go on the daily excursion with her two friends, and they started off without her, the Artist rather puzzled, and the Little Lame Prince very much disappointed. Meanwhile, Mary Sunshine

very tired, Mary Sunshine was quite contented with the big scrap-book that lay in her bureau drawer, and went off to sleep dreaming of lovely pictures to be pasted on the white paper.

spent most of her day in the kitchen with her mother's pinking-iron, neatly pinking the edges of the big sheets of white paper. It was late when she finished, but her mother, as she tucked her into bed, offered to stitch the sheets firmly together on the machine. So, although she was

You would think it quite an easy matter to fill a scrap-book, I am sure, but during the next ten days Mary Sunshine found it very difficult. The one magazine that her mother. took was not profusely illustrated, and it was much the same in the houses of the neighbors. To be sure, she did find a few lovely colored picture-cards that people had been saving, and these made the first few pages quite gay. But when the fair was only two days off, there were still two pages entirely empty. Mary Sunshine had searched every place that she could think of. She had torn the colored labels off the cans of tomatoes and peas in the cellar closet. She had cut the figures out of the old circus poster that the hired man brought her from the barber-shop window. And, finally, she had cut out all the pictures from her mother's seed catalogue. Indeed, there was n't a place where she had n't looked, and still those two pages were empty. Poor Mary Sunshine could n't even find another black-and-white picture, and she began to feel quite desperate. Finally, she decided to ask the Artist for advice. She waited on the porch while he finished breakfast, then, when he came out, she stopped him.

"Please," she said, "I

want to ask your advice." "Yes," said the Artist, settling himself on the top step.

"It's about a scrap-book. I'm making it for the fair to-morrow. It's to help the Little Lame Prince to have an operation. And it's all done but

"I see," the Artist said, quite seriously. wonder if you would mind showing it to me?" Mary Sunshine ran and got it, and the Artist looked it over thoughtfully. When he had finished he spoke.

She turned the pages over carelessly until she suddenly saw the last one. "Why! What is this?"

Mary Sunshine blushed guiltily. "Whythat 's-that 's-well, you see, I could n't find enough, and the Artist that 's staying at our house did it for me. Of course it is n't a real picture, but do you think they'll mind much?

Now Mary Sunshine realized that the Artist was a very great one, and she knew how kind of him it was to offer, but she did not really think that any picture painted by a man, by hand, could compare with the gaily colored pictures in a magazine or a seed catalogue. But she had been well trained by her mother. So she answered politely, if not enthusiastically, "That would be very nice. Of course it is n't quite the same, but I don't believe they'd mind much, do you?"

"We might try it, anyway," the Artist said modestly.

The next morning Mary Sunshine started for the Casino with the precious scrap-book under her arm. Her heart was beating very hard, and several times her courage almost left her. But she went on resolutely, even when she saw the automobiles crowded around the door of the Casino and heard the noise and bustle within. She entered very timidly, and stood for some time in the big room before any one had time to speak to her. Then, finally, she heard a very kind voice beside her.

"Did you want anything, little girl?"

She turned and saw the pretty girl who had been so cold to the Artist.

"Yes," Mary Sunshine answered, "I brought this scrap-book to be sold at the fair. It's for a Little Lame Prince-I mean a boy," she stammered.

"I don't quite understand," the pretty girl said, putting her arm around Mary Sunshine. "Come over here and sit down, and tell me all about it."

Mary Sunshine followed her into a quiet corner, and there she told her all about the Little Lame Prince, the operation, and, finally, the scrap-book. "Here it is," she said, at the end, unwrapping it with pride.

"Oh!" exclaimed the pretty girl, "what a perfectly lovely one! Did you make it all yourself?"

said it was the best one he ever did. I really think if it was n't for that old boat, it would be most as nice as a real picture."

The pretty girl was looking at it with misty eyes. "I don't believe they 'll mind a bit," she said gently. "You leave it with me."

Long before the fair began that afternoon the news had spread like wild-fire that a picture by the great Artist was to be auctioned off. And the little story that went with the news added not a little to the interest of the crowd that gathered to see the sale and to bid for the picture. But, strangely enough, it was the father of the very pretty girl who made the highest bid and carried home the scrap-book.

Late that afternoon, the pretty girl, looking more bewitching than ever, drove up to the cottage where Mary Sunshine lived. She had in her hand a check large enough to pay for several operations. In front of the cottage she stopped, and she blushed quite rosily when she saw the Artist sitting on the porch with Mary Sunshine and the Little Lame Prince. They all stood up as she approached, and waited silently for her to speak. She looked at Mary Sunshine.

"The scrap-book sold beautifully," she said. "It brought a great deal of money, and it 's all in this envelop." She handed it to Mary Sunshine.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you!" Mary Sunshine said, quite simply. The pretty girl turned to go. She hesitated a moment. Then she looked bravely into the eyes of the Artist, and said softly:

"I wonder if you would like to go for a drive with me? I think the little girl has a surprise that she wants to tell to the Little Lame Prince."

