My ruby, my beautiful ruby, grandmamma. Uncle Charles made me do it. It has turned black."

'At mention of that name the old lady's colour grew yet more ashy. With difficulty she at last extracted from the child a connected account of the affair, then she asked for the cakes, laid them near the ruby, and was silent some, time. I wondered whether a faint clapper, clapper, from me would bring the countess on the right track. I ventured one: it did its work.

"It is well you did not touch those cakes, Rosie, they are not wholesome. Uncle Charles could not know that when he said you might eat them.”

'Her voice faltered as she spoke what she was only too afraid was an untruth.

"And it is this good ruby that has found this out for you. Whenever anything is not good for you it will always change its colour I fancy; you may safely trust it in the future.”

Clip, clip, clapper," I broke in loudly.

Why there is the dear stork who brought it," cried Rosie. "Thank you, kind bird; thank you once more, many, many times, for this useful gift. 'I shall always ask the ruby first before I eat anything, mustn't I grandmamma? And then I shall never be unwell."

666

Clapper, clapper," I said; and oh, my love, I felt and do feel so happy that they know the stone's worth at last.

'The old countess was crying when Rosie turned away from the window; the child could not think why, and inquired several times the cause of her grief. As for me, why I divined it, you can well think. See, there goes Rosie down there; that is she, -the little girl in the straw hat. And here too, if I am not much mistaken, is the head of our eldest born, working his way out of the shell. We must bring up our children with reverence for the family, wife. It is well for both. Why, see, the sun is near upon setting. Have I shortened the weary hours for you somewhat this afternoon? Why, that is well. Clip, clapper. Then my time and trouble have not been wasted. But it is fatiguing work, telling a story, love; I don't think I shall ever tell another. When the children are old enough to be informed, you can repeat to them what I have said. You women can manage that better. Clapper, clap; my throat feels quite dry. I must go down to the pond and refresh myself with a draught of water and a few young frogs. Ta, ta, my love; I shall be back soon.

'Don't say I am not an attentive husband,' he called back, as he sailed gracefully away.

The castle of Rudolfsburg still stands, though it has been much altered since that time, and there is still a stork's nest upon one of its castellated towers. But whether it is the same nest, and whether its inmates are descendants from this stork pair, I should be afraid to vouch. What I can assure you is that little Rosie lived to a good old age, and that the present inmates of the castle are her descendants.

Some day, if you go into that part of Germany, you can see the castle, the' terrace, and the stork's nest, but what became of the cakes, or whether you can still see them, I do not know.

August.

BETWEEN SLEEPING AND WAKING.

THE

.

'HE dead stillness of night, that is nowhere more awful than in those strange depositories of the thought, work, and care of all ages, and all nations, reigned in the British Museum. It is then that life returns to the manifold objects it encloses. The huge megatherium shakes his bones with laughter at the arrogance of the monuments of Nineveh, who are imposing upon the Greek statues by declaring that they are the oldest things extant. The walrus is relating to all who will listen of the beauty of icebergs, the delights of the cold, and how pleasant it is to lie basking on the snow when the Arctic sun shines brightly. The lion, meanwhile, angrily contends that his parched desert home is a far better dwelling-place. 'If we do not have the midnight,' he would say

sun to shine for us at sarcastically, at least it shines for us every day; that is more than you can boast. So there.' With which exclamation the lion invariably ended his