Reference to
Oppolzer's work shows that the only total eclipse of the sun in that
region, between eight years before our reckoning and 59 A.D., took place
Thursday, November 24-29 A.D.

This is not reconcilable with the scriptural account, which places the
crucifixion at the Jewish Easter. An eclipse of the moon, however, was
visible at Jerusalem on April 3, 33 A.D., so that it is most probable
that the ancient historians confused the two events, and that the
eclipse of the moon was the phenomenon which signalized the
crucifixion.

THE VOLUNTEER WRITER.

by EFFIE ERSKINE.

"To whom are you writing, Amos?" asked his mother, as she gave a loving
glance at the wasted form of the crippled boy, bent over his father's
desk.

Amos Franklin had never known what it was to be straight or strong like
other boys. From infancy his legs had been crooked and his back bent,
while pain and disease had shrunken his frame until, at fourteen, he
looked no older than nine. But, as if to make amends, his mind was very
active and his intelligence far in advance of his years.

"I will soon have finished, mother," he answered, with a smile, "and
then I will read it."

His pen scratched away for a few minutes, and then he held up the sheet
and read this:

"TO THE GIRL WITH THE BROKEN LEG:--I hope you will not fret or worry
too much over your misfortune, because it will not be many days
before you are out again, and in a short time be well and strong
as ever. You have many happy days before you, when you can romp and
run in the bright sunshine; and you must think of those days and not
of the present. I will write to you again, if you say so.

"Your friend,

"AMOS FRANKLIN."

Mrs. Franklin listened to the reading of this letter with an amazed
look.

"I don't understand it," she said. "Who is this girl, and where did you
hear about the accident?"

"I don't know her name, or who she is," replied Amos, with a quiet
laugh. "But I know that in the three or four hundred patients in the big
hospital there _must_ be one girl with a broken leg, and they will give
it to her, and it will make her feel glad."

Mrs. Franklin looked at Amos with a smile on her face, but without
speaking.

"Then I have written," continued the little cripple, "three other
letters to boys and girls in the hospital, directing them to what I
think they're most likely to be laid up with. And I mean to watch t