1887.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
67 
IB©YS & (SICIM^ SDILOTI^. 
Xiae Eyes may B>eceive. 
Most persons readily believe what they il see with their 
own eyes/ 1 but even these reliable witnesses may give a 
■wrong impression. This is often the case when a person 
is much influenced by fear, hope, anger, or any passion 
or strong excitement. Great love makes a mother think 
her children are handsome, although they may beriomely 
in the eyes of others. Hatred makes even beautiful ob- 
jects appear ugly. The snake is really a beautiful and 
singularly graceful creature ; yet it looks hideous to most 
persons, because of their fear or their superstition. A 
recent incident shows how fear may deceive the eyes. A 
woman who had great dread of robbers, always looked 
carefully under her bed before retiring. One night she came 
running down stairs and alarmed the family by wildly de- 
claring that somebody was tinder her bed, as she plainly 
saw his face. Some of her friends immediately made ex- 
amination, and found she had indeed seen a face, but it 
was only her own reflected from a looking-glass which had 
been stowed away there during the day ! Had not the mat- 
ter been investigated, she would always have been per- 
suaded that a stranger had hid himself in her room. Hun- 
dreds of persons have been deceived by their eyes, while 
under the influence of fear, into seeing ghosts, as they 
supposed. When very improbable stories are related by 
persons who claim to have been eye-witnesses, it will be 
well to remember that the eyes cannot always be trusted. 
A Ouirious Sfionqupl, 
Our artist having succeeded in making up faces in a 
rather curious manner last month, (see Jan. No. page 23) 
has tried his hand again, and sends in this sketch of a 
bouquet, where he says, girls and boys with sharp eyes 
will find many curious features, which do not appear at 
first sight. Study every flower and leaf carefully, see how 
along the belly, just wide and deep enough to allow a 
piece of fine strong cord, like a small fishing line, to lie 
in below the surface, as shown at C. fig. %. Also, bore a 
hole to pass the line through the head from the top to the 
under groove. With a fine saw cut down through on each 
1. — THE SNAKE COMPLETE. 
side of the snake, nearly to the middle, making the cuts 
exactly opposite, and an inch apart, except at the head and 
many portraits you can find and point them out to your 
friends, There are said to be a good many of them. 
A. New I*laytliiiig'« 
Our young friends who are afraid of harmless snakes, 
may, perhaps, overcome their dislike by making such a 
one as we recently saw ; it is shown in the engraving. 
Take a straight piece of soft pine wood two feet long 
Whittle it into the form of a snake, supposing him to be 
stretched out, and frozen atifl*. Next cut out n little groove 
along the top of the back, and another exactly under it 
■SECTION OF BLOCKS. 
tail, each of which may be left about two inches long. 
Fig. 1 shows nearly how these cuts should be made. 
Then cut the fivnt edge of each division bev- 
eling about one-quarter of an inch down to 
the centre. This will separate the snake into 
inch pieces. (5), fig. 2, gives the shape of each 
piece, looking from the top. (A), fig. 2, rep- 
resents the back end of each pieee. Arrange 
the pieces in proper order, in a straight line, 
from head to tail, and, with a fine brush par- 
tially fill the top groove with glue. Then pass 
the cord through the hole in the head piece, 
crowd it down snugly into the glue, bringing 
each piece close up to the one before it. Turn 
the snake over, glue the under groove, and 
fasten the other part of the string down into 
the groove of the belly part, throughout the 
whole length, the same as on the top part. 
Leave it until perfectly dry, and you will have 
a wooden snake that will squirm alarmingly. 
Two pin heads for eyes, and a little paint skill- 
fully applied will complete the resemblance to 
nature, and make an amusing plaything. Do 
not selfishly use it to frighten the timid. 
Ants— Strong- Brittle People* 
The patient industry of the ants is an old 
lesson with us, and in some lands their power 
for good or evil rivals that of the fairies, 
especially if we include the African "termites" 
which generally go by the name of white ants. 
