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 ^Pt J* 1^: IN GOLDEN BONDS. m â- i CHAPTER IX. Mr. Keade s cruel and pre judiced accnaa- tioos against Mr. Rayner had not in the leaet sluJcen my faith in the kindness and goodness of the master of the Alders but I lelt anxious to piove to myself that the charges he brought afi;ainst him were gropnd- lesa. Mr. Reade'a suggesticn that he let his family sleep in the damp house while he passed his nights elsewhere, for instance, was absurd in the extreme. Where else could he sleep without any one's knowing anything about it I often heard his voice and step about the house until quite late he was always one of the first in the dining- room to our eight o'clock breakfast, and even on the wettest mornings he never look- si as if he had been out in tne rain. It often seems to me that, when I have been puzzling; myself fruitlessly for a long tirr.e over any matter, I find out quite simply by accident what I want to know. Thus, only the day after my talk with Mr, Reacie in the shop, 1 was nursing Haidee, wh3 did not feel incliced to play after lesson- time, when she said â€" " L)o you ever have horrid dreams, Miss 'hr:stie, tiiat frighten yoif, and then come true " "No, darling; dreams aie only fancies, you knoft' and never coir.e true, except jest by ixccident." I said this bccauie everybody considers it the ricjht acswer to give to a child but I d« Ijelieve just a little in dreams myself. She went on gravely â€" " Bat mine do. I'll teU you about one I liad two night.s ago, if you'll bend your head and let m.e whisper. I muat'nt tell mamma, because she always slops me and sivs I irus'n't speak of v»hat I see but I can say it to yoi; ycu won't tell, will ycu?" "No, (lirHng. I won't tell," said I, think- ing it kindest to let the child speak out about her fancies, instead of brooding cvtr them, as the shy little thing was too prone to do. " 'ou know t'nat day when we took you up t^ your cew room in the turret " " Yes, dear." said I. "Hush Whisper," cooed she. " Well, that uight Jane put me to bed, just as «he alwDys does, in my little room, and then I went to sleep just like I always do. And i;hen I dreamt that I heard mamma screim- ing and crying, and papa speaking â€" oh, so ditfeiently from ihe way he generally dees It made ine frightened in my dream I thought ii • '3 all real, and I tried to get out ot bed .t I was too much asleep and then I didi. i. dream any more, only when I woke up 1 lemembered it. I didn't tell anybody and the next night 1 wondered if I should have the dream agaiu, and I didn't want .Jane to go a^ay and, when I said it was just because I'd had a dream, she said dreams were stutT aud nonaence, and she wanted to go and dream at having supper. And then ane went away, and I wenc to sleep. And then I woke up because mam- ma was crying, and I thougnt at first it was my dream again bat I knocked my head against the rail ot my bed, and then 1 knew I must be awake. And I got out of Ded, and I went (juite softly to the door and looked throuun the keyhole, for there was a light in her room. When she has a light, 1 can see in quite plainly through the key- hole, and I can see the bed and her lying in it. But she wasn't alone like she gener- aJly is â€" 1 could see papa's hand holding the candle, and he was talking to her in such a low voice but she wai crying and talkint; (^nite wildly and strangely, so that she Irighteceu me. When she talks like that, 1 teel afraid â€" it doesn't seem as if she were mamma. And then I saw pipa put some- thing on hnv face, and mamnsa said, ' Don't â€" don't Not that ' and then she only moaned, and then she was quite scill, and I heard him go out ol the room. And pre- sently 1 called • Mamma, mamma ' but she didn't answer and I was so frightened, I thought she was dead. But then I heard her bigh like she always does in her sleep, aid 1 got into bed again." " Were you afraid to go in, darling- ?]" ' "I c»ulan't go in, because the door was locked. It always is, you know. I never yo into mamma's room I did only once, and she said â€" the aiid" â€" and the child's soft whisper grew softer still, and she held her tiuy lips closer to my ear â€" "she said I w»s never i-o say anything about it â€" and 1 promised so I mustn't, even to you, Mies Christie dear. You don't mind, do you, be- cause I promised " 'No, darling, I don't. Of course you mii't not tell if you promised," said 1. B it I would hive given the world to know what the child had seen in that mys- terious room. ItaiJce's fctrange story had roused again in iiie all the