lder date than is commonly supposed. The paper referred to
says: "Just at the meeting of the Congress I may without boasting claim
the honor of having invented new pens. It is perhaps not an accident
that God should have inspired me at the present time with the idea of
making steel pens, for all the envoys here assembled have bought the
first that have been made, therewith, as may be hoped, to sign a treaty
of peace which, with God's blessing, shall be as permanent as the hard
steel with which it is written. Of these pens, as I have invented them,
no man hath before seen or heard; if kept clean and free from rust and
ink, they will continue fit for use for many years. Indeed, a man may
write twenty sheets of paper with one, and the last line would be
written as well as the first. They are now sent into every corner of the
world as a rare thing--to Spain, France, and England. Others will no
doubt make imitations of my pens, but I am the man who first invented
and made them. I have sold a great number of them, at home and abroad,
at one shilling each, and I dispose of them as quickly as I can make
them."

OUT IN THE STORM.

BY SIDNEY DAYRE.

"That story about the baby in the storm? Oh yes, I'll tell you all about
it. See, there's the scar on his dear little forehead yet--he'll carry
it all his life, they say--but I shall never get over being thankful he
came out of it so much better than I did, the darling."

And Janet glanced at her poor crooked arm as she settled herself more
comfortably for a long talk.

"This was the way it came about. Mother said to me one Saturday
afternoon, 'Janet, I am going over to the village; I will take the
little girls with me, and I want you to take good care of Harry till I
come back.'

"This arrangement did not suit me at all. I had other plans for the
afternoon, and I said, 'But, mother, I promised Mary Hathaway I would go
down there this afternoon. She is going to show me a new stitch for my
embroidery.'

"'I don't like to interfere with you, dear,' mother said, 'but it seems
to me you have been running there quite often this week, and I must have
your help now.'

"This was true, but it made no difference in the fact of my wanting to
go again.

"'Can't Bridget take care of him?' I said.

"'No, she has too much else to do.'

"'I hate being tied to babies all the time,' I snarled. 'I think we
might keep a nurse as well as the Hathaways. Mary never has to be
bothered