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CHAPTER 1X. Mr. Reade s cruel and prejudiced accuse- tions against Mr. Rayner had not in the least shaken my faith in the kindness and goodnesa of the master of the Alders ; but I telt anxious to prove to myself that the charges he brought against him were ground- less. Mr. Reade’s suggestion that he let his family sleep in the damp house while he passed his nights elsewhere, for instance, was absurd in the extreme. Where else could he sleep without any one’s knowing anything about it? I often heard his voice and step about the house until quite late; he was always one of the first in the dining- room to our eight o’clock breakfast, and even on the wettest mornings he never look- ed as if he had been out in the rain. It often seems to me that, when I have been puzzling myself fruitlessly for a long time over any matter, I find out quite simply by accidfint what I want to know. , LA“, __:‘.L It. ~._,. w Thus.'only the day after my talk with Mr, Reade in the shop, I was nursing Haidee, who did not fcelinclined to playvuiter lesson- time. when she saidâ€" “No, darling; dreams are only fancies, you know, and never come true, (xcept just by accident.” “ you eve§77hréve horrid dreams, Miss Christie, that frighten you, and then come true ‘2 ” ’1 said this because everybody considers it the right answer to give too. child ; but I do believe just a little in dreams myself. She went on gravelyâ€"â€" “ But mine (10. I’ll tell you about one I had two nights ago, if you’ll bend your head and let me whisper. I must‘nt tell mamma, because she always stops me and says I musm’t speak of what I see ; but I can say it to you ; ycu won’t tell, will you ? " . .. - ....... .-.rn-n “ You know that day when we took you up to your new room in the turret ? ” “ Yes, dear.” said I. “ Hush ! \Vhisper,” cooed she. “ Well, that night Jane put me to bed, just as she always does, in my little room, and then I went to sleep just like I always do. And then I dreamt that I heard mamma screxm- ing and crying, and papa speakingâ€"oh, so ditferently from the way he generally does ; it made me frightened in my dream I I thought it we all real; and I tried to get out of bed ; I .4: I was too much asleep ; and then I didn't dream any more, only when I woke up I remembered it. I didn’t tell anybody ; and the next night I wondered if I should have the dream again, and I didn’t want Jane to go away ; and, when I said it was just because I'd had a dream, she said dreams were stuff and nonsence, and she wanted to go and dream at having supper. And then she went away, and I went to sleep. And then I woke up because mam- ma was crying, and I thought at first it was my dream again ; but kanoeked my head against the rail_of my bed“ and then I knew ,L ,z LA “ No, dariing. I won’t tell,” said I, think- ing it kindest to let the child speak out about her fancies, instead of brooding over thilm, as the shy little thing was too prone to o. "K" â€"-.v '7 ~ v. w I must be awake. And I got out of bed, and I Went quite softly to the door and looked through the keyhole, for. there was 3 light imbal- room; kWhen she has .e light] I can see in quite plainly the h the key- hole. and I can see the bed on her lying in it. But she wasn't alone like she gener- ally isâ€"I could see pa a's hand holding the candle, and he was Is king to her in such a low voice; but she was crying and talking quite wildly and strangely, so that she irightened me. When she talks like that, I feel afraidâ€"it doesn’t seem as if she were momma. And then I saw papa put some- thing on her face, and momma said, ‘ Don’t â€"â€"don’tl Not that l’ and then she only moaned, and then she was quite still, and I heard him go out of the room. And' prer sently I called '.Mammn, mammal ’ but she didn't answer; and I was so frightened. I thought she was dead. But then I heard her sigh like she always does in her sleep, and I got into bed again.” " Were you afraid to go in, darling 1:” “ I couldn’t go in, because the door was locked. It always is, you know. I never go into mamma’s room ; I did only once, and she saidâ€"she ssid"-â€"a.nd the child’s soft whisper grew softer still, and she held her tiny lips closer to my esrâ€"“ she said. I was never so siy anything about itâ€"and I romised ; so mustn’t, even to you, Miss Shristie dear. You don’t mind, do you, be- cause I promised 3 __ _ .a r 1 ,,,!A. n: ~ A . n _ ~ n e V A e u Wm, - ,.v._.._m, “No, darlmg, I don’t. Of course you mm: not tell y9u prom'ised," said I. ,J x AA wu‘v uvu u“. .. B it I would I Engâ€"given, the world to kmw what the child had seen in that mya~ terioua rbom. ~ 1 w: Ivu . . V“-.. Hui-Joe’s strange story had roused again in me all the old feeling of a. shadow of some kind hanging over the house on the mam} which had long since worn away in t_ho quiet routine of my daily life there. _._ AAL .