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M.J.MAKES ANOTHER MOVE.
Billy came down-stairs on the thirteenth of December to find everywhere the peculiar flatness that always follows a day which for weeks has been the focus of one's aims and thoughts and labor.
"It's just as if everything had stopped at Marie's wedding, and there wasn't anything more to do," she complained to Aunt Hannah at the breakfast table.

"Everything seems so--queer!" "It won't--long, dear," smiled Aunt Hannah, tranquilly, as she buttered her roll, "specially after Bertram comes back.

How long does he stay in New York ?" "Only three days; but I'm just sure it's going to seem three weeks, now," sighed Billy.

"But he simply had to go--else he wouldn't have gone." "I've no doubt of it," observed Aunt Hannah.