CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT. 



The contributors to this department numbered, this year, 

 about fifty, and the articles brought in by them amounted to 

 about one hundred : — a considerable falling oflf, we find, on 

 comparing with the reports of some previous years. 



We do not intend to encourage any lack of interest on the 

 part of the children, yet this decrease in the number of articles 

 is, in some respects* an advantage to this department. At 

 some of our former fairs our space has been so crowded that 

 many articles could not be shown to advantage, while this year 

 there was just about the right number to place upon the table 

 and hang upon the wall to cover well the space allowed us, so 

 that, perhaps, the deficiency was not noticed. Though fewer in 

 number, yet we think a more pleasing variety of articles was 

 shown than we have noticed for several years. At one time 

 we remember that* the tidy seemed to be made the chief article 

 for exhibition ; at another time, so many mottoes were brought 

 that we found it difficult to arrange them with taste ; again, 

 small articles in card-board v;ork appeared in profusion ; but 

 this year no one kind of work seemed to prevail. There was a 

 good variety, consisting of worsted and card-board work, with 

 a good number of framed mottoes and pictures, quilts, rugs, 



