t here."

He left me. I am still pondering over our new education. Meantime
I think I shall enter my little boy's name on the books of Tuskegee
College where the education is still old-fashioned.

X. The Errors of Santa Claus

It was Christmas Eve.

The Browns, who lived in the adjoining house, had been dining with the
Joneses.

Brown and Jones were sitting over wine and walnuts at the table. The
others had gone upstairs.

"What are you giving to your boy for Christmas?" asked Brown.

"A train," said Jones, "new kind of thing--automatic."

"Let's have a look at it," said Brown.

Jones fetched a parcel from the sideboard and began unwrapping it.

"Ingenious thing, isn't it?" he said. "Goes on its own rails. Queer how
kids love to play with trains, isn't it?"

"Yes," assented Brown. "How are the rails fixed?"

"Wait, I'll show you," said Jones. "Just help me to shove these dinner
things aside and roll back the cloth. There! See! You lay the rails like
that and fasten them at the ends, so--"

"Oh, yes, I catch on, makes a grade, doesn't it? Just the thing to amuse
a child, isn't it? I got Willy a toy aeroplane."

"I know, they're great. I got Edwin one on his birthday. But I thought
I'd get him a train this time. I told him Santa Claus was going to bring
him something altogether new this time. Edwin, of course, believes in
Santa Claus absolutely. Say, look at this locomotive, would you? It has
a spring coiled up inside the fire box."

"Wind her up," said Brown with great interest. "Let's see her go."

"All right," said Jones. "Just pile up two or three plates or something
to lean the end of the rails on. There, notice the way it buzzes before
it starts. Isn't that a great thing for a kid, eh?"

"Yes," said Brown. "And say, see this little string to pull the whistle!
By Gad, it toots, eh? Just like real?"

"Now then, Brown," Jones went on, "you hitch on those cars and I'll
start her. I'll be engineer, eh!"

Half an hour later Brown and Jones were still playing trains on the
dining-room table.

But their wives upstairs in the drawing-room hardly noticed their
absence. They were too much interested.

"Oh, I think it's perfectly sweet," said Mrs. Brown. "Just the loveliest
doll I've seen in years. I must get one like it for Ulvina. Won't
Clarisse be perfectly enchanted?"

"Yes," answered Mrs. Jones, "and then she'll have all the fun of
arranging the dresses. Children love that so much. Look,