The following note was received by a teacher: "Please, sir, Johnnie was kept home to-day. I have had twins. It shan't occur again. Yours truly, Mrs. Smith." -The School Journal.

"No, my husband isn't home," said Mrs. Housekeep, "he's out hunting, as usual."

"Indeed!" "After reed birds?" "Gracious! no; a cook."-Philadelphia

replied the neighbor.

Press.

Stranger: "So you went to school with Rudolph Skipling, eh? I suppose you know he is now a famous writer?"

Uncle Fletch: "Sho! Why, him an' me used ther same copybook, an' I know my writin' 'd beat his'n all holler."-Chicago News.

"Does the baby talk yet?" asked a friend of the family.

"No," replied the baby's disgusted little brother; "the baby doesn't need to talk."

"Doesn't need to talk?"

"No. All the baby has to do is to yell, and it gets everything there is in the house that's worth having."-TidBits.

Visitor: Why do you call that breed of hens the "Macduffs?"

Farmer: "Because I want them to 'lay on." "

"Are ye goin' to send your son to college, Ezry?"

"Hod-durn him, no! He's a reg'lar rowdy now!"

An Irish laborer boarded a street car and handed the conductor a rather dilapidated-looking coin in payment of his fare. The conductor looked at it critically, and handed it back.

"That's tin," he said.

"Sure, I thought it was foive," answered the Irishman, complacently, as he put the piece back in his pocket and produced another nickel.

"That'll be a powerful machine," said a native of the north of Scotland to a motorist the other day.

"Yes, it's a splendid car," replied the owner, proudly.

"I suppose a car like that will be nearly a hundred horse power?" suggested the countryman.

"Oh, no," said the motorist, modestly; "it is only a ten horse. A hundred horse power car would be much larger."

"I wasn't going by size," the Highlander dryly explained. "I was going by the smell of it."

A Northern man who was traveling through the South, says the New York Times, saw a darky under a tree by the roadside on the edge of a field of corn. The negro was gazing lazily up through the branches, unmindful of a hoe which lay by his side, and of the weeds which grew luxuriantly in the corn field.

"What are you doing?" asked the Northern man.

"Ah'm out heah to hoe dat cohn," replied the darky.

"Then what are you doing under the tree?" persisted the traveler. "Resting?"

"No, sah, Ah'm not resting," was the drawled-out answer. "Ah'm not tiahed. Ah'm waitin' faw the sun to go down so Ah kin quit wuk."

That was a graceful compliment which was paid to the Duke of Wellington by Queen Victoria. Not every one recalls the fact that a certain style of high boots, not commonly worn nowadays, bore the name of Wellington.

When the duke was prime minister he once visited Windsor Castle to consult with the queen on an important state matter. The day was damp, following a heavy rain, and as the duke left the castle her majesty remarked, "I hope your grace is well shod?"

"Oh, said the duke, "I have on a pair of Wellingtons, and am proof against dampness."

The queen retorted, "Your grace must. be mistaken. There could not be a pair of Wellingtons."

THE PROSPECTOR: A Tale of the Crow's Nest Pass. By Ralph Connor. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 16 mo. 400 pages.

Ever since the publication of "Black Rock," a tale of the Selkirks, the eyes of the lovers of fiction have been turned toward the great Northwest. Story after story full of romantic interest, with pictures of the great canyons and mighty rivers of that unexplored country, have come to us. The perfect wholesomeness of his work, the exquisite delicacy of his character painting, his fidelity to nature, the fine flashes of humor and tender touches of pathos that occur in his unfolding of the tangled dramas of life he has chosen to describe form a succession of the brightest and best contributions to the current literature of our time.

There is the fresh breath of the open air about these books that makes their perusal a rich treat to the dwellers in cities. We come not only in contact with nature in her beauty and solitude, but in a land new and strange and full of the chaotic wealth and grandeur of elemental nature. "The Prospector" deals with the days before the smelter superseded the prospecting miner, who panned gold; when the country began to be peopled by a motley crowd of prospectors, cowboys, ne'er-do-wells and fortune hunters. The Northwestern Canadian territories become revealed to us, and we seem to sit by the campfires under the moon and stars and amid the weird echoes of the forest; the passions, the hatreds and jealousies and humors and longings of the dwellers in that lonely land are revealed to us by a master hand.

