RUBY'S VISITOR. 103

“J should n’t wonder’ — Ruby began to look again for a
place to hide —“ if you might be a—a ghost!”

The visitor burst into a langh that echoed through the hut.
“ You’re a good Yankee! You have n’t come any nearer
than you are to the moon.”

‘‘T’m sorry I’m so stupid,” said Ruby, humbly. ‘“ Won’t
you tell me?”

“Q, certainly, with the greatest pleasure, — certainly, cer-
tainly, I’m the Man in it.”

“The Man in what?”

‘The Man in the Moon.”

“QO my!” said Ruby.

“ Yes, Iam,” continued he, growing suddenly very sober.
“T have been ever since I can remember.”’

“You don’t say so!”? Ruby drew a long breath.

“T do,” asserted the Man in the Moon, with an air of
gentle melancholy.

The crimson lights on Ruby’s cheeks fairly paled and
glowed with curiosity. “If you would n’t mind telling me,
I should like so much to know, sir, what— what on earth
you came down for?”

“Your fire.”

“ My fire!”

The old gentleman nodded. Ruby began to be afraid that
he was going to make a bonfire of the house, or burn her at
the stake.

“Cold!” said her visitor in an explanatory tone, shivering