“DEAR MOTHER,—I am so sorry we cannot come, after all. We just got word that Robert’s aunt has been expecting us all the time, because we’ve spent every Christmas there. We feel as if we _must_ go there, because she always goes to so much trouble to get up a fine dinner; and we knew you wouldn’t do that. Besides, she is so rich; and one has to think of one’s children, you know. We’ll come, _sure_, next year. With a merry, merry Christmas from all, “ELIZA.” It was hard work reading it, she had to spell out so many of the words. After she had finished, she sat for a long, long time motionless, looking at the letter. Finally the cat came and rubbed against her, “myowing” for her dinner. Then she saw that the fire had burned down to a gray, desolate ash. She no longer trembled, although the room was cold. The wind was blowing steadily now. It was snowing, too. The bleak Christmas afternoon and the long Christmas night stretched before her. Her eyes rested upon the little fir-tree on a table in one corner, with its gilt balls and strings of popcorn and colored candles. She could not bear the sight of it. She got up stiffly. “Well, kitten,” she said, trying to speak cheerfully, but with a pitiful break in her voice, “let’s go out an’ eat our Christmas dinner.” BOOKS ON NATURE =BADENOCH= (L. N.).—=The Romance of the Insect World.= By L. N. BADENOCH. With Illustrations by Margaret J. D. Badenoch and others. _Second Edition._ Gilt top, $1.25. “The volume is fascinating from beginning to end, and there are many hints to be found in the wisdom and thrift shown by the smallest animal creatures.”—_Boston Times._ “A splendid book to be put in the hands of any youth who may need an incentive to interest in out-door life or the history of things around him.”—_Chicago Times._ =BRIGHTWEN.=—=Inmates of My House and Garden.= By Mrs. BRIGHTWEN. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.25. “One of the most charming books of the season, both as to form and substance.”—_The Outlook._ “The book fills a delightful place not occupied by any other book that we have ever seen.”—_Boston Home Journal._ =GAYE.=—=The Great World’s Farm.= Some Account of Nature’s Crops and How They are Grown. By SELINA GAYE. With a Preface by G. S. Boulger, F.L.S., and numerous Illustrations. 12mo, $1.50. _The University of California_ expressly commends this to its affiliated secondary schools for supplementary reading. “It is a thoroughly well-written and well-illustrated book, divested as much as possible of technicalities, and is admirably adapted to giving young people, for whom it was prepared, a readable account of plants and how they live and grow.”—_Public Opinion._