characters, they sway back and forth; it's real
comical to see them. They repeat in a sing-song tone. They go to
school at six in the morning. They have a rest at noon, after which
they remain in the evening until eight o'clock. They have no idea
of what we have in America; they are even stupid enough to ask if
we have a sun and moon, and all such questions. My home is on the
banks of the great river Yang-tse; nine miles back from the river
are the Lu-Say Mountains, five thousand feet high. The foreign
people find it very cool up in the mountains. There are several
large pools of water where they bathe. I have written more than I
expected to.

--Good-by, dear ST. NICHOLAS, from your reader,

EVANSTON HART.

* * * * *

Readers who were interested in Professor Proctor's letter about the
Sea-Serpent in ST. NICHOLAS for August last, may like to read also
these little extracts on the same subject:

_From the New York "Independent."_

A sea-monster was seen by the officers of H.M.S. "Osborne," on June 2,
off the coast of Sicily, which is sketched by Lieut. Haynes and figured
in the London _Graphic_. The first sketch is merely of a long row of
fins just appearing above the water, of irregular height, and
extending, says Lieutenant Osborne, from thirty to forty feet in
length. The other sketch is of the creature as seen "end on," and shows
only the head, which was "bullet-shaped and quite six feet thick," and
a couple of flappers, one on each side. The creature was, says
Lieutenant Osborne, at least fifteen or twenty feet wide across the
back, and "from the top of the head to the part of the back where it
became immersed I should consider about fifty feet, and that seemed
about a third of its whole length." Thus it is certainly much longer
than any fish hitherto known to the zooelogists, and is, at least, as
remarkable a creature as most of the old wonder-makers ever alleged.

_From the "National Teachers' Monthly," September_.

Mr. John Kieller Webster says he has seen the sea-serpent in the
Straits of Malacca. Its body was fifty feet in length, the head twelve
feet, and the tail one hundred and fifty. It seemed to be a huge
salamander. The Chinese on board the ship were so frightened, they set
up a howl,--a circumstance very remarkable.

* * * * *

THE GAME OF FAGOT-GATHERING.

There is a jolly