ola teeling of a shadow ot ac:.v3 kiLd tiaugiuf: over the house on the maisi which had long since worn away in the 4 ret routine of my daily life there. The lockiug of the mcther's door against hftr own child, her wild talk and ci-yinjC, the •• son.ething en the face " that her husbind hia Lad to administer to calm her, and the d socvery that he himself did not sleep in I le same room, all united to call up in my iniud the remembrance of that long talk I had had with Mr. Rayner in the school- r.jon-. soon alter my arrival, the story he had told Hie fef her boy's death, and the cnange ic had made in her, and his allud n to • • those outbreaks which someiimes cause me the gravest â€" the very gravt-st anxiety." I had uuaerstood then that he feared lor his wife's reaaoD, but, never having witnesa- t d any great cbaoge in her cold listless man- ner myself, and having seen on the whole very little of her except at meils, a'l fear and almost all leaiembrance of her possible insanity had tiutd Iri m my mind, in which she remained a background figure. Bat now Haidee'd story caused me to wonder whether there was not an cndercurrent in the affairs of the household of which I knew little or nothing. What if Mr. Rayner, bright, cheerful, and good tempeured as he always seemed, were really suffering under the burden of a wife whose sullen silence might at any moment break into wild in- sanity â€" if he had to wrestle in secret, as, from the child's story, seemed to have been the case quite recently on two successive nights, with moods of wild wailing and weeping wliich he at first tried to deal with by gentle rsmonstrance (Haidee said thkt on the second night, when she was fully awake hii voice was very low and soft), and at last had to Bubdae by sedatives 1 And then a suggestion occurred to me which would at least explain Sarah's impor- tant position in the household. Was she perhaps in truth a responsible guardian of Mrs. Rayner, such as, if the latter's reason were really feeble, it would be necessary for her to have in her husband's absence I already knew that the relations between mistress and servant were not very amicable. ThouGih she treated her with all outward signs of respect, it was not difhoult to see tlmt Sarah despised her mistress, while I had sometimes surprised in the wide gray eyes of the other a side-glance of dislike and fear which made me wcnder how she could tolerate in her household a woman to whom she had so strong an aver. ion. That Mr, Rayner was anxious to keep the scandal of havmg a mad wife a secrat from the world was clear from the fact that not even Mr, Liwrence Reade, who seemed to take a particular interest in the affairs of the house- hold at the Aiders; had ever shown the least suspicion that this was the case. So the secluded life Mrs. Riyner led came to be ascribed to the caprice â€" if the village gossips did not use a harsher word â€" of her j husband, while that unfortunate man was really not her tyrant, but her victim. The cnly other possible explanation cf what Haidee had seen was that Mr. Kiy- ner, kind and sweet-tempered to every one as he always was, and outwardly gentle and thoughtful to a touching degree towards his cold wife, was really the most designing of hypocrites, and was putting upon his wife, under the semblance of devoted affection, a partial restraint which was as purposeless as it was easy for her to break through. This idea was absurd. The other supposition, dreadful as it was, was far more probable. I was too much accustomed by this time to Mrs. Rayner's listless moods and the faint far-off looks of fear, or anger, or suspicion that I sometimes saw in her eyes, to be alarmed even by the possibitity of a change for the worse in her â€" the thought that she was scarcely respon- sible for her words and actions reconciled me somewhat to her cold manner to myself and to the j ealousy of the hold I was surely getting upon Haidee's affection. But my strongest feeling was not for the half-witted wife nor for the unfortunate husband, but for the child herself, the unsuspected wit- ness of her mother's outbreaks of incoherent words and cries. It was strange that these attacks should occur only at night, I thought at first but then I remembered that these when I had read Adam Bede aloud to her in the drawing-room, the tearful excitement into which, apparently without any cause, she had fallen, which her husband's entrance had as suddenly subdued â€" at least for the time for how could I tell what had followed when he had led her away into that bed- room of hers which was