A PRIZE MUSIC COMPOSITION.

The ability to compose music is not as common as that to solve puzzles, and so the Table in its Music Contests this year opened competition to amateurs without regard to age. For variety, a song and a hymn setting were asked for, $5 being offered for the best in each class, and packages of visiting-cards, with copper plates, for the second best. First verses of two poems were given. Both were by Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster, in her book Little Knights and Ladies.

We publish this week the song setting which won the first prize, and the whole poem, in order that you may have a complete song. The composition is by Miss Mary E. Bigelow, of Berea, O., who is a Round Table Patron. The second prize is awarded to Harry R. Patty, of Los Angeles, Cal., Knight. Others whose compositions are deserving of high praise, mentioned with honor, are: Helen H. Sohst, Alice C. Banning, Penry Jones, Frank Balentine, Minnie Brendel (Weimar, Germany), and E. S. Hosmer. The additional verses of "Our Little Echo" are:

OUR LITTLE ECHO.

This little echo, soft and sweet, Repeats what others say, And trots about on tireless feet, Up stairs and down, all day. It makes us very careful not To use a naughty word, Lest in the echo's lisping tones It should again be heard. Which would be such a dreadful thing, As any one may see, Who has an echo in his house A little over three.

The first-prize hymn, with awards, will be published soon—probably next week.

A Leech Barometer.

Very few books of pastimes are lacking in elaborate descriptions for making so-called "infallible" barometers. Now here is a barometer, not absolutely infallible, however, of an exceedingly simple kind, though, like the aforementioned, you may purchase your outfit entire at the apothecary's—unless, luckily, you are a rural member. Here are the directions:

Buy or catch a leech. Confine it in a jar three-quarters full of rain-water, which must be changed regularly twice a week. Place the jar on a window-frame, facing the north.

Weather indications. Fair and Frosty.—The leech lies motionless, rolled up in a spiral form, at the bottom of the glass. Rain or Snow.—The leech creeps up to the top of the glass. If the rain will be heavy and of long duration, it remains a considerable time. If trifling, it quickly descends. If the rain or snow is accompanied by wind, it darts about quickly, and does not cease until there is a hard blow. Storm of Thunder or Lightning.—The leech is exceedingly agitated, and expresses its feelings in violent, convulsive starts.

Vincent V. M. Beede.

About Some Chapters.

The Table has a flourishing Chapter in Santiago College, Agustinas 150, Santiago, Chile. Its president is Blanca Oliveira, aged fourteen, and she wishes to correspond with American Ladies of her own age. Writing under date of November 25th, the president tells of an entertainment given by the Wide Awake Chapter in the college gymnasium, in which songs, dialogues, recitations, and the like were the attractions. The invitation cards are very neat. The Chapter has forty-one members, who have corresponded with many readers of the Table in this country and Europe, some doing so in French and Spanish as well as in English.

Washington Chapter, of Racine, Wis., was organized on February 22, 1894, and is prospering. It holds semi-monthly meetings, and the dues are five cents per month. Officers are elected every four months. The present officers are: President, Hira E. Tyrrell; Vice-President, Russell Lewis; Secretary, Frank H. Marlott; Treasurer, Arthur Murray. "We think it would be nice to know what some of the many other Chapters are doing," writes Secretary Frank H. Marlott, 1511 Wisconsin Street. "I am sure we are not the only ones who should like to have some suggestions from successful Chapters regarding programmes," etc.

Information Wanted.

Name and address of story "All at Sea," sent in competition for a prize, that manuscript may be returned, and address of Rudolph Raphael, "Tea Picker of Chang Choy," for same purpose.

The Good Will School Fund.

This Fund has grown since last report as follows:

Amount previously acknowledged$1579.16

Little Women Chapter, of New York, $6; Barbara Arbogust, 25 cents; Frank Alfred Stetson, 50 cents; Paul C. Conn, 10 cents; Fred W. and George M. Beal, 50 cents; Walter Goff, 50 cents; The Kirk Munroe Talk at St. Agnes Hall, New York, $10.08; "Euclid Place," $1.30; Sunday-school Class, Stillwater, Minn., 50 cents; Francis S. Winston, $1; Louis O. Brosie, from contributions to his amateur paper, $2; Margaret C. Walter, $1; Carrie M. Walton, 10 cents; John Burroughs Chapter, Winsted, Conn., $15.84; Sophie R. St. Clair, 50 cents; Fred W. Christensen, 10 cents; Bessie Cauffman, $3.50; Franklin Pendleton, 25 cents; Paul A Sensheimer, $1; "Sancho Panza," 25 cents; Mrs. H. E. Banning, 50 cents; Alice May Douglas Chapter, Bath, Me., $3; "Midget," 10 cents; John H. Campbell, Jun., 5 cents; "Bruno Morgan," 50 cents; Laura Gooding, $1; "Antonio," 20 cents; Evarts A. Graham, 30 cents; Dick, Polly, Tom, Harry, etc., $1; George Taylor, 20 cents; Katherine W. Butler, 10 cents; Alice V. B. Foos, $1; Sidney Davis, and each of the following-named, 10 cents: Edward O. Tatnall, Mary Fithian, Adela Harper, Randolph Wilson, Walter P. Hall, Edith and Amy Shattuck, Ethel Van Rennselaer, George H. Hogeman, W. W. Harvey, Edith Moore, and Richard Corcoran; Lindsey D. Holmes, and each of the following-named, 50 cents: Mrs. D. L. Miller, Mary A. Lippincott, S. J. Peters, Lulu Wangelin, L. I. and E. Brown, James F. Rodgers, Grace M. Fay, Grace E. Hall, Stella L. Tutewiler, L. S. Whittaker, Pauline L. Stockton, J. A. Beach, Ethel R. Betts, B. W. Gale, Frankie L. Potts, and W. Stowell Wooster; Ellen B. Laight, $1; John Nixon Brooks, $1; "Santa Claus," 5 cents; J. Howard Beckley, 15 cents; J. F. Hammond and Sophie V. Gray, each 5 cents; Daisy Noyes and Ralph Page, each 25 cents; G. W. Hinckley, $1; Albert Gregory, 16 cents; Whitman Dart, 15 cents; K. K. Forsythe, 25 cents; Eleanor Davis, $1; Harry G. Sprowl, 5 cents; "Hecla," N. Y., $1; Eileen and Robert Weldon, 19 cents; and Robert W. Stockbridge, 16 cents.

Total69.75

In the formal acknowledgment of a contribution from the Admiral Benham Chapter the sum was given, by mistake, $8.95. It should have been $18.95. Hence we add10.00

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Total of Fund$1658.91