1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
67 
TOYS & §H1JW (MOTMo 
Bftambles imi CBaiiaa.— Carleton's "First 
Story " was so interesting that, no doubt, you all look 
for more accounts of the Chinese this month. Carleton 
has written, according to promise, and has told some 
funny things about the odd people, which we thought 
would he all the more interesting, if they were illustra- 
ted ; so we keep his letter until another month, which 
will allow the engravers time to make the pictures. 
The I>octoa''s Tallks— Amount Sec. 
The boy3 had come in from skating one cold night, 
and as they were warming their half-frozen feet, Walter 
said, "Uncle, show us an experiment." — "You and 
Arthur arc old enough to make experiments for your- 
selves, and you will learn much, more from them than if 
you merely see them clone."—" Bat," said Arthur, " the 
curiously shaped glasses, and the acids, and the chemi- 
cals you keep all locked up out of our reach, and we can't 
make any bright lights, great explosions, and what 
Mother calls horrid smells— but I like them— without 
these, — come, let us have some beautiful experiments." 
—"You boys are much like many older people, who 
think that apparatus makes a chemist. One of our pro- 
fessors used to either blind or deafen the class by his 
bright lights and noises, or else make the room so un- 
pleasant as to keep us all coughing. There was a great 
deal of display, and very little instruction. Some of the 
most interesting phenomena can be shown by the use of 
very simple means. You arc too tired for experiments 
to-night, but we will prepare for one. In my closet is 
an empty stone ink-bottle. Get this, fill it with water, 
cork it, and set it outside on the window-sill. The 
stronger the bottle the better for our experiment." — 
The next morning, after breakfast, the boys were told 
to go and bring the bottle ; they soon came, with long 
faces. "Uncle," said "Walter, "the bottle was not 
strong enough ; the water all turned to ice, and the bot- 
tle is broken from top to bottom; why didn't wo get a 
stronger one?"— "Had the bottle been of iron it would 
have broken just the same, but the experiment has suc- 
ceeded. The water in freezing expanded, took up move 
room as ice than it did as water, and in so doing, exer- 
cised sufficient force to break a heavy stone bottle." — "Is 
that all?" asked the hoys, who were evidently disap- 
pointed, "that is no sort of an experiment, and isn't 
even worth wasting the ink-bottle for." — "I thought," 
said Arthur, " that you were going to show us some- 
thing interesting. Even if ice does take up more room 
than water so much the worse, as it is always bursting 
water pipes, and doing other mischief." Arthur is a 
very pleasant boy, excepting when he is in a dissatisfied 
mood, and then nothing is better for him than xi little 
ridicule. "How wonderful is it to see such wisdom in 
youth, and what a pity, Sir Arthur the Little, could not 
amend the laws of nature. One of his first acts would 
be to direct that water should contract in freezing, and 
not expand, as at present. His highness does not want 
any more skating, or any more fishing." " Stop, Uncle," 
said the hoy, quite over his pet, " what has the expansion 
of the water to do with skating and fishing ?" — " A great 
deal; and if you are in a teachable mood, we will see. 
Most substances contract as they cool, and so does water 
until it gets down to near the freezing point (39"), 
when it stops contracting and begins to expand. Now, 
what is the effect upon the pond where you skate in 
winter, and fish in summer ? When cold weather comes, 
the water at the surface cools, and, as it contracts it be- 
comes heavier, and sinks, and the lighter and warmer 
water from below takes its place, and this keeps going 
on until all the water in the pond is cooled down to 
39°. After this, the surface water, instead of growing 
heavier, expands, and becomes lighter, and remains at 
the surface, and when it becomes cold enough to freeze, 
it expands still more, and the ice being lighter than the 
water, remains at the surface, and protects the water 
below from freezing to any great depth." Walter, who 
had been attentively thinking over the matter, said — 
" Now, I see how it would bo if Arthur had his way. If 
the ice were heavier than the water, it would keep on 
sinking as fast as it froze, and we could not skate until 
the whole pond was frozen solid."— "Yes, and if it did 
freeze solid," said Arthur, "all the perch and pickerel 
would be killed. I think, upon the whole, that I could 
not better the matter even if I had the power ; and the 
bursting of water pipes and such things by freezing is 
a small matter compared with tho good which comes 
from this expansion by water in freezing."—" There are 
many silent agents at work, hoys, for our good, which 
we hardly notice, and one of theso is the force exerted 
by the change of water into ice. When the water cask 
freezes and bursts tho hoops, or tho water in the bottle 
becomes solid nnd breaks it into fragments, then the 
force shows itself in such amauuer as to striko the at- 
(eution, But tho freezing of fho minutest, drop exer- 
cises irresistible force, and it is by this power that the 
rocks are being crumbled and powdered into soil. 
