swallowed a cough.

The boot-black held his breath for fear of sneezing.

The brown-stone boy shut his eyes so as not to wink.

They all stood as if turned to stone.

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, came a faint sound of bells.

Nothing else was heard but the beating of their own hearts.

In exactly three-quarters of a minute, Old Glory said, "What do you
think of that?"

Behold! a wonderful fairy sleigh, white as a snowdrift, and shining in
the moonlight as if covered with diamond dust.

It was piled high with softest cushions and robes of fur.

It was drawn by thirteen fairy horses, with arching necks and flowing
manes and tails.

Each horse wore knots of red, white and blue at his ears and the lines
were wound with ribbons of the same.

"Jump in," said Old Glory.

Into the midst of the cushions and furs they sprang.

Crack went the whip, tinkle went the bells. Over the house-tops,
through the frosty air, among the moonbeams, up and away sailed fairy
horses and sleigh, American flags and Uncle Sam's boys.

Santa Claus with his reindeer never went faster.

Presently the tinkling bells were hushed, and the fairy horses stood
very still before the tomb of Abraham Lincoln.

"Come," said Old Glory, and he led them inside.

You must get your father or mother to tell you what they saw there.

Just before they left, a dirty little hand touched Old Glory and a
shrill little voice said: "I'd like to leave my flag here. May I?"

"And may I?" said another.

Old Glory looked around and saw the same wish in the other faces.

"You forget," said he, "that the flags are not yours. It would not be
right to keep them. What did the people call Mr. Lincoln? You don't
know? Well, I'll tell you. It was 'Honest Old Abe,' and Uncle Sam
wants you to be like him."

Again the merry bells tinkled, again the proud horses, with their
flowing manes and tails, sprang into the air, and before the moon had
said "good-night" to the earth, they were back at the flag shop.

The very moment they reached it, horses and sleigh, cushions and
robes, melted away and the children saw them no more.

TWO FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS

(Exercise for the Schoolroom)

BY LIZZIE M. HADLEY AND CLARA J. DENTON

FOR EIGHT BOYS.

This dialogue, or exercise, is to be given by eight boys. While they
and the school are singing the first song the boys march upon the
stage and form into a semicircle, the four boys speaking for
Washington on the right, the o