‘_‘.. Jan... anninh+ The locking of the mother‘s door against her own child, her wild talk and crying, the “ something on the face ” that her husband h m had to administer to calm her, and the d acovery that he himself dld not sleep in t to same room, all united to call up in my mind the remembrance of that long talk I had had with Mr. Rayner in the school- IN GflLDEN BONDS. umu uuu. u.”- u-.. ____,, room soon utter my arrival, the story he had told me of her boy’s death, and the change it had made in her, and his allusisn to “ those outbreaks which sometimes cause me the gravestâ€"the very gravest anxiety.” I had understood then that; he feared for his wife's reason. but, never having witnessâ€" ed any great change if: her cold listless man- A_____.. H.-.‘ A- n.“ mknln an, s“. -...._n. N, W” net myself, and having seen on the whole very little of her except at meals, ail fear and almostall remembrance of her possible insanity had landed (rem my mind, in which she remained a background figure. But now Haidee’s story caused me to wonder whether there was not an undercurrent in the affairs of the household of which I knew little or nothing. What if Mr. Rayner, bright, cheerful, and good tempered as he always seemed, were really suffering under the burden of a. wife whose sullen silence might at any moment break into wild in- sanityâ€"if he had to wrestle in secret, as. from the child’s story, seemed to have been the ease quite recently on two successive nights, ‘with moods of wild wailin and weeping which he at first tried to dee with by gentle remonstrsnce (Haidee said that on the second night, when she was fully awake his voice was very low and soft), and at last had to subdue by sedatives ! And then a suggestion occurred to me - which would at least explain Sarah’s impor. tent position in the household. Was she rhnps in truth a. responsible guardian of rs. Ruyner,,such as, if the latter's reason {are reallyieeble, it would be necessary for er to have in her husband‘s absence? I already knew that the relations between mistress and servant were not very amicable. Though she treated her with all outward signs of respect, it was not difficult to see that Sarah despised her mistress, while I had sometimes surprised in the wide gray eyes of the other a. side-glance of dislike and four which made me wonder how she could tolerate in her household av woman to whom she had so strong an affidan. That Mr. Reyner was anxious to keep the scandal of having a. mad wife a secret from the world was clear from the fact that not even Mr. Lawrence Reade, who seemed to take a. articular interest in the affairs of the house~ 1d at the Alders: had ever shown the least suspicion that this was the case. So the secluded life Mrs. Rayner led came to be ascribed to the cavpriceâ€"if the village gossips did not use a. harsher wordâ€"of her husband, while that unfortunate man was really not her tyrant, but her victim. The- only other possible explanation of what Haidee had seen was that Mr. Ray. ner, kind and sweet-tern: ered to every one as he always was, and outwardly gentle and thoughtful to a. touching degree toWards his cold wife, was really the most designing of hypocrites, and was putting upon his wife; under the semblance of devoted affection, a. partial restraint which was as urposeless as it was easy for her to brea through. This idea was absurd. The other supposition, dreadful as it was, was far more probable. I was too much accustomed by this time to Mrs. Rayner’s listless moods and the faint far -ofi‘ looks of fear, or anger. or suspicion that I sometimes saw in her eyes, to be alarmed even by the possibitity of a change for the worse in her â€"-the thought that she was scarcely respon- sible for her words and actions reconciled me somewhat to her cold manner to myself and to the jealousy of the hold I was surely getting 11 on Haidee’s afi'ection. But my strongest eeling was not for the half-w itted wife nor for the unfortunate husband, but for,the' child herself, the unsuspected wit- ness of her mother's outbreaks of incoherent words and cries. It was stran e that these attacks should occur only at nig t} I thought at first ; but then I remembered that these when I had read Adam Bede aloud to her in the drawing-room, the tearful excitement into which, apparently without any cause, she had fallen, which her husband’s entrance had as suddenly subduedâ€"at least