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silly!" replied Chub. "You don't expect those fellows are going to row across here and then go hunting all about the island in the dark, do you? They always come spying around in the daytime first and see where the boats are hauled up."

It was raining that morning when they arose, but the rain could n't quench their enjoyment. A shelter tent was put up and they all crowded under it for breakfast. Roy was assistant cook that day.

It had stopped drizzling during the afternoon and practice had been held on a very wet diamond. At camp-fire Thurlow had brought out his banjo and got them all to singing. That seemed to raise Chub's spirits some; it did him good, he declared, to howl. Later it started in drizzling again and the campers went to bed early, tying the tent flaps securely ere they retired.

He

He

It was black night when Roy awoke. could n't even see the canvas overhead. wondered what had awakened him and listened to the deep breathing about him for a moment. Perhaps Post had talked in his sleep; he often did. Roy turned over again and closed his eyes. Then he opened them quickly. From somewhere came a sound as though a boat was being drawn across the pebbles of a beach. He listened intently, but heard nothing more. He had imagined it, he told himself sleepily. But he wasn't satisfied. After a moment he heard it again, that grating noise. He reached toward Post, about to awaken him, thought better of it and scrambled noiselessly out of bed. After all it was hardly probable that Hammond had visited them without giving the usual notice; it would n't be playing fair and Chub would be frightfully pained and grieved! Roy smiled to himself as he hastily drew on his trousers and coat over his pajamas, and picked up the first pair of shoes that came to hand. He tried to find the cords which lashed the tent flap close. There was no use in waking the whole crowd up unless there was some reason for it. He would

just look around a bit first if he could ever get out of the fool tent! Then the last cord gave way and he slipped out into the dark

ness.

The camp-fire was long since out and the shower had drowned even the embers. It was no longer raining, but the ground was wet underfoot and the grass and low growth threw drops against his bare ankles. It was not quite so black outside here as it had been in the tent, and in the east a rift in the clouds hinted of the moon, but it was too dark to see much of anything. Roy felt his way across the clearing, stumbled over a peg as he crept past one of the tents and shook a shower of raindrops from a young pine as he went sprawling into the underbrush. It was very damp there on the ground and pine needles and grass and twigs were plastered to his hands, but he lay still a moment and listened. Surely, if there was anyone round they could n't have failed to hear him crash into the bushes! All was still for an instant; then there was a subdued splash as though someone had unintentionally plunged his foot into water. Roy cautiously lifted his head. Now came a whisper; another answered from a distance; an oar creaked in its lock.

Only a fringe of pines and underbrush. divided Roy from the Inner Beach which was here some thirty feet wide. As noiselessly as possible he stood up and stared into the darkness ahead. It seemed that he could distinguish forms moving about, but he decided that an excited imagination was to blame. Cautiously he pressed through the bushes, which, being wet, gave little sound as their branches whipped back. Then he was on the edge of the pebbles. And just as he raised his foot to step forward again the moon broke forth from the broken clouds and he stopped short, stifling the cry that sprang to his lips.

In the sudden flood of dim light the edge of the stream seemed fairly alive with boats, while right in front of him, so near that but a very few steps would have reached him, a dark figure was kneeling in his path.

(To be continued.)

THE SITTER OBJECTS, BUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER GETS THE PICTURE.

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It is a fact not generally known, and yet one of peculiar significance, that the great seal of the United States, which was adopted in 1782, was suggested by a citizen of a country with which our own was then at war.

The history of the great seal, and the difficulties which beset those having in charge the matter of selecting a suitable and satisfactory design, is full of interest. Soon after the Declaration of Independence was signed, .Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams were appointed a committee to prepare a great seal for the infant republic. They employed a French West Indian, named Du Simitière, to furnish designs and sketches; but, although a number were suggested, none proved satisfactory. Then each member of the committee was asked to submit a design. Franklin proposed for the device Moses lifting his wand and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh and his hosts overwhelmed with waters, and for a motto, the words of Cromwell: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Adams proposed the choice of Hercules; the hero resting on a club, Virtue pointing to her rugged mountain on the one side, and persuading him to ascend, and Sloth, on the other side, glancing at her flowery beds and persuading him into vice. Jefferson proposed the Children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; and on the reverse side, Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon chiefs from whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose political principles and form of government we have assumed. Jefferson was then requested by his colleagues to combine their separate ideas into one design, which he did; and this description, in his own handwriting, is still on file in the State Department. This design consisted of a shield with six quarterings. The first, gold,

with an enameled rose, red and white, for England; the second, white, with a thistle in its proper color, for Scotland; the third, green, with a harp of gold, for Ireland; the fourth, blue, with a golden lily, for France; the fifth, gold, with the imperial black eagle of Germany; and the sixth, gold, with the Belgic crowned red lion, for Holland. These denoted the countries from which America had been peopled. He proposed to place this shield within a red border, on which there should be thirteen white escutcheons, linked together by a gold chain, each bearing appropriate initials, in black, of the thirteen original States. There were supporters on either side of the shield, the one on the right being the Goddess of Liberty in a corselet of armor, in allusion to the then state of war, and holding a spear and cap in her right hand, while the left supported the shield. On the left was the Goddess of Justice, leaning on a sword in her right hand, and in her left a balance. The crest was the eye of Providence, in a radiant triangle, whose glory extended over the shield and beyond the figures. The motto was "E Pluribus Unum"

"One out of many." For the reverse, he proposed the device of Pharaoh sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head and a sword in his hand, passing through the waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites,-rays from a pillar of fire in a cloud, expressive of the divine presence and command, beaming on Moses, who stands on the shore and, extending his hand over the sea, causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh and his followers. Motto: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."