The present has all the fresh charm and grace of Mr. Connor's previous works. There are brief glances of city life. College sports are introduced, and the description of a football match between McGill and 'Varsity is full of vigor and animation. Indeed, the story is such that it affords another proof that the best writing of our time is done by

those who have lived through what they describe, and who, having the rare faculty of adding the golden threads of fancy to the web of fact, charm us with visions that seem to surpass nature as seen by the common eye.

Our readers are probably aware that the author of these delightful books of which "The Prospector" is the latest, Rev. Chas. A. Gordon, is the son of a Scot, and was born in Glengarry, Canada. He studied for the ministry and has traveled through those regions which he so delightfully describes.

THE CLANSMAN: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. By Thomas Dixon, Jr. Illustrated by Arthur I. Keller. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 12 mo., 374 pages. Price, $1.50.

This is a remarkably strong book, a dramatic love story which shows Abraham Lincoln as the true friend of the South, and reveals the work and spirit. of the Ku Klux Klan. The work begins at the close of the Civil War and carries the reader through the stirring days of the Reconstruction period. The wordpainting is at once grand and gorgeous. The panorama of stirring events succeed each other in lurid rapidity. The appallling scene of the assassination of Lincoln is told with great dramatic force amid a brilliancy of coloring that is rarely equaled.

the

The author of this notable work is perhaps the most interesting figure in American literary life. Mr. Dixon's books have caused much discussion among critics, and the universal opinion is that, in respect to dramatic word-painting and in keen analysis of the causes that have led to vital national transitions of thought and action, Mr. Dixon's work is unique in its kind, and forms a prominent feature of the literary life of our time. Mr. Dixon is a native of North Carolina, a descendant of sturdy Scottish Covenanters, and whose traditions of liberty and

loyalty were maintained by the Ku Klux Klan in the troubled days of the Reconstruction. Mr. Dixon was educated for the law, but abandoned it to become a preacher. He was a brilliant, fearless and impassioned pulpit orator, and his discourses at the Academy of Music, New York, attracted thousands. He is also a noted lecturer. He has repeated in literature his success in the pulpit and on the platform. "The Clansman" is a fearless and frank revelation of conditions in the South after the war. This is Mr. Dixon's most ambitious book so far, and in this work he has not only created a most absorbing and dramatic novel, but has added to the literature of the Reconstruction period.

DOCTOR LUKE OF THE LABRADOR. BY Norman Duncan. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 12mo. 327 pages. Gilt cloth. $1.50.

This young and gifted author is doing for the coast of Labrador what Ralph Connor is doing for the Northwest Territory of Canada. He is making for that hitherto almost unknown region a place in literature almost as distinctive as the Isle of Man by Hall Caine or Thrums by James M. Barrie. Mr. Duncan is a Canadian by birth and education, having been born in Bradford, Ontario, and completed his academic studies in the University of Toronto. He drifted into journalism, and while on the New York Evening Post, where he remained several years, he began to attract attention by his writing of short stories of Syrian life in this city. He lived during the Summer months in Newfoundland and Labrador, and contributed short stories to Harper's and McClure's. For the past two years he has held the position of Professor of English in Washington and Jefferson College, while occupied at the same time with his literary work.

It was a long time before any distinctively Canadian work appeared from a native of the soil, but the beginning of the twentieth century brings the Dominion into the front as the scene of literary work of the best kind. Mr. Duncan has already done splendid work, and gives every indication of continuing in the path of realistic romance which he has chosen. His work possesses all the finer characteristics of elemental passion, spirited.

action, whimsical humor, exquisite sentiment and tender pathos. Add to these a rich inventive faculty and the mastery of the best English, and Mr. Duncan easily takes his place as one of the leading literary lights of our time.

ROMAN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT BIBLES COMPARED. The Gould Prize Essays. Published by the Bible Teachers' Training School, 541 Lexington avenue, New York. 180 pages, 16mo., paper covers. 50 cents.

These admirable essays published in handy form should be in the hands of every Bible reader. The outstanding result of a perusal of these essays will likely be to establish the almost practical unity of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Bible. The great difference between the versions is the presence in the Roman Catholic Bible of the Apocrypha. The collection of books so named is rejected by Protestants as uncanonical. The American Revised Version does not even allude to the existence of the Apocrypha. Compared with this difference between the two versions, all other differences are insignificant. Both versions contain the same complete message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

DAY DREAMS. By Charles Reekie.

