esting thing about them, to "grown-ups," is the
way they are made; and perhaps even you youngsters, who watch eagerly
for the postman, "sinking beneath the load of delicate embarrassments
not his own," would like to know how satin and lace and flowers and
other dainty things grew into a valentine.

It was no fairy's handiwork. It went through the hands of grimy-looking
workmen before it reached your hands.

To be sure, a dreamy artist may have designed it, but a lithographer,
with inky fingers, printed the picture part of it; a die-cutter, with
sleeves rolled up, made a pattern in steel of the lace-work on the edge;
and a dingy-looking pressman, with a paper hat on, stamped the pattern
around the picture. Another hard-handed workman rubbed the back of the
stamped lace with sand-paper till it came in holes and looked like lace,
and not merely like stamped paper; and a row of girls at a common long
table put on the colors with stencils, gummed on the hearts and darts
and cupids and flowers, and otherwise finished the thing exactly like
the pattern before them.

You see, the sentiment about a valentine doesn't begin until Tom, Dick,
or Harry takes it from the stationer, and writes your name on it.

[Illustration: ST. VALENTINE'S LETTER-CARRIERS]

=Washington's Birthday=

_February 22_

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Born February 22, 1732 Died December 14, 1799

Washington was the first President of the United States, and the son of
a Virginia planter. He attended school until about sixteen years of age,
was engaged in surveying, 1748-51, became an officer in the Continental
army, and President in 1789. He was re-elected in 1793. He was
preeminent for his sound judgment and perfect self-control. It is said
that no act of his public life can be traced to personal caprice,
ambition, or resentment.

=THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON=

BY HORACE E. SCUDDER

It was near the shore of the Potomac River, between Pope's Creek and
Bridge's Creek, that Augustine Washington lived when his son George was
born. The land had been in the family ever since Augustine's
grandfather, John Washington, had bought it, when he came over from
England in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a public-spirited
man, and so the parish in which he lived--for Virginia was divided into
parishes as some other colonies into townshi