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KNICKERBOCKER WOOING. btory VV ritten lor I In a natural tone, and to pass into the library. Need I say that for a few minutes my old friends on the shelves failed to hold my attention, and that I took them down and put them up again and even opened and scanned ttiom mechanically. What possible thing could have changed the haughty beauty so com pletely and suddenly? Her father came in and I delayed looking at, him, expecting him to show agitation and excitement. But the tones of his voice were full and normal. I looked and lie was the same bright-eyed, clear skinned, plump and ruddy-visaged young old man. Visitors made themselves hoard in the drawing-room, young lady visitors, 'and Mr. Henning excused himself. 1 felt at ease again, opened a volume, and leaning back in my chair and crossing my legs went to the Feejoo Islands with a daring traveler. The sound of my name, spoken hurriedly and somewhat sharply, brought mo back with a start. Aliss Henning. pale yet, and wan Jooking, but holding herself with all her wonted haughtiness of mien, was standing before me. "Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Swenscn dislikes you "I know it," I said. "It is because you know something of him that is not known by us here— 1 something he would not wish us to know?" "I do not know how he could possibly think that," I replied. I never felt so thoroughly under my own command before in my life. I enjoyed the sen sation. "I. have not said that ho thought any thing, Mr. Fletcher." "Well, I do not seo then how you soiild possibly think it." "I do think it, Mr. Fletcher, and I urn not mistaken he hates you, and you, so far as I am able to road de meanor, act as if you realized the pow er you hold over him." Oh, 110, upon my word, Miss Hen ning, 1 beg of you not to think that. If hero has been anything to read in my demoanor in connection with Mr. Swenson it lias been simply that I have business and minded "SWliNSEN MADE ME IjEAl'." Has lie spoken to you as you just spoke? Does lio say this? "Mr. Fletcher, I have not come to make explanations to you. Mr. Swen sen has always acted liko a gentleman and has interfered in no one's affairs." "Excuse mo, have I then done differ ently?" "You aro not frank. It seems to mo that I ought to bo met differently on the first occasion of my asking a favor from you." Her tone was most poculiar. She as sumed command over me. What would you have mo say, Miss Henning." "Toll me what there is against Mr. Swonsen that you know, and that wo in this house ought to share with you." "I know nothing." "Nothing!" She seemed startled. "Of my personal, absolute knowledge, nothing." "Then, what does it all mean?" "I have, done and said nothing that .[ means anything." 1: Miss Henning Hoked at me as though she was completely at a loss how to 14ict, as though slio with one breath would go away with an appearance of having triumphed over me, with an other as though sho would plead with 1 me. Perhaps this wa3 my imagination. At all events, just then Robert, the porter, with a low cough, gave warn- 1 ing of his presence. "Mr. Swensen, ma am. wishes to thee you moth important." Miss Henning started at tho words so that sho all but jumped. There was no imagination about that. "Yes," said sho "say that I said y°s-" Thore was my moment of triumph. I arose and stood by her, and my tone and words wero exactly suited to an honest and kindly intention. I inward )y thanked heaven that the proud v,*. ,rt ^, in. I 'JTIE SKBLCTON'J LAST VISIf A i. WT 'j.j. RR-*-I I I was astonished at the sight of Miss' J\ his 1 aDer Ralph. rHAl'TKK II Continued. When 1 made my way through the drawing-room in the Henning mansion :n ray next visit, Miss Henning was seated on a low stool rocking to and I*i*o with a sheet of ^paper crumpled bo r.woen her locked lingers and the kneo t.iii'y clasped. So absorbed was she in thought that she did not notice my presence. It seemed to me that I never had soon such a change in a person's face, nor iuld I have believea such a transformation could have been possi b!e as that which in a single glauca I iidtsa in hers. She had grown ton veaiu older in three days. The eonti i'lfiit, proud expression that even in ve nose her features had always worn, the ilash that accompanied every motion of her eyes, the curl that had seemed part t'i'e fashioning of her upper lip, all wore gone, and ttiere sat a pale girl, blankly staring at the carpet, with her fact- contorted as by worriment and lined as if by the strain of illness. Her self-command never before relin quished was now so far gone that when she saw me she sprang to-her feat in alarm, crumpled the paper in the palm of her hand, and then stood nerv ously clutching the back of a chair and exhibiting a hesitation, as it ap peared to mo, between falling into the chair or by force of will continuing to stand. Astonished, I so far forgot my self as to pause in passing her. But