1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



99 



MY CASTLE IN THE AIR. 



If 1 could go ballooning 



And had the time to spare, 

 I'd journey to discover 



My castle in the air. 

 It stands, that stately building, 



Beyond the yellow moon, 

 Where tradesmen 's bills can never come. 



Not even by balloon. 



The v»rater rate collector- 

 He eyes its door in vain, 



Because its cistern runs with 

 No water, but champagne. 



Its roof has been constructed 

 So very high and steep 



No lovelorn cats can clamber there 

 To frighten gentle sleep. 



My neighbor's hens can never 



Defy the garden wall, 

 Because there are no neighbors 



Or hencoops near at all. 

 So, in the garden nodding, 



In rich profusion grow 

 Tobacco trees and cauliflowers 



And roses all a-row. 



Oh 1 could 1 reach my castle, 



I'd never need to think, 

 I'd never need to scribble 



And clothe my dreams in ink. 

 Bo when I'm riot so busy 



I'll hire a big balloon 

 And sail away with — I know whom — 



Beyond the yellow moon. 

 —David la Costa in Home and Country 



THE OLD CLOCK. 



Mr. Gratebar's Valued Friend Suffering 

 From a Strange Couiptaint. 



"Among our household possessions, ' 

 said Mr. Gratebor, "is an old clock, an 

 old wooden clock of the kind you hang 

 upon the wall. Its constant ticking has 

 long been a familiar, friendly sound. We 

 have oth(!r clocks, newer clocks, with 

 quicker ticks, chipper and friendly enough, 

 no doubt, but their quick, incessant tick- 

 ing makes them seem shallow compared 

 Trith the old clock, which has a slow, dig- 

 nified, measured tick. If you should be 

 awake in the night, how easily you could 

 tell it among all the rest! "^ou hear at 

 first but the chatter of the newer ones, but 

 presently you hear back of them all, and 

 growing upon the ear as you listen, the 

 sturdy old clock, ticking on, calmly con- 

 scious of its own superiority and of its 

 much longer standing in the family, 



"One day the old clock stopped. We 

 took it down and listened and shook it| 

 gently. It started up, and we hung it up 

 again, but soon it stopped again, and then 

 we took it down again and laid it on a t» 

 ble and looked at it antl wondered what 

 •we could do next. It ticked all right lying 

 down, and after it had been lying there 

 awhile we thought that perhaps it had got 



over Its mtie infiisposition ana was an 

 right again So we hung it up once more, 

 and this time we thought it was going to 

 go all riglit, and it did go longer than it 

 had before, but then it stopped. So we 

 took it down and laid it on its back again, 

 and it's been lying so ever since. Nothing 

 that we can do for it seems to help it. 



"When I wind the old clock at night, 

 lying there prone upon its back and yet 

 ticking away so bravely, my hand trem- 

 bles. It has been with us so long — not 

 through any very desperate vicissitudes, 

 to be sure, but through life. It has seen 

 the children come and seen thena grow up 

 to be young men and young women, it 

 hag seen our own hair grow gray, it has 

 been with us always, and whether our for- 

 tunes waxed or waned it has been always 

 the same constant friend. 



"Well, well Brave old clockl" — New 

 York Sun. 



Industrious Woodpeckers. 



Linemen of some of the telegraph and 

 telephone companies centering in Reading 

 have made a di-scovery as to the destruc- 

 tive propensities of woodpeckers that al- 

 most surpasses belief. The costly cedar 

 poles brought from Canada, these birds 

 have discovered, are soft through the cen- 

 ter to the top. 



They first hunt for a knot near the bot- 

 tom, and around this they peck with their 

 long sharp bills until they extract it. 

 They work all around it until it is dis- 

 lodged. They then continue pecking un- 

 til the center of the pole is reached, after 

 which the softer material is removed. In 

 some cases the interior of the pole at the 

 point attacked is nothing more than a 

 mere shell, and any sudden gale is apt to 

 ' snap it off. 



The birds sometimes build their nests 

 I inside the hollow pole and have been 

 known to be killed by its breaking. The 

 . : cedar poles taken out after they are ruined 

 i|j|. by the birds are generally replaced by 

 ^' chestnut poles, which are seldom attacked. 

 ^^ Linemen are instructed to keep an extra- 

 ^f sharp lookout for poles damaged in this 

 i& way, and when they find they have been 

 Jtiused as hatcheries to renew them. — Phil- 

 ill adelphia Ledger. 



An Easy Way. 



The main object of life is to derive 

 ^satisfaction from it, the philosophers 

 .say. Therefore when you are what is 

 ;commonly known as selfish and grasp- 

 ling you can silence your conscience by 

 i telling it tliat you are no worse than the 

 S unselfish and sacrificing. You simply 

 >have another method of enjoying life. — 

 ) Exchange. 



