HEN Toots was four years old, his mamma thought she would let him have a birthday party. She wrote the invitations on the prettiest little paper, with funny frogs and dogs and cats in the corner, and each little envelope was made to match. Twenty-five pretty little notes to twenty-five dear little people, and every one came. No one else ever had such a party before. Large tables were covered with books and toys, all manner of games were waiting to be played, and in one corner of the children's play-room was a table with bowls, plates, and pipes, and all the children were invited to blow bubbles. Such fun as they had! Some blew large and some blew small, and those who laughed hard blew none at all. At last Toots and Robbie Mason began to see something in the soap bubble, "beautiful colors like the rainbow," said Toots.

"More of them," said Robbie, and then all the children began to wonder.

"What makes it?" asked Robbie, eagerly; "I wish I knew?"

"I will tell you," said mamma. "When a ray of light is divided, as it always is when it reaches an object on which to rest, it has different colors, because each color has different powers and is refracted or turned from its course. Let us cast a ray of light on this piece of glass called a prism; now examine it closely, here we have seven colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet The red is bent out of its course the least and it remains at the bottom; the blue is refracted most and goes to the top. Now blow a nice bubble, little Daisy, and I will explain the colors. You see the film is thicker in some places than in others, and that causes different powers of refraction or turning aside of the rays, and therefore, you observe different colors; as the soap bubble constantly changes its thickness, the rays vary or change also."

"There isn't any soap in the real rainbow in the clouds, is there?" asked thoughtful Robbie.

"Oh, no; when the clouds opposite the sun are dark and rain is still falling, the rays of the bright sun are divided by the rain drops as they would be here with my prism." #

After the children grew tired of bubbles they had many games and a nice supper, after which they went home saying it was the best party they ever went to.

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