a little steam-launch bobbed against
the pier waiting to take several boys out to the
school-house. Think of starting for school in a
steam launch!

LITTLE Decatur Jones had fully made up his mind that nothing but a sailor's life would satisfy him. The old sea-faring spirit of his forefathers was in the lad, and he chafed and fretted greatly under the restrictions of what he called his "humdrum" country life. His father was dead, and his mother could not procure an appointment for him to the naval academy at Annapolis. But when The launch steamed out into the river and hauled she learned through the village postmaster that alongside the steps of the school-house. And the the United States Navy offered just such boys school-house was a great war-ship. The boys as Decatur Jones a good home, fair wages, and climbed the high, black side of the ship and came the sea-life he desired, she decided, after long out upon the shining white decks. There they found deliberation, to let the boy have his way. another marine on guard, while an officer and some And so it came about that, soon after her decis- young sailors were busy near at hand.

United States Navy, with the pay of $9.50 per month, besides what is known as the navy "rations" of thirty cents per day.

The very next day saw Decatur Jones with a squad of other new recruits on board one of the steamers of the Fall River Line, bound for Newport, at which place they were at once transferred to the school-ship "New Hampshire," anchored off Coasters' Harbor Island.

Some six years ago, the State of Rhode Island presented this island of Coasters' Harbor to the United States, with the understanding that it was to be used as a naval training station. It lies within a mile of the beautiful old city of Newport, and is separated from the main-land by a narrow strait spanned by a causeway. Anchored off this island lies the bluff-bowed old line-of-battle ship "New Hampshire," with numerous decks, from the ports of which protrude the muzzles of ugly-looking guns. This is the cradle of the training fleet-the real school afloat. All the other

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THE ARRIVAL OF SOME NEW SCHOLARS AT THE RECEIVING SHIP.

The admission to the school is simple enough. A boy must be of robust figure, intelligent, of a sound and healthy constitution, free from any physical defects or malformation; he must be able to read and write; and be of the standard height and measurement. All of these requirements our young Decatur could meet satisfactorily; yet it is a test which many boys fail to stand; for, at a recent examination in Boston, out of nearly one hundred applicants, only twenty-six succeeded in passing the requisite physical examination.

Then Decatur Jones signed his name to what are known as the "shipping articles," by which he agreed to serve continuously in the Navy of the United States until he was twenty-one years old; and, having exhibited a printed form signed by his mother, in which she gave her consent to the step he had taken, he was declared a voluntarily enlisted third-class boy in the

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