beginning to have for me the fascination of a haunted chamber? The immediate result of the child's con- fidences to me was a great increase of my love for and interest in herself. We be- came almost inseparable in and out of school hours I encouraged her in talk and she soon fell into the habit of telling me, whether I was listening or not, those long rambling stories which have no beginning, no sequence, and no end, which are the solace of children who have no companions of their own age. When my attention was wandering fn»n these incoherent tales, I sometines had it abruptly brought back by some flight ot her childish fancy, which set me wondering if it had been suggested by some half-for- gotten experience. Thus one day, when I was working, and she was sitting on a foot- stool by my side, with two or three twigs bearing oak-apples which represented, as far as I could j adge from her severity to some and her tenderness to the others, the personages of her story, my attention was arrested by the words â€" "And so the Prince said to Princess Christie " â€" the heroine of the story, so named in honor of me â€" " ' I've brouijht you Pome jewels much finer than yours.' But Princess Chriftie cried and said, I don't want them. Where did you get them I knowwhereyou got them. You are a naughty bad Prince, and I won't wear my jewels any more And I thought of what Mr. Rayner had told me of his wife's hearing, on her return home from a ball, of her baby-boy's death and of her saying she would never wear jewels again. But Haidee had been but a baby-girl at the time her words must be but a mere coincidence. But some of the cjincidences of her narrative were less difficult of explanation, for she went on â€" "And so Prince Caramel said, '"Very well I'll send you some more roses' if you â- won't throw them away, and some marbles. But you mustn't cry, you know. I won't have a Pi incess that cries, I sha'n't look at you in church it you cry. If you don't cry, I'll let you have some jim too as well at but- ter, and you shall have a ride on the butcher's horse up and down the back-yard. And then I'll put you in a fairy-boat, and we'll fly away â€" fly away right over the trees and over the marsh, and past Mr. Bogget's aul up into the clouds, and live in a swal- low's nest, and never do any lessons.' " And so on, going off in a wild and unex- pected way into all sorts of extravagances, while I thought, with burning cheeks, that my demure little maiden had heard and seen more than I had suspected, and mar- velled at the tangle cf fancy and reality that grew up from it in her innocent mind. And sometimes she would say, "Let us sing Miss Christie " and I would sing some ballad, while she would coo an irregular but not inharmonious accompaniment. And we were occupied in this fashion, sitting by the open window one afternoon, when Mr, Ray- ner appeared in the garden. " do on, go on 1 have been listening to the concert for ever so long. It is aa pretty as birds." But of course we could not go on in face of such a critical auditor; so Mr. Rayner, after complaining that he had taken a ticKet for the series, and was not going to be de- frauded like that, told me more seriously that I had a very pretty voice, and asked why I did not take pity on their dnlnesa and come into the drawing-room after, tea sometimes and sing to them. " And yon have never tried secular music with the violin, Misa Christie. I believe you're afraid. Sacred mqsic is slow, and yon can't read fast is that it 7 " He was trying to pique me bnt I only langhed and pointed out to him that he had f had a visitor on the evening when he was to have tried mj skill, bat at I was quite ready to stumble through any music he liked whenever he pleased, if it were not too difficult. " I know it is too bad of us to want to trespass upon your time after tea, which we promised yon should have to youraelt. Bat it would indeed be a charitable action if you would come an let us bore you by our fiddling and our dull chat sDmetimes, in- stead of slipping up to your turret-chamber, to be no more seen for the remainder of the evening. What do you do there, if I may ask Do you take observations of the moon and stars I sheuld think you must be too close to them up there to get a com- prehensive view. Or do you peep into the bird's nests upon the highest branches and converse with the owners " " I do nothing half so fantastic, Mr. Riy- ner. I do my tasks and read something im- proving, and then I sit in one of my arm- chairs and just think and enjoy myself." " Well, we are not going to let you