until now when your description recalled 

 it to mind perfectly." 



"Dear me!" cried Howard, "now it 

 becomes our duty to 'read up' on Ser- 

 vius Tullius to keep John from getting 

 too far ahead of us. But how about 

 the Stone of Destiny, you must have 

 seen it when you were in Westmin 

 ster?" 



"Yes, Jacob's Pillar is a dark colored 

 stone shaded with red. It is some 

 twenty-six inches long by sixteen inches 

 wide and about eleven inches thick. The 

 surface is defaced and scratched. Its 

 legendary history is that it was preserved 

 in the temple, taken to Egypt by Jer 

 emiah, carried thence to Ireland by a 

 princess, taken thence to lona, and 

 thence to Scotland at Scone. Here for 

 four hundred and fifty years it remained, 

 and Scottish kings were crowned upon 

 it. Then it was carried to England by 

 Edward First, and for five hundred 

 years England's kings have been 

 crowned upon it, as it lies under the 

 coronation chair in Westminster. The 

 inscription upon it seems prophetic, as 

 Queen Victoria was descended from 

 James of Scotland. It is this: 



Where e'er is found this sacred stone 

 The Scottish race shall reign. 



"Nell!" exclaimed Howard, "that is 

 a stone with a lot of history in it, to be 

 sure, but it isn't as large at least as pur 

 famous Plymouth Rock. But I'd like to 

 know, Auntie, if all stones are made by 

 nature or are there artificial stones?" 



"It is thought that perhaps the larg 

 est artificial stone in the world is the 

 one used as the base of Bartholdi's 

 Statue of Liberty, in New York harbor. 

 It is made of broken trap-rock, sand, 

 and cement. As regards stones noted 

 for size, it is estimated that one of the 

 largest in the pyramids weighs eighty- 

 eight tons, yet the stones are laid with 

 out mortar, so close that a pen knife 

 cannot be inserted between them. Those 

 visitors to earth from unknown space, 

 the aerolites, are sometimes of immense 

 size. One in Stockholm is said to weigh 

 twenty-five tons. At the Smithsonian 



Institution in Washington there is one 

 which weighs fourteen hundred pounds. 

 Such stones are largely composed of 

 iron." 



"Auntie," interrupted Alice, "in old 

 times was there not what was called the 

 Astrologer's Stone?" 



"Yes, it was fabled that the stone 

 called the 'Devil's Looking-glass' could 

 unveil the future, but it was merely a 

 piece of coal with a polished surface. 

 In the British Museum there is a rock- 

 crystal once supposed to have a spirit 

 imprisoned in it." 



"I'm glad," said Howard, "that the 

 age of superstition i ^af:. 4 " T '-lou'i ,IKC 

 uncanny tmiigs, out I would be pleased 

 to know what science says about stones." 



"That isn't our subject," interrupted 

 John. 



"Auntie, please go on all about 

 Cromlechs, Stonehenge, Mystic Celtic 

 Circles, and all that?" 



"You will withdraw that request, I'm 

 sure, for I see your Uncle driving up 

 with a sleigh, doubtless to take you all 

 for a ride, so I know you will be ready 

 to end this talk with 'Illsa's Craig which 

 is more curious than historic, as no one 

 knows its story. It lies off the mainland 

 of Ayrshire. When seen from the 

 north it looks the shape of a pyramid 

 larger than that of Cheops. A fellow 

 traveler told me that its common name 

 is Paddy's Mile Stone." 



"Hurrah for Paddy's Mile Stone!" 

 shouted the boys, as they rushed about 

 for their wraps. "May our ride be 

 many miles long with never a stone to 

 upset our sleigh." 



But as the girls kissed Aunt Jane 

 good-bye Alice said, "Your talk makes 

 me wish to become familiar with the 

 stones in Nature's Museum, all those 

 that have been sculptured by the ages 

 into rare forms, or dyed in lovely colors, 

 or filled with strange fossil remains." 



"Study them, dear," Aunt Jane re 

 plied, "and thus become in a manner 

 in league with the stones of the field." 

 BELLE PAXSON DRURY. 



73 



