direction, but, having lifted his right to try another plan of walking while foot too high in the untwisting process, she watched, lest she should see him he found that the slender tail of its stop again. snow-shoe stuck down in the snow, setting the shoe pointing skyward and his toe, tied by the thongs, held prisoner about a foot above the snow. He tried to kick, but the shoe became more firmly imbedded. He lost his balance, and only by a wild fling of his body, in which his arms went up into the air, did he regain his upright position. The moment of calm which succeeded produced from him another remark.

provoke their opposition, or perhaps even worse-she had been overcome in she knew that they would only be too the midst of her stern responsibility by glad to get rid of the man they feared, the powers of laughter; perhaps, horcaring for nothing but the actual rid thought, she had gone for Morin safety of the lives in the household. to bid him again throw the noose over She brought him his coat and cap and his treacherous shoulders. The last also a man's moccasins and snow- thought pricked him into motion. By shoes. With a courage that, because means of his reason he discovered that somewhat shy and trembling, evoked if he was to make progress at all the all the more his admiration, she un- rackets must not overlap one another tied the first knot of his rope, unwound as he trod; his next effort was natthe coil, and then untied the last knot. urally to walk with his feet so wide The process was slow because of the apart that the rackets at their broadtrembling of her fingers, which he felt est could not interfere. The result but could not see. She stood resolute, was that in a few moments he became making him dress for the storm upon like a miniature Colossus of Rhodes, the threshold of the door. He did not fixed again so that he could not move, know how to strap on the snow-shoes. his feet upon platforms at either side She watched his first attempt with of a harbor of snow. great curiosity; looking up, he was made the more determined to succeed with them by seeing the pain of incredulity returning to her eyes.

"How do you expect me to know how to manage things that I have never handled in my life before?"

"But if you don't know how to put them on how can you walk in them?"

"I have seen men walk in them, and there are a great many things we can do when something depends upon it." She directed him how to cross and tie the straps; she continued to watch him, increasing anxiety betraying itself in her face.

The snow was so light that even the snow-shoes sank some four or five inches. It was just below the porch that he had tied his straps, and when he first moved forward he trod with one shoe on the top of the other. He had not expected this; he felt that no further progress was within the bounds of possibility. For some half minute he stood, his back to the door, his face turned to the illimitable region of drifts and feathery air, unable to conceive how to go forward and without a thought of turning back. When his pulses were surging and tingling with the discomfort of her gaze, he heard the door shut sharply. Perhaps she thought that he was shamming and was determined not to yield again; perhaps-and this seemed

He heard the door open now again sharply, and he felt certain, yes, certain, that the lasso was on its way through the air; this time he was not going to submit. As men do unthinkingly what they could in no way do by thought, he found himself facing the door, his snow-shoes truly inextricably mixed with one another, but still he had turned round. There was no rope, no Morin; Madge was standing alone upon the outer step of the porch, her face aflame with indignation.

"This is either perfect folly or you have deceived me," she cried.

"I shall learn how to use them in a minute," he said humbly. He was conscious as he spoke that his twisted legs made but an unsteady pedestal, that the least push would have sent him headlong into the drift.

"How could you say that you would go!" she asked fiercely.

He looked down at his feet as schoolboys do when children, but for another reason. The question as to whether or not he could get his snow-shoes headed again in the right direction weighed like lead upon his heart.

"I thought that I could walk upon these things," he said, and he added, with such determination as honor flying from shame only knows, "and I will walk on them and do your errand."

With that, by carefully untwisting his legs, he faced again in the right

snow.

direction, but, having lifted his right to try another plan of walking while foot too high in the untwisting process, she watched, lest she should see him he found that the slender tail of its stop again. snow-shoe stuck down in the snow, setting the shoe pointing skyward and his toe, tied by the thongs, held prisoner about a foot above the He tried to kick, but the shoe became more firmly imbedded. He lost his balance, and only by a wild fling of his body, in which his arms went up into the air, did he regain his upright position. The moment of calm which succeeded produced from him another remark.

"It seems to me that you have got me now in closer bonds than before." As he spoke he turned his glance backward and saw that comment of his was needless.

The girl had at last yielded to laughter. Worn out, no doubt, by a longcontrolled excitement, laughter had now entirely overcome her. Leaning her head on her hand and her shoulders against a pillar of the porch, she was shaking visibly from head to foot, and the effort she made to keep the sound of her amusement within check only seemed to make its hold upon her entire being more absolute.

"I don't wonder you laugh," he said, feebly beginning to laugh himself a little.

But she did not make the slightest reply. Her face was crimson; the ripples of her laughter went over her whole form as ripples of wind over a young tree.