en- joy vourself up there while we are moped to death down-stairs so to night you may j ust come and share our dulness in the drawing- room." So after tea Mr. Rijner got out his violin, and I sat down to the piano and we played first some (-erman popular scngs and then a long succession of the airs, now lively, now pathetic, now dramatic and pasjionate, out of the old operas that have delighted Europe for years, such as The Huguenots, La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Balfe's graceful Rose of Castile aiid The Bohemian Girl. Mr. Riyner played with the fire of an enthusiast, and again I caught the spirit of his playing, aud accompanied him, he said, while his fac3 shone with the ecstasy of the musician, as Eo one had ever accompanied him be- fore. Doctor INIsitland, as an old gentleman who, M r. Miyner privately told me, was now resting from his labors with the proud con- sciousness that he had seldom failed in "kill- ing his man," came in while we were playing. He was our nearest neighbor, and he often came in the evening to play chess with Mr. Rayner, who always beat him. He listened to the music with great astonishment and some pleasure for a long time, until he learnt that I was reading at sight, and that I had accompanied Mr. Rayner only once before. Then he almost gasped. " Uood gracious! I should never have believed it. You seemed to have the same soul 1 " he cried, awe-struck. And after that his astonishment evidently outweighed the pleasure he took in our per- formance. Mr. Rayner gave me a strange smile as the doctor uttered his quaint speech, and I laughed back, much amused at the effect of our efforts on a musically ig- norant listener. When he had finished, and Mr. Rayner was putting his violin into its case, he suddenly discovered that the cor- ner of the latter was damp. "This will never do," he exclaimed, with as much affectionate concern as if a friend's well-being had been threatened. " I might as well keep it in the garden as in this den," he went on, quite irritably for him â€" music always wrought him to a high pitch of ex- citement. " Here, Sarah," he added turn- ing towards the table where she had just placed the candles. " Take this to my room â€" mind, very carefully," So h?s room could not be damp, I thought, or he would not allow his precious violin to be taken there. I had said good night, and was in the hall, just in time to see Sarah, carrying the violin, disappear down the passage, on the right hand side of the sta'r- case, which led to the study. Now the wing where Mrs. Rayner's room was was on the left hand side of the staircase. Did Mr- Rayner sleep in the study I could not let my curiosity lead me to follow her, much as I should have liked to solve this little mys- tery. I knew all the rooms on the upper story, and, except thenursery where Mona and Jane slept, the cook's room, Sarah's, tuid the one I had left, they all bore distinctly the impress of having been long unused. So I was obliged reluctantly to go up- stairs. When I got to the foot of my turret stair- case however, which was only a few steps from the head of the back-staircase that the servants used, I heard Sarah's quick tread in the passage below, and, putting down iny candle on the ground, I went softly to the top of the stairs â€" there was a door here also, but it was gen- erally open and fastened back â€" and looked down, IsawSirah, much to my amuse- ment, give a vicious shake to the violin- case, as if it were a thing she hated and then I saw her take a key from her pocket and unlock a door near the foot of the stairs. That, then, was Mr. Rayner's room. But as the door went back on its hinges and Sarah took out the key, went through, and locked it behind her, I saw that it led, not into a room at all, but into the garden. So far, then, Mr. Reade's guess was right. Bat there still remained the question â€" Where did Mr. Riyner sleep? CHAPTER VII. It was the elfish baby-girl Mona who first put me on the track of the solution of the mystery about Mr. Rayner's room. This ill-cared-for little creature, instead of re- senting the neglect she suffered, prizsd the liberties she enjoyed of roaming about withersoever she pleased, and sitting in the flower-beds, and in the mud at the edge of the pond, aud making herself altogether the very dirtiest little girl I had ever seen, and objected vehemently to the least attempts at judicious restraint. The little notice she got was neither consistent nor kind. Sarah or Jane would snatch her up, regardless of her shrieks, to shut her up in an empty bed- room, if