60 



NEW ENGLAND FAKIMER. 



Jan. 



the time the big bell had struck one, two, a 

 great number had collected, and they kept 

 coming for about a minute. After they had 

 picked up their dinner, they flew away, and 

 paid no more attention to the big bell or the 

 little bell, although they kept on striking the 

 hours and the quarters just as before. No 

 more pigeons (?ame until two o'clock the next 

 day. Can any of the children tell how the 

 pigeons know when the clock strikes two ? 

 And are the little readers of this true story 

 as punctual to their duties as these pigeons ? — 

 Child at Home. 



AN INSECT SAMSON". 



Every one who has taken the common beetle 

 in his hand knows that its limbs, if not re- 

 markable for agility, are very powerful ; but 

 I was not prepared for so Samsonian a feat as 

 that 1 have just witnessed. When the insect 

 was brought to me, having no box immediately 

 at hand, I was at a loss to know where to put 

 it until I could kill it ; but a quart bottle full 

 of milk being on the table, I placed the beetle 

 for the present under that, the hollow at the 

 bottom allowing him room to stand upright. 

 Presently, to my surprise, the bottle began to 

 move slowly, and glide along the smooth 

 table, propelled by the muscular power of the 

 imprisoned insect, and continued for some 

 time to perambulate the surface, to the as- 

 tonishment of all who witnessed it. The 

 weight of the bottle and its contents could not 

 have been less than three pounds and a half, 

 while that of the beetle was about half an 

 ounce ; so that it readily moved a weight 112 

 times exceeding its own. A better notion 

 than figurss can convey will be obtained of 



this fact by supposing a lad of fifteen to be 

 imprisoned under the great bell of St Paul's, 

 which weighs 12,000 pounds, and to move it 

 to and fro upon a smooth pavement by push- 

 ing within. — Prof. Goss. 



Seeing is Deceiving. — Here is a row of 

 ordinary capital letters and figures : 



SSSSXXXXZZZZ33338888 

 They are such as are made up of two parts 

 of equal shapes. Look carefully at these and 

 you will perceive that the upper halves of the 

 characters are a very little smaller than the 

 lower halves — so little that an ordinary eye 

 will declare them to be of equal size. Now 

 turn the page upside down, and without any 

 careful looking you will see that this difier- 

 ence in size is very much exaggerated — that 

 the real top half of the letter is very much 

 smaller than the bottom half. It will be seen 

 from this that there is a tendency in the eye 

 to enlarge the upper part of any object upon 

 which it looks. We might draw two circles 

 of unequal size, and so place them that they 

 should appear equal. — Once a Week. 



To Boys. — Horace Mann talked to the 

 boys in this way : "You are made to be kind, 

 generous and magnanimous. If there's a boy 

 in school who has a club foot, don't let him 

 know that you ever saw it. If there's a boy 

 in school with ragged clothes, don't talk of 

 rags in his presence. If there's a lame boy 

 in school, assign him some place in the play 

 which does not require much running. If 

 there's a dull one, help him to get his les- 



