Excerpt
EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.
The present number begins the eighteenth half-yearly volume of "The Nursery;" and we are happy to inform our friends that the magazine was never so successful as it is to-day. Thus far, we have entered upon every new volume with an increased circulation. We look for a still larger increase in the future; for there are thousands and thousands of children not yet supplied with the work, for whom no other magazine can take its place. We have something in preparation for coming numbers which will make the eyes of our little readers sparkle with delight. Now is the time for canvassers to go to work with a will.
The illustration by Merrill of the "Three Little Culprits" who were kept after school to study their spelling-lesson, is one of those happy touches of nature that every one can appreciate. The poem by Miss Wadsworth is worthy of the picture.
Children who are trying to learn to draw, will be pleased with the beautiful subject in our present number. By giving half-an-hour a day to drawing now, they will acquire a facility and a skill that will not only be of service to them, but a great pleasure to them, all their lives.
If parents or teachers would like to know of two books by the use of which teaching may be made a pleasure instead of a task to children, they cannot do better than order "The Easy Book" and "The Beautiful Book;" the former containing pieces in prose, and the latter, pieces in verse, and both of them richly and copiously illustrated with appropriate pictures. These books are published at "The Nursery" office by John L. Shorey.
Children who enjoy making paper dolls, will find an advertisement at the end of this number which is worthy of attention.
unny was a little rabbit, the youngest of a large family. His home was in an old wood, where the trees were very high, and wild-flowers grew in great abundance. His mother had given him to understand that he must not stray away from her, lest he should get lost, and not be able to find her.
But Bunny, like some young children, was self-willed. He thought his mother was over-careful; and so, one day, when nobody was watching him, he slipped away from her, and sat down amid the grass, under two high beech-trees.
He heard his mother calling him, but took no notice of her call. It was a warm summer day, and he fell asleep. Soon he was startled by the loud barking of dogs. He woke up, and, oh, how frightened he was!
Luckily for him, the dogs did not come where he lay crouching; for their masters were shooting birds, not rabbits. Bunny thought the best thing he could do now was to scamper back to his mother, his brothers and sisters as fast as he could.
But it was not quite so easy to find them again. No sooner had he got into the open path than a troop of boys caught sight of him; and at once there was a volley of stones from their hands. By rare good luck he was not hit by the stones. But he had not gone many paces farther, when a man with a gun shot at him....