THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
Ill 
we have done with this chapter. Do not 
stare at portions of objects that are out of 
focus, and consequently indistinct, as 
this injures the eyes more than anything. 
Kemember the proverb, " None so deaf 
as those that won't hear," which natur- 
ally suggests for a companion, " None so 
blind as those that won't see." It is 
often impossible to get every object in the 
field in focus at one time ;— look only at 
that which is in focus, and be blind to all 
the rest. This is a habit easily acquired, 
and is one for which our natural micro- 
scopes are exceedingly grateful ; and every 
judicious observer desires to keep on the 
best terms with his eyes. 
(To he continued.) 
Three Amateur Workers— and What 
They Did-XII. 
BY FRED. T. HODGSON. 
ON the following evening, Mr. Carpen- 
ter, Fred, and Ellwood, were very 
busy finishing up the umbrella-stand. 
Fred was sand-papering it all over with 
very fine sand-paper, and, as the work 
was not to be stained or painted, he was 
very careful in rubbing lengthwise of the 
grain, for his father had cautioned him 
not to rub across the grain, as that would 
leave marks and scratches that would 
show through the varnish. 
Mr. Carpenter was engaged putting on, 
with short screws, a piece of hoop-iron 
about an inch wide, to the back of the 
stand. This hoop-iron had six holes in it, 
one in each end that permitted of a screw 
being put in each part, and four screws 
were put in the thin back at regular inter- 
vals. The iron was put up within about 
four inches of the highest point of the 
back. The duty of the iron was to hold 
the stand solidly together at the top ; the 
shelf answers the same purpose at the 
lower end. 
The stand, when smoothed down, was 
given a coat of Wheeler's Patent Wood- 
Filler, which gave it a very fine appear- 
ance. When the "filler" was dry and 
hard, a coat of good furniture varnish was 
applied, which, as. Ellwood said, "gave 
the whole thing a finishing touch." 
Two or three days after being finished. 
the stand was taken into the house, and 
was placed in position in the hall. Jessie 
made it her special business to inform 
every visitor that called ; " that they had 
a new umbrella stand," and "that Fred 
and Ellwood made it all themselves," 
and, "that it was the nicest umbrella- 
stand that was ever made." She always 
seemed to forget that her father directed 
the movements of her brothers. 
Fred and Ellwood wanted some kind of 
a bracket or shelf in their bedroom, on 
which their books and some other things 
might be placed, so Mr. Carpenter de- 
signed a plain bracket, same as the one 
shown at Fig. 48, and it was decided to 
Fig. 48. 
make two like it, one for Fred and his 
brother, and the other for Jessie's sleep- 
ing-room. 
It was decided to make them of black 
walnut, so pieces of the following dimen- 
sions were obtained for the purpose: 
Four side-pieces, nine inches wide, seven- 
eighths thick, and eighteen inches long. 
Two top shelves, two feet long, ten inches 
wide, and seven-eighths thick. Two bot- 
tom shelves, twenty inches and a quarter 
long, nine inches wide, and seven-eighths 
thick. Four bracing pieces, two inches 
wide, twenty and a quarter inches long, 
and seven-eighths thick. These lengths 
and widths were the exact ones, and great 
care was taken to make the ends as near 
square as possible, both from their face 
sides and their edges. Fred smoothed 
the stuff up with the smoothing-plane 
very nicely, and his father " laid out " or 
" marked off" one of the sides same as 