she showed her grimy little face and tattered pinafore anywhere near the house in the afternoon, when callers might come. Bat, if they did not see her, they forgot her, and left her to talk and oroon to herself, and to collect piles of snails, and to such other simple occupations in her favor- ite haunts till tea-time, when she generally grew hungry of her own accord, and, retnm- ing to the house, made an entrancs where she could. The day after the violin- playing was very wet, and, lookins out of the window during lessons with Haidee, I caaght sight of her â- mall sister trotting along composedly with- cut a hat in the fast-falling rain. I jamped up and called to her bat ahe took no no- tice so I ran to fetch my ambrelta and set off in pnrsait. After a little search. I saw her steadily teddliag up a side-path among the trees which led to the sUbles and I followed softly withoat calling her again, as, if irritated by panait, ahe might, I knew, plunge among the trees and surrendr er only when we were both wet through. The stables were bailt^ much higher up tlian the hdhse, close to the road, but sur- rounded by trees. I had never been near them before bat now I followed Mona close andemeath the walls, where she began dancing about by herself, making hideous grimaces at two windows on the upper storey, and throwing up at them little stones and bits of stick that she picked up, all wet and muddy, from the moist earth. I seized and caught her up in my arms so suddenly that for the first few moments she was too much surprised to howl but I had scarcely turned to take her back to the house when she recovere I her powers completely, and made the plantation ring with a most elfish yell. I spoke to her and tried to reason with her, and told her it was all for her good, when one of the upper windows I have mentioned was thrown open, and Mr. Ray- ner appeared at it. " Hallo, what is the matter Kidnap- ping, Miss Christie " " Oh, Mr. Riyner, she will sit ia the mud and open her mouth to catch the rain with- out a hat, and it can't be good tor her 1" I said piteously. "Naver mind. It doesn't seem to hurt her, I believe she is half a frog," said her father, with less tenderness than he might have shown, I thought. For the child was not old enough to know that it was wrong to dislike het father, while he was quite old enough to know that it was wrong not to be fonder of his child. " But you will get your own feet wet, my dear child," said he, in quite a different tone. "Come up here and sit by the fire, while I fetch your goloshes. Y'ou have never seen my studio. I pass half my time painting and smoking here when it is wet and I can't get out." He had a pallette on his thumb and a pipe in his mouth while he spoke. "Y'^ou don't mind the smell of tur- pentine or tobacco, do you?" " Oh, no, Mr. Rayner 1 But I won't come in, thank you. I am at lessons with Hai- dee " said I. " Happy Haidee I wish I were young enough to take lessons aud yet, if I were, I shouldn't be old enough to make the best use of my time," said he, in a low voice, with mock-modesty that made me laugh. He was leaning a long way out of th3 window in the rain, and I had work to do indoors so, without saying anything more, I returned to the house with my prize. It was to his studio then that Sirah had taken his violin. I had never heard of this studio before but I knew that Mr. Riy- ner was very careful about the condition of his stables, and I could imagine that this two-windowed upper room, with its fire, must be a very nice place to paint in â€" dry, warm, and light Could this be where Mr. Riyner slept No for in that case he would hardly have asked me to come up and look at his painting. And I should not like to think that he had made for himself a snug warm little home here while his family slept in the damp vapours of the marsh at the bottom of the hill. But that would not be like Mr, Rayner, I thought, remember- ing the pains he had taken to provide a nice dry room for me, the governess. Yet I should have liked, in the face of Mr. Reade's tiresome suspicions, to be sure. That nieht I was so anxious to find out whether Mr. Riyner did really sleep out of the house, as he had been accused of doing, that I had the meanness to leave my own bed-room door wide open, as well as that at the bottom of the turret staircase, and listen for footsteps on the ground floor, and the sound of a key in the garden door through which Sarah had taken the violin. But I had heard nothing, though I was awake un- til long after the rest of the household must have gone to bed. And