THE GIRL'S OWN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Questions 1-12. 1. Did a queen ever voluntarily lay down the sceptre and retire into private life? * * * * * 2. What stone is said to endow whoever kisses it with wonderful powers of speech? * * * * * 3. How is it that, though the moon turns round on its axis, we never see its other side? * * * * * 4. Why is hard water very unsuitable for cooking and washing? * * * * * 5. What celebrated work was written in a week to defray the cost of the funeral of the author's mother? * * * * * 6. How did the thistle come to be the emblem of Scotland? * * * * * 7. What sea has water so thick that you can move in it with difficulty? * * * * * 8. What are the characteristics of the music of Chopin? * * * * * 9. Who is the greatest poetess the world has ever seen? * * * * * 10. How is a rainbow a sign of bad weather in the morning and a sign of good weather in the evening? * * * * * 11. Has a besieged town ever been saved by a pig? * * * * * 12. How fast can an expert penman write? THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS, Nos. 1-12, together with the Answers to Questions, Nos. 13-24, which have yet to appear, must be sent in on or before the 30th of December. VARIETIES. A GREAT CHARACTERISTIC OF THE BIBLE. Writing of the poetry and allusions of the Bible, Dr. Cunningham Geikie points out one of the great characteristics of the sacred volume. "It is not," he says, "the production of cloistered ascetics, but breathes in every page a joyous or meditative intercourse with nature or mankind. The fields, the hills, the highway, the valleys, the varying details of country scenes and occupations are interspersed among pictures of life from the crowded haunts of men. "The sower and the seed; the birds of the air; the foxes; the hen and its brood; the lilies and the roses; the voice of the turtle; the fragrance of the orchard; the blossom of the almond or the vine; the swift deer; the strong eagle ... the hiring of labourers; the toil of the fisherman; the playing of children; the sound of the mill; the lord and his servants; the courtier in silken robes, and a thousand other notices of life and nature, utilised to teach the highest lessons, give the sacred writings a perennial freshness and universal interest." DELIGHT IN PRAISING. "There is delight in singing, though none hear Beside the singer; and there is delight In praising, though the praiser sit alone And see the praised far off him, far above." _Walter S. Landor._ A GREEK OPINION ON WOMEN.