THE OBSERVER, DRYDEN, ONTARIO. DARREL of THE BLESSED ISLES By IRVING Author of "Eben Holden," "D'ri and L" Etc. COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY LOTHROP | BACHELLER, PUBLISHING COMPANY i Te {Continued.) Presently there came a heavy step and a quick pull at the latchstring. An odd figure entered in a swirl of - snow--a real Santa Claus, the mystery and blessing of Cedar hill. For five years every Christmas eve in good or bad- weather he had come to four little houses on the hill, where, indeed, his coming had been as a godsend. 'Whence he came and who he might be none had been able to guess. He never spoke in his official capacity, and no citizen of Faraway had such a beard or figure as this man. Now his fur coat, his beard and eyebrows were Icicles hoary with snow and frost. bung from his mustache around the short clay pipe of tradition. He lower- ¢d a great sack and brushed the snow off it. He had borne it high on his back, with a strap at each shoulder. The sack was now about half full of things. He took out three big bundles and laid them on the table. They were evidently for the widow herself, who quickly stepped to the bedside. "Come children," she whispered, rous- ing them, 'here is Santa Claus." They scrambled down, rubbing their eyes. Polly took the hands of the two small boys and led them near him. Paul drew his hand away and stood spellbound, eyes and mouth open. He watched every motion of the good saint, who had come to that chair that | held the little stockings. Santa Claus put a pair of boots on it. They were copper toed. with gorgeous front pieces oT red worocco at the top of the seg. Then, as if ne had some relish of a joke, be took them up, looked them over thoughtfully and put them back in the sack again, whereupon the boy Paul burst into tears. Old Santa Claus, shaking with silent laughter, replaced them in the chair quickly. As if to lighten the boy's heart he opened a hox and took out a mouth organ. He held it so the light sparkled on its shiny side. Then he put his pipe "in his pocket and began to dance and' play lively music. Step and ture quick- 'ened. The bulky figure was flying up and down above a great clatter of big boots, his head wagging to keep time. The oldest children --re laughing, and the boy Paul began to smile in the midst of a great sob that shook him to the toes. The player stopped suddenly, stuffed the instrument in a stocking | and went on with his work. Presently he uncovered a stick of candy long as a man's arm. There were spiral stripes of red from end to end of it. He used it for a fiddle bow, whistling with ter- rific energy and sawing the air. Then he put shawls ..ud tippets and boots and various b. packages on the other chairs. At last he drew out of the sack a sheet of pasteboard, with string at- tached, and hung it on the wall. It bore the simple message, rudely let- tered in black, as follows: ° Mery Crismus. And Children i have the honnor to remane, Yours Respec'fully ; SANDY CLAUS. , ' His work done, he swung his pack to his shoulders and made off as they broke the silence with a hearty "Thank you, 'Santa Claus!" They listened a moment as be went away with a loud and merry laugh sounding above the roar of the wind. It was the voice of a big and gentle 'heart, but gave no other clew. In a moment cries of delight and a rustie of wrappings filled the room. As on wings of the bitter wind, joy and good fortune had come to them and in that little house had drifted deep as the snow without. The children went to their beds with slow feet and quick pulses. Paul beg- ged for the sacred privilege of wearing his new boots to bed, but compromised on having them beside his pillow. The boys went to sleep at last, with all their treasures heaped about them. Tom shortly rolled upon the little jump- ing jack, that broke away and butted him in the face with a loud squawk. It roused the boy, who promptly set up a defense in which the stuffed hen lost her tail feathers and the jumping jack was violently put out of bed. When the mother came to see what had happened order had been restored-- the boys were both sleeping. It was an odd little room under bare shingles above stairs. Great chests filled with relics of another time and country sat against the walls. Here and there a bunch of herbs or a few | ears of corn, their husks braided, hung on the bare rafters. summer fields--of peppermint, catnip and lobelia--haunted it. Chimney and The aroma of the little wooden monkey, 7wnich, as if The bulky figure was