Germantown wool and
mineral dyes.'

"Then Jim will say--'Ah, I see you know something about blankets.'

"'Oh, yes; a little,' answers the expert.

"'The fine old-style blankets are mighty hard to get now,' remarks Jim.

"'I know they are,' remarks the wise tourist, 'but still they are to be
had sometimes, are they not? Come, now, haven't you got something
choice hidden away?'

"Then Jim will look about, as though fearful that somebody might see
him, and will steal softly into a back room and pull from beneath his
bed a good cheap blanket--worth about $3--and spread it out lovingly in
front of the tourist.

"'There,' he whispers; 'look at that; that is not for sale. I am keeping
that for myself, but I thought you would like to see it, as it is very
evident you know a good deal about blankets; isn't it a beauty?'

"Then the tourist 'bites,' and asks him what it is worth, and admires
it, agrees with him as to the splendid old dyes and fine preservation of
the native wool prepared in the manner of the old Navajo, speaks of its
great rarity, and at last ends by asking Jim what he will take for it,
and usually carries it away with him, having paid three or four times
the value of a really good blanket.

"I've seen Jim pull their legs so hard they'd pretty near limp when
they went out. Ah, those were happy days!"

The departed heaved a deep sigh, and gazed silently at his handiwork.

"Well," he said, "I must be going; I have a lot of things I want to do
before morning, but hope to run across you sometime again. Glad you like
the mummy. I forgot to mention that most of the teeth were gone when we
first got it, and Jim put in a fine new set, and improved it a whole
lot."

I glanced at the mummy, and when I looked up again, my companion had
disappeared.

A LESSON IN CHEMISTRY.

[MR. FORSTER'S STORY.]

I took the powder as agreed, and sat down to read the evening paper
before retiring, with the result that I did not retire at all. I became
much interested in an article on new explosives with which the
Government has been lately experimenting, and had nearly finished it,
when I heard a voice say to me, "Interesting subject, isn't it?"

I turned, and saw seated on my lounge a peculiar-looking man: his
clothes seemed to be all run in together. You could make out the
outlines of the man, but the figure was not clear; sort of foggy, you
know. What surprised me most was that I could look right through him
an