Ethel turned round, and lo and behold! there was the same birch rod that she had seen outside the gates.

"Well, I'm sure you here again," she said, tossing her head; "I thought I had parted company with you long ago."

"In-deed!" said the Rod; "did you? what business has a little girl like you to think at all? you ought to allow other people to think for you;" and he came close to her; "when little girls think," he continued, "they generally think wrong, because they think their own way best."

You are very rude!" said Ethel in an indignant tone; "and I won't speak to you any more."

"Well, but don't lose your temper, my dear, at any rate," was the taunting answer; "you may want it some other time, you know."

Ethel pouted. "I wish I had not come to this country at all; I have always imagined it to be such a lovely place, with beautiful things in it, instead ".

"So it has so it has!" said the Rod, interrupting her before she could say any more; "look at me!" and he placed himself in an attitude before her.

Ethel's crimson lips parted, and her blue eyes opened very wide.

"You, indeed; surely you do not consider yourself beautiful?"

"Indeed but I do, though," he answered promptly;

and, at any rate, I am the means of making little folks beautiful; a few applications of me prove beneficial in many cases, for removing cross faces and pouting lips;" and he grinned at Ethel in a most self-complacent

manner.

"You vain, spiteful, little thing!" she said. "If I had you in my nursery I would burn you. If I could only find those gates again, and get back through them, I would go home. I have no wish to see any more of this country. You are all very rude, and evidently do not know how to treat your visitors."

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Uninvited visitors are never welcome," said the Rod. "If you had sent us word you were coming you might have been treated differently, and at any rate we should have expected you."

"Of course you would have expected me, when you knew I was coming," retorted Ethel.

“Yes, just so, any one knows that," said the Rod, "so pray don't pretend to be sharper than other folks. But now, while we are chatting so comfortably you must tell me”.

"We are not chatting comfortably at all," interrupted

Ethel pettishly, "and I should like to know how long you intend to keep me here, for whether I was invited or not I can assure you my visit was not to you."

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Who said it was, my dear?" grinned the Rod.

"Go away, or I will break you to pieces," exclaimed Ethel angrily, and she tried to get hold of him--but she only seized the air, the Rod was gone.

shouted in the distance, the last word being scarcely audible.

"Well, at any rate I have frightened him off at last, I am glad to say," said Ethel, with a relieved face. "Now I can look about me a little in peace;" and turning round as she spoke, she found herself close to a wall made of trees, not monkey-trees this time but real ones; on which hung pretty coloured balls, flags, toys, crackers, drums, trumpets, scent packets, and wax candles in little silver candlesticks. Her rosy face brightened up at last till it literally beamed with joy.

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"How delightful!" she exclaimed. Come, this is a decided improvement. I had come to the conclusion that the Doll Country' was anything but nice."

"Never come to conclusions," said a harsh voice; "wait until they come to you."

Ethel actually shivered, and her face clouded again. There was that birch rod back again, the meddling thing. "Well, however," she sensibly decided, "he shall not spoil all my pleasure this time," and she proceeded to examine the wall.

"What were the decorations for?" she wondered, till at last a thought struck her, and she cried, "Why, it is a Christmas tree! And oh, what a beauty! this is what I call a sensible sort of a Christmas tree, one that would take days to examine. I think the people in our world are sometimes stingy over Christmas trees; they just get a small one, that you can strip in a few minutes, and then the fun is overbut this tree must be miles long; I wonder if I could walk all along it, and round to the other side? I should like to see all the things on it. Next Christmas tree we have I shall just come here, and take whatever I like from this one."

"Will you though, really?" said the voice of the Rod. "We have a little proverb in this country, 'Admire all, but pocket none.'"