I felt aim :st as much relieved as if it had been my own father proved innocent of a mean action im- puted to him. Oa the fotlowiog night there was a high wind, which shook and swayed the trees and whistled round my turret, and made the door which stood always fastened back at the top of the kitchen stairs rattle and creak on its hinges. At last I could bjar this last sound no longer. I had been sitting up late over a book, and I knew that the household must be asleep, so I slipped down stairs as softly as I could. I had got to the top of the back staircase, and had my hind on the door, when I saw a faint glimmer of light coming along the passage below. I hoard no sound. X drew back quickly, so quickly that my candle went out and then 1 waited, with my heart beating fast, not so much to see who it was, as because I did net dare t« move. The faint light came along s wifely, and, when close to the foot of the stairs below me, I could see that it was a bhade.l lantern, and could just distinguish the form of a man carrying it. Was he coming "up-stairs For the next few mo- ments I scarcely dared to brsatbe, and I could almost have given a cry of joy when, by some movement of the head, I recognized Mr. R lyner. He did not see me he put the key in the lock, turned it, took the key out, went through and locked it after him BO quickly and so entirely without noise that a moment afterwards I conld almost have thought that I had imagined the dim scene. It had been so utterly without sound that, if my eyes had been closed, I should have known nothing about it. I mace the door secure with trembling fingers, and went back to my room again, not only profoundly sorry that Mp, R jade's surmise was correct â€"for I could no longer doubt that Mr, Ray- ner did sleep over the stables â€" but im- pressed with an eerie dread of the man who could move about in the night as noiselessly and swiftly as a spirit. Wnen I awoke however in the fresh morning, with the wind gone down, and the sun shining in through my east window, all unpleasant impresiions of the night be- fore had faded away and, when Mr. R ly- ner brought into the drawing-room after dinner a portfolio fall of his sketches and I»nels, and was deUghtodwith myappreoia- tion of th9m--I knew something abaat pic- tares, for my father had been a jiainter I felt tbat it was not for me to judge his actions, and that there must be some good motive that I did not know for his sleeping far out of the damp, as for everything elea that he did. He proposed to paint me, and I gave him a sitting that very afternoon in the dinina-room, which had a north light, thoagh there was not much of it and he said that he moat finish it next day in his Btadio, and, when I objected to neglect my lessoas again, ha said the whole family should » emigrate thither for the moroir/ and thea perhaps I should be satisfied. (to b« continued.) CHRISTMAS IX MEXICO. w stately Stately Rites BUnsled 'With Merry-Maklnc. The holiday season in Mexico shows aj strong a contrast with the celebration in out country as Providence presents it in climate and people. It has religious traits that are attractive, and many of them dramatic. Ig fact, every phase of life in that Catholic country is sinsmlaily tinged with the forms of religion. Didng Christmas-tide they are shown in their best lights. L ke all com- munities that worship their patron saiats. Their holidays begin earlier and last m nh longer than ours. The celebration of the birth of Christ begins there with the pil. grimage cf .Toseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bathleheiu, where the qhild was bom. For [nine days before the natal day every- thing is given up to the first act of thn cruue Passion play. The lower classes spend unst of their time in worship at bona and in the cl.urches. But those who are wealthier take upon themselves the duty oi celebrat- ing every stage of the pilgrimage of nearly 1,!)30 years ago. Those moving in the same circle of society gather in groups each even- ing'and go as a surprise party to the house of one of their circle.' Tkry sing and rap vig. orously at the door, when those within aak~ " Who seeks admittance? ' " The virgin Mary and St. Joseph ask lodgings in your house." The doors are thrown open, and the viai. tors are welcomed and conducted to the nacimiento, a little alter erected in the pri- vate residences of the better classes, repre- senting the birth of Cirist. Here eacU one repeats a prayer with the losiry. Tnese simple religious services over, all are invited to the parlor, where refreshments are