for the time ; for how could I tell what had followed when he had led her away into that bed- room oi hers which was beginning to have for me the fascination of a haunted chamber 2 The immediate result of the child’s con- fidence: to me was a great increase of my love for and interest in herself. We be- came almost inseparable in and out of school hours; I encouraged her in talk ; and she soon fell into the habit of telling me, whether I was listening or not. those long rambling stories which have no beginning. no sequence. and no end, which are the solace of children ghgegave no companions of their own age. - a at tion was iron. these 111%? ‘Psometifio had it abru tly brought back by some 'flight of her 0 ildish fancy, which set me wondering if it had been suggested by some half-for- gotten experience. Thus one day, when I was working, and she was sitting on a foot- gtool by my side, with two or three, twigs besrin oak-apples which represented, as far as could judge from her severity to some and her tenderness to the others, the personage: of her story, my attention was arrested by the wordsâ€" "And so the Prince mid to Princess Christie ”~â€"the heroine of the story, so named in honor of meâ€"-â€"" ‘ I’ve brought on some jewels much finer than yours.’ at Princess Chrintie cried and said, ‘I don’t want them. Where did you get them? I know where you got them. You are anaughty bad Prince, and I won’t wear my jewels any more ’ ’ AndI thought of what Mr. Rayner had told me of his wife's hearing. on her return home from a ball, of her baby-boy’s death and of her saying she would never wear jewels again. But Haidee had been but a baby-girl at the time: her words must be but a mere coincidence. But some of the coincidences of her narrative were less difficult of explanation, for she went onâ€" " And so Prince Caramel said, ‘Vory well : I’ll send you some more roses if you won’t throw them away, and some marbles. But you mustn’t cry, you know. I won’t have a Princess that cries. I aha’n’t look at you in church if you cry. If you don’t cry, I’ll let you have some jam too as well at but- ter, and you shall have a ride on the butcher’s horse up and down the back-yard. And then I‘ll put you in a fairy-boat. and we’ll fly awayâ€"fly away right over the trees and over the marsh; and past Mr. Bogget’s and up into the clouds, and live in a. swal- low’s nest, and never (jenny leggona.’ ” And so on, going off in a, wild and unex- pected way into all sorts of extravagances, while I thought, with burning checks, that my demure little maiden had heard and seen more than I had suspected, and mar- velled at the tangle of fancy and reality that grew up from it in her innocent mind.- And sometimes she would any, “ Let us sin Miss Christie ;” and I would sing some bal ad, while she would coo an irregular but not inharmonious accompaniment. And we were occupied in this fashion, sitting by the open window one afternoon, when Mr. Ray- ner appeared in the garden. “ Go on, go on ; 1 have been listening to the concern for ever so long. It is as pretty as birds.’.’ But of course we could not go on in face of such a, critical auditor; so Mr. Rayner, after complaining that he had taken a ticket for the series, and was not going to be de- frauded like that, told me more seriously that I had a very pretty voice, and asked why I did not take pity on their . dulnesa and come into the drawing-room after t-ea somegimes sing to than}. . ' “ And you haveunever tried secular music with the vioiin, Miss Christie. I believe you’re airaid. Sacred music is slow, and yo&can’t readjust ; is ghat it 2 " L,_L r -_I_ yuu. Lil“ U Luau Jul! 15 I'M“! A. b m was trying t1; pique me; but I only ‘laughed and pointed out to him that he had had a visitor on the evening when he was to have tried my skill, but that I was quite read [filo stumble through any music he like "whenever be pleased, if it were not too difficult. " I know it is too bad of us to want to trespass upbn your time after tea, which we promised you should have to yourself; But it would indeed be a. charitable action if you Would come an let us bore you by our fiddling and our dull chat sometimes, in- stead of slipping up to your turret-chamber, to be no more seen for the remainder of the evening. What do you do there. if I may ask ? ' Do you take observations of the moon and stars? I should think you must be too' close to them up there to get a. com- prehensive view. 01' do you peep into the bird’s nests upon the‘highest branches. and converse with the ownere 1” " I do nothing half sofantastic, Mr. Ray- ner. I do my tanks and read something im~ proving, and than I