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St. Xicholas fok Aueust.- We doubt if i these days yield any pleasure to the young readers of St. Nicholas greater than that oL the magazine. No days are too hot for ; the exercise it aft'orda ; no mouotony is so fixed hut it will vanish before the appearance oi this monthly novelty. As for the visitor itselt, Si, Nicholas wears alwayB the jolly face which the good Saiut whose name it bears puts on during the holidays- is as merry and cheerful iu the open air as at the fireside. It brings us this month a series of excellent contributions, all interesting and some of them pleasautly 8uggestive oi mountam air and seabreezes. " The Cruise of the Crusoe" for instauce (a prolonged boat journey such as almost every boy would like to take on some one of these summer days), hardly needs illustration, since it is ïtself a very perfect picture ; yet it has six characteristic and familiar scènes in pencil. There is an interesting paper on Umbrellas, with a picture of the flrst Umbrella in the streets of London. "A Gunpowder Plot" is the story of an assault upou a hornets' nest, in which the strategy of the attacking party has to coutend against the power and numbers of the garrison, and is natural, humorous and pathetic, appealing strongly to the interest of all boys. Rose Terry Cooite gives us a lively controversey m rhyme between two chickens on that familiar subject - always a fruitful source of contention - the origin of the species. Besides all this and much more, there are stories by Helen C. Weeks and Emily Huntmgton Miller, a paper on the collectiou and preservation of " seaweeds ;" a description of " A boarding-School in 1570;" a delightful story for girls, "The Pine-stick Doll," with its beautiful illustratiou - the frontispiece of the number - drawn by Miss Jessie Curtís. " Jack-in-the-Pulpit," with his paragrums, is still as wise and witty as ever ; and worthy of notice also is a bright httle jingle called " Hans, the Small Esquimaux,' with its picture, in which the iceberg is as retreshing to us as the Polir Bear is territying to the little f ur-clad northerner.