"My brother does n't help me, and I can hear my father laughing" I am beginning to get out of breath. My father and my brother stand and laugh. The rabbit runs under a bundle that is n't bound yet. I stop and stand still. I begin to walk up very slowly, without making any noise. When I get near, I hear him move a little. I stop, and then I take another step. The rabbit runs out and scurries away again. My father and my brother laugh and call out, "Run! run! run!" I start and run again. I call to my brother: "Aw, come and help me catch him! Come on!" My brother drops his rake and starts after us. We catch up to the rabbit, and then we go zigzagging, and then the rabbit. runs under another bundle. My brother rushes up and throws himself down, with his arms over the bundle. The rabbit can't get out now. The wheat is n't bound, so it spreads out and covers him all up. My brother lies still a little while. Then he tells me to hold down on one side of the wheat. He holds down on the other. The rabbit moves. We can see where he is. My brother begins to separate the wheat. We can see the rabbit's back. I touch it. It is soft and warm. We can see him breathe. My brother keeps his hand spread over the wheat and the rabbit's back and separates the wheat some more. Soon I can see the rabbit's ears. My brother gets hold of them and lifts the rabbit up. The wheat falls away, all except a straw or two. The rabbit looks scared and makes a whining noise. He says: "Ee-e! ee-e! Ee-e!" It makes me feel sorry for him. I say: "Oh, don't hold him that way! You hurt him!" My brother says: "Oh, go on; I don't, either! I know what I 'm doin'. That's the way to carry a rabbit." He puts the rabbit in the fold of his arm, so that he lies right close to him. He lets go of his ears, but keeps his hand over him, to stop him if he jumps. Pretty soon he strokes him a little bit. The rabbit lies still, with his ears right down on his back. His eyes are big and soft and shiny. His nose keeps going, as if he were smelling of something. His sides move out and in. He is all out of breath and terribly afraid of us. His sides look so soft and warm that I want to pet him a little. I say to my brother: "Le' me hold him and pet him, will you? Come on!" My brother takes the rabbit by the ears again and lifts him up. His paws stick out. He holds the hind ones drawn up a little. I take him in the hollow of my arm. He feels warm and soft, and I want to put my cheek against him. I hold my hand over him, ready to keep him from. getting away. My brother keeps his hands ready, too. My father comes up. He says, "Le' me see what you got, anyway." His feet make a noise in the stubble. The rabbit gives a jump out of my arms and scampers away. I start after him, but he gets a good head start. My brother does n't help me, and I can hear my father laughing. The rabbit makes one or two zigzags, and runs, and then zigzags again, and scampers into the brush. The brush is a big piece of second growth. I know there is no use trying in there. I cry a little, and say to my brother: "Aw, why did n't you help me catch him again? We could 'a' kept him in a berry-case, and tamed him." My father says: "Never mind. He's a great deal better off where he is. Just as like as not he 'd have died, he was such a little one." Then he says to my brother, "Well, you follow over and bring the old mares back, and by that time your ma 'll want us for dinner.” "Just as like as not he 'd have died, he was such a little one" I read of pomp and chivalry and pride, Or the light laughter of a quiet age; I hear the rustle of imperial lace, I dream of glory and strong fighting men; I find myself one of the evening crowd, Facing the world that thrills me as before. Shakspere and Dante-through Death's hidden door! A Cretan Snake Goddess By MRS. SCHUYLER VAN RENSSELAER Author of "English Cathedrals," "One Man Who was Content," etc. HIS little goddess, recently recov THIS cient world, may well be called the most remarkable work of art that the world of to-day possesses. Of course I use the term remarkable not as synonymous with beautiful or excellent, but as the dictionary interprets it, as meaning "extraordinary, unusual, exceptional, deserving of particular notice." Intrinsically, indeed, judged by the eye alone, the little figure is highly interesting, charming, and technically admirable; but to perceive how remarkable it is, we must look at it with the mind and the imagination as well as with the eye. We must know something of the time and the place of its production. We must realize how old it is, and yet how new; how long it was lost, and how lately found. We must have some idea of the difference between the art of ancient Crete and all other artistic developments, and then we must notice how different from all other Cretan works is as yet this one small specimen of ivory and gold. As yet, I say, for the snake. goddess herself, by the unexpectedness of her reappearance, forbids us to predict what may not be found among the stillslumbering relics of a long-lived and wide-spread great phase of civilization. More than unexpected was the discovery that this phase of civilization ever existed. It has been the most astonishing as well as the most illuminating of all the many discoveries that during the last. few decades have put archæology, as it deals with Grecian lands and the near |