sit in one of my arm- chairs and just think am! enjoy myself.” “ “'ell, we_are 5 not goingvto let you en- joy vourself up there while we are moped to death down-stairs ; so to night you may just come and share‘our duluess in the drawing- rodm.” So otter tea. Mr. Riyner got out his Vioiin, and I sat down to the piano ; and we played first some German popular songs and then a 10112 succession of the airs, now lively, now pathetic, now dramatic and passionate, out of the old operas that have delighted Europe for years, such as The Huguenots, La,~'vaiata, Rigoletto, and Balfe‘s graceful Rose Qf‘Gastile and 'The Bohemian Girl. Mr. Rayner played with the fire of an enthusiast, and againl caught the‘apirit of his glaying, and, accompanied him, he said, w ile his {ace shone with the ecstasy of the musician, zfis no .one had ever accompanied him be- ore. qutor Meitland, as an oI-i gentleman who, Mr. ‘aner privately told me, was now resting from his labors with the proud con- sciousness that he had seldom failed in “kill- inglni; man,” came'in whilg ‘we wet? playing. -_‘, fq‘ W" He was our nearest neighbor. and he often came in the evening to play chess with Mr. Rayner, who always beat him. He listened to the music with great astonishment and some ‘ lensure for a. long time, until he learnt that was reading at sight, and that I had accompanied Mr. Rayner only once before. Then~ he _almost gasped: _ “TGSédr grticio‘fis? I should‘ never have believed it. You seemed to have the same soul I {he cried, aye-struck: And‘nfter that his astonishment evidently outweighed the pleasure he took in our per- formance. Mr. Rayner gave me a. strange smile as the doctor uttered his quaint speech, and I laughed back, much amused at theefl'eot of our efforts on a musically ig- norantlistener. When he had finished, and Mr. Igaynexl yvas putting his‘vielin into its ogvefilfie' isrfidderhfi discolx'rered that the cor- ner gt @he @gtter wag damp. “This will never do,” he exclaimed, with as much affectionate concern as if a. friend’s well-being had been threatened. “ Ivmight as well keep it in the garden as in this den,” he went on, quite irritably for himâ€"music always wrought him to a. bi h pitch of ex- citement. “Here. Sarah,” e added tum- ing towards the table where sh had just placed the candles. “ Take this my room -â€"gxil§d_, very csre‘fglly,”_ . a u, h, .1. A. So rooin could n'ot be damp, I thought, or he d not allow his Megan‘in to .51 :; here. .Iâ€"iutsaid god'- wasin he he“, just in time to see Sarah, carrying the violin, disappear down the passage. on the right hand side of the stair- case, which led to the study. Now the win where Mrs. Rayner’s room was was on the aft hand side of the staircase. Did Mt- Rayner sleep in the study? I could not let my curiosity lead me to follow her, much as I should have liked to solve this little mys- tery. I knew all the rooms on the upper story. and, except the nursery where Mona and Jane slept, the cook's room, Sarah’s, and the one I ,had left, they all bore distinctly the impress of having been long unused. So I was obliged reluctantly to go upstairs. _thn I .got to the foot of my turret stair- case‘ however, which was only a few steps from the head of the backostaircase that the . servants used, I heard Sarah’s quick tread in the passage below, and, Fitting down my candle on the ground, _ _.went softly to the top of the stairs â€"â€"there was a door here also, but it was gen- erally open and fastened backâ€"and looked down. I saw Slrah, much to my amuse- ment, gi\_7_e a vicious shake to ‘the ‘violin- case, a; if it werea thing she hated; and then I saw her take a. key from her ‘pockét’ and unlqck a door near the foot of the stairs. That, then, was Mr. Rayner’s room. But ‘as th. door went back on its hinges and Sarah tool out; the key, went through, and locked it behind her, I saw that it; led, not into a room at 9413 by; fight} the gn‘den. _ >_â€"§o“f§.§,' Reade’a guegs‘waa right. But there still‘ remained the questionâ€"â€" Where did Mr. nyner sleep? - It was the elfish baby-girl Mom. who first put me on the track of the solution of the mystery about Mr. Rsyner’s room. This ill-csred-for little creature, instead of re- senting the neglect she snfi‘ered, prized the liberties she enjoyed of roaming about withersoever she pleased, and sitting in the flower-beds, and in the mud at the edge of the pond, and making herself altogether the very dirtiest little girl I had ever seen, and objected vehemently to the least attempts at judicious restraint. The little notice she got was neither consistent nor kind. Sarah or J «me would snatch her up, regardless of her