ISS^ 



(;ij-:.\NiN(;s iN jjeic OUi.tUiik. 



49o 



boy or gii'l, under 15 

 ^ciis'ol age, who writes a 

 l(ir this department, CONTAINING 

 \ \HABLE KALT, NOT GENERALLY 

 S, OX BEES OB OTHER MATTEIIS, 

 of David Cook's excel- 

 lent tl\e-cent Sunday-school books. 

 Many uf these bool.s contain the same mat- 

 ter that you find in Sunday-school hooks 

 costing from 81.00 to $1.50. If you have had 

 books, give us the names that we 

 not send the same twice. We have now 

 tuck six different books, as follows; vi 

 r Off, The Giant - Killer. The Koby 

 II V, Hescued from Egypt, and Ten Nights in 

 iBar-koom. Wduivc; ^ . , - . 



You can have your choice ot any mie cil tin- ai.ovi- piiiuri s 

 or books for every letter that gives us some valuable piece ol 

 information. 



' A chiel's amang ye takin' notes; 

 An' faith, he'll prent it." 



^ ITTLK trieiid.s, did you ever hear any- 

 ^ body tell altoiit lieing as uneasy as a 

 <:Pj lisli'ont (if watcrV I suppose of course 

 ^^ you have; and the sayinu has becouje 

 so indverbial that no iloiibt y(»u all— in 

 fact, the world in neneral—will be greatly 

 surjirised when I tell you I have seen lishes 

 out of water, and they were not uneasy 

 either. Yes. great big lishes. almost as big 

 as the cod lisli yoiii- father brings home from 

 the store. Do you want to know about itV 

 Well, yesterday," when I got tired, and my 

 brains" felt sort o' muddled up. 1 got away 

 outdoors. I went down through the apiary 

 where 4(») hives of bees were rolling in the 

 clover honey. Then 1 went througii the 

 peas to see if they were large enough to pick. 

 Then I helped th'e lima heans'climb ujt their 

 jioles where tliev could not (piite reach them. 

 Then i pulled up some lettuce. \Ve liave a 

 great lot of it, and it will not sell now. on 

 account of strawberries being live cents a 

 (piart; so I gave some of it to the .lersey 

 cow. She seemed to think it very good, and 

 would luobably have eaten the whole of it if 

 Mr. Somers did not give her so many other 

 nice things to eat every day. Well, the 

 cariJ-jiond is right near the .Jersey cow, and 

 tins same carji-pond always I'csts me lietter 

 than almost any thing else. .Mr. Somers had 

 mowed the grass nicely along the steep bank 

 on the north side, so it was pleasant and 

 cool down there, and I stei>i»ed along very 

 carefully to see if I could not catch the carp 

 at some of their;tricks, without their hearing 

 me. 



Pretty soon 1 heard an awful splashing. 

 It sounded as if a small i»ig were rooting 

 around, making the water splash. You 

 may be sure I dropped down (dose to the 

 ground, and crawled up on my hands and 

 feet; and I was rewarded by seeing a great 

 whopping lish out of the water, and not un- 



easy either. lie was up among the roots of 

 grass, nosing and rooting about like a pig. 

 His tail was partly in the water some of the 

 time; l)ut as hescpiirmed around a good 

 part of the time he could be said to be. 

 truthfullv, to all intents and purposes, ont 

 of the water. I'rettv soon he. with a dex- 

 trous flop of his tail." slid back into the pond 

 again, and then went prowling along with 

 his great tins sticking clear above the sur- 

 face. Pretty soon he backed up and shot 

 forward with such force that he came clear 

 up on the grass in another place. After dig- 

 ging around in the grass roots as before, 

 making cpiite a chanking and blowing, he 

 flopped back in again. This he repeated 

 clear around the north edge of the- pond, 

 coming up every three or four feet. 



The grass and water-plants along this 

 noith edge are growing very luxuriantly, for 

 it is a sort of sandy loam, and these succu- 

 lent roots seem to be what the lish are fond 

 of. Before he got around, a smaller lish at- 

 tempted to do tiic same thing, but he could 

 not manage it so well. The sight was so 

 wonderful and astonishing to me that it al- 

 most made my hair stand on end. Tlie beaii- 

 tv of the sight, as his gorgeous scales glis- 

 tened in the sniibeams. showing dilTerent 

 colors as he twisted about, was beyoixl any 

 thing I can describe, and his motions seemed 

 natural and graceful— (luite different from 

 that of frightened lish when we pull them 

 out on the grass. I woixler if the rest of 

 you enjoy such sights of nature as these as 

 I do. Why, it seems as if these humble 

 creatures, studied when they are not aware 

 that any eye is upon tliein. were almost 

 enough to give us gliiiii)ses beyond the veil 

 that sei)arates us from the unrevealed world 

 bevond. It seems to me as though I were 

 catching glimpses of the great Father, by 

 stiidving his creatures. Sometimes these 

 great lish came uj) and gazed back at me, as 

 if they. too. wondered what we were for and 

 wheie we were tending. 



As I started back to the t^ilice to take up 

 my work again, my heart was lillecl with 

 praise and thanksgiving — yes. tlianks for the 

 lish as well as for the bees." Now. then, what 

 liave vou to tell me this month in your little 

 letlersV 



( AHI" AND BEES. 



Wf liavc ii carp-poiid that covers 1'; ucri'S ol 

 fjrouiid; we have ♦en lartre carp in it, and 170 small 

 carp. Pa paid *4.no a hundred for them. We lost l.'i 

 swarms of Vices last winter, and we have 8 left now, 

 (i very weak. Mauv E.Cook. 



Mansflel.l, Ohio. May 1,-'. ISfC,. 



HOW TO MAKi: A CIIKAI* Oil, TO HCHN IN A I.AN'- 

 TKH.N. 



To make signal oil. Take two ijts. of lard oil and 

 add one quart of coal oil. Signal oil is used to burn 

 in lanterns. If this is worth a book, send me Onr 

 Homes, part second. .John t'HAK!, age Vi. 



Armstrong-, Kan. 



I suppose the above would do for some 

 kinds of lanterns. John ; but as most of the 

 lanterns nowadays are made to burn coal oil. 

 or kerosene. I should think so much lard oil 

 wouldn't work very well. Besides, lard oil 

 is quite expensive. 



