In five minutes the picture was taken, and then as the two red-faced men came forward, I resolved to make one last, bold dash for liberty.
Giving a sudden spring, I bounded from the chair, rushed for the door, and—plumped straight into my father's arms.
"Well, Max," he began in the calmest tones imaginable, "I see they haven't quite taken all the life out of you yet," and then he went on talking in German with the fat men, who soon grew redder in the face than ever as they shook all over in fits of laughter.
And what do you suppose all the fuss had been about? Just this: I had happened to be the millionth visitor that had entered the building, and that person, whoever it might be, the managers had decided should be treated with great honor, conducted in state through the exhibition, and finally have his photograph taken as a souvenir.
I brought one of the pictures back to America with me, and the boys at school all think it's a big thing; but then I've never told them as many of the particulars as I have just confided to Young People.
[BITS OF ADVICE.]
BY AUNT MARJORIE PRECEPT.
ABOUT CHRISTMAS GIFTS.
It is not the amount a gift costs in money which makes it beautiful and valuable. It is the loving thought of which it speaks which constitutes its claim to our regard. A person with a pocketful of money might rush into a store, buy half its contents, and scatter them right and left among his friends, without giving them much pleasure.