ambition--"to earn money to help mother."

"And to think, Katy," the little girl often says, affectionately, "it
all came about through your wanting to give me that Christmas doll!"




BUILDING A BOAT.

I.

"Oh, if we only had a boat, what jolly fun we might have!" exclaimed
Jack Gordon regretfully, following with his eyes the bright waters as
they rushed along,--now coursing smoothly, now leaping in the sunshine;
again darkened for the moment, and eddying beneath the shade of the
overhanging branches of a willow tree; then in the distance coming
almost to a standstill, and expanding into the clear, floating mirror
of the mill-pond.

"That's so," answered Rob Stuart, laconically. The two boys were
lounging on the bank of the creek, which, though dignified by the name
of Hohokus River and situated in New Jersey, is not considered of
sufficient importance to be designated on the map of that State, even
by one of those wavering, nameless lines which seem to be hopelessly
entangled with one another for the express purpose of confusing a
fellow who has neglected his geography lesson until the last moment.

"Yes, if we had a boat we might explore this stream from source to
mouth," continued Jack, who was always in search of adventures.