weet, cool breezes from the
river came to refresh and strengthen him.

James has a chum, Charles McCormick, who is almost as badly off as
himself--perhaps you will think him worse off. He was born deaf and
dumb, and when three years old he fell on the railroad track and
the cars cut off both his arms! These two boys love each other
dearly. They go into the woods together to gather flowers. Charles
goes first because he has the eyes, and when he finds the flowers
he stoops down and touches them with the stump of his arm, while
James passes his hand down his friend's shoulder and picks them! So
they do together what neither could do alone, and both are as happy
as birds!--Your friend,

E.S. MILLER.

* * * * *

Hampstead, England.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I am eleven years old, and this is the first
time I have ever written to you, so I am going to tell you about my
dear little squirrel, "Bob." He is beautifully soft, and his back
and head are gray, but his legs and tail are red; he has four long
teeth, and he bites very much, if we vex him. He eats nuts and
fruit, and he is very fond of bread and milk. When we had him
first, he used to run up the curtains and bite them all into holes.
Every Sunday he would be brought downstairs while we were at
dinner, and papa would give him nuts; but he got so cross that papa
would not let him come down again. In the summer, we brought out
his cage into the garden; but one Sunday papa opened the cage door,
and out jumped Bob. He ran to the wall (which was all covered with
ivy), and began to climb it; but papa caught him by his hind-leg
and stopped him, and he gave papa such a bite on his hand. So I
would not let him go out again. Last summer, mamma took us all down
to Wales; but it was too far to take Bob, so we left him to my
governess, who took him home with her. But one unlucky day she let
him out in the conservatory, and did not shut the window; so he got
a chance and ran away out into the road, and he did not come back.
She offered a reward, and two days afterward he was found outside
the window of an empty house. Soon after that we all came home,
and I was very glad to see Bob again, naughty as he was. There is a
very funny thing which I ought to have told about first; it is that
my Bob was brought u