I managed to salute her in an approach 1~V Tlllinn f1 The uproar gave place to the voices of men. "Havo you hoard what he really is?" "Yes." .Then that at least is true." The voices were nearer than before. There was something jarring in their tone. Mis Henning and I went into the drawing-room. Mr. Swonsen was thero with his face the color of chalk, pretending to look at a picture. His I back was toward the rough-looking men in the open doorway. Two or three young women stood as if riveted to the The men advanced. Swonsen turned his blanched face toward them. "We want you, Lafarge." said one of the men: "we are officers." "You are making a mistake," said Swensen, speaking somehow down his chest. "My name is not Lafarge." "That'sall right, young feller," spoke you here?" one of tho detectives, in a low, firm voice "don't make a kick we've yot onto you, so come along." "Oh, this is some mistake," said Miss Henning. "Wo can vouch for his be-' ing Mr. Swensen.", "We're onto him, as I jest told him," said the detective, "and we are re sponsible for all mistakos." This woman has annoyed me several times," said Swenson. "I can oasily disprove her assertions. Let me know at what court and at what hour to pro sent myself and I give my word I'll be there." "This woman," said the outcast, with a sneering emphasis on the words, "has made no other accusation than that you are Alfred Lafarge, and you can't disprove that." "Come, young feller, we ain't agoin' to take board and lodging here. We're on business come along." Tell him who you are, Rudolph. Let this farce go no farther," said Miss* Henning. "What's the charge?" said Swensen. "Come along," said tho detective, swinging a pair of shining handcuffs so that thoy jangled. "You'll find out what it is. No use talking of such things in people's parlors." "Got my hat, Robert," said Swensen. The negro disappeared. "What does this mean, Beatrice? Mr. Henning asked. "Tell him, Rudolph." The guilty man was silent. "Then I will, for surely the time for it has come, lie is tho Count Norberg of Sweden," said tho girl confidently, "and has reasons for assuming his mother's name 'Swensen' he has ex plained satisfactorily to me." "Excuse me, young lady," said the Tho shot Swensen fired buried itself in the door by which the foremost officer had beon standing. He paused, it seemed to me, as if to determine whether he had been wounded. He rcached the window just as Swenson oeauty did not, she might, rebuke leaped from the lintel. He looked out, then looked further out and than he loaned half way icsil1 a rl looked everywhere, oven t,'v air.- I Beatl'ic°Honning ill Forsythe street. L»y Ulian Thet-o was no doubt about it. Therj she stood, and, more surprising yet. she was talking to lOlla Palmer. And then I felt grateful as I saw Mr. Heu ning, holding aloof from the two, and #is talking to his coachman, but evidently or rojKM mo, but seemed to understand with only one eye and one ear for the my purpose. latter. I boweu ta Miss Henning, and "One of the many things I have was about to ask Mr. Henning "What heard but do not know about the man," in the world when he interrupted said I, "is that he has within a few me. days procured money with which to in- "We're crazy, that's why we are vest in what his accomplices think will here," he replied. "It isn't bad enough be a profitable speculation. That spec- that criminals should ccm into my ulation is to be a wedding with a rich house, and turn it into a shooting gai young woman." lery, but we now enter into communi- How do you know that? Could vou cation with irresponsible characters in prove it?" the slums." As she spoke thero was a violent "But you arc not going to seo Svven clang of the door bell, which was fol- sen lowed by loud voices, the loudest and "Oh, but I believe we are to be highest, of which was a woman's. Miss shown whore he is. My daughter is Henning moved as if to go and soe what set upon it, and of course I have had to occasioned the disturbance. accompany her." "One moment," said I. "You can "Thore is no danger where I have judge whether what I havo heard is truo, and so you can also weigh this, that 1 havo heard that that marriage cannot be—under this law." asked her to go," said the gill Palme "He won't hurt a Ilea. He hates mo worst of all, and I ain't afraid of him." Miss Palmer snapped her fingers and hissed Fast Side fashion at a boy shaped bundle of rags, as a signal for it to approach. "Show us the rose maker's room," said she. "Thar you be," said the rags, having led us to the end of a pitch-dark hall. A man in the end hall room was talk ing to a woman, who was moving from one apartment to another. He was cursing her. "I tell you I must have whisky," he said. "Oh, don't talk liko that," said the feminine voice. Then he cursed and demanded again, and she made no an- lioor, staring at the men. At the same swor. We rapped at a door, and it was instant—it was all in an instant—the opened. Miss