human will--
Though false the heart it veils so well,
It hath its homage still.

* * * * *

Go, heartless girl, thou'lt smile to-morrow,
As I had never been,
And spurn thy lover's words of sorrow
For those of happier men.
A darker destiny the page
Of coming years may tell.
God help thee in thy pilgrimage!
Loved being, fare thee well!

WHERE SANTA CLAUS HAS HIS WORKSHOP.

AN OLD VILLAGE OF TOYMAKERS.

For Many Generations the Inhabitants of
St. Ulrich Have Fashioned Playthings
for the Children of All Nations.

Tourists, wandering out of the beaten tracks of their kind, occasionally
come to a little village in Austria which presents the aspect of a corner
of toyland.

The name of the village is St. Ulrich, and nearly all of its
inhabitants are toymakers. Each household, too, has its
specialty. One old woman has done nothing but carve wooden
cats, dogs, wolves, sheep, goats, and elephants.

She has made those six animals her whole life long, and she
has no idea of how to cut anything else. She makes them in
two sizes, and turns out as nearly as possible a thousand of
them a year.

She has no model or drawing of any kind to work by, but goes
on steadily, unerringly, using gages of different sizes and
shaping out her cats, dogs, wolves, sheep, goats, and
elephants with an ease and an amount of truth to nature
that would be clever if it were not utterly mechanical.

This woman learned from her mother how to carve those six
animals, and her mother had learned, in like manner, from
her grandmother. She has taught the art to her own
granddaughter, and so it may go on being transmitted for
generations.

DID YOU EVER TRY TO COUNT A BILLION?

EVEN METHUSELAH HAD NOT TIME.

It Is So Tremendous a Sum That a Conception
of It Can Hardly Be Formed
by the Human Mind.

When Americans talk about "a billion dollars" or a "billionaire" they
think of a "billion" as one thousand millions. The word "billion" was
originally used in France to denote a million of millions--or one million
raised to the second power. At that time figures were pointed off in
series of six by the French, and when the custom of pointing off by threes
came into existence the French transferred the meaning of billion to one
thousand millions.

Ordinarily, to-day, the French