TREASURE-TROVE.

BY OLIVE A. WADSWORTH.


A Diligent Biddy was scratching one day,
And pecking at morsels that came in her way,
When all of a sudden she widened her eyes,
And the feathers stood up on her head with surprise!

A strange-looking treasure Dame Biddy had found,
'Twixt a brick and a clam-shell it lay on the ground;
The hen with a peck turned it over and over,
But the longer she looked the less could discover.

"Cluck, cluck!" said the hen, "as sure as I stand,
This never was grown upon solid dry land;
I'll take it along to Dame Duck and her daughter,
They're wise about things that come out of the water."

So she carried the thing in her beak to the brook,
And called to Dame Duck to come quickly and look,
And the dame and her child relinquished their pleasure,
And waddled ashore to examine the treasure.

"Alack!" said the duck and "A-quack!" said the daughter,
"We've never seen objects like _this_ in the water!
Suppose we submit it to old Mrs. Ewe?
She's wise about wool, and has seen the world, too!"