was never such a happy party before. The children hardly wished to
dance, they were so busy looking at their presents. But after a little
while they had a very nice dance. One of their aunts played for them;
she played so well, and kept such nice time, that it was quite a
pleasure to hear her.

It was now quite late, and little Sarah had fallen fast asleep on the
sofa, with the young lady out of the baby-house clasped tight to her
little bosom. So they wrapped her up, doll and all, in a great shawl,
and the rest put on their nice warm coats and cloaks; and after a great
deal of hugging and kissing, they got into the carriages with their
parents, and went home happy and delighted.

Thus ended this joyful Christmas day.

THE SPIDER.

Little Harry was afraid of spiders. He would scream and run to get into
his Mother's lap, if he saw the least spider in the world.

The reason he was so afraid was, that his nurse, when he was a very
little fellow, had told him very often, that if he did not go to sleep,
she would catch a spider and put it on him. Now this was very wicked
indeed in the nurse, and when his Mother found out that she had been
telling Harry this, she was very angry, and sent her directly out of the
house.

Harry's Mother had tried very hard to cure him of his foolish fears
about spiders; but he did not get over them, and they often made him
miserable.

One day Harry went with his Mother to visit a friend. This lady had a
little daughter about two years old, a very pretty and good-humored
child. She was sitting on the carpet when Harry came in, playing with a
little woolly dog and making it bark. She knew Harry, for he had been
there before with his Mother. So she held the dog out to him and said,
"Tum here, Henny." She could not speak plain, and what she said sounded
very funny.

Harry sat down on the carpet by her, and took the dog, and made it say,
"bow wow wow!"

Little Mary laughed and clapped her hands, and said, "Do it aden,
Henny."

So Harry pressed the spring again, and made the dog say, "bow wow wow,"
when just as he was going to give it back to little Mary, she stooped
down, and cried, "Look, look, Henny, what a pretty little 'pider, only
see the little 'pider."

Harry threw down the dog, and began to scream with all his might. He
ran to his Mother and hid his face on her shoulder, and cried, "Take it
away! Oh take it away!"

All this time little Mary had been looking at him wit