icule was turned to wonder; for as the
cracker went off, a confused medley of rockets, pin-wheels, Roman
candles, blue-lights, and other fire-works fell with a loud noise upon
the stage.

"Magic!" "magic!" sounded on all sides, but changed to ohs! and ahs! as
a beautiful rocket flew through the air, and burst into a hundred golden
balls.

Oh, that was a Fourth of July long to be remembered, for such fire-works
had never been seen in Gooseneck before; and when the last piece of all
was displayed, showing a figure of Mother Goose herself, surrounded by a
rainbow and a shower of silver stars, the delight of the spectators knew
no bounds, and cheers for Humpty Dumpty rent the air.

He came forward, his round face all aglow with pleasure, as he bowed and
said, "Your thanks, my friends, do not belong to me, but to our beloved
Mother Goose, who, to make a poor boy happy, gave him her three magic
fire-crackers."

[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 34, June 22.]

MISS VAN WINKLE'S NAP.

BY MRS. W. J. HAYS.

CHAPTER III.

"Au printemps Poiseau nait et chante,
N'avez-vous pas oui sa voix?
Elle est pure, simple, et touchante,
La voix de Poiseau dans les bois."

So sang Julie Garnier, as she trudged with weary little feet up the
mountain-side, listening to the birds, and in search of the squaw in
charge of the doors of Day and Night. The pretty Indian legend had
bewitched her. Here she was wandering away from all who cared for her,
to see an old woman who cut up the old moons into stars; and already
twilight was making the woods more dusky. The slanting sunbeams made a
golden green in the young underbrush; the birds were seeking their
nests; night would soon wrap the world in darkness; then what would
become of Julie? The good God would protect her, she felt sure. But she
was undoubtedly hungry, and yonder, where the road turned, was a great
flat stone; on it she might rest, and eat a little ginger cake she
happened to have in her pocket. To it she hastened, and what a world of
beauty lay before her! It was at the head of a ravine, one of those deep
mountain gorges lined with pines and cedars, through which rushed a
rapid stream, but beyond this and over it were the dark defiles of the
mountain range sweeping away to the north in purple shadows, while the
sun tipped the tops of the nearer forest with gold and crimson. Here
Julie paused, overcome with the grandeur and beauty her young eyes
beheld. S