There were people to whom I told this story of my adventures who did not believe me, but I was always sure they would have credited my word if only I had had my monkey and my parrot with me to corroborate the truth of my strange history. THE END. GIFTS FOR ST. NICHOLAS [A] BY EMMA E. BREWSTER. Grieve not, O Santa Claus, who fills Each stocking, box and tree; Nor think, most desolate of saints, None bring good gifts to thee. We place no candles in thy crypt, No gold upon thy shrine,-- Thou bringest us the frankincense, The tapers and the wine. But rarer gifts, good Nicholas, Than these, thy children bring, When up and down an echoing world The Christmas bells all ring. We bring our brightest, truest love To crown thy happy brows; No monarch wears a coronet So light as holly-boughs. We bring our gayest, fairest hopes, With smiling memories spun; So rich a robe has never shone Earth's proudest king upon. We bring our trust, our childhood faith, And place it in thy hand; No jeweled scepter has such power To rule on sea or land. Then stay, O dear St. Nicholas! Look on thy heaped-up shrine; Our hearts, our hopes, our memories, Our trusts, our faith are thine! There's not in all the calendar One saint whose altars shine With such gay throngs of worshipers, Such precious gifts, as thine! [Footnote A: An answer to "Left Out," published in the December number.] SOME IN-DOOR GAMES AT MARBLES. BY L.D. SNOOK. One or two of the following games of marbles may be known to the readers of ST. NICHOLAS, but we think they all will be new to a great many boys. THE ARCHED-BOARD COUNT-GAME. [Illustration] A strip of board, half an inch thick, five inches wide, and twenty-two inches long, has notches cut in one side, two inches wide at the bottom, and tapering as shown. Short bits of board nailed upon each end keep the strip upright. Then it is placed upon the floor within two feet of the wall. Each player is provided with the same number of marbles (from three to five, or as many as the players wish), and from the opposite side of the room he rolls at the board, the object being to roll through the arches, which have numbers immediately above them in the manner shown. The one making the most counts after rolling all the marbles is entitled to one game. Or, if you have but five or six marbles, each party rolls the whole number by himself, and should there be a tie between those who make the highest aggregate number, they must roll again, the one then having the highest tally winning the game. THREE-ARCH DISCOUNT-GAME. [Illustration]