more people, young and old, gathered in the great kitchen to see the Christmas candle 'go off.' During the early part of the evening 'Si' Sloan entertained the company with riddles. Then my grandmother brought in the Christmas candle, an odd-looking object, and set it down on its three legs. She lighted it, blew out the other candles, and asked Silas to tell a story.

"Silas was glad of the opportunity to entertain such an audience. The story that he selected for this novel occasion was awful in the extreme, such as were usually told in those times before the great kitchen fires.

"Silas-Si,' as he was called - was relating an account of a so-called haunted house, where, according to his silly narrative, the ghost of an Indian

Si's narrative that they hardly dared to breathe, clung to one another with trembling hands as the dog sent up his piercing cry. Even Si himself started. The dog seemed listening. "The candle was burning well. The children now watched it in dead silence.

"A half-hour passed. The candle was burning within an inch of the quill, and all eyes were bent upon it. If the candle sputtered,' the excitement became intense. 'I think it will go off in ten minutes now,' said my grandmother.

"There was a noise in the yard. All heard it distinctly. The dog dashed round the room, howled, and stopped to listen at the door.

"People who relate so-called ghost stories are often cowardly, and it is usually a cowardly nature

used to appear at the foot of an old woman's bed; and some superstitious people declared that the old lady one night, on awaking and finding the ghostly Indian present, put out her foot to push him away, and pushed her foot directly through kim. What a brave old lady she must have been, and how uncomfortable it must have been for the ghost! But, at this point of Silas's foolish story, the dog suddenly started up and began to howl. "The children, who were so highly excited over VOL. XIII.- 12.

to be noticed.

My grandmother arose at last, and, amid dead silence, opened the shutter. "I think that there is some one in the cider mill,' said she.

"She looked toward the candle, and, feeling confident that some minutes would elapse before the explosion, she left the room, and went upstairs, and there looked from the window.

From the window she could see in the moonlight, Mount Hope, where Philip had so recently been killed, and also the arm of the bay, where Wetamoo had perished. She could see the bay itself, and must have remembered the lights that a year before had so often danced over it at night. She lingered there a moment. Then she called: "Silas Silas Sloan!'

"Silas hurried up the stairs.

"Then followed a sound that sent the blood from every face. It was as if a log had been dashed against the door. The door flew open,

and in stalked two Indians. Warmmesley-Squammaney.

"Ugh!' said Warmmesley.

One of them was

"The Indians threw open their blankets. They were armed.

"The sight of these armed warriors caused Silas to shake in a strange manner, and his fear and agitation became so contagious that the children began to tremble and sob. When the sound of distress became violent, Squammaney would sweep the company with his dark eyes, and awe it into a brief silence.

"My grandmother alone was calm. "She rose, and walked around the room, followed by the eyes of the two Indians. "As soon as the attention of the Indians, attracted for a moment by the falling of a burnt stick on the hearth, was diverted from her, she whispered to Silas :

"Go call the men.'

"The attitude of Silas on receiving this direction, as she recalled it afterward, was comical indeed. His hands were spread out by his side, and his eyes grew white and wild. He attempted to reply in a whisper, but he could only say: "Ba-b-b-ba!'

"Squammaney's eyes again swept the room. Then he bent forward to push back some coals that had rolled out upon the floor.

"Go call the men,' again whispered my grandmother to Silas; this time sharply.

666

666

"He sat down by the fire, close to the candle. The other Indian stood by his chair, as though awaiting his orders. The young children began to cry, and Silas shook like a man with the palsy.

“Me pay you !— Me remember! Ugh!' said Squammaney. 'Braves all gone. Me have revenge-old Squammaney die hard. Ugh! Ugh!' "The door was still partly open, and the wind blew into the room. It caused the candle to flare up and to burn rapidly.

"Squammaney warmed his hands. Occasionally he would turn his head, slowly, with an evil look in his black eye, as it swept the company.

"The candle was forgotten. The only thought of each one was what Squammaney intended to do. "All the tragedies of the war just ended were recalled by the older members of the company. Were there other Indians outside?

"No one dared rise to close the door, or to attempt to escape.

"Suddenly Squammaney turned to my grandmother.

"White squaw get cider. Go-go!'

specters about whom he delighted to tell stories on less perilous occasions.

"Squammaney heard Grandmother's whisper, and became suspicious. He rose, his dark form towering in the light of the fire. He put his hand on the table where burned the candle. He turned, and faced my grandmother with an expression of hate and scorn.

"What he intended to do was never known, for just at that moment there was a fearful explosion. It was the powder-candle.

"A stream of fire shot up to the ceiling. Then the room was filled with the smoke of gunpowder. The candle went out. The room was dark. "White man come! Run!' my grandmother heard one of the Indians say. There was a sound of scuffling feet; then the door closed with a bang. As the smoke lifted, the light of the fire gradually revealed that the Indians had gone. They evidently thought that they had been discovered, pursued, and that the house was surrounded by soldiers.

"At last my grandmother took a candle from the shelf and lighted it. Silas, too, was gone. Whither? Had the Indians carried him away?

amid much laughter and merriment, and there was the sought-for keepsake! Then they changed places, and Qui Fah became “ Hide-Your-Eyes."

Here is the song as it looks written in Chinese; except that in this instance the Chinese characters are arranged like English words, so as to read from left to right, instead of in the Chinese fashion, in which they are placed so as to be read downward, beginning at the right upper corner.

皆連子皆連行

解開連子落何方

何别處

東方東别來

九月九

齊齊動起金花手

(To Hide-Your-Eyes.)

請個雷公來

擗開蘭花四手

It was a curious picture to see these little Orientals, dressed in their blue blouses and dark, wideflapping pantaloons, with their long black hair falling in a heavy braid carefully pasted back from the face with a sort of shiny gum-arabic polish, all playing, with as much freedom and merriment as any circle of American children, their odd Chinese version of "Button, button, who has the button?"

This game is a popular one among all Chinese children, but the rhyme changes according to the different dialects. Here is a translation of the one presented in the Chinese text taken down exactly as sung by a little Chinese girl in San Francisco :

In their own language, Chinese words have peculiar accents, and it is these accents that make them sound particularly heathenish to our ears, and render the Chinese so difficult a language to learn. But the music of the little croon-song, “Pi Lan Doo," slightly imitates the peculiar Chinese mode of accenting; and I could imagine it when given with an accompaniment of cymbals, together with an eccentric, shrill tin whistle and a drumming on a heavy board, as conveying a very fair idea of a Chinese orchestra.

As a song, it can be very easily attempted by any child-there is something catchy and provoking in its meaningless repetition that clings to the mind, as if it contained some very queer idea indeed, and belonged to some very queer race.