SIDE SHOWS 147 



began to peep out from the crevices of the rough stone, it 

 proved to be an object of real beauty. More important still, 

 the birds recognized it as their own ; and best of all, the school 

 yard, through this service to the birds, became the center of 

 deep neighborhood interest, the dedication of the fountain to 

 the use of the birds being an occasion of high festival. 



In a flower garden nothing can equal the effect of a fountain 

 or a quiet pool. It is convenient, too, for watering plants. 

 There need be no fear of breeding mosquitoes if a few fish 

 are put in to eat the larvae. 



Again, a hive or two of bees becomes a very interesting 

 feature in a yard or garden. The situation of the yard mat- 

 ters little, for these wonderful creatures are remarkably inde- 

 pendent of their immediate surroundings ; the hive may even 

 be kept indoors, so long as the bees can come and go, with 

 their own latchkey, as it were. The experiment of keeping 

 bees was tried about a year ago in a certain Boston school. 

 A hive was fitted neatly into a window in the third story of 

 the building, so that the bees flew industriously in and out 

 through a little passageway near the sill the whole season 

 long. It was an observation hive one with glass sides 

 set up by a group of schoolgirls as a part of their nature- 

 study course. The scheme was their own ; theirs too the ex- 

 pense, amounting in all to several dollars, which they paid out 

 of their own pocket money. It amused them, they said, to 

 see how many people, who would not have turned to look at 

 a bee on a dissecting pin, thought nothing of running up 

 three flights to see a bee at work. An observation hive is 

 becoming no unusual accessory to a nature-study equipment. 



Probably a still more unexpected spot for a visitor to find 

 beehives is in the very heart of London town. A colony of 

 bees now adorns what is probably the one peaceful nook in 

 the noisy and once notorious district of Whitechapel. It is 



