logs of wood, and boards, lying about; and as George had, once in his life, seen a real castle with real cannon, he had succeeded pretty well in building something that resembled it. There can be no doubt that George was very much pleased with his work; and it was natural that he should wish his father to see how clever he had been; and as soon as Mr. Hardy's head could be seen above the

trap door-way, and before he could set his feet upon the floor, George exclaimed, "Here, father, this is what I want you to see; look at my castle."

"I will look at it as soon as I am safely landed," said his father. 66 "Ah, I see now. Why, you have found some old friends of mine!"

66 What, the cannon, father?"

66

"Yes, the cannon. They belonged to my brothers and me when we were little boys." "Oh, what capital playthings; how did you play with them, father?"

"Why much in the same way as you are playing with them now; only instead of such a castle as you have built, we had a floating castle to put them in."

"A floating castle-a floating castle! Ah, I know what you mean; you mean a ship, father."

"Yes, you are right, it was a ship. You know that ships are sometimes called floating castles."

"And do you think, father, that the ship you used to play with is here too? But if it were, there is no pond to swim it upon. Where did you use to swim it, father?"

"I will tell you. Your grandfather did

not always live in the house he now lives in. When I was a little boy, we lived in another house, and there was a pond in the garden. In that pond we used to swim our boats." you more boats than one?" asked

"Had George.

"Oh yes; we had several. But most of them were small ones. We made these our

selves; and some day, if you put me in mind of it, I will get a piece of wood and cut one out for you. But the ship that held these

cannon was a larger affair. It was made for us by a carpenter. It had a deck, and masts, and rigging, and sails, and a rudder. The sails and rigging we put to it ourselves; and we bought the cannon with our pocketmoney; but the carriages which they are placed upon we made and painted as you see. We added the cannon to make our ship look like a man-of-war."

"Oh that was nice. I should like to have such a ship to sail on our pond at home. I suppose the ship was not large enough for you to get into yourself?"

"No, it was not; but it was not always without sailors. There were a great many frogs in the pond; and they used sometimes to get on the deck of our ship, and leap about as though they were quite at home; and then, when they were tired of it or when they were disturbed, splash they would go into the pond, and away they would swim. I remember another kind of sailor being once put into the ship. There was a grave old gentleman who used sometimes to visit your grandfather. He was one day walking by himself by the side of the pond, when a little kitten came running after him and playing about him. All at once, it came into this gentleman's head to see what sort of a sailor

puss would make. So he caught her, and carried her to the side of the pond where the ship was, and set her down upon the deck, and then pushed the ship out into the middle of the pond. Poor puss did not much like her new situation: she ran to the side of the boat, and seemed as though she would jump into the water. But she did not like the look of the water any more than she liked the ship. So she began to run up the rope-ladder; but the ladder was not meant for a cat to climb; and though it was but a small kitten, she was too heavy for the ship when her feet were off the deck; and there began to be great danger that it would be overturned, puss and all. As soon as the gentleman saw this, he was alarmed for the poor kitten, for he was a very kind and tenderhearted man, and he had not meant to hurt it; so he tried to reach the ship with his walking-stick, to get it to the shore again. But he could not reach it in this way. Then he laid himself down on the bank, and reached over the pond as far as he could reach; and just as he was trying as hard as he could to get the ship to the shore, your grandmother looked out of the parlour-window, and saw her old friend stretched on the grass. She was very much alarmed; for she thought he had fallen down in a fit; and she feared, too, that he would roll into the pond. He was a very stout, large man, and she thought, 'Oh

dear, if he should roll into the pond, we shall never be able to pull him out again alive.' Then she called somebody to help her; and your grandfather, and some of your uncles, ran out into the garden just as poor puss was brought safe to shore. And then there was such a hearty laugh."

"Ha, ha, ha!" said George; "I should have laughed too. It must have been good fun to see the kitten trying to run up the rope-ladder."

66

"Stop, my dear little boy; will you answer me one question. Do you think the kitten liked it?"

66

Why no, father; I should think she was frightened."

"Then remember, my boy, that it is wrong to find amusement in what gives pain, or causes fear, to any living creature. It was well enough to laugh at the curious figure our kind old fat friend made, lying sprawling upon the grass, and pulling the ship with its frightened passenger ashore. That is, it was well enough to laugh at when it was all over, and no harm done. But it was thoughtless of him to put the cat into the ship; and he suffered very great and real distress while he thought she was in danger of being drowned, and he put himself into danger to rescue her. I dare say it was a lesson to him as long as he lived, never to play such a trick with a kitten again. But we have almost forgotten

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