seemed quite disgusted with Joe's frisky 

 ways, and sometimes looked very grave 

 even at Don. But, after all, he was very 

 fond of them both, and seemed to think 

 it his duty to take care of those two 

 babies, for they were babies compared 

 with him. 



I had been learning to walk on snow- 

 shoes. ^ I wonder how many of you have 

 seen snowshoes. If you have not seen 

 them you have undoubtedly seen pictures 

 of them, so I shall not describe them. 

 But you know they are very much larg- 

 er than your shoes, and are strapped 

 on over our shoes and rubbers. If you 

 don't know how to manage them prop- 

 erly you are very likely to take a ''head- 

 er/' as the boys say. If you do tumble 

 down, it is very hard to get up again, 

 with the clumsy things on your feet 

 Well, I had begun to think that I could 

 walk quite well, so one bright after- 

 noon, I called the three dogs and started 

 for a walk. I got along very nicely for 

 a while, but a little ways from our house 

 was a hill which I must try, at least, to 

 walk down. I should have managed 



very nicely if only frisky Joe had be- 

 haved. But he must run after me and 

 bark, and finally step on my big snow 

 shoe and trip me up. Over I went, head 

 first, into the soft snow at the foot of 

 the hill, and the most to be seen as I 

 went through the air was a jumble of 

 dogs and snowshoes. For Don and 

 Joe barked furiously and were on the 

 spot as soon as I landed, and in their 

 frantic efforts to help, were pushing me 

 still farther into the snow, by jumping 

 around and even upon me. 



By this time. Hero, who had gone on 

 ahead, saw what had happened. He hur- 

 ried back to where I was, gave crazy 

 Joe a good shaking up and made Don 

 stand out of the way. Then he began 

 tugging at my clothes and finally suc- 

 ceeded in helping me enough so that I 

 managed to sit up on the snow, and 

 then I made him understand that he must 

 stand still while I held on to him and 

 pulled myself up. Then we all went 

 home, and after that, when I walked on 

 snowshoes I allowed no one but Hero 

 to go. Pearl McCowan. 



THE ANTS' HERD. 



This summer i was both interested 

 and amused by the doings of some ants 

 that had their nest by the park over 

 which I traveled several times a day. I 

 seldom went by without stopping for a 

 few minutes to see how they prospered, 

 and sometimes the minutes lengthened 

 into hours, and one day I became so 

 much interested in a fight between a 

 large parasitic fly and the ants that I 

 stayed almost the whole morning. 



The nest was near a large bunch of 

 Senecio — a small yellow flower that be- 

 longs to the same family as the sun- 

 flower, and on this plant the ants kept 

 a herd of tiny creatures which they 

 guarded with as much zeal as shep- 

 herds might show in caring for valuable 

 herds. 



This aphid herd numbered about 

 three hundred adults, and innumerable 

 young. The most of the grown ones 



54 



