e girls were too happy that day to do much else but
count and arrange and re-arrange their delightful Christmas presents.

Mr. Boyd killed a chicken, and Jack contributed four quails which he
had caught since market-day, and the festival of Christmas was kept
with much hilarity by the Boyd family.

The neighbors, one by one, were surprised that Mr. Boyd hadn't dropped
in, as he usually did on Sundays and holidays. But Mr. Boyd was engaged
elsewhere. And this was only the beginning of good days for that
family, for, somehow, the Christmas feeling seemed to last through all
the year with Mr. Boyd, and through many other years; and the little
ball set rolling by Jack with his quail-traps, grew to be a mighty
globe of happiness for the whole family.

LEFT OUT.

By A.G.W.

One day, St. Nicholas made a complaint:
"I think it's quite plain why they call me a saint.
I wonder if any one happens to see
That nobody ever makes presents to me;
That I, who make presents to ever so many,
Am the only poor fellow who never gets any!"

MISS ALCOTT,

THE FRIEND OF LITTLE WOMEN AND OF LITTLE MEN.

BY F.B.S.

[Illustration]

Would the readers of ST. NICHOLAS, who are all admirers of Miss Louisa
Alcott, like to hear more than they now know about this kind friend of
theirs, who has been giving them so much pleasure by her stories, and
never writes so well as when she writes for boys and girls? Then, let
me tell you something about her own family and childhood, and how she
became the well-known writer that she is. She not only tells you
pleasant stories about "little women" and "old-fashioned girls," "eight
cousins," and children "under the lilacs,"--but she shows you how good
it is to be generous and kind, to love others and not to be always
caring and working for yourselves. And the way she can do this is by
first being noble and unselfish herself. "Look into thine own heart and
write," said a wise man to one who had asked how to make a book. And it
is because Miss Alcott looks into her own heart and finds such kindly
and beautiful wishes there that she has been able to write so many
beautiful books. They tell the story of her life; but they tell many
other stories also. So let me give you a few events and scenes in her
life, by themselves.

Miss Alcott's father was the son of a farmer in Connecticut, and her
mother was the daughter of a merchant in Boston. After growing up in a
pretty, rural to