"Come! come! you must," said Nycteris, "or I shall have to pretend to leave you, to make you come. I have seen the green eyes you speak of, and I will take care of you from them."
"You! How can you do that? If it were day now, I could take care of you from the worst of them. But as it is, I can't even see them for this abominable darkness. I could not see your lovely eyes but for the light that is in them; that lets me see straight into heaven through them. They are windows into the very heaven beyond the sky. I believe they are the very place where the stars are made."
[to be continued.]
AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES.—Drawn by J. E. Kelly.
New-Year's Gifts.—The custom of giving and receiving gifts at the new year dates from very early times indeed. The Druids used to cut down branches of their sacred mistletoe with a golden knife, and distribute them amongst the people as New-Year's gifts. As they cut it down they used to sing—
"Gather the mistletoe, the new year is at hand."