All at once a swarm of small, winged crea- 
tures, not unlike a cloud of snow flakes, fill 
the air. They are eagerly snapped up by dogs 
and other animals ; and, moreover, great num- 
bers are caught by the native negroes who eat 
them as a great delicacy. The bodies of the 
insects are about half an inch long, and of a 
whitish color, so that when boiled or roasted 
they resemble grains of rice. Those which es- 
cape this use, waste no time fluttering around, 
like idling butterflies, but making a first and 
last flight, alight by instinct upon a spot suit- 
able for their future labors. Dropping the 
now useless wings, the industrious ants set 
about their work with a good will, and grain 
by grain the soil is bored and lifted and placed. 
Chamber after chamber is built, each con- 
nected with others by covered galleries or bridges, until 
a hill arises thirty or forty feet high, with a base in pro- 
portion, every particle of which has been carried by the 
tiny workers. While building their houses the ants do 
great good by removing old logs and other decaying mat- 
ter, which they dispose of with wonderful rapidily. The 
hills thus formed become, in the way of soil, almost as 
good as hot beds, and the natives make gardens upon 
their sides. Some parts of the country are overflowed a 
large portion of the year, and only the ant hills, covered 
with trees rise above the reedy surface of the marsh. 
There Is also another family of ants, which do as much 
in their way as the termites. These black ants, or soldiers, 
as they are called, build no hills, but dig out their homes 
under ground. They prey upon all kinds of small crea- 
tures, and will, in a short time, make way with the car- 
cass of a large animal. Not unfreqnenth" they go on a 
raid into a village, and overrun the huts in their paths, so 
that the natives are obliged to retire until the little in- 
vaders have cleared the huts of every species of vermin 
which infest their not over neat dwellings. 
The black ants constantly make war upon the termites, 
and it has been thought that they carried off the white 
ants to work for them. But as the little hard legs of the 
termites are often seen near the holes of the soldier ants, 
these small cannibals probably eat their captives. 
These black ants store away such quantities of the small 
kinds of grain used there, that the natives often dig for it 
in times of drouth and scarcity. 
Nothing can stop an army of ants when once started, 
and it is very interesting to watch their wonderful in- 
genuity in getting over obstacles. For instance, if a 
stream of water is in the way. one ant clings to another 
until a chain is formed, firin at one end. and floating in 
the air, long enough for the free end to reach the opposite 
side of the stream. Then the whole army passes over on 
this living suspension bridge. 
Besides the soldiers and termites, there is a small red 
ant much dreaded by those who have felt their bite. Not 
content with their burning sting, they twist the little 
crooked claw about in the wound, and such is the fierce- 
ness of their attack, that an ant can rarely be pulled away 
from the flesh without being torn apart. 
A'ery little people, if they did all they could as faithfully 
as the very little insects, might be surprised to find how 
much they are worth in the household. And like the 
ants, if they don't do good they do harm. Old folks at 
least know how much discomfort and mischief may be 
accomplished in a home by a five year old child. 
No. $51— Illustrated Pebrt. 
Answers to Problems and Puzzles. 
The following are answers to the puzzles, etc., in 
the January number, page 25: No. 245, Mathematical 
Problem.— -90 guns, 670 sailors, 55 soldiers No. 240. 
Illustrated Re- 
bus. — 111 news 
flies fast {Jttfs 
fast.) .... No. 
247. Mathe- 
matical Prob- 
lem. — Draw a 
triangle with ', 
the apex of its 
angles bissect- 
ing the sides of the given triangle, and the four required 
parts will be found No. 24S. Mathematical Pwblem.— 
Distance from C to Z>, 14 miles ; from D to E, 40 miles ; 
from CtoB.51 miles. .. .No. 240. Illustrated Rebus.— Ef- 
feminacy and cowardice go hand in hand with indolence 
and luxury No. 250. Illustrated Pebus.— To be elbowed. 
The following have sent correct answers up to January 
12th : "J. T. M. W.," Robert Robertson. M. Olden. J. E. 
Bonsall. *'R. D. W.," Henry Colgate