Then, as their fathers and mothers trooped in as sedately as Shetland horses ever can walk, their heads proudly arched, and their manes waving gracefully, on trial for the prize which was to go to the best family of the three, a funny thing happened. The tiny Shetland colts, who had been cooped up with their mothers in a narrow stall all the week, began to open their eyes with excitement. They saw a huge tan-bark ring in a great building, plenty of air and space for a romp. Scat! As if shot from a bow each little woolly horse scampered away, past its father and mother, who, as they were judged, vainly endeavored to stop their scapegoat children by a reproving neigh. Faster and faster flashed the hoofs around the arena. It was a series of races in which each began when he wished and stopped when he chose. Now they would roll over in the delicious tan-bark and spoil their fuzzy coats, with a dim consciousness, perhaps, that maternal scoldings would follow their actions. Not a whit did they care as they capered gleefully to forget a week's confinement. The spirit of their hill-climbing, wild, fearless Scotch ancestors was in them. The audience, which had clapped mildly before this, began to applaud enthusiastically and to cheer at the gambols of the Shetland infants. Two of them, somewhat scared, went to their respective families. But the third, a mass of black furry deviltry, only played and scampered the harder, and dually capped the climax by a leap on the platform where the judges themselves were. Shout after shout greeted this feat, and then he too became scared and ran straight to his mother. She, however, did not rebuke him, but only said, as he nestled timidly beside her, "Never mind this time, my son, for our family has won the prize!" The little colt, hardly half the size of a St. Bernard dog, seemed to understand, for as he scampered proudly along by his mother when the family went down stairs again, his manner seemed to say: "All right, mother. But you just wait till I am grown up. What a horse I'll be then!" And the children, as they left the great amphitheatre where such fun had been in store for them for the days past, as they thought of the driving and the hunting and the jumping and the other great things they would do in later years, appeared to voice the same sentiment, "Just wait till we are grown up!" [Illustration: THE JUDGING RING OF THE HORSE SHOW.] INEXPENSIVE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. BY JANE GRANT. If our purses were only as large as our hearts, how good it would be; but most often the biggest heart owns the smallest purse. There is no meanness in inexpensive Christmas presents, and no one will bethink of the money value of your dainty gift. Bits of silk or velvet, when not found in the family scrap-bag, are obtainable at any milliner's for about fifty cents per pound. A pretty pin-cushion is soon made of a small Japanese "cat basket," which may be gilded, in the mouth of which is put a velvet cushion.