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When the children saw it first, last fall, this is what it looked like: 

 a large rectangular box, grass-green in color, thirty-nine inches long, 

 eighteen inches wide and fifteen inches higli. The long sides were 

 of glass, the short sides and top of green wire netting. The top 

 could be removed like the hd of a box. It stood upon a pedestal- 

 table provided with castors. In the bottom of the terrariujn were 

 three inches of rich soil, covered with the delicate green of sprout-^ 

 ing grass-seed. In one corner was a mossy n(~)ok, and in another a 

 mass of thistles and clover. * At one end, a small cabbage was 

 planted, and at the other lay several sprays of glossy pin-oak. Sus- 

 pended from the top, was a large spray of purple thistles. 



113. — Butierfly-tiine in the terrariam icorld. 



Among the thistles in the corner, ten pendants of vivid green, 

 bright with golden points, could be seen. They were the chrysalides 

 of the monarch, or milkweed butterfly. Amongst the cabbage 

 leaves were many of the pale green' eggs and several of the cater- 

 pillars of the cabbage butterfly. Amongst the sprays of oak in the 

 corner, several oak caterpillars were feeding. 



Before many days had passed, the drama of life began. One by 

 one, the chrysalides of the milkweed l)utterfly paled in color and, 

 becoming transparent, showed through their whitened walls the 

 orange colored wings of the developing butterflies within. They 

 then burst, freeing their gorgeous tenants. This happened until 

 there were seven butterflies in the terrarium. As two of these 



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