Henning swept in with wretched woman who had called lior- out leave or invitation. The bias self 1011a Palmer came into the room by pheming man, in the adjoining room the lower door. She walked straight was screaming in a paroxysm of pro to Swensen, and, looking first at him and then at the two strangors, said: "Here he is, as I told you." fanity, and he heard none of the noise we made. A small flat-iron shot from the door within a foot of Miss Hen ning's feet. I turned and saw the Doc tor's daughter Alice, who looked at me with a piteous expression of surprise and alarm. "She'll show you your man," said Ella Palmer, and withdrew. "Great Heavens!" I said. "Miss Alice, I saw, as one sees without looking, a room with a bare floor and with pictures cut from illustrated papers on tho walls, board boxes piled to tho ceil ing, at one side two long tables, and here and thore some stools, but every where rosos—in heaps on tho tables, piled on the mantel-piece, and in a gorgeous loop depending from the gas bracket. All were artificial, for it was here, as I afterward learned, that Alice Whitfiold conducted a shop, all un known to her- father, for making arti ficial flowers. Thus she jjrovided the family with support without injuring his family pride. Beatrice Henning strode into the small room, and wo followed her. There we saw the face of Swensen above the quilt that covered his body, as it rested on a couch. How changed it was. How his eyes glared. They accounted for his speech and manner. He was delirious. "Rudolph, tell me what I ask you," Miss Henning said. "Whisky—whisky! I want whisky," was his only exclamation. "Oh, Rudolph, I'll help you. I'll have you moved. You are ill." 1 "I am dying," he moaned "shot through and through. Then followed a burst of the foulest language. Miss Beatrice quitted the room, not dis tracted or in tears, but with her head held high, and, though her face was I blanched, with flashing eyes. "You will go for the police?" she commanded rather than asked of me. "Mr. Fletcher, what does this moan: are you going to surrender him?" Tno words were those of Miss Alice, stand ing before me with outstretched hands whose fingers were pressed together as in prayer. She continued: "No ono spokesman of tiie detectives, with polite-| but you and a physician knows he is ness sarcastically simulated. "But it's for a little affair connected with the Count Norberg that we want him." (Swenson started.) "The Count isdead Lafarge we found done it. It's for the murder of the Count Norberg that the Swedish Government has politely requested we do for to" perform this hero dis agreeable duty." Robert came in and handed Swenson his hat. "Miss Henning reeled and fell in a chair. "Murder?" said Mr. Henning in a loud whisper. Miss Ella Palmer laughed aloud so that for once my blood ran cold. Swenson walked toward the detect ives with two steps, then wheeled, and with a bound reached the library, and with another the broad sill of the win dow in the western end of that room. This window looked down upon a square of pavement hemmed in on its four sides by a kitchen window, a projec tion of the house, a fence separating it from the next yard, and the end wall of the family stablo. Both detectives bounded after him. Ho strained and tugged at tho window. It had a catch that ho did not see. Ho bent himself, then straightened up, and with desperate strength tore away the inch thick top bar of the lower ta.-li. As it gave way he slipped and stood upon tho floor. One of the de tectives was three feet from him-then, and Swensen, with tho rapidity of thought, drew a pistol and fired. The shot "missed, but while the detective paused only the shade of a second, the hero. He cannot live many days—per haps not many hours. Let him die here." A frightful volley of vile opitliets issued from an inner room. They wero in all probability addressed to the woman who was defending tho outlaw, anyone that knows him as but as the words fell upon tho ears of Miss Henning her face became a mass of raging hate. Sho bounded toward the door, but was seized and held back by the Doctor's daughter. "Stop!" cried Alice. "I. don't know what cause you have to wish him ill but Mr. Fletcher will tell you I am the mother of his child: I am his wife. It is for my child that I plead. Whatever you know against my husband, I know "WHISKY-—I WAST WHISKY worse. Whatever he has done elso where is not likely to equal what ho desperate man had reached the window I has done to me and mine. But he is sill, burst out the huge pane, and was ready to leap to the ground. "Bang," wont the detective's pistol, and Swen son made the leap. I saw at tho salno time much more than I havo described: Mr. Henning lifting his daughter's limp body and trying to carry it out of the room. The negro servant, though called to aid him, darted out of tho door as if be side himself with fright, tho young de tective who had not spoken pressing up close to the ono