in his presence.

But in the city streets he met with no such consideration. He was
incessantly compelled to breathe tobacco smoke, and it made him ill. In
a very few days he was seized with a painful choking sensation, caused
by the irritation of the smoke, and in a short time he died. His last
words were:

"That detestable tobacco!"

And so I lost this good friend. I had his skin stuffed, and presented
it to our society of natural history.

There were people to whom I told this story of my adventures who did
not believe me, but I was always sure they would have credited my word
if only I had had my monkey and my parrot with me to corroborate the
truth of my strange history.

THE END.

GIFTS FOR ST. NICHOLAS [A]

BY EMMA E. BREWSTER.

Grieve not, O Santa Claus, who fills
Each stocking, box and tree;
Nor think, most desolate of saints,
None bring good gifts to thee.

We place no candles in thy crypt,
No gold upon thy shrine,--
Thou bringest us the frankincense,
The tapers and the wine.

But rarer gifts, good Nicholas,
Than these, thy children bring,
When up and down an echoing world
The Christmas bells all ring.

We bring our brightest, truest love
To crown thy happy brows;
No monarch wears a coronet
So light as holly-boughs.

We bring our gayest, fairest hopes,
With smiling memories spun;
So rich a robe has never shone
Earth's proudest king upon.

We bring our trust, our childhood faith,
And place it in thy hand;
No jeweled scepter has such power
To rule on sea or land.

Then stay, O dear St. Nicholas!
Look on thy heaped-up shrine;
Our hearts, our hopes, our memories,
Our trusts, our faith are thine!

There's not in all the calendar
One saint whose altars shine
With such gay throngs of worshipers,
Such precious gifts, as thine!

[Footnote A: An answer to "Left Out," published in the December number.]

SOME IN-DOOR GAMES AT MARBLES.

BY L.D. SNOOK.

One or two of the following games of marbles may be known to the
readers of ST. NICHOLAS, but we think they all will be new to a great
many boys.

THE ARCHED-BOARD COUNT-GAME.

[Illustration]

A strip of board, half an inch thick, five inches wide, and twenty-two
inches long, has notches cut in one side, two inches wide at the
bottom, and tapering as shown. Short bits of board nailed upon each end
keep the strip uprig