We have something to tell you, dear Young Folks, which we hope you will find both interesting and important, and so we wish you to be very careful and pay particular attention to everything we say. Our Publishers have decided to offer you some prizes to induce you to help them in getting up some "great big" clubs of new subscribers for the next year, and they have asked us to explain to you what their plan is. They propose to give four prizes for the largest four clubs that are made up before the first of February, 1867, and the only condition is that the clubs shall consist entirely of new subscribers. These prizes are to be given in money, and they are as follows: For the largest club, For the next largest club, For the next largest club, Two Hundred Dollars. One Hundred and Fifty Dollars. One Hundred Dollars. Fifty Dollars. And, in order that those of you who do not succeed in earning one of these four great premiums shall not go unrewarded for the time and trouble you may take in canvassing, the Publishers will give a prize of Five Dollars for each club of Twenty-five new names which is not included in one of the four principal lists. That all may have time to send their lists, even from the farthest points, the award of the prizes will not be made until the first day of March, 1867, when the Publishers will bestow upon the successful canvassers their premiums. Now for some instructions. 1. As soon as you have collected a sufficient number of names, forward the list to MESSRS. TICKNOR AND FIELDS, 124 Tremont Street, Boston, with a dollar and a half for each name, writing very plainly the name and address of each subscriber, signing your own name and address in full every time, and writing at the head of your sheet of paper "First (or second, or fifth, as the case may be) Prize List from Stephen Brown, or Ellen Mansfield," or whatever your name is. 2. In remitting, always send a Post-Office Order, or a Draft payable in Boston or New York to the order of Ticknor and Fields. 3. Mail your last list on or before January 31, 1867, as no list mailed after that day will be accepted in the competition. 4. Send these lists to the Publishers of the Magazine, and not to the Editors, who have nothing to do with the printing or distributing of copies, with the receipt of subscriptions, with the change of addresses, or with anything except the preparation of the reading and the pictures which are contained in the numbers. 5. If you wish a receipt for your remittance, say so in your letter, and enclose an envelope stamped and directed to yourself. And now, little friends, having repeated to you the whole of our message, we leave you to set about winning the prizes, which seem to us to be very encouraging to effort. On the cover you will find the Prospectus for 1867, which tells all about the plans of our Magazine for the next year, so that you can know just what you are going to work for. You cannot all get the big prizes, but very many of you can earn one or more of the small premiums, and we hope you will. Minnie V. writes us a nice little letter, and desires us to ask our friends and hers to make a plain sentence by the use of one vowel from the consonants she has arranged here: vnthmnrvrncdhr. Frank D. A. Thank you for your letter. You are making progress, certainly. Your sincere friends, THE EDITORS. Squirrel. Don't fear our laughing at your sketches. We are too much pleased with the kind attentions we receive to be critical where there is no pretence. "The Reproachful Button" is a pleasant sketch, but hardly sufficient for us. T was almost dark when Hans came near the Black Glen in the woods; much later, in fact, than Hans liked to be out, especially on this road. For in a deep, black forest, with all sorts of strange shadows and ghostly trees, one can never know what may be lurking out of sight; and the same Hans who with his two stout fists, in broad daylight, would have undertaken to keep any living boy or man from doing serious mischief, felt his teeth set hard and his heart stand still as he came into the shadow of the pines. It was not much like our American woods, where bright green maples and beeches and birches and the twinkling leaves of the poplar are intermingled with the solemn evergreens. In the thick forests near the foot of the Hartz only pines and hemlocks are found for miles, and deep in the woods are great caverns in the rocks, where one might easily fall and break one's neck. Sometimes, too, you may find the mossy remnants of an old stone altar, where human blood was spilt ages ago. Through this dismal place Hans kept on, with his knees shaking, but with a brave heart, until he came to the great pine which the boys used to call a "spook," because, ever since the lightning struck it, it had stood up white and tall, lifting its bare arms into the sky, like some spectre giant crying for vengeance. Here there was a little opening in the branches that let the Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by TICK NOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 46 VOL. II. NO. XII. light fall upon the ground, and there, right at the root of the pine, on a decaying log, sat a little old man, who was altogether the strangest-looking object that Hans had ever seen. He was about half the size of common men, though the whiteness of his long hair and beard showed plainly that he would never be any taller; and though his body was short and crooked to the last degree, his face was long and pale, but lighted up by the most wonderfully brilliant eyes. These were fixed on Hans from the moment he came in sight; and, piercing through the darkness, it is no wonder that they chilled the poor boy's blood, and did not quicken his pace. Indeed, it is not quite certain that he would have advanced at all, if the greater part of the forest had not been behind him, though there seemed to be a spell in the strange brown eyes that drew the boy on in spite of himself. "Come along! what are you afraid of?" cried the apparition, in a little, dry voice, that sounded as if it were accustomed to a continual cracking of jokes. In fact, there was nothing terrible about the little man's face; and if Hans had not been blinded by fear, he would have noticed that its expression was kindly and good-natured. "Come on! come on! little master," he repeated. "Here I have been waiting more than an hour to tell you some good news; and now that you are here, you must hinder me forever, because you are such a coward. Come, come!" "I don't know you," said Hans. "Well, well, no matter for that, we won't stand upon ceremony. I know you well enough, though; for I see you pass through here every morning and night." "Why did I never see you before?" said the boy. "Because you take such precious good care to be out of the woods before sunset," replied the Little Man with a chuckle; "and daylight, you know, is not good for my constitution." "It is getting dark now," said Hans. "What have you to tell me?" "O, you are in haste then. Well, no matter: perhaps you have n't time to hear. There's many a kaiser, though, that would give half his crown to know, if he could only do it without being out after dark. O, you 're a precious set of babies, you that live in houses!" "Who are you, any way?" said Hans; "for, on the whole, I believe I am not so much afraid of you as you seem to suppose." "There! that's a man now!" said the little old fellow with an encouraging nod. "We shall get on well enough after a while, you will see. As to my name, we are called Kobolds, Trolls, and various other names, by your own writers; but among ourselves we are simply known as the Little People of the Mountains. You see we do not differ much from the human shape, — less than might be expected, eh? when we live so completely out of society. You do not treat us fairly, you human folk.” "We know very little about you," replied Hans, "except your mischievous, unearthly ways. What harm have we ever done to you that you serve us so many tricks? You overset our milk-pails, or steal the cream; you |