who was shot at and who returned the fire, the young women huddling in one corner—two with their faces against the wall and on© with her back to theirs, hiding her eyes with hor hands. dying, and I had hoped my child might live to hear his name ne worse stained than it is. Let the man die here out of jail, attended as a man should be." Miss Henning touched her father's arm. He did not turn his face. She shook his arm petulantly. Then they both wont down-stairs, she loading her father. "God bless you, Mr. Fletcher." said Miss Alice. "'Now go away, dear friend, and may what you have seen be our joint secret." At the end of tho hall, by the street door, Stood. Ella Palmer with a hand in each pocket of hor sacquq, stamping her feet like a man and whistling. "I have a twenty-dollar note here," I said, holding it up, "and this is only the beginning of what I will give you if you will tell no one of what you know." And I informed her of Alice's baby, and drew such a melting picture that I really fancied that she was af fected. "Keep your money," said she "I'll not tell a soul." "Thank you," said I. "Keep your thanks, too," she re torted. "I ain't worth them, at\d I can't stand them. I like a blow and a crack with tho club, a curse, and a night in tho lockup better, because I'm used to it and it's part of my business." Throe days later there was a knot of white erapo on one of tho boll knobs at tho door of tho Big Barracks. Alice's boy V.MS dead. The bereaved mother put her har.d in mine, and left it there, aud bowed her head, despising mere word-!. I opened my mouth, but my heart closed my speech, and a tear ran down each of my cheeks. She pressed my hand, and I understood that she was grateful to me for my emotion. Tho Doctor's wife caught my eye and seemed to invite me to her. I'made my way on tiptoe to her side. "Hush," she said. "You know the skeleton? It comes and goes, you know. It will come and go to-night, but never again." This was whispered very earnestly and confidentially. "It will come only once more, to-night, but never again. Oh, we shall be so happy after that." A little later, as we were all in the front room, there was a knock at tho door, and a ragged bootblack entered with a movement that was something between leaping and being thrown for ward. "Axcuso me," said a man who ap peared at tho open door, and to whom the boy had evidently shown the way. "Is this Dr. Whitfield's? I have a man in tho hack downstairs. He was after telling me to leave him here, and God forgive him for what he has done to me. Bring him up if he is wanted and let mo go." We went downstairs. A closed car riage stood at the curb.. Alice was first to look into the vehicle. Sho drew back, and grasping my arm, turned a face distorted with horror upon me. "He is dead," she exclaimed, "My husband is dead. Oh, Mr. Fletch er, what shall we do now?" I whispered to the driver a promise of monoy and of my company on his box if he would wait anothor live min utes. Then I led the Doctor's daugh ter*into tho house. I told them tnat thore would be a coroner's inquest, and that if the body was brought into the house the most sacred secrots of the family would bs made public. I volun teered to take the remains to an under taker's shop, to notify the police, ac quaint the Coroner with all the facts necessary, and to manage that tho ex istence of the wife should not be dis closed. Swensen was buried the day after, the inquest. His widow had hoped that he might bs interred with her little boy, but the Doctor would not, had that been done, have attended the funeral. The child was buried^on the afternoon of tho day of the inquest. The Doctor, his dang titer and I were the only mournc. s. The next day Miss Alice and I followed the hoarse for the second time. She wept bitterly for her little boy on tho way to its grave. And next day, as we buried her husband, sho yielded again to excessive grief. I spoke a few comforting words and found that all tho tears were for her baby boy. Even when she drew me beside her close to the grave in which her husband's body had been laid, she told mo of the winsome attributes the child had possessed. I do not believe she shed a tear for lior husband. I have determined upon the woman I want for a wife. I deliberately started from my tailor's hands a year ago to get a bride as I had been getting my meals, my clothe and the workmen in my shop—to order. I started out phil osophically and in cold blood, saying to myself that 1 had the years and the money and tho need of a home, now for a wife. Without my knowing how it came about, or dreaming that it ever could, I have been guided to a familiar spot, oft visited in the past but always blindly. Certain bandages havo fallen from my eyes and I see before me Alico Whitfield. She is just where she al ways was, in her home at hor work, but I see her in a new light, which makes her seem no longer simply the friend whose sorrow-laden secrets havo been betrayed