she sees ST.
NICHOLAS what the Brownies are doing in it. Mamma is much
interested in "Little Lord Fauntleroy," and we like it too,
and all the rest of your stories, but especially "The Gilded
Boy of Florence," because we know the man who wrote it and
have heard him preach. He says all he wrote in that story is
true. Good-bye.

Ever your faithful reader,

C. LIZZIE B.

* * * * *

LONDON, ENGLAND.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I am an American girl who left New York
four years ago, during which time I have been a constant
reader of ST. NICHOLAS. My school friends who read English
all want it also. You have been forwarded to me from London
as far as Turkey and Egypt. And so, if you can only spare a
few minutes, I would like to tell you about the pyramids and
the sphinx.

From Shepherd's Hotel, Cairo, it is a beautiful drive of
seven miles through an archway of large trees by the side of
the Nile. There are several pyramids. The chief one is said
to be 463 feet high, and one would think the top would be
very small; but you will no doubt be surprised to hear that
the Khedive gave a dinner to twenty-four guests upon the top
of a pyramid. The dinner was served in the usual manner by
Arab waiters; the gentlemen walked up, while the ladies were
carried up in chairs. The pyramids are built like
stairs,--one stone on top the other, with only an edge for a
foothold.

Many tourists try to climb the structure, which is very
fatiguing work. We gave an expert Arab fifty cents to do it
in ten minutes; he went up in six minutes and down in four
minutes. From the pyramid to the sphinx is quite a little
walk through thick sand; and the Sphinx is so big you can
hardly see it all at once. The English soldiers knocked off
some of its right hand and all its nose. It is cut from a
solid rock and looks as black as iron. The Egyptian postage
stamps have pictures of both the pyramid and the sphinx. The
temple dedicated to the sphinx lies in ruins here, but the
remains are very beautiful, being nearly all of alabaster;
and in the cellar they have just discovered an image, which
is so immense they can't get it ou