For the sweet, sonorous bells went ringing through the frost, and the sunlight shone upon the plains of snow, and the populace trooped gay and glad through the streets, but Nello and Patrasche no more asked charity at their hands. needed now Antwerp gave unbidden.

All they

Death had been more pitiful to them than longer life would have been. It had taken the one in the loyalty of love, and the other in the innocence of faith, from a world which for love has no recompense and for faith no fulfillment.

All their lives they had been together, and in their deaths they were not divided; for when they were found the arms of the boy were folded too closely around the dog to be severed without violence, and the people of their little village, contrite and ashamed, implored a special grace for them, and, making them one grave, laid them to rest there side by side-forever!

IN SCHOOL DAYS.

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

STILL Sits the schoolhouse by the road,
A ragged beggar, sunning:

Around it still the sumachs grow,

And blackberry vines are running.

Within the master's desk is seen,
Deep-scarred by raps official;
The warping floor, the battered seats,
The jackknife's carved initial;

The charcoal frescoes on its wall;
Its door's worn sill, betraying
The feet that, creeping slow to school,
Went storming out to playing.

Long years ago a winter sun
Shone over it at setting;
Lit up its Western window panes
And low eaves' icy fretting.

NORA'S RESOLVE.

BY HENRIK IBSEN.

(From "A Doll's House.")

[HENRIK IBSEN, Norwegian poet and dramatist, was born at Skien, South Norway, March 20, 1828. After serving an apprenticeship to an apothecary, he went to the University of Christiania to study medicine, but drifted into journalism, and later engaged in theatrical management, being director of Ole Bull's National Theater at Bergen (1852-1857) and of the Norwegian Theater at Christiania (1857-1862). About 1864 he left Norway in a sort of voluntary exile, because his country refused to aid Denmark in its struggle with the Germans, and remained abroad until 1891, residing chiefly in Rome, Dresden, and Munich. His first notable works, the lyric drama "Brand" and the dramatic poem "Peer Gynt," were written in Italy (1866-1867). "Emperor and Galilean," an historical drama, appeared in 1871, and since 1877 the famous series of social plays, which have excited so much controversy: "Pillars of Society," "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," "The Wild Duck," "Rosmersholm," "The Lady from the Sea," "Hedda Gabler," "The Master Builder," "Little Eyolf," and "John Gabriel Borkman," most of which have been played in Germany, England, and the United States.]

Present: NORA and HELMER. HELMER takes his bunch of keys from his pocket and goes into the hall.

Nora Torvald, what are you doing there?

Helmer I must empty the letter box, it's quite full; there will be no room for the newspapers to-morrow morning.

Nora Are you going to work to-night?

Helmer - I'm sure of it.

think that the servants

it's one of yours.

Why, what's this? Some one's

What does it mean? I can't

Here's a broken hairpin. Nora

Hm,

Nora [quickly]-It must have been the children. Helmer-Then you must break them of such tricks. hm! There! At last I've got it open. [Takes contents out and calls into the kitchen.] Ellen, Ellen, just put the hall door lamp out. [He returns with letters in his hand, and shuts the inner door.] Just see how they've accumulated. [Turning

them over.] Why, what's this?

Nora [at the window] - The letter! Oh no, no, Torvald ! Helmer Two visiting cards-from Rank.

Helmer [looking at them] - Dr. Rank. They were on the top. He must just have put them in.

Nora - Is there anything on them?

Helmer-There's a black cross over the name.

Look at it.

What a horrid idea! It looks just as if he were announcing his own death.

Helmer - What! Do you know anything? Has he told you anything?

Nora - Yes. These cards mean that he has taken his last leave of us. He intends to shut himself up and die. Helmer-Poor fellow! Of course I knew we couldn't hope to keep him long. But so soon-and then to go and creep

into his lair like a wounded animal

Nora What must be, must be, and the fewer words the better. Don't you think so, Torvald?

Helmer [walking up and down] He had so grown into our lives, I can't realize that he's gone. He and his sufferings and his loneliness formed a sort of cloudy background to the sunshine of our happiness. Well, perhaps it's best so so-at any rate for him. [Stands still.] And perhaps for us too, Nora. Now we two are thrown entirely upon each other. [Takes her in his arms.] My darling wife! I feel as if I could never hold you close enough. Do you know, Nora, I often wish some danger might threaten you, that I might risk body and soul, and everything, everything, for your dear sake.

Nora [tears herself from him and says firmly]—Now you shall read your letters, Torvald.

Helmer-No, no; not to-night. I want to be with you, sweet wife.

Nora - With the thought of your dying friend?

Helmer-You are right. This has shaken us both. Unloveliness has come between us-thoughts of death and decay. We must seek to cast them off. Till then we will remain apart. Nora [her arms round his neck] - Torvald! Good night, good night.

Helmer [kissing her forehead] -Good night, my little bird. Sleep well, Nora. Now I'll go and read my letters.

[He goes into his room and shuts the door. Nora [with wild eyes, gropes about her, seizes HELMER'S domino, throws it round her, and whispers quickly, hoarsely, and brokenly] - Never to see him again. Never, never, never.

[Throws her shawl over head.] Never to see the children again. Never, never. Oh that black, icy water! Oh that bottomless If it were only over! Now he has it; he's reading it. Oh no, no, no, not yet. Torvald, good-by

my little ones

Good-by,

[She is rushing out by the hall; at the same moment HELMER tears his door open, and stands with open letter in his hand. Helmer-Nora!

Nora [shrieking] - Ah

Helmer-What is this?

Do you know what is in this letter? Nora Yes, I know. Let me go! Let me pass! Helmer [holds her back] - Where do you want to go? Nora [tries to get free] - You shan't save me, Torvald. Helmer [falling back]-True! True! Is it true what he writes?

No, no, it cannot be true.

Nora It is true.

world.

I have loved you beyond all else in the

Nora [a step nearer him]- Torvald
Helmer Wretched woman! What have

Nora

Let me go

What have you done?

-you shall not save me! You shall not take my guilt upon yourself!

Helmer-I don't want any melodramatic airs. [Locks the door.] Here you shall stay and give an account of yourself. Do you understand what you have done? Answer. Do you understand it?

Nora [looks at him fixedly, and says with a stiffening expression]—Yes; now I begin fully to understand it.

Helmer [walking up and down] — Oh, what an awful awakening! During all these eight years - she who was my pride and my joy a hypocrite, a liar worse, worse a criminal. Oh, the hideousness of it! Ugh! Ugh! [NORA is silent, and continues to look fixedly at him.] I ought to have foreseen something of the kind. All your father's dishonesty-be silent! I say your father's dishonesty! you have inherited - no religion, no morality, no sense of duty. How I am punished for shielding him! I did it for your sake, and you reward me like this.

Nora - Yes — like this!

You

Helmer - You have destroyed my whole happiness. have ruined my future. Oh, it's frightful to think of! I am