u," said Nycteris, soothingly. "I will take care of
you till your dreadful sun comes, and then you may leave me, and go away
as fast as you can. Only please put me in a dark place first, if there
is one to be found."

"I will never leave you again, Nycteris," cried Photogen. "Only wait
till the sun comes and brings me back my strength, and we will go away
together, and never, never part any more."

"No, no," persisted Nycteris; "we must go now. And you must learn to be
strong in the dark as well as in the day, else you will always be only
half brave. I have begun already, not to fight your sun, but to try to
get at peace with him, and understand what he really is, and what he
means with me--whether to hurt me or to make the best of me. You must do
the same with my darkness."

"But you don't know what mad animals there are away there toward the
south," said Photogen. "They have huge green eyes, and they would eat
you up like a bit of celery, you beautiful creature!"

"Come! come! you must," said Nycteris, "or I shall have to pretend to
leave you, to make you come. I have seen the green eyes you speak of,
and I will take care of you from them."

"You! How can you do that? If it were day now, I could take care of you
from the worst of them. But as it is, I can't even see them for this
abominable darkness. I could not see your lovely eyes but for the light
that is in them; that lets me see straight into heaven through them.
They are windows into the very heaven beyond the sky. I believe they are
the very place where the stars are made."

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

[Illustration: AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES.--DRAWN BY J. E. KELLY.]

* * * * *

=New-Year's Gifts.=--The custom of giving and receiving gifts at the new
year dates from very early times indeed. The Druids used to cut down
branches of their sacred mistletoe with a golden knife, and distribute
them amongst the people as New-Year's gifts. As they cut it down they
used to sing--

"Gather the mistletoe, the new year is at hand."

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