He was forced to leave her thus. By a miracle of determination, as it seemed, he freed his right shoe and made slow and wary strides forward. He saw that he had exaggerated the width of his snow-shoes, but his progress now was still made upon the plan of keeping his feet wide apart, although not too wide for motion. He knew that this was not the right method; he knew that she peered at him between her fingers and was more convulsed with laughter at his every step. He was thankful to think that the falling flakes must soon begin to obscure his figure, but he did not dare

From Blackwood's Magazine. SECRET SOCIETIES IN CHINA. The recent arrest and imprisonment of Sun Wên at the Chinese Legation raises an interesting question, and one which doubtless will be settled with due regard to diplomatic forms and personal considerations. But the immediate incident is connected with a matter of far greater importance in the eyes of the Chinese government than the mere question of diplomatic jurisdiction. What Disraeli said of of China. Europe is still more true whole empire is honeycombed The with secret societies, and if the agents of the government are to be believed, Sun is not only an active member of the "White Lily" Association, but is a prominent leader of that very revolutionary body. The "White Lily" Association is second in importance only, both as regards numbers and objects, to the Kolao Hui, and has lately shown a disturbing activity in the neighborhood of Canton. Both societies present unspeakable terrors to the official mind, and at the outbreak of the late Chinese and Japanese war the emperor's government viewed with the greatest alarm the possibility of an insurrection on the part of the Kolao Hui and other societies associated with it. If the "Hui" had risen in the central provinces at the same time that the Japanese attacked the northeastern frontiers of the empire, there can be little doubt that, had Europe abstained from interfering, the fate of the Ts'ing dynasty been that of the numerous imperial houses which have in succession ruled over the destinies of the empire. Fortunately for the Ts'ings, the Kolao leader, who is now enjoying the congenial

would have

climate of a certain South American republic, issued a mot d'ordre that not a man was to move, and the

existing order of affairs was pre- sorts of illegal combinations. served.

This want of action showed, from the society's point of view, a lack of zeal in the cause and power in the field; and no doubt the fact that the members are scattered over widely separated portions of the empire does to a certain extent weaken the central authority. The "White Lily" Association, on the contrary, concentrates its forces in particular districts, with organized branches planted in congenial environments, and not by any means always appearing to the outer world under the same title as that of the parent society. "The Vegetarians," for instance, who lately committed such ruthless murders on English missionaries in the neighborhood of Foochow, form part of this confederation, and would, with other affiliated leaguers, be ready to be summoned to the ranks in case of an uprising. The original home of this society was in the north of the empire, and more particularly in the Province of Shantung, where its active presence occasioned much anxiety to the mandarins some years ago. But of late its leaders have turned their attention to the south-eastern provinces, and notably to the neighborhood of Canton. As is not uncommonly the case with secret associations all over the world, the ostensible aims of the "White Lily Society are purely philanthropic, and in some of their primitive rites and ceremonies there would almost seem to be traces of some early and debased form of Christianity, possibly Nesto: rian. In the promotion of the benevolent objects which they profess, its chiefs regard themselves as commissioned by high Heaven to regenerate the empire, and their zeal ever prompts them to raise the standard of revolt against the tyranny of corruption, cruelty, and wrong under which the unhappy subjects of the emperor habitually suffer.

It cannot be denied that, owing to the general maladministration of the country, China offers a thoroughly congenial soil for the growth of all

Under

oppression and tyranny secret societies spring into life as weeds grow on a rubbish-heap; and so iniquitous and cruel is the political system of China, that it is only by combination that the people are able to resist the more flagrant wrongs which the mandarins seek to impose upon them. In some provinces, where large family clans exist, the members band themselves together under the patriarchal head of the tribe, and succeed in resisting the illegal, and sometimes even the legal, exactions of the local authorities. In Fuhkien, for example, the Chang clan numbers something like ten thousand persons; and so well are they organized that the emperor's writs only run among them by the consent of the elders. Such a combination unquestionably presents a difficulty in the government of the province, and the luckless mandarins, finding themselves powerless to enforce the usual exactions from the members of the clan, are driven to impose even heavier burdens on the still more luckless people who are left outside the protective influence of the potent tribe.

Failing these social associations, the people are driven by misrule to combine in secret societies. Throughout the long course of Chinese history the existence of these "Hui," or associations, has been recognized and recorded. At various times they have adopted different titles. We read of the "White Lily" sect, the "Yellow Caps," "The Society of Heaven, Earth, and Man," the "Triad Society," the "Hung League," the "Kolao Hui," and countless other associations. More often than not these bodies have been started as benevolent societies, but almost invariably, certainly in the cases of those we have named, the philanthropic zeal of the founders has degenerated into political fanaticism. Some of the greatest political changes in the empire have been due to their action. The Mongol dynasty, established by Jenghiz Khan and his followers, mainly owed its downfall to