shrieks, to shut her up in an empty bed- room, if she showed her grimy little face and tattered pinafore anywhere near the house in the afternoon. when callers might come. But, if they did not see her, they forgot her, and left her to talk and croon to herself, and to collect piles of snails, and to such other simple occupations in her favor- , ite haunts till tear-time, when, she enerally grew hungry of her own accord, an , return- ing to the house, made an entrance where she could. ‘ The day pfter the violin-playing was very wet, and, looking ’but of the window during lessons with Heidee. I caught sight of her small sister trotting along composedly with- out a hat in the fastâ€"falling rain. I jumped up and called to her; but she took no no- tice-g so I ran to fetch my umbrella. and set off in pursuit. After a little search. I saw her steadily toddling up a side-path among the trees which led to the stables : and I followed softly without calling her a ain, as, if irritated by pursuit, she mig t, I CHAPTER VII. knew, plunge among the trees and surrendr er gplijpgnwe wage hath we}: tpgqugh. The Stables were built much higher up than the houee, close to the road, but sur- rounded by trees. I had never been near therirbefore ;’ but now I followed Mona close underneath the walls, where she began dancing about by herself, making hideous grimacee at two windows on the upper store , and throwing up at them little stones and its of stick that she picked up, all wet and muddy, from the moist earth. I seized and caught her up in my arms so suddenly that for the first few moments she was too mucheurprised to bowl; but I had scarcely turned to take her back to the house when she recoverel her powers completely, and made the plantation ring with a most elfiah yell. I spoke to her and tried to reason with her, and told her it was all £05 her good, when one of the upper windowelhave mentioned was thrown open, and Mr. Ray. ner appeared at . “ 011, Mr. Rayner, she will sit in the mud and open her main): to catch the min with- out a. hat,vand it can’t be good for her E” I saidgiteously. _ “ 115110, what is the matter? Kidnap- piggLMigg Clgistle 7" . “Never mind. It doesn’t seem to hurt her. I believe she is half a. frog,” said her father, with less tenderness than he might haze showq,__I_ thought. F012 the child was not old enough to know that it was wrong to dislike her father, while he was quite old enough to know tlfiatiit‘was wrong not to be fender of his 0 i1 . “ But you Will get your own feet wet, my dear child,” said he, in quite a. different tone. “Cbme. up here and sit by the fire, while I fetch your goloshes. You have never seen my studio. I pass half my time painting and smoking here when it is wet and I can’t get out.” He had a pallette on his thumb and a pipe in his mouth while he spoke. “You don’t mind the smell of tur- pentige or tgbacc_o, do you ?" - “ Oh, no, Mr. Riynei' I But I won’t come in, thank you. I am at lessons with Hai- dee ?” said I. “Happy Haidee! I wish I were young enough to take lessons : aad yet, if I were, I shouldn’t be old enough to make the best use of my time,” said he, in a low voice,“with mock-modesty that made me laugh. fie was'leaning a. long way out of 1115 window in the rain, and I had work to do indoors ; so, without. saying anything more, I xyturned tofihg house _my prim: I ‘ It was to his studio then that Sarah had taken his violin. I had never heard of this ; studio before; but I knew that Mr. Ray- ‘ her was very careful about the condition of n his stables, and I could imagine that this twolwindowed upper room, with its fire, ‘ must he a very nice lace to paint inâ€"dry, warm. and light ould this be where Mr. Rayner slept? N o ; for .in that case he‘ would hardly have asked me to come up and look at his painting. And I should not like to think that he had made for himself a snug warm little home here while his family slept in the damp vs. ours of the marsh at the bottom of the hi1 . But that would not be like Mr. Rayner, I thought, remember- ing the pains he had taken to provide a. nice dry room for me, the governess. Yet I should have liked, in the face of Mr. Reade’s tiresomempiulm, to be sure. .d-g’ a ~ ' That night I was so aniious to find out. whether Mr. Rayner did really sleep out of the house, as he had been accused of doing,_ that I had the meanness to leave my own bed-room door wide open; as well as that at the bottom of the turret staircase, and listen for footsteps on the ground floor, and the sound of a key in the garden door through which Sarah had taken the violin. But I had heard nothing. though I was awake un- til long after the rest of the household must have gone to bed. And I felt almost as much relieved as if it had been my own father proved innocent of a mean action im- puted .tohim. . 