Year: 1875

got close to the show and looked in al
"Why, it is our town!" exclaimed q


coarse, rude boy, who was the hobgoblin
of all the good children in the neighbor.


hood. 81 can see the pump and the


school house, and the church, and the


windmill on the hill, and the butchers
shop"


"What! put my shop into a penny
show !" cries the butcher.


81 did not ask you to pay a penny or
anything else," said the sho wman, with
smile.


"That makes it worse" said the
butcher, "fOr if you do not do it for
money, you must have some bad motive.
l declare there is my shopp he cried,
looking in at one of the goggles.


"And there is my FORGE" said the
blacksmith, peeping too. ~ can distn-
guish the very sparks"


Nothing in the world but our town
just as it is Who ever saw such show?"
asked the schoOlmaster, who had now
taken look. "Why, when I was
young man, remember show of the
seven wonders of the world that beat
this all hollow"


"Really, my friends, you have not got
the focus" put in the Snowman. "Our
good town"


"Our good town!" broke in woman,
with shrill laugh. "You are no towns
man of ours"


"Our good town is there indeed" con-
tinued the Snowman, "but when once
you have got the right focus, you will
see much more than the town, and some
thing better"


Here the people burst out into con-
fused uproar.


"Focus! focus! Well teach him to
focus us!" cried the schoOlmaster.


"Let us make an end of his show
says the blacksmith, fourishing his
hammer.


The very children entered into the
spirit of the tumult, and danced furious
ly around the show and the Snowman.


Il can make many another such q |
show" said the Snowman under his
breath.


AT this moment the damsel who had |
been a listener and spectator at the gable
window came hastily forward, leading
Goody Gracious, now blind with age, by
the hand.


"Stand back, menp' said the dame,
"and let the girl have peep"


And then the Snowman drew nigh to
her, and whispered something in her ear,
which made her start and fling up her
dear old mittened arms to heaven. In
the meantime the damsel peeped in ut
one of the goggles. 1t seems that she
got the focus, that the Snowman spoke
of, at once, for she said


81 see our town, but beyond it / see
better. i see"


"a wizard q wizard p shouted the
mob, cor else how can he make thing
so that one person can see what another
can not? A wizard a wizard Down
with the show How can there be any
thing better than our town?"


And in few moments the show was
a heap of shapeless fragments. The
Snowman looked on with grave smile,
the maiden clinging to his arm, and
Goody Gracious shaking her staff in vain
1t the rioters.
That night old Dame Gracious was
found dead in her bed, with smile of
hope on her withered face. 1t
vas not long before the Snowman and !
he damsel quilted the town together.
t was done so quietly that the first per- !
on to assure the rest of the people of the I
act was shepherd boy, who came in !
o report that he had seen them, hand in
land, crossing the hills toward the Or- !
mt. 1t was early in morning of ripe
pring, just passing into summer. There O
we're rosebuds ready to burst, the sun s
vas warm, the brook ran full and fresh a
lown into the valley, and the whole i
world was quick with beauty and glory G