"No, indeed," said the Quill. "The idea! Who ever saw a snake with wings? One is a C gull and the other is a J bird." "Can you draw a blue bird?" asked Jimmieboy. "I think so," answered the Quill, as he carefully drew this strange creature. [Illustration: A BLUEBIRD.] "You haven't given him any wings," said Jimmieboy, after carefully examining the picture. "No: that's the reason he is blue. He has to walk all the time. That's enough to make anybody blue," explained the Quill. "Here's a puzzle for you!" he added. "Guess what it is, and I'll write to your Uncle Periwinkle and tell him if he'll come up here on Saturday with two dollars in his pockets, you will show him where you and he can get the best soda-water made." [Illustration: STEEPLE-CHASING.] This is the picture the Quill then presented to Jimmieboy's astonished gaze. "Humph!" said Jimmieboy. "It looks like two men on horseback running after something, but what, I'm sure I don't know." "What does it look like?" asked the Quill. "Nothing that I ever saw." "Nonsense!" returned the Pen. "Does it look like a fox, or a Chinese laundry, or a what?" "It doesn't look like any of 'em," insisted Jimmieboy. "Dear me! How dull you are!" cried the Quill. "Why, boy, it's a church steeple, that's what. Now what is the whole thing a picture of?" "A steeple-chase!" cried Jimmieboy. "Exactly," said the Quill, very much pleased that after all Jimmieboy had guessed it. "And now I'll write that letter to Uncle Periwinkle." And so he wrote; P. S.--DEAR UNCLE PERIWINKLE, Come up on Saturday. Bring all the money you've got, and the soda-water we'll have will sail a yacht. If you can't come, send the money, and I'll look after sailing the yacht. Yours affectionately, JIMMIEBOY. "Will that do?" asked the Quill. "Yes," said Jimmieboy. "And now put it in an envelope, and I'll put it with the letters to be mailed." "Now draw some more," he said, after this had been mailed. But the Quill answered never a word. He had evidently fallen asleep. Strange to say, Uncle Periwinkle never got his letter, and the pictures the Quill made all faded from sight, and so were lost. SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES.[2] BY KIRK MUNROE. CHAPTER XXXIX. INVADING A CAPTAIN'S CABIN. An earthquake could hardly have caused greater consternation in the village of Klukwan than did the boom of that heavy gun as it came echoing up the palisaded valley of the Chilkat. Not many years before the Indians of that section had defied the power of the United States, and killed several American citizens. A gunboat, hurried to the scene of trouble, shelled and destroyed one of their villages in retaliation. From that time on no sound was so terrible to them as the roar of a big gun.