to me. Tho same poi son is now subordinated to something ethereal, subtle and magnetic, as if saw her through a halo. Full well I know that it is because lovo is looking through my eyes and lending me his sight. I love her. Does sho love me? The month of my waiting for her an swer will be up to-morrow. With it will close that era in my life of which this is a history. [THE END. Copyright. All rights reserved. That Would Io. One of the new ones came clown the avenue yesterday afternoon on a cable car. Near him sat a lady of an uncertain age and certain avoir dupois. Something in his conversa tion attracted her attention. "Sir," sho said, "are you a Con gressman?" "Madam," lie responded, "I am." "Well, then," she said, "my son employed in the architect's division of the Navy Department, and he is good boy and he is competent. They have gi-ven all otlie employes thirty days leaves of absence, and my boy wants to go to the Fair. We don' want to lose his salary meantime, and they have not given him anv holiday, and I want you to pass a bii giving him thirty days' rest, with fill pay, and—" "Madam," he interposed, "I fear it would bo impossible in the shor time allowed me." "Well, there was something about leaves of absence and bills in the appendix of the last Congressional Record. Couldn't you get your bill in there?" "It would be hardly possible for me to call in all the Government print ing," he said, "but I might get it the next index." "That will do perfectly," she said as she stopped the car.—Washington Post. Machinery. It is said that the problem of silent machinery has been solved by a Vien na firm, who are manufacturing cog wheels of pressed raw hide. The new wheels have, it is claimed, great strength, and they do not require lubricating on the other hand, they tire very expensive ••aiaaeMM HILDB.OTS. COLUMN. I DEPARTMENT FOR LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS. Something: that "Will Interest tho Juvenile Members of 1-^vcrv Household—Quuint Ac tlons and Urighs buying* of Mnny Cute and Cunning Children. KS IiO*t on the Alp«. In cold and darkness lon^ acto, Where freezing mists liung damp and gray On AUine summits white with snow, A traveler lost his way. v- The faint moon had withdrawn hor light No star was seen In all the sky Vainly for aid that awful night He uttered cry on cr. JUST IN TIME. At last a drowsy feeling crept Across his brain, balf-dazod with woe, And as tho morning broke lie slept, Strotched on tbe drifted SDOW. Then, ecliood by tho tall poaks round, What sounds, liko music, smote his car? Tho loud, desp baying of a hound Told him that help was near. ISravo. noblo dos, how well he know His duty, wise as ho was brave! Louder the anxious baying grew— His mission was to save. The good monks heard, and came with speed. Tbe poor lost traveler to befriend, And fed. warmed, sheltered in his need, Ills troubles found an end. Waterintf tlie Flowers. «Ali—there's ruin," piped Robin Ked, l'erchod in his peach-tree tower. "Now, keep away," the posies said "This is a private shower." The robin lookod and looked again. And then he thought a spell "Why, that's no more a real, true rain Than looking down tho well." .v —St Nicholas. Ills Sliding Scalc. The boy was covered with mud to the top of his kilt skirt, there were mud patches on his face and hair, and he had lost his hat, but in his hand he grasped a chicken—a limp, wet and muddy chicken. It was the cause of his trouble, for he had thrown stones in the yard that after noon, and had accidentally killed the chicken. His sister had declared that she could not love such a cruel boy. Then he had disappeared and had been found stuck in a swamp. When he saw his mother his feel ings overcame him and he burst into a loud wail. "My sister doesn't love me! my sis ter doesn't love me! I want to get lost in the woods and let the bears eat me!" "But," said his mother, "you cried when you pinched your linger with the clothespin, and it would hurt you far more if the beat- should eat you." The boy was interested and dried his tears. "I moan a kind, tame bear," he said, choking a sob. "But a tame bear has sharp teeth." The boy rubbed his eyes with his muddy hand, and was lost in thought for a while- Then he raised his head. Ilis countenance was cheerful, there was not a trace of sorrow in his tone, and he cried, "I mean—1 mean a nice little curly dog without any teef."