served, aid the host makes proclamation that he j; honored by the presencs of Mary and -I oseph, and invites them ail to make msrry. M uaic and dancing succeed eating and drinkiog, and there is prolonged merry making. To make the representation complete, these visitors are first denied admittance, as a sort of by-play, to carry out the historic trials of the mother of C'arist in her journey to Bethlehem, where she and .Josph werj often deniei shelter and food. The first call is the posada, or halt, in the pilgrimage. Each night uatil Christmas Eve this ioter esting custom is continued, a differeat house being visited each evening. The class of re- fresh in ants served depends upon the ability and hospitable inclinations of the master o: the house. Often the entertainment is elab- orate, including wines and other expensive liquors, but tequila, a sort of brandy distill ea from the maguev plant, is nearly always on these boards. Sometimes sotal takes it- place. Tnis is alse a furious drink â€" a stront brandy which is distilled frcin the sota! plant, a species of the Spanish dagger. 'fhese are the national drinks. Christmas eve ushers in a new eceoe, th; most dramatic and beautiful of all the holi- day season. The richer people, who have represented the long pilgrimage, give way to the poorer classes, who now take up tie celebration by giving the " Fastorela" a dra- matic representation of the birth of Christ. The largest room that can be procured in the village is fitted up for the represent*- tion, and the humble people, who have few wants and little to supply them with, come in to represent the characters in the drama. The shepherds in the field observing the Star of Bethlehem, are cleverly represented as in their journey under its guidance. Toe birth in tha manger, the historic cow, the angels and St. Michael are all shown in the simple, picturesque, but impressive, play. The spectators who witness and applaud the humble players, who are thus properly repre- senting those who welcomed the birth of our Siviour, are sometimes those who made lb: emblematic visits of the previous nine daya. bnt, generally the play is for the poorer classes. I'/iis charming introduction tc Christmas l)iy ends a little before midnight, when those who have witnessed it are es- pected to entertain the performers. Then all classes go to midnight mass, where the erpatest crowd of all the year, except Holy Wdtk, are seen. The food furnished after these representations consists usually o buauelos, a wheat flour cake cooked muv like our doughnuts, and tesquino, a kind o beer or fermented drink, of which the poorer classes partake freely during holiday time. Christmas day is colebrated in a qaiet way. Nothing of the boisterous jovialuy oi the Ameiiian day is apparent. (lifts from friend to friend are rarely interchanged Tae servants often get their [aguinalJo, » Christmas present, but even this custom is not general. Hearty fand happy as is the Mexican's Christmas, it is enjoyed more as» religious festival than as a feast. Kvery feature is to do honor to their faith. I" these devotions, as in all others in that country, women delight to bear the burden. Worship is the dominant impulse of these shy, cautious and often beautiful creatures. Tneir whole lives would be a mystery to our American girls, for they know little of the unconventional freedom our women enjoy They are lovely in their qaietude, and u their saeming half dreamy mildness appe*-" to be charming enough to be wooed. â€" ' -4 B. in the Philadelphia Press. The Omnipresent Scotchman. "Go where you will," said the Marquis oi Lome recently, "it is very diffioult co ffi away from Scotchmen. I was on the cossi of Labrador, visiting an encampment of I"' dians, and being then young in CinadiM service, I wanted to see a pure-blooded In- dian. I said to the friend who was with lat, 'Make the man of purest blood among thep come here ' upoh which he shouted out it French, *Ctme here, McDonald,' Verj near the Rocky Mountain i, I saw in a tin^ Indian lodge a beautiful baby, and I askcu to whom the baby belonged â€" was it an I"' dian baby. 'PATt lojun,' was the reply I and it turned out that it was partly the pro- duct of a Scotch engineer. In Nova Sooti' I found a Highlmd woman, who could t»lt nothing but Gaelic, cultivating a very suc- oessfal farm, while her husband could spe** nothing but Italian. I have no doubt th»i the saccesaful management was due to t"' fact that they had the ordinary Cinadi»° family of abont twenty children, who i"" doabi were able to act u interpreters," iiiifii*