flying up and down. frightened by the melee, had hidden far under the clothes. She went below stairs to the fire, which every cold day was well fed until after midnight, and began to enjoy the sight of her own gifts. They were a haunch of venison, .a sack of flour, a shawl and mittens. | A small package had fallen to the floor. | It was neatly bound with wrappings of blue paper. Under the last layer was a little box, the words "For Polly" on its cover. It held a locket of wrought | gold that outshone the light of the can- . dles. She touched a spring, and the case opened. Inside was a lock of hair i white as her own. There were three lines" cut in the glowing metal, and she read them over and over again: / "Here are silver and gold, Me The one for a.day of remembrance be- tween thee and dishonor, The other for a day -of plenty between thee and want. : She went to her bed presently, whera the girl lay"sleeping, and, lifting dark | masses of her hair, kissed a ruddy' cheek. Then the widow stood a mo- ment, wiping her eyes. ' CHAPTER XII ONG before daylight one could hear the slowing of the wind. Its caravan, now reaching east- ward to midocean, was nearly ' passed. Scattered gusts hurried on, like. ; weary and belated followers. Then , suddenly came a silence in which one ' might have heard the dust of their feet falling, their shouts receding in the far woodland. The sun rose in a clear sky above the patched and ragged canopy of the woods--a weary multitude now vesting in the still air. The children were up lonking 'for tracks of reindeer and breaking paths in the snow. Sunlight glimmered in far flung jewels of the frost king. They lay deep, clinking as the foot sank iu them. At the Vaughn home it was an eventful day. the great captain that leads us to the farther gate of childhood and surren- ders the golden (key. Many ways are beyond the gate, some steep and thorny, and some who pass it turn back, with bleeding feet and wet eyes, but the gate opens not again for any } that have passed. Tom had got the . key and begun to try it. Sama Claus had winked at him, with a snaring . eye, like that of his aunt when she had sugar in her pocket, and Tom thought | it very foolish. The boy had even felt of his greatcoat and got a good look at | his boots and trousers. Moreover, when he put his pipe away, Tom saw' hin take a chew of tobacco-an ab- horrent thing if he were to believe his mother. "Mother," said he, "I never knew Santa Claus chewed tobacco." "Well, mebbe he was Santa Claus' 'hired man," said she. "Might 'a' had the toothache" Paul suggested, for Lew Allen, who' worked for them in the summer time, bad a habitual toothache, relieved many times a day by chewing tobacco. 'Tom sat looking into the fire 8 mo- ment. Then he spoke of a ma..er Paul and | 'he had discussed secretly. co |. "Joe Bellus he tel' me Santa Claus , was only somebody rigged up t' fool folks an' hadn't no reindeers at all." The mother turned away, her wits groping for an answer. dh "Hadn't ought to 'a' told mother, Tom," said Paul, with a little quiver of "Mus"n't believe all ye hear," said the widow, who now turned to the doubting Thomas. And that very moment Tom was come to the last gate of childhood, whereon are the black and necessary words, '"Mus'n't believe all ye hear." The boys in their new boots were on the track of a panther. They treed him presently at the foot of the stairs. | "How'll we kill him?" one of them inquired. | "Just walk around the tree once," ' said the mother, "an' you'll scare him to death. Why don't ye grease your boots?" \ "'Fraid it'll take the screak out of 'em." said Paul, looking down thought- fully at his own pair. ; "Well," said she, '"you'll have me treed if you keep on, No hunter would have boots like that. A loud foot makes a still gun." That was her unfailing method of control, the appeal to intelligence. Pol- ly sat singing thoughtfully, the locket in ber hand. She had kissed the sacred thing and hung it by a ribbon to her neck and bathed her eyes in the golden light of it and begun to feel the subtle pathos in its odd message. She was thinking of the handsome boy who came along that far May day with the drove and who lately had returned to be her teacher at Linley school. Now: he had so much dignity and learning she liked him not half so well and felt he had no longer any care for her. She blushed to think how she had wept over his letter and kissed it every day for weeks. Her dream was interrupted presently by the call of her brother Tom. Having cut the