[Illustration: MARTHA WASHINGTON. FROM AN UNFINISHED PORTRAIT BY GILBERT STUART. ENGRAVED FOR ST. NICHOLAS BY W. B. CLOSSON. (See page 912.)] ST. NICHOLAS. VOL. XIII. OCTOBER, 1886. NO. 12. [Copyright, 1886, by THE CENTURY CO.] AUTUMN TO SPRING. BY EDITH M. THOMAS. I wish the stately golden-rod Might kiss the little wind-flower sweet, That asters might to cowslips nod, And eyebright run in haste to greet The violet from the April sod— So once the Fall and Spring might meet. I wish my Little Self and I Might sometime cross each other’s way. My Little Self is wondrous shy; I can not meet her any day, Howe’er I search, howe’er I pry About these meadows autumn-gay. The runaway, the teasing elf! She flits where woodland blossoms drift; She has a world of pretty pelf She gathered from the ripples swift; Such joys she has, my Little Self Will not be lured by any gift. She’s light as bird upon the wing, Her cheeks and eyes are all aglow. To me what gladness she could bring! To her I should be strange, I know. My Little Self holds fast the Spring, And Autumn will not let me go! Yet still I wish the golden-rod Might kiss the little wind-flower sweet, That asters might to cowslips nod, And eyebright run in haste to greet The violet from the April sod.— But Fall and Spring can never meet! LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. CHAPTER XIV. It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen. It had taken only a few minutes, apparently, to change all the fortunes of the little boy dangling his red legs from the high stool in Mr. Hobbs’s store, and to transform him from a small boy, living the simplest life in a quiet street, into an English nobleman, the heir to an earldom and magnificent wealth. It had taken only a few minutes, apparently, to change him from an English nobleman into a penniless little impostor, with no right to any of the splendors he had been enjoying. And, surprising as it may appear, it did not take nearly so long a time as one might have expected, to alter the face of everything again and to give back to him all that he had been in danger of losing.