Water finds its way into UnseeU crevices and pores of 
the rocks, and then, as it freezes, throws off small parti- 
cles that make up a good part of the soil upon which 
the plants grow. The work is very slow, but it is con- 
tinually going on." — "How much does the water ex- 
pand in becoming ice ? " asked Walter. "This piece is 
scarcely bigger than the inside of the bottle in which it 
froze."— "It occupies about one-eleventh more space as 
ice than it did as water, which is sufficient to cause it to 
float, but as It is so near the weight of an equal bulk of 
water, it only shows a small part of its thickness above the 
surface. Those huge masses of floating ice, called ice- 
bergs, which come from the far north, are sometimes 
two or three hundred feet high above the water. Even 
then only a Email portion of the mass is visible, as only 
one-seventh projects above the surface. There are other 
curious things about ice, and snow, which is only a form 
of ice, but our time has expired for this morning." 
cal indentations." This is about equal to the definition 
of net-work, which is given in Johnson's Dictionary as 
something "reticulated and decussated with interstices 
between the intersections ." 
TI»e I*rize l*oodle. 
It is not easy to understand why deer, ponies, cats, and 
dogs, are invited to show themselves at a poultry exhibi- 
tion. The N. Y. State Poultry Society gives premiums 
for all these, besides those for poultry, and in December 
last they had a great show. There was a band of music, 
bnt it had but a poor chance in opposition to the " music 
of nature," which made itself heard in the greatest crow- 
ing, cackling, gobbling, quacking, neighing, mewing, and 
barking, that I ever heard. The birds were very fine, but 
I thought the animals with four legs quite as interesting 
as those with two. You can't pet roosters and ganders, 
which seem to know one person as well as another, and 
who have no liking for anything that Is not eatable. Tho 
No. 370. Picture Conundrum—Why is the unfortunate animal in the right hand picture, like the scene shown in 
the picture on the left, where the rascally wreckers are enticing a ship to a dangerous shore by means of a false light ? 
Moiine Gajnes.-Throwing light. deer * iU become quite friendly the pony soon learns to 
juluum; •wa.xiu.-ca. m ra know persons, cats show affection after their way, but 
"C. L. P.," Cambridge, Mass., sends the following: the dogs 1 they seem to have more sense than all tho 
—This is a game adapted to any nmnher of persons, old rest. I can't say that I petted the Eussian hlood-hotind 
or young. One of the party calls to his mind a word, much, he looked as if such attention would he thrown 
which is used with several 
different meanings, as for ex- 
ample, the word Pole, which 
means a long, slender piece 
of wood, the stem of a tree, 
the pole of a carriage, the 
May-pole, the hean-pole, a 
measure of lengths, one of 
the extremities of the earth's 
axis, a magnetic pole, a 
native of Poland, etc., etc. 
He then begins to throw 
light t>y describing the word. 
He says aloud, "lam think- 
ing of something which is 
found in the woods; it is 
rather long and slim ; it may 
he seen in the street as part 
of a carriage; it is an em- 
blem of liberty." As soon 
as some one thinks he has 
guessed the word, lie begins 
to throw light for his com- 
panions, saying it is the 
name by which some people 
are called, or people use it 
in measuring, thus adding 
any information he can, 
which the leader confirms or 
denies, according as it is 
correct or false. One after 
another thus guesses the 
word thought of, and when 
flic story is all told, the 
word at last is announced, 
and anew one is selected. 
TL'is game is entertaining, 
and at tho same time very 
instructive, not only ena- 
bling one to acquire an ex- 
tensive vocabulary, but also 
developing in young people 
expressing one's 
wonderful facility in 
thoughts to advantage. 
A young lady just from boarding-school wishing to 
borrow a friend's thimble, asked for her "Diminutive 
truncated argentine cone, seraiperforated with svnimotri- 
T1IE TRAINED POODLE "SPORT." 
away on him, but there were a plenty of pleasant little 
fellows there, and it was curious to see the different ex- 
pressions, with which they would regard spectators. 
There was ono dog which at first sight looked like a 
sheep-skin mat rolled up. I was told that this had taken 
the first prize as a trained dog. It was a Spanish Poodle, 