This collection of lyrics and other verses from the graceful pen of Mr. Reekie, of Newark, has already been warmly noticed by eminent reviewers. Mr. Reekie's muse revels in the tender and glorious memories of the Fatherland. We give, in a another column, a sample of Mr. Reekie's lyrical work, which will show that he is possessed of lyrical aptitude and a mastery of versification which entitles his work to the generous consideration of lovers of Scottish verse published in America.

"JOHNNIE COPE."-This song celebrates the victory of the Highland Clans under "Bonnie Prince Charlie" over Sir John Cope on the 20th of September, 1745. All over the British Empire, wherever a Highland regiment is stationed, this tune is invariably used as the reveille to awaken the sleeping garrison. Some books state, "author unknown," while others attribute the authorship to one Adam Skirving.-JOHN GRIER. 363059

The Harris District Committee of the County Council of Inverness, at its meeting, had before it the defective and insufficient mail steamer service with the outer islands, and a petition signed by 750 fishermen and seamen of Harris desirous of joining the Naval Reserve and having a Naval Reserve battery erected at Tarbert, Harris. Resolutions were unanimously agreed to pointing out the inefficiency of the steamer service, which could be easily improved by connecting with the railways on the mainland at Mallaig and Oban. Copies of the resolutions were ordered to be sent to the members of Parliament for the north of Scotland.

Scotland was beaten by England in the League International at Glasgow by three goals to two. It was a fine, fast game throughout; the Scotsmen fought splendidly, and their final rally showed that they had good stuff in them, which almost deserved a better score. The Scottish forwards had as much of the game as their opponents, but they were weak in finishing, and lacked the decision and alertness of the Englishmen.

The feeling which has arisen over the choice of a site for the Carnegie Library at Burntisland promises now to subside. The difference of opinion between the majority of the Town Council and the Citizens' Committee has been amicably arranged through the generosity o fMr. Shepherd of Rossend Castle, who came forward with an offer of the site approved by the ratepayers, viz., the Old United Presbyterian Church in High Street.

The Woodside District Library, Glasgow, was opened by Bailie D. M. Stevenson. This is the fifth district library provided in the general scheme, but it is only the third of these provided out of the Carnegie gift of £100,000, the other two being Kingston and Anderston. Nine other libraries are in various stages of progress, and for other two sites have yet to be found. The cost of the building, including appointments, is estimated at about £8,250.

Sir William Arrol's marriage affords a striking illustration of the pressure imposed by Parliamentary discipline. Sir William left London at night for Ayrshire. Here he was married next day, and in the afternoon he left again for London, accompanied

his bride. Reaching Euston Sir William dashed into a cab, drove to a hotel, left his young wife, and hurried on to Westminster in time to give his much-needed vote at midnight to the Government.

The fishings were pretty regularly prosecuted last season, but as regards the herring fishings in the north and west, and in the Firth of Forth, with only moderate successes. In fact, the winter herring fishing may now be considered closed, with an ag

Lovers of old Edinburgh will welcome the laudable effort which Mr. William Hay, High Street, is making to preserve some authentic record of the historic houses of the ancient city before they are "reformed" off the face of the earth. A few weeks ago Mr. Hay issued the first of a series of fine pencil sketches of buildings of antiquarian interest, drawn by Mr. Bruce J. Home. These were accompanied by an introduction written by Professor Baldwin Brown. The second part of the series has now been published, containing drawings of Advocates' Close, the back of Bakehouse Close and Kinloch's Close. Short descriptions written by men skilled in these matters are appended to the sketches, which are artistically reproduced.

At a meeting of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, Mr. William C. Mackenzie, F.S.A.Scot., gave an account of the Pigmies' Isle, at the Butt of Lewis. The Pigmies' Isle was first noticed by Dean Munro, who visited it about 1549. At the north point of Lewis, he says, there is a little isle called the Pigmies' Isle, with a little kirk in it of their own handiwork, in which the tradition was that the Pigmies were buried, in proof of which he and others had dug deeply into the floor and found certain bones and round heads of wonderful little size. Captain Dymes, who visited Lewis in 1630, also dug up bones, but doubted if they were human. Mr. Mackenzie rediscovered it from Captain Dymes's manuscript, which he found when searching for material for his "History of the Outer Hebrides."