in the shape of
a bony snout about four or five feet long, not serrated like the
saw-fish, but of a much firmer consistency--in fact, the hardest
material known.

THE STORY OF OBED, ORAH, AND THE SMOKING-CAP.

BY MRS. A. M. DIAZ.

[Illustration]

A cozy room, a wood fire, bright andirons, and a waiting company. The
Family Story-Teller promised the children he would come, and the whole
circle, young, older, oldest, are expecting a good time; for the Family
Story-Teller can tell stories by the hour on any subject that may be
given him, from a flat-iron to a whale-ship. He once told about a
flat-iron--and nothing can be flatter than a flat-iron--a story half an
hour long. It began, "Once there was a flat-iron."

But where is he? Has he forgotten? Did the snowstorm hinder? Has he
missed his horse-car? Hark! a stamping in the entry. Dick runs to open
the door, and shows Family Story-Teller upon the mat, tall and erect,
brushing the snow from his cloak, his whiskers, and his laughing eyes.

Miss Flossie declared that he must be "judged" for coming so late.

Said Dick, "I judge him to tell as many stories as we want."

This judgment being thought too easy for a person like him, to make it
harder he was "judged" to tell the stories all about the same thing. It
was left to grandpa to say what this thing should be, and grandpa said,
with a laugh, "going to mill."

"Very well," said Family Story-Teller, "I will begin at once, and tell
you the entertaining story of 'Obed, Orah, and the Smoking-Cap.'" He
then began as follows:

* * * * *

Once upon a time, in the pleasant village of Gilead, dwelt Mr. and Mrs.
Stimpcett, with their four young children--Moses, Obadiah (called Obed),
Deborah (called Orah), and little Cordelia. Mrs. Stimpcett, for money's
sake, took a summer boarder, Mr. St. Clair, a city young man, who wished
to behold the flowery fields, repose upon the dewy grass, and who had
also another reason for coming, which will be told presently.

On the morning after Mr. St. Clair's arrival, Mrs. Stimpcett said to
grandma that, as the noise of four young children at once would be too
much for a summer boarder until he should become used to it, Obed and
Orah would go and spend the day with their grandfather's cousin, Mrs.
Polly Slater. Mrs. Polly Slater lived all alone by herself in a cottage
at another part of the village of Gilead. Obed was six and a half years
old, and