THAT night, when the Artist came back, Mary Sunshine came out to meet him.

"Oh!" she said, slipping her hand into his, “it was just like a fairy story, was n't it?"

"Yes," the Artist said, thinking of something quite different, "just exactly!"

THE HIGHLY DECORATED HEAD OF THE

CROWNED PIGEON.

Greenland, for instance, in Lapland, and in the polar regions of the earth. If man learned masonwork from the beaver, did the beaver teach the ancient Egyptians to build the pyramids? All such suggestions are silly, and every reader, especially every young reader, should disabuse his mind of all similar nonsense. But if such fanciful notions could be true, we might, perhaps, be allowed to imagine that the idea of decorating the human head was first suggested by the crests of certain birds, although the "bonnets" of birds were well developed ages before human beings dreamed of the extravagant head-gear that has been considered fashionable at different times.

THE EARED PHEASANT.

age and highly ornamental tails, so those birds most remarkable for their head plumes are chiefly natives of tropical climates. The crowned pigeon is found in and near New Guinea, and the umbrella-bird in South America. The eared pheasant, however, inhabits the high mountains of China and Tibet, and we, too, have many crested birds-some of them, like the wax-wing, the bluejay, and the cardinal, being nearly as familiar as the robin and the bluebird. But in point of development, and for sheer oddity of crest, such birds as the King of Saxony bird of paradise and

THE SIX-SHAFTED BIRD OF PARADISE.

the six-shafted bird of paradise are without peer among the feathered inhabitants of our woods and fields. More familiar, but perhaps equally attractive, are the wood-duck's flowing plumes, the California valley-partridge's jaunty crest, and the famous aigret of the egret.

While all can readily appreciate the beauty of the remarkably shaped tails of the peacock and the lyre-bird, we must not overlook the fact that the usual symmetrical, fan-shaped tail structure is also beautiful, even when it has no

that their bright color and fancy patterns seem a matter of course. The common barn-swallow furnishes us with an example of this.

Though nearly every conceivable color scheme and pattern are exhibited by the tails of birds, there are a few common, more or less distinct, plans which may be traced. In some, notably in the ruffed grouse, the feathers are of equal length and uniformly barred; in many others this is nearly the pattern, except that the two central feathers (always two, because the entire number of tail-feathers is always even) are comparatively plain. The purpose of this form of coloring may

THE TAIL OF THE BARN-SWALLOW.

be to render the tail inconspicuous when closed; that, at least, is the effect, when one or two of the central feathers only are seen from above. Some of these birds have a habit of "flashing," or suddenly expanding and refolding, the tail. The effect is almost like the sudden turning on and off of an artificial light, the usual marking of such tails being a large patch of white or orange on the outer feathers. A common form is a light patch or spot usually near the tips of the feathers,

THE KING OF SAXONY BIRD OF PARADISE.

markings, as among the blackbirds. But nature, appreciating this opportunity for decoration, has made these appendages the objects of her special attention. It is the rule, rather than the exception, for a bird's tail to be so marked or colored as to give the impression that beauty, apparently for its own sake, was the end sought. Some tails are so decidedly ornamental in shape

THE TAIL OF THE BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER.

diminishing in size with each feather until it is lost or barely discernible in the two middle ones;

or, again, the outer feather on each side may be entirely white, the next one or two nearly so, while all the rest are without a trace of white. The marks may be confined to the outer vane,

THE TAIL OF THE BLUE-JAY WITH ITS BEAUTIFUL FRINGE OF WHITE.

when they will probably appear in the closed or nearly closed tail; they may be restricted to the inner vane, and be seen only in the spread or half spread tail; they may be conspicuous on one vane and obscure on the other; or they may extend impartially across the feather, and thus be constantly exposed.

Besides those shown in our illustrations, there are many other examples of beautiful tails among

the warblers, jays, cuckoos, hawks, shore-birds, and other groups. Many of the most elegant are to be found only in the tropics.

The striking patches of black and white, or dark and light, so common among warblers and woodpeckers, may, by their very attractiveness, be a bird's means of recognition, or of signaling, or both. As for the purpose of the fancy colors and patterns, the learned Darwin supposed that the birds themselves appreciate and admire their own beauty. It is not at all clear that they have any other "excuse for being" than that they really are beautiful.

EDMUND J. SAWYER.

THE BEAVER

SOME students of animal life claim that the nearest approach to human ingenuity, among the creatures of fur or feather, is undoubtedly exhibited by the beaver. This wonderful animal closely resembles the common muskrat in general appearance, but is much larger, and has a tail flattened crosswise instead of up and down.

The remarkable intelligence displayed by the animals in selecting suitable sites for their dams, in felling the trees in convenient locations and dragging them into proper positions, and the wonderful manner in which the upper sides of the dams are plastered with mud and thus made perfectly water-tight, seem little short of impossible