Jefferson's device met with the unqualified approval of his associates, and the committee reported to the Continental Congress on August 10, 1776; but, for some unaccountable reason, their report was never acted upon.

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Nothing further was done in the matter until March 24, 1779, when another committee, composed of Messrs. Lovell of Massachusetts, Scott of Virginia, and Houstoun of Georgia, was appointed to make another device.

They suggested a design four inches in diameter, one side of which should be composed of a shield with thirteen diagonal red and white stripes. This shield was supported on one side by a warrior, holding a sword, and on the other by the figure of Peace bearing an olive branch. The crest was a radiant constellation of thirteen States; motto, "Bello vel Pace"-" For War or Peace"; and the legend, "Seal of the United States." On the reverse, the figure of Liberty seated in a chair, holding the staff and cap. Motto, "Semper"-"Forever," and, underneath,

"MDCCLXXVI."

This device met with the same neglect at the hands of Congress as the former, and the matter remained in abeyance until 1782, when another committee was appointed. They reported substantially the same device as the former committee, but this being still unsatisfactory, Congress, on the third day of June, 1782, referred the whole matter to its secretary, Charles Thomson. He in turn procured several devices, but they met with no better fate than their predecessors, and after vainly trying to perfect a seal which should meet the approval of Congress, Thomson received from John Adams, then in London, an exceedingly simple and appropriate device which was suggested by Sir John Prestwich, a baronet of the west of England, who was an accomplished antiquarian and a warm friend of America. It consisted of an escutcheon bearing thirteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, with the chief blue and

And to give it

spangled with thirteen stars. greater consequence, he proposed to place the escutcheon on the breast of an American eagle, displayed, without supporters, as emblematic of self-reliance.

This device met with universal approval, in and out of Congress, and was adopted in 1782. It remains to this day the Great Seal of the United States, unchanged in the slightest degree from the day of its adoption. Stripped of heraldic technicalities, it may be described as follows:

An escutcheon of thirteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white; a blue field; this escutcheon on the breast of an American eagle, displayed, holding in its right talon an olive branch, and in its left a bundle of thirteen arrows; in its beak a scroll inscribed with the motto, "E Pluribus Unum." For the crest over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a golden glory breaking through a cloud and surrounding thirteen stars forming a constellation of white stars on a blue field.

The reverse is an unfinished pyramid. In the zenith is an eye in a triangle surrounded with a glory. Over the eye are the words, "Annuit coeptis"-which may be freely translated as "God has favored the undertaking." On the base of the pyramid are the letters in Roman numerals, MDCCLXXVI, and underneath is the motto, "Novus ordo seclorum"-"A new order of the ages," denoting that a new order of things had commenced in the Western Hemisphere.

Thus, after six years of fruitless effort, a very simple seal was adopted and yet remains the arms of the United States.

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The

Magie Teapot

(A Chinese Fairy Story.)

BY FLORENCE PELTIER.

“HAI YAH!" exclaimed Wang Er, jumping out of bed and running to the window. "What can be going on?"

The sun was only just beginning to show its great red face above the hilltops, so it was not very light out of doors. But Wang Er's sharp eyes recognized the Emperor's heralds passing by the tiny hut where he and his mother lived all alone.

"Hear! hear!" lustily shouted the heralds. "The princess, the august emperor's only child, has been stolen! Upon him who restores her to her royal father there will be bestowed not only rare jewels, but a high degree of scholarship!"

"I hope the poor princess is being treated. well," said Wang Er, as he turned from the window and began dressing.

After breakfast Wang Er went out in the tiny vegetable garden to pull up weeds; but scarcely had he begun when he saw before him the tiniest, daintiest, loveliest shoe imaginable. was made of silk, heavily embroidered and encrusted with pearls and rubies.

When Wang Er had recovered from his astonishment enough to be able to move, he picked up the shoe and carried it to his mother, who said at once:

"Surely this is the princess's shoe, and finding it here means that the poor child has been

stolen by the fung-shui (evil fairies) and hidden in the cave."

"Of course!" exclaimed Wang Er. "I was stupid not to think of that."

Not far from this little home was a vast cave that people dared not go near, much less enter, because the farmers who lived near by had so many vegetables stolen from their gardens, and found so many strange, tiny footprints, that there could be no doubt at all but that evil fairies dwelt in the cave.

There was nothing cowardly about Wang Er, and, after a few minutes of deep thought, he said very decidedly:

"I must go into the cave and try to rescue the princess."

His mother began to weep, and sobbed : "Oh, my son! my son! the terrible fung-shui will kill you!"*

"Mother," answered Wang Er, tears in his own eyes, "your son will obey you implicitly; but have not you yourself taught me always to serve the emperor to the best of my ability ?— and his only child, the princess, is in the power of the fung-shui."

The mother choked back her sobs, wiped her eyes, and said:

"True, my son. Hasten to the aid of his imperial majesty's child!”

* Even to-day the Chinese believe in the fung-shui to such an extent that His Excellency, Wong Kai Kah, was obliged to relinquish all hope of opening valuable mines in China, after months of endeavor. The Chinese country people could not be persuaded to dig mines, for fear of incurring the displeasure of the fung-shui.

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