0n the following night‘there was a high: wind, which shook and (swayed the trees and-whistled round my turret; and made the door which stood always fastened back at the top of the kitchen stairs rattle and creek on its hinges. At last I could bear this last sound no longer. I had been sitting up late over a book. and I knew that the household must be asleep, so I slipped down stairs as softly as I‘ could. I'had got to the top of the back staircase, and had my hand on the door. when I saw a faint glimmer of light coming along the passage below. I heard no sound. 1 drew back quickly, so quickly that m)? candle went out ; and then I waited, with my heart beating fast, not so much to see who it was, as because I did not dare to move. The faint light came along swiftly, and, when close to the foot of the stairs below me, I could see that it was ‘ a, shaded lantern, and could just distinguish the form of a man carrying it. Was he coming up-stairs? For "the next few mo- ments I scarcely dared to breathe, and I could almost have given a cry of joy when, by some movement of the head, Irecegnized Mr. Rayner. He did' not see the ; he put the key in the lock,‘turned it, took the key out, went through and locked it after him so quickly and so entirely without noise that a moment afterwards I conld almost have 1 thought that I had imagined the dim scene. ‘ It had been so utterly without sound that, if my eyes had been closed, I should have known nothing about it. I made the door secure with trembling fingers, and went back to my room a’gain, not only profoundly sorry that Mr. ‘Reade’s surmise was correct â€"â€"for I could no longer doubt that Mr. Ray- ner did sleep 'over the stablesâ€"but im- pressed with an eerie dread of the man who could move about'in the night as noiselesst and swiftly as a spirit. \Vnen I awoke however in the fresh morning, with the wind gone down, and the sun shining in through my east window, all unpleasant impressions of the night be- fore had faded away; and, when Mr. Riy- ner brought into the drawing-room after dinner a. portfolio full of his sketches and panels. and was delighted with «my apprecia- tion of themâ€"I Lknew something‘abeut pic- tures, for my father}: been a. painterâ€"I felt that it was not or me to judge his actions, and that there must be some good ‘motive that I did not know for his sleeping far out of the damp. as for everything eles that he did. He proposed to paint me, and I gave him a sitting that very afternoon in the dinin -room, which had a north light, though t ere was not much of it ; and he said that he must finish it next day in his studio, and, when I objecte‘d to neglect my leésons again, he said. the whole family should emigrate thither for the morning, and then perhaps I should be satisfied. (TO 3: CONTINUED.) __â€"M‘.>>Nâ€"-â€"â€"â€" Stately Rites mingled With Stately Merry-Mam . ‘ The holiday season in Mexico shows as strong a. contrast with the celebration in our country as Providence presents it in climate and people. It has religious traits that are attractive, and many of them dramatic. In fact, every phase of life in that Catholic country is singularly tingei with the forms of religion. Daring Christmas-tide theyare shown in their best lights. Like all com- munities thlt worship their patron saints. Their holidays begin earlier and last much longer than ours. The celebration of the birth of Christ begins there with the pil. grimage of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where" the child was born. For guine days before the natal day every- thing is given up to the first act of this crane Passion play. The lower classes spend most of their time in worship at ho has and in the cl.urches. But those who are wealthier take upon themselves the duty of celebrat- ing every stage of the pilgrimage of nearly 1,900 years ago. Those moving in the some ‘ circle of society gather in groups each even- ‘ ingfimd go as a. surprise party to the house ‘ of one of their circles. They sing and rap vig- ’ orously at the door, when those within askâ€"- “ \Vho seeks admittance ‘2" “ The virgin Mary and St. Joseph ask lodgings in your house.” 