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would have made. It's gone home, too; it's hurt me, little girl, and that's more than I'd own to any living thing besides yourself." "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say anything to hurt you, Uncle Ted."

"I know you didn't. There, now, don't look grave, Peablossom. You've done no harm. So you think I need to be happier and pleasanter, do you ?" "Sometimes, when you are ill, and-and-" "Don't stammer."

"I was going to say cross!"

Then he went to the fire, and spreading his long, thin fingers over the sparkling bed of coals, he said to himself, "Twelve years ago to day-twelve long years!"

"Where was it-what was it, Uncle Ted?" A story lay behind that, and whether it was grave or gay, a story of Uncle Ted's was one of the things nobody could afford to lose.

He looked at me with a strange sorrowfulness in his fine brown eyes. "It was away off in the East Indies, dear, and the hot, dead-blue sky was overhead; the birds, glittering sparks of gold and crimson darting in and out of the vast branches of the banyan-tree; the low sound of the tides slipping in among the burning, yellow sands of the coast-all this is about me, and I am lying at the coolest end of a long verandah, where the air, swooning away among the heavy fragrances, rouses itself sometimes into a fresh pulse of coolness. They had carried me out there in the early dawn to wait for life or death, for I had been brought to the very grave with one of the fevers of the climate. But at last, over my throbbing pulses and fevered brain, a sudden sleep came down and steeped my senses, and at last I woke up, and asked them what day it was; and they told

me.

"It was Christmas in my native land, that seemed as distant to me then as the mountains

of the moon do to you now. I lay there and thought how far off the snows lay white on the hills, and the winds blew strong and fresh among them; and how the church-bells were ringing, and merry voices slipping along the greetings and blessings, and the little children were wild with frolic and delight over their toys, and there were thanks and praises, and gifts overflowing in happy hearts-for it was Christmas at home!

"And as I lay there, and heard the slipping tides, and the sharp voice of the insects, and the singing of the birds on that morning under the equator, a man, as I thought, doomed in a few hours to die, and be buried there, afar from my land and my kindred, all this seemed very hard and bitter, and the beauty and the glory around sickened my soul. The physician suddenly bent over me. He laid a hand on my pulse and another on my forehead. Ah, sir!" he said, 'there's a change! You've been asleep for the last five hours, and that sleep has saved your life! It will be a long pull, but we'll have you on your feet yet!"

"How my heart jumped and thanked God for the words! It was as though a cool breath from my native hills had rolled in from the tropics and waved freshly over me. I shall see them all again,' I said: 'the old homes, and the green fields, with the little brooks dimpling and laughing, and slipping away in happy songs among them; best of all, I shall see the dear old home faces all lighted up with joy and welcome!' and so the faint life woke up from the hot fever and stirred at my heart."

"And this was true, Uncle Ted-here you are this Christmas-day."

"Yes, Kathie; but the fever did a terrible work on me. I came home, and I've been an invalid ever since; and a sharp little girl, who wasn't in the world that Christmas morning, has the audacity to tell her uncle this one that he isn't as happy as he might be !"

"Well, I tried not to say it, but you would make me, you know."

"I know it. I take the blame on myself." Just then the breakfast-bell rang. After the meal was over-a bright meal, with merry jests on all sides-mammy said, with a glance, halftender, half-sorrowful at Adelaide, "There was a young man here last night who desired a Christmas gift; shall I let him have it ?"

"Adelaide's face was all blushes: "My sister is a dozen years older than I, and Uncle Ted, who has seen them, says she's as graceful as a lotus of the Nile. She is something better than that, I know."

"Oh," I said, "I understand what you mean, mamma-" Ashley Earle wants you to give him our Adelaide for a Christmas gift. It would be nice to have a grand wedding like the one across the way; but I would rather keep my sister's.'

"And I would rather keep my daughter's," added mamma."

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"And I would rather keep my niece's," said Uncle Ted; so Ashley Earle, fine fellow though he is, and flattering tongue though he has, must go without his Christmas gift, Adelaide."

And she laughed again, and the crimson wavered in her cheeks; but, for all they said, I I didn't feel so certain about Ashley Earle's cot having his Christmas gift.

"That small child is getting a-head of us, with her?" Julia," said Uncle Ted. "What shall we do

And then, in his comical way, my uncle related what I had said to him that morning when we stood by the windows. They all laughed. I now remembered the question I had in store for him."

"Uncle Ted, who was Queen Mab ?"

"Don't you know? She was the little Queen of the fairies, and if you had lived three hundred years ago in 'Merrie England,' you would have been able to tell us all about her, for the children were sung to sleep with nursery ditties, and roused with stories about her."

"Oh, Uncle Ted, how nice and funny. I almost wish I'd lived then!"

“You would not have found everything' nice and funny then,' my child. The Christmas of to-day is better than it was three hundred years ago, for the lads and lasses of your height." "But I want to know more of Queen Mab of the Fairies, Uncle Ted?"

"So you shall, sometime, and about her coach drawn by a 'small grey-coated gnat,' and all that."

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whose kind fingers it was that filled your plates and stockings.

