[Illustration:  1.]

[Illustration:  2.]

[Illustration:  3.]

[Illustration:  4.]

No. 1, according to the doctors, writes that he is the pulse of a strong, healthy boy, and that his owner is getting on admirably.  No. 2 writes that his proprietor has trouble with his heart.  No. 3 tells a sad story of typhoid fever; and No. 4 says that his owner is dying.

I am only a Jack-in-the-Pulpit, you know, quite dependent upon what the birds and other bipeds tell me, so you cannot expect a full description and explanation of the sphygmograph here.  Ask your papas and friends about it.

There’s a great deal going on in the world that you and I know very little about; but such things as the sphygmograph give us a hint of the achievements of science in its efforts to help God’s children out of their many ills and pains.

The deacon says that, wonderful as the sphygmograph is, the pulse itself is more wonderful still—­a fact which no good ST. NICHOLAS child will deny.

A PERUVIAN BONANZA.

You’ve heard, I suppose, that they expect soon to open up a new and wonderfully rich deposit of silver in the mines of Peru?  No!  Well, then, it’s high time you were warned about it.  Take your Jack’s advice, my youngsters, and be very careful about things.  Why, if they go on finding big bonanzas in this reckless way, silver will be too cheap for use as money!  And then what will they do?  They’ll have to use something in place of it, of course; but there’s no telling what it will be.  Only think, they might choose double-almonds, or something of that kind!

But don’t allow yourselves to be cast down about it, my dears.  Try to keep up your spirits, and remember that, if the worst comes to the worst, good children will never be so plenty that people will cease to appreciate a good child.  That’s a bit of solid comfort for you, any way.

LUMBER AND TIMBER.

Which of you can state the exact distinction, if there is any, between lumber and timber, without consulting the dictionary?

QUEER NAMES FOR TOWNS.

Now, what am I to do with this?  If the Little Schoolma’am sees it, she may want to give the boys and girls of the Red School-house a new sort of geography lesson, or perhaps a spelling task to her dictation.  That would be a little hard on them:  so perhaps I’d better turn over the letter to you just as it is, my chicks.

    Washington, D.C.

DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT:  Here are the names of some towns in the United States.  They are so funny that I send them to you, and I hope you will like it.  Do you think the Little Schoolma’am would know where all these places are?

    Toby Guzzle, Ouray, Kickapoo, T.B., Ono, O.Z., Doe Gully Run, Omio,