AND now comes St. Nicholas himself, who has a private publishing-house of his own, as well as a share in most of the others. The magazine named in homage to him is always delightful, and the bound volume for 1877 is, we were about to say, the most wonderful collection of the best and sweetest art and literature for children that ever has been published. Its editor, Mary Mapes Dodge, has that rare faculty for selection of the fittest which many scientific men deny that even nature possesses. By some means she succeeds in urging the contributors to extraordinary efforts; and, instead of finding Whittier, Longfellow, Bryant, Proctor, Thomas Hughes, George MacDonald, and the others, writing as if under a strain-as with most authors when treading unaccustomed paths-in St. Nicholas we find them talking to the children just as they would if all the dear boys and girls were clustered about their knees, with the firelight playing over the golden, the brown, and the gray heads. The grown folks should indeed be thankful to Mrs. Dodge for the better acquaintance with children's natures which the magazine has given.

The programme announced for the next year (the fifth volume) beginning with the number for November, 1877, is equal to the performance of the last. Louisa M. Alcott, whose stories have been read by all the world, will contribute a serial for girls, with the pretty title of Under the Lilacs." Gustavus Frankenstein will have a continued story for boys, "Tower Mountain." There will be a series of instructive and entertaining papers, by various authors, "The How Series," and another set, equally interesting, descriptive of foreign life. The wide range of St. Nicholas is suggested by the specimen illustrations given in these pages.

The Christmas (December) number of St. Nicholas will be received as the finest of all the splendid holiday numbers issued by the publishers. One hundred thousand copies are printing, and among the contributions, besides the serials already mentioned, are poems by Longfellow and Bryant, a short story by the author of Alice in Wonderland," and other articles of remarkable interest. There is a new cover-design, from the hand of Walter Crane, the famous designer of "The Baby's Opera," and, with other artistic attractions, it is a golden number. By all means, let everybody who desires to see a healthy moral and mental growth in children subscribe, through his bookseller, for St. Nicholas for his little friends.

St. Nicholas' publishers, Scribner & Co., have also issued a delightful large octavo book. called Baby Days," for mothers to read to their very little ones. It is full of songs and stories, all aimed to enlarge young minds, while affording them healthy food and amusement, and written by authors who have proved themselves

Baby Days.

able to reach and charm the child-heart. The pictures, three hundred in number, are full of suggestion, fun, and art. The volume has been made up from previous issues of St. Nicholas, for the special purpose of providing a book for the very little folks, all to themselves.

WE present below, arranged alphabetically by publishers, a running descriptive list of the holiday gift books of the season, with brief references to other volumes for the library or parlor-table, that may fairly be classed among the books for Christmas presents. So generous is the offering of the publishers that the reader's difficulty will be, we fear, not what to choose, but what not to choose. Every kind of book, at every price, is to be found somewhere in the list, and of the more important a full description, with illustrative cuts in connection with it, is to be found in the previous pages.

THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY of course lays its strength chiefly at holiday times on books for the little folks, but we may note as admirably suitable for holiday presents their fine "Teachers' Bible," one of the best editions in the world, in any variety of styles, at prices ranging from $4 to $15, at which latter it can be had in full American levant, a piece of binding which, of its kind, cannot be surpassed in the world. Two volumes of religious interest are

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God's Word Man's Light and Guide," a series of Sunday-school lectures by eminent clergymen ($1.50), and "The Old Bible and the New Science," by Rev. Dr. J. B. Thomas ($1.50). A new edition of "The Name Above Every Name," which is Christmasy with its list of the names of Christ ($1). "Daily Light on the Daily Path," which sells by the ten thousand, and Our Little Ones in Paradise," a compilation for bereaved parents, may also be mentioned.

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D. APPLETON & Co. do not present as many holiday books as usual on their list of this year, but have nevertheless several books for the season, and of course an indefinite line on their regular list, of books that are bought for Christmas presents by the hundreds and thousands. The Life and Words of Christ." by Dr. Cunningham Geikie, D.D., an elaborate work, in two volumes, with a dozen engravings on steel, at $8, is a work of broad religion, earnest devotion, scholarly thought, and elegant style,

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which, it is said, will rival, if not surpass, Farrar's, in the reputation it is destined to make. Such a book as this is of course peculiarly acceptable as a Christmas gift, especially to a clergyman. A volume of Gems of the Centennial Exhibition," quarto, $6, is rich in illustrations as well as descriptions of the objects of art from all countries there exhibited. It is the complete work of which the papers in Appletons' Art Journal, among the most beautiful of the articles on the Centennial, have been parts. Of course, there is a book on "Pottery and Porcelain," which covers the ground from the earliest times down to the Centennial Exhibition; it is by Charles Wyllys Elliott, whose name is well known in connection with the Household Art Company of Boston, and as an art writer. The handsome book, which costs $5, has 165 illustrations, and contains the more important of the marks and monograms. Those who are seeking one of the many books on this subject would do well to include it in their list. There is a new Lacroix volume, "Science and Literature in the Middle Ages," illustrated. like the previous beautiful volumes, with a dozen or more chromo plates and 250 engravings on wood, very richly bound, at $12. All these books are unusually popular at Christmastime. The illustrated edition of Bryant's Poems, published a year or so ago, should not be forgotten at holiday-time.

VIOLA. Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so oft?
MAL. At your request? Yes; nightingales answer daws.-TWELFTH NIGHT.
From the" Leopold Shakespere." (Cassell.)