Perhaps you would like to know how this name came to be used in connection with Christmas goodies.

Many years ago there was a good monk in a foreign land, who used to be very kind to little children. He never seemed more pleased than when he had a troop of them about him, and he usually had his hands laden with good things for them. So the little children always shouted for joy when the good Claudius came among them.

After he was dead, the Catholic Church gave him the title of Saint Claudius; and when the merry Christmas times came round, and bright evergreens, and crimson holly-buds, decked out the hall and the cottage, when the little ones woke in the morning, to rejoice over their beautiful gifts, it was common for mothers to say that the good Saint Claudius sent them. In the course of years, the tradition was lost by the many, and the name was corrupted into the now familiar one of Santa Claus.

I think it is as harmless a tradition as the Church of Rome has preserved, and in its modified form has had more believers than any other.

THE TOILET. (Specially from Paris.)

FIRST FIGURE. - Dress of straw-coloured poult de soie, trimmed at bottom with a Russian plaiting, on which is laid a deep band of black velvet vandyked at the edge. Tunic of the same material, presenting two long points in front, and rounded behind, where it forms a Camargo panier. Round the tunic a flounce of Chantilly lace, surmounted by a black velvet bow. Corsage cut low and square, with wide square basques slit up at the sides. Both corsage and basques are bordered by black velvet cut in sharp points. Black velvet waistband, with a large bow and short ends behind. Chemisette of embroidered muslin, bordered with valencienne round the top. Coiffure composed of a tulle scarf, straw-colour, sprinkled with small black velvet stars. Three roses as a diadem in front. Shoes of straw-coloured gros grain.

SECOND FIGURE.-Toilet of mauve faille with a corsage open in front, forming two wide evers of mauve velvet bordered with white satin. Sleeves puffed at top and slashed. Diadem coiffure composed of tea-roses and white roses, with a black lace veil falling on the hair.

THIRD FIGURE.-Bride's toilet, composed of a first skirt of white silk half-train shape, and trimmed with flounces. Polonaise of white gros grain fastened at the side. The white silk corsage underneath is high with tight sleeves, which the wide sleeves of the polonaise do not conceal. Gros grain silk waistband. Bouquet of orange-flowers at the side. Mary Stuart wreath of orange flowers with a trail falling over, the hair. Long white tulle veil. Shoss of white gros grain. In this toilet, when seen from behind, the polonaise forms a large point.

The waistband is tied over it in a bow with four is not the flame-colour which the name sugloops and ends trimmed with a ruche at bot-gests, but a deep wine-colour, like the red of

tom.

The first novelty to record in rich silks is the paon, or peacock colour. This is shaded precisely like that part of the fowl's feather that is alternately blue and green, and has probably grown out of the popularity of those colours in plaid goods last season. It will be worn for rich carriage toilettes or walking suits, as it is a colour which does not look well at night. The colour is the poult de soie antique, and a softer kind of goods than gros grain. In this material we also see the antique red called Sultane, poussière, or dust colour; and elderberry, a grey colour intended for street wear. For evening there is a pale ashes of roses, shading towards lilac rather than pink; a brilliant coral colour, regina, which is darker than mauve; and absinthe, the faintest tint of blue on white, a marvellously beautiful colour, that seems green by gaslight. In woollen we have plaids, and plain goods in cashmere, merinos, p oplins, and velours. Among these goods a dark red shade called Lucifer is prominent. This Lucifer

carbuncles, when held before the light. Sultan, ruby, maroon, Humboldt purple, and a bright green are also very largely imported. For quieter out-door dresses we see drab, snuffbrown, tea-colour, olive, cinnamon-colour, invisible green, and blue. Ladies' cloth promises to be the favourite material for such suits; but the same grave shades are seen in serges, armures, and ottoman velours. Empress cloth suits for out-doors have the principal parts of the dress in small figures, or else mottled grounds of black speckled white, blue, green, or Lucifer, and a printed border in the two colours for trimming. In cloths we see black and white Astrakhan, in imitation of the smooth, wavy skins of the Russian lamb: it is a novelty, and prettier than the curly Astrakhan worn the few past seasons. Among the many varieties of plush are stone grey and maroon colour, with pile an inch deep, as soft and warm as fur. White plush, dotted with blue, cherry, or lavender is especially pretty for children's wear.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

PROSE accepted, with thanks: "Nil Desperandum;" "The Reprieve;" "The Vicissitudes of Fortune in Eastern Life;" "Colonel Cameron."

Received, but not yet decided upon: "The Duel ;" "Lethie ;" ;""The Skipper's Story."

POETRY received and accepted, with thanks: "The

and 66 Translated Italian Sonnets;" "The Benediction."

AMATEUR. This lady will find her question anticipated in our last number; but we repeat, for her especial benefit, that all such tales, essays, &c., shall receive our best attention, and, where it is possible, encouragement.

Fall of the Leaf;" "The Dead Hope;" "The Le-Music, books for review, &c., must be sent in by the gend of Jack Brian, of the Fort." 10th of each month, to receive notice in the next number.

Declined, with thanks: "For Ever;" "Devotion;"

PRINTED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 265, STRAND.

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