— Harper's Young People. The feize of (lie S.cu. whole sea is composed ot the Atlan tic and Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic and Antaractic Seas and various smaller bodies of water. It has an area of 1-10,000,000 square miles and would lorm a circle ol: l,j. 350 miles in diameter. The relative size of the areas of the whole surface of the earth, of the whole sea, ot the Pacific, and ot the Atlantic can be represented bv a silver dollar for the surface of the earth, a half dollar for the surface ot tho whole sea, a 25 cent piece for tho surface of the Pa- iOF1 nXH&ii silver lialf dime for tho he Atlantic. I A f.rsp i»f Trust. Some time ago a little boy was dis covered in the streets, evidently very bright and intelligent, but sick. A man who had the lceling of kind ness strongly developed, went to him, shook him by the shoulder, and asked him what he was doing there. "Waiting for God to come lor me," said he earnestly. hat do you mean?" said the gen tleman, touched by the pathetic, tone or the answer and the condition of the boy, in whose eyes and Hushed face he saw the evidence of fever. "God sent for father and mother and little brother," said lie, "and took them away to his home up in the sky, and mother told me when she was sick that God would take care of me. I have no home, nobody to give me anything, and I came out here and have been looking so long up in the sky for God to take me, as mother said he would. He will come, won't he? Mother never told a lie." "Yes, my lad," said the man, greatly overcome with emotion. "He has sent me to take care of you." You should have seen his eyc3 flash and the smile ot triumph break over his face, as he said: "Mother never told a lie, sir but you havo been so long on the way." ADROIT JOKER. Good Stories Illustrating Oi« Ready Wit of .. an Auctioneer. To be successful in his calling, an auctioneer should be a ready joker. Some amusing stories are told of a former member ot the craft, a man of some social importance, who turned auctioneer after he had tailed in business several times. He opened proceedings with an excellent enter tainment of oysters and champagne. He was the life of the company, and was called upon, of course, for a speech, probably for half a dozen. One of his good things, toward the close, is worth remembering. It par ticularly pleased the trade at that time. "Gentlemen," said he, in allu sion to the entertainment, "we are, scattering our bread upon the waters, and we expect to find it after many days—buttered!" It was in retail sales, however, in the small change.« of the auction room, that his wit ap peared to the most advantage. No catalogue could be too dull far his vi vacity. He was always rapid, and an !i unwary customer would be decapitat ed by his quick electric jest before he felt the stroke. "Is this binding calf?" asked a suspicious customer. "Come up, my good sir, put your hand on it, and see if there is any fellow feeling," was the ready reply. His puns were always happy. Offering one of the Rev. Dr. Hawks' books, ho added, in an explanatory way, "A bird of pray." "Going—going—gen tlemen—one shilling tor Caroline Fry/ —why, it isn't the price of a stew." Akin to this was his observation to a purchaser who had secured a copy of "Bacon's Essays" for twelve and a half cents, "That is too much pork for a shilling." Selling a book la beled "History of the Tartars," he was asked, "Isn't that Tartars?" "-So," he replied, "their wives werey the tartars." "This," said he, hr.ld mg up it volume of a well-known types:* to critics, "is a book by a poor and pious girl, of poor and pious poems." lie was equally apt in introducing a quotation. Some women one day found their way into the auctions room to a miscellaneous sale of fur niture. They wero excited to ana emulous contention for a saucepan,?: or something of the sort. Keese gave gave them a lair chance, with a final appeal—"going—going—-the woman:/ •who deliberates is lost'—gone!" THE DEER MOUSE. All Agile T«ittlc Creature with Tcndoresfc Solicitude for rtsloung. The deer mouse, so called from its:' habit of drawing in its loreleg6 like a deer when it leaps, is one ot the most agil ot creatures and exhibits a most tender solicitude for its young. When the mother is disturbed or tears danger she bounds away to a place of I There are not many people who, if they were to be asked the question, could tell the size ot the salt waters of the earth. The figures aro so great that they could only say, with Dom inie Sampson, "Prodigious!" And yet some interesting illustrations and comparisons may be given as to the size of the sea, and here is a simple I one found in Golden Days: The TIIE DEELL M0US15. safety with the little ones clinging to her body as though they had grown there, and if overtaken she will fight desperately for her precious burden. The mother when so loaded is capa ble of astonishing leaps, sometimes covering tlfteen feet at a single boimd. The deer mouse is found throughout this country'and Canada. It has a very long tail, entirely out of proportion to the body, and very long, It is a noctural animal, out under the cover of dark ht0,amkr 1 ness to gather its supper ot seeds and grass roots. ^.srwii Ijal:or Lost. Prudence is one of the virtues that naturally go with age, but sometimes it is developed early. "Tommy," said a thoughtful mother, "your Uncle William will be here to dinner to-day, and you must wash your face.' "Yes, ma," said the thrifty Thomas, "but s'p»sea he don't come. What" then?"