nstalker!" And sat down and beat his knees
again.

"Married, and not tell me, Meg!" cried the good woman. "Never! I
couldn't rest on the last night of the Old Year without coming to wish
you joy. I couldn't have done it, Meg. Not if I had been bed-ridden. So
here I am."

"Mrs. Tugby," said Trotty, who had been going round and round her in an
ecstasy--"I _should_ say Chickenstalker--bless your heart and soul! A
happy New Year, and many of 'em! Mrs. Tugby," said Trotty, when he had
saluted her--"I _should_ say Chickenstalker--this is William Fern and
Lilian."

The worthy dame, to his surprise, turned very pale and very red.

"Not Lilian Fern, whose mother died in Dorsetshire?" said she.

Her uncle answered "Yes," and meeting hastily they exchanged some
hurried words together, of which the upshot was that Mrs. Chickenstalker
shook him by both hands, saluted Trotty on his cheek again of her own
free will, and took the child to her capacious breast.

"Will Fern," said Trotty, pulling on his right-hand muffler. "Not the
friend that you was hoping to find?"

"Ay," returned Will, putting a hand on each of Trotty's shoulders. "And
like to prove a'most as good a friend, if that can be, as one I found."

"O!" said Trotty. "Please to play up there. Will you have the goodness?"

Had Trotty dreamed? Or are his joys and sorrows, and the actors in them,
but a dream; himself a dream; the teller of this tale a dreamer, waking
but now? If it be so, O listener, dear to him in all his visions, try to
bear in mind the stern realities from which these shadows come; and in
your sphere--none is too wide and none too limited for such an
end--endeavor to correct, improve and soften them. So may the New Year
be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on
you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of
our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share in what our
great Creator formed them to enjoy.

BILLY'S SANTA CLAUS EXPERIENCE.

BY CORNELIA REDMOND.

Of course I don't believe in any such person as Santa Claus, but Tommy
does. Tommy is my little brother, aged six. Last Christmas I thought I'd
make some fun for the young one by playing Santa Claus, but as always
happens when I try to amuse anybody I jes' got myself into trouble.

I went to bed pretty early on Christmas Eve so as to give my parents a
chance to get the presents out of the closet in mamma's room, where they
h