"Come, Johnnie," said Katy, but the incorrigible Johnnie was shaking
again, and all they could make out was--

"The bears came down, and ate------and ate."

These "Verses" were part of a grand project on which Clover and Elsie
had been busy for more than a year. It was a sort of rearrangement of
Scripture for infant minds; and when it was finished, they meant to have
it published, bound in red, with daguerreotypes of the two authoresses
on the cover. "The Youth's Poetical Bible" was to be the name of it.
Papa, much tickled with the scraps which he overheard, proposed,
instead, "The Trundle-Bed Book," as having been composed principally in
that spot, but Elsie and Clover were highly indignant, and would not
listen to the idea for a moment.

After the "Scripture Verses," came Dorry's turn. He had been allowed to
choose for himself, which was unlucky, as his taste was peculiar, not
to say gloomy. On this occasion he had selected that cheerful hymn
which begins--

"Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound."

And he now began to recite it in a lugubrious voice and with great
emphasis, smacking his lips, as it were, over such lines as--

"Princes, this clay _shall_ be your bed,
In spite of all your towers."

The older children listened with a sort of fascinated horror, rather
enjoying the cold chills which ran down their backs, and huddling close