'fhe doors are thrown open, and the visi- tors are Welcomed and conducted to the nacimiento, a little alter erected in the pri- vate residences of the better classes, repre- senting the birth of Christ. ,Here each one repeats a. prayer with the rosary. These simple religious services over, all are invited to the parlor, where refreshments are served, and the host makes proclamation that he is honored by the presenee of M ery and Joseph, and invites them all to make merry. Music and dancing succeed eating and drinking, 1mg there is prolonged merry making. To make the representation complete, these visitors are first denied admittance, as a sort of by-plsy, to carry out the historic trials of the mother of Christ in her journey to Bethlehem, where she and J oaph were often deniei shelter and food. The first call is the posede, or halt, in the pilgrimage. Each night until Christmas Eve this inter- esting custom is continued, a. different house being visited-each evening. The class of re- freshments served depends upon the ability and hospitable inclinations of the master of the house. Often the entertainment is elab- orate. including wines and other expensive liquors, but tequila, a sort of brandy distill- ed from the maguev plant, is nearly always on these boards. Sometimes sotal takes its place. This is else a furious drinkâ€"a strong brandy which is distilled from the sotal plant, a species of the Spanish dagger. These are the national drinks. The Ehe herds in the field observing the” Sta-r Qi- Bat, lehem,.are cleverly represented“ "as in' heir j‘o‘urney under its guidance. The birth in the manger. the historic cow, the angels finds St. Michael are all shown in the eimple,_ picturesque. but impressive, play. «Elie-s ; tors who witness and applaud the “limb e Myerwwho are thus properly repre- ‘ genting thoi‘e Wh'o welcomed the birth of our ‘ 'firiohf;~hre sometimes those who made the l‘tmbl'emtioivisits of the'previous nine days, but, generally the play is for the poorer classes. This charming introduction to Christmas ny ends a little before midnight. “when. those who have witnessed it are ex- pected to entertain the performers. Then pll classes go to midnight mass, where the greatest ci‘owd of all the year, except Holy ‘Veak, are seen. The food furnished after these representations consists usually oi bundelos, a. wheat flour cake cooked much like our doughnuts, and tesquino, a kind of beer or fermented drink, of which the poorer classes "pa'rtak‘efreely dyeing holiday time. Christmas eve ushers in a. new scene, the most dramatic and beautiful of all the holi- day season. The richer people, who have represented the long pilgrimage, ive way to thetgqgrer clings. who my ’ no Warmjh’wwmawmd {hafid 'iépresénmiofiot the birth of Christ. The largest room that can be procured in t1}. villggg is_ fitt_e<_i up fqr thg rqpresegt» £511, “antherhumble pEople, who Have few wants and little to supply them with, come my; repyosqnt t_he_ clggrac hers it} tlim _dru_x§s.: Christmas day is celebrifized iii a. quiet way. Nothing of the boisterous jovialiiy of the American day is apparent. Gifts from friend to friendiare rarely interchanged. Tue servants often get their fiaguinaldo, a. Christmas present, but even this custom is not general. Hearty [and happy as is the Mexwan’s Christmas, it is enjoyed more as a. religious festival than as a feast. Every feature is to do honor to their faith. In these devotions, as in all others in that country, women delight to bear the burden. \Vorship is theidominant impulse of these shy, cautious and often beautiful creatures. T‘neir whole lives would be a mystery to our American girls, for they know little of the unconventional freedom our women enjoy. They are lovely in their quietude, and. in their seeming half dreamy mildnesu appear to be charming enough to be wooed.-â€"â€"F. A. B. in the Philadelphia Press. "Go where you will," said the Marquis of Lorne recently, “it is very difficult whet away from Szotchmen. I was on the coast of Labrador, visiting an encampment of In- diaus, and being then young in Canadian service, I wanted to see a puresblooded In- dian. I said to the friend who was with me, ‘Make the man of purest blood among them come here ;' upon which he shouted out in French. Same here, McDonald.’ Very near the ocky Mountains, I saw in a fine Indian lodge a beautiful baby, and I asked ‘to whom the baby belongedâ€"was it an In- dian baby. ‘Part Inj un,’ was the reply ; and it turned out that it was partly the pros duct of a Scotch engineer. 1n Nova Scotia I found a Highland woman, who could talk =nothing but Gaelic, cultivatin a very suc- cessful farm, while her husban could speak nothing but Italian. [ have no doubt that the successful management was due to the fact that they had the ordinary Canadian family of about twenty children, who no doubt were able to act as interpreters.” CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO. The Omnipresent “Scotchmau. «to-40>.“