"It's the English frigate," said Temple, in a whisper. (As I was standing close by I caught the words distinctly.) "She must have us in sight from aloft. Our top-gallant-masts are plain to view. Ecod, we'll fool them, though," he cried, "if this fog holds." [TO BE CONTINUED.] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF A SIBERIAN SCHOOL-ROOM.] THE SCHOOLBOY OF SIBERIA. BY W. H. JACKSON. The word Siberia recalls a broad yellow space across the map of northern Asia, with a dot here and there for a town with an unpronounceable name; and that is about all any of us knew of Siberia when your father and I were boys. But we are beginning to learn better, and the person old or young who now speaks of that country as a barren stretch of forests and marshes, where the people wear furs most of the time, and live mainly on seal-blubber, shows himself far behind the times. [Illustration: STARTING OFF FOR A HOLIDAY.] I must confess, however, that the schools of Siberia are a little ahead of what I expected to see when I made a flying trip across the country last year. My journey was from the Pacific coast to Russia, and, in winter, by more than 3000 miles of sledge travel. It extended from Habarofsk, at the junction of the Amoor and Ussuri rivers, northeast of Peking, to the city of Krasnoyarsk, which at that time was the terminus of the railway which the Russian government is rapidly building from Moscow to the Pacific coast. This route led me through the principal cities of Siberia, and I was able to stop in most of them a few days, and thus to see many places and things of interest. Many of these cities are large and handsome towns; and as all lie in the southern part of the country, where the climate and soil are much like those of eastern Canada, they are surrounded by wide farming tracts, lumbering districts, and mines, and have a trade that reaches to great distances. These are old towns, too, for it must not be forgotten that Siberia has been growing civilized during 250 years, or about as long as the United States itself, and they are often populous also, since Irkootsk, where the Governor-General of Western Siberia lives, has about 80,000 people; Tomsk, the university town, has 30,000; Blagovestschensk, the largest city in Eastern Siberia, 40,000; and half a dozen others 10,000 or 12,000 more. They have water-works, electric lights, police and fire departments, theatres, and all the rest that belongs to a wide-awake town; but they are proudest of their schools and the institutions of religion and public charity. [Illustration: THE RING GAME AND OPEN-AIR GYMNASIUM.]