Dear St. Nicholas: Will you please tell me from which of Shakspeare's plays the following quotation is taken?

"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

—Yours truly,

Mary H. Wilson.

The quotation is from "As You Like It," Act II., Scene 1.; and the whole passage reads:

"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

The beauty is marred, and the aptness of the illustration is lost sight of, by omitting the second half of this admirable sentence; therefore we quote it entire.


"Fairfax," San Rafael, Cal.

Dear St. Nicholas: I have seen letters from San Francisco, Oakland, and other places in California, but I do not think any one has written to you from San Rafael, a beautiful little town near San Francisco.