frost on a win- dow pane, he stood peering out. A man was approaching in the near field. His figure showed to the boot top mounting hills of snow and sank out of sight in the deep hollows. It looked as if he were walking on a rough sea. In a moment he came striding over the dooryard fence on & pair of snowshoes, "It's Mr. Trove, the teacher," said Polly, who quickly began to shake her Santa Claus--well, he is | curls. rs (To Be Continued.) "FAIR PLAY. A Plea That Is Respected by Almost All Classes of Men. There is an appeal tu which nearly all classes of men give heed--let us have fair play. You may address a schoolful of mischievous boys on the beauties of goodness, on the evils of cruelty or. harshness to their fellows, and they will laugh at you. Bxhorta- tions to avold any abstract evil or wrong and appeals to follow any ab- stract virtue will seem hazy to almost 'any collection of 'ordirary, héalthy and lusty young boys, but if their sense of fair play be addressed there is a ready | response. : ; Go among a crowd of wharfingers or longshoremen or the roughest and most reckless sailors, who have neither | home nor principles of any sort, and "talk to them of the things of the head or of the heart, and they will think .that you are a harmless but quite fu- tile specimen from crankdom. Try to awaken in them a horror of the brutal- ity of their usual life, speak in moving 'terms of the force and beauty of kind- ness or of virtue or of any attribute of a polite and civilized society and way of life, and you will be soliciting the wind, talking to a statue, shouting in the desert. But in the most uncouth assemblage and in the vilest haunt in the English speaking world mention fair play and found your argument and your plea on that basis, and the effect is instant and elogquent.--Phila- delphia Ledger. Overloaded, ; Corned beef hash as made by Sen- ator Hanna's cook was very popular in Washington several years ago. When the .head walter of the senate restaurant wanted hash prepared very carefully he ordered it this way: "One corned beef hash for Senator Hanna." One day when the restaurant was do- ing a heavy business almost everybody seemed to want corned beef hash "Corned beef hash for Senator Hanna" had been ordered fourteen ' times. When the fifteenth order went down to the kitchen the chef shouted: "That's fifteen orders for Senator Hanna! He'd better watch out or he'll founder hisself." : Saved the Situation. "Ha, here comes Ratcliffe with a dagger! My last moment has arriv- ed!" exclaims one of the characters in a new melodrama. Unfortunately, however, the actor representing Rat- cliffe had forgotten the dagger and come on the stage without it. But he was equal to the occasion. '"Villain" he exclaimed, "thou thoughtst thou sawst a dagger in mine hand. 'Twas thine evil conscience supplied the, vi- sion, But I will slay thee with a blow of this strong right hand," which he proceeded to do. . More Positive. "Well," said Cadley scornfully, "I'll bet you didn't do the proposing. It's a safe bet that your wife asked you i "~~ THE TINY SCIARA, A Procession of Worms Seen In Hun. gary and Norway. In some of the Hungarian forests and in the pine woods of Norway there exists a tiny, wormlike insect called the sciara, of the genus tipula. Dur- ing the month of July or early in Au- gust they gather together in large numbers, preparatory to migrating in search of food or fer change of con- dition. When setting out on this jour- ney they stick themselves together by means of some glutinous matter and form a huge serpent-like mass, often reaching a length of between forty and fifty feet and several inches In thick- ness, erage about three thirty-seconds of an inch in length, with no appreciable breadth whatever, the number required to compose a continuous line of the size above mentioned is almost incal- culable. Their pace is, of course, very slow, and upon meeting an obstacle, such as a stick or stone, they will either writhe over or around it, some- times breaking into two bodies for this purpose. Se M. Guerin-Meneville, a celebrated French naturalist, said that if the rear portion of this wonderful snakelike procession be brought into contact with the front part and a sort of circle formed the insects will keep moving round in that circle for hours without apparently noticing that they are get- ting no "forrader" on their journey. If the procession be broken in two, the portions will reunite in a short time. The Norwegian peasants, when they meet one of these trains, will lay some article of their clothing, such as a belt or handkerchief, on the ground in front of it. If the procession passes over it it is regarded as a good sign, but if it makes a way round the reverse is be- leved. ~~ Servia's laborer is at heart a simple prosaic fellow. His attire is coarse al. most to the point of ungainliness-- rough brown trousers of homespun, a coat a shade or two darker and edged with a strip of black fleece; a peaked woolen cap and a cane, and you have | the picture. He is a farmer on a small scale, and his hobby is raising hogs, which he turns. into the forests or fields to fatten on mast. The rural life | At sunup folks in Servia is primitive. rise, take their raki, or schnapps, and go to the fields to work. Their meal is brought to then at noon and again in the evening, for they often work until sunset. And so life goes on and on. Across the bluffs that border the river a road runs parallel 'with the Danube, and here workmen are seen, G@ressed often in white suits with red girdles, striving to bring from the earth the grain that will not come." In Roumanta and Bulgaria the grain lands are rich, but here the earth seems stubborn and unproductive. So the laborer ekes out his existence as he may--the least in- teresting of all the laborers of southern Hurope. " The Swiss Fourth of July. Aug. 1 is the Swiss Fourth of July, the national fete day. A traveler tells 'how he helped to celebrate it one year at one of the climbing centers in the: Valais by eating the sumptuous dinner provided by the hotel without extra charge, applauding the fireworks dis- play and a bonfire lighted high on the mountain side and shouting "Hourra!" ; at the end of a patriotic speech extoll- ing the ancient military glories and present republican democracy of Swit- gerland. Next morning came the strange sequel. The orator of the oc- casion, the most distinguished native visitor in the place, was appealed to as one who would certainly know the name of the Swiss president, but even be could not remember it. Nobody ever can. The name of that unassum. ing functionary is always less familiar : in Switzerland than that of the lieu- tenant governor is in Illinois, He is merely the democracy's temporary of finial Dr. MacNamara, M. P. Dr. MacNamara, who was Mr. Bir- | rell's able lieutenant in the British Commons during the fight for the education bill, is familiarly known to his host of friends as "Mac." He is a Canadian by birth, born at Mont- real in 1861, while his father, a ser- geant in the 47th Regiment, was on service in Canada. One of "Mac's" most highly valued treasures is'the Fenian raid medal, which the old man won in 1866, and whi- was received by the son in 1899, a few months af- ter his father's death. Dr. MacNamara is an educationist of wide repute. From 1876 to 1892 he taught in the elementary schools of Exeter, Hud- dersfield and Bristol. He did much to organize the International Union of Teachers, and in 1896 was elected president of that body. About the same time he was made a member of the London School Board, polling 48,255 votes. Now he is a journalist and editor of The Schoolmaster. He has written some valuable papers on the lighter side of educational work, such as "Schoolboy Honor" and "Schoolmaster Sketches." But he also knows the subject seriously, and dur- ing the debates on the educational As the sclara is only on an av- THE HOUSE OF LORDS CHECKS IT HAS RECEIVED AT THE HANDS OF THE COMMONS. The Long Parlinment Put the Peers Out of Business Altogether For a Number of Years -- Bolingbroke's Way* With the Noble Lords. many persons that the British house of lords is supreme and can do pretty well what it pleases. This, however, is a mistake. On several notable occasions their noble lordships have been para- i lyzed and have got very much the | wvorst of it in stormy arguments with the gentlemen of the house of com- mons, i The first occasion on which this hap- pened was when the peers ventured to differ with the long parliament, which was at the time engaged in a life and death struggle with Charles 1. The commons on this occasion wasted no valuable time in talking, but promptly abolished the lords altogether and | turned them, archbishops, dukes, belt- ed earls and all the rest of the gor- geous coroneted crowd, into the street. The gilded chamber was vacant. { For half a dozen years or so the 'country got on without any house of lords. All the checks the house of lords have received have not been of such a drastic nature as this, of course. Various ministries, finding that the . peers were unwilling to pass their pro- posed bills, have resorted to the threat to create enough new peers to swamp the house of lords. These new peers would, of course, have been pledged beforehand to vote for the ministry creating them. In 1711 the prime minister of the day, the daring and unscrupulous Vis- count Bolingbroke, was anxious to ter- minate the desolating and ruinous war with France, which had been raging on and off for twenty years, To effect this purpose he had drawn up the treaty of Utrecht, It was neces- i sary at that time that lords and com- i mons should agree to a treaty before it would become valid. The commons assented to the treaty, but the lords declared that they would have none of it and that the war must go on, whereupon Bolingbroke coolly but firmly informed them that, rather than - see himself defied by them, he would create a whole army of new: peers to vote for the treaty. The story goes that he had a regi- ment of the Life guards paraded under the windows of the house of lords and threatened to make every trooper into 'a noble lord if driven to it. He did lords gave in. . The Liberal government of 1832, with ! Bar] Grey as prime minister, used the same threat. They wished to pass the first reform bill. The lords hated this bill bitterly. Until then they had been practically an oligarchy, with all the real power in their hands. The franchise had been so limited that only rich men, and gen- erally only the nominee of some great nobleman, could get into parliament. The reform bill altered that. It gave the smaller men a chance. The lords expressed their deliberate intention of i wrecking the bill. ik | Earl Grey retorted by extorting from King William IV.--who did.'t like re- form bills, but dared not opnose the 'wish of the nation for fear of a revo- ' lution--permission to call up to the house of lords as many new peers as should be necessary to carry his bill. The mere threat was enough for the lords. They had no wish to see their order made cheap and ridiculous, as 'would have been the case had peers become as plentiful as blackberries. It used to be the custom in the Brit- ish army for all officers' commissions | to be purchased. That is, an officer, in- ' gtead of getting into the army by means of- a competitive examination and rising by merit, came straight from school, without knowing anything 'of the new duties he was about to as- sume, and had a commission bought for him. After that, instead of being promoted as a reward for his services, he used to buy each promotion. If he had no money his chances of being promoted were about a thousand to one. The result was that officers who had grown gray in the service and fought in many battles remained sub- ordinates all their lives, while the sons | a quarter of their service jumped over their heads by having their way pur- chased up for them to be colonels and generals. with this purchase system. The lords did not wish it to be abolished. Con- sequently, when Mr. Gladstone intro- army the house of lords was not dis- posed to give it a kind reception. They threw out the bill and imagined But Mr. Gladstone found that Queen Victoria had the power to abolish pur she pleased. He induced the queen t of wealthy families who had not seen: chase in the army by her own act if | There is an idea in the minds of very make twelve new peers, and then the Mr. Gladstone decided to do away | duced a bill to abolish purchase in the | that they had won a glorious victory. reproach and pity. "'Tain't so, anyway i --we know 'tain't so." : He was looking into his mother's , face. : ""Tain't go," Paul repeated with un- ghaken canfidence. --: to marry her." "No," replied Henpeck, wrong." "Oh, come now, be honest." "No, she didn't ask me; she told me | to."--Philadelphia Press. bill of last session he greatly increas- ed his reputation. He is very popular among the Liberal members of Par- Jiament, who esteem him for his orig- jnality and independence. He is at present member for North Camber- wi hey oR do this by means of a royal warrant. | And the house of lords could no more | interfere with a royal warrant' than they could knock the dome off St. Paul's by throwing their coronets dt it --Pearson's London Weekly, stovepipe tempered the cold. A crack in the gable end let in a sift of snow that had been heaping up a lonely little drift on the bare floor. The widow covered the boys tenderly and took 'thels treasures off the bed, all save the | "you're Hoge.