6 ELSIE.

their pointed chins, and nodded their peaky-capped heads in
high glee.

It was nearly dark ; people were hurrying home laden with
packages; ladies from their shopping, shop-girls with their
baskets, working-men with their pails, trooped through the
square in one continuous stream, which thinned into groups,
and finally only one or two at a time straggled along. Then
the square became nearly empty.

Suddenly such a burst of light, whiter than moonlight,
was shed over everything; and quite as suddenly all the
shadow people came out from their hiding-places, big and
little, tall and short; they crowded the place, and oh, how
plainly they could be seen! Every little twist and turn
showed distinctly. :

“See the electric lights,” said some one, “ how strong they
are; and look, our pathway is carpeted with the loveliest
designs in black and white.”

How the little elfish heads nodded as that couple passed on!
As one after another went through the square, some noticed
the shadows’ fantastic drawing, some saw that they were
shadows, but nothing more, and many never noticed them at
all; very few knew of the quaint little figures which danced
when the trees swayed.

It was nearly ten o’clock when a little girl crept slowly
_and timidly along the walk; ragged and hungry, she stopped
by a bench and looked eagerly around to see if one of the