Mamma made each of them put on a very heavy fur coat, and fur shoes, and they all went out, and went skipping over the cold white snow, until at last, through the darkness they caught a glimpse of something sparkling, and bright and beautiful. Bright lights hung everywhere, and in the center of it all was a tree—that was not like any tree they had ever seen before in all their little rabbit lives. It was a rabbit Christmas tree, just covered with beautiful gifts for all, and there all around the tree were dozens and dozens of rabbits many of whom were friends of theirs, and what a jolly crowd it was. Everybody good natured, and all jumping and hopping, as if their lives depended upon it. Pretty soon from out the darkness who should appear but Santa himself? O, what hurrying and scurrying of little furry feet there was, as all the little bunnies tried to get near him. He smiled upon them all as he stepped to the tree and began handing gifts to each and every one of them. And the funniest part of it was, that he knew every one of their names. After the gifts had all been distributed they all joined hands around Santa Claus, and went around in the wildest, merriest dance, that was ever danced by a party of rabbits. So light of feet and so happy were they that they fairly flew over the ground. Then the good old Santa told them good-by till next year, and jumping into his sleigh, vanished from sight. They all went home very tired, but O, so very, very happy to be tucked away again into their soft, warm nests of gray moss. Jessie Juliet Knox. TOPAZ. Remarkable clearness and transparency, capacity of taking a high polish and hardness and weight greater than that of quartz. These are the qualities in which Topaz excels as a gem. Numerous other stones of inferior quality masquerade under its name, however, and this fact may account for the decline in popularity which the stone has suffered in recent years. True Topaz is a silicate of alumina, containing hydroxyl and fluorine. Its hardness is 8 in the scale in which quartz is 7. Hence it will scratch the latter mineral and may thus be distinguished from it. It is also remarkably heavy, considering its composition, it being three and one-half times as heavy as water, while quartz is only two and one-half times as heavy. Owing to this unusual specific gravity, experts accustomed to handling gems can frequently pick out the Topaz from a miscellaneous lot of precious stones without removing their wrappings.