I wonder how in the world they ever took up the dropped stitches in that
conversation? They did it somehow, though, for when they reappeared Kitty
was the prettiest possible picture of shy, blushing, shamefaced happiness,
while the Jook was fairly beaming with pride and delight. It was a case of
true love at last: there was no doubt about that--such love as few would
have believed that a flighty little creature like Kitty was capable of
feeling. It was wonderful to see how quickly all her little wiles and
coquetries fell off under its influence, just as the rosy, fluttering
leaves of the spring fall off when the fruit pushes its way. I don't
believe it had ever struck her before that there was anything degrading in
this playing fast and loose with men's hearts which had been her favorite
pastime, or in beguiling them by feigning a passion of which she had never
felt one thrill. It was not until Love the magician had touched her heart
that the honest and loyal little Kitty that lay at the bottom of all her
whims and follies was developed. The very sense of unworthiness which she
felt in view of the Jook's straightforward and manly ardor was the surest
guarantee for the perfection of her cure.

A truce to moralizing. Kitty does not need it, nor the Jook either. If he
is not proud of the bright little American bride he is to take back with
him to the "tight little isle" of our forefathers, why, appearances are
"deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

HENRIETTA H. HOLDICH.

COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES.

Nowhere in the history of the world have we any example of successful
communism. The ancient Cretan and Lacedemonian experiments, the efforts of
the Essenes and early Christians, the modified communities of St. Anthony
and several orders of monks, the schemes of the Anabaptists of the
sixteenth century, together with all the experiments of modern times, have
proved essential failures. Setting out with ideas of perfection in the
social state, and undertaking nothing less than the entire abolition of the
miseries of the world, the communists of all times have lived in a
condition the least ideal that can be imagined. The usual course of
socialistic communities has been to start out with a great flourish, to
quarrel and divide after a few months, and then to decrease and degenerate
until a final dispersion by general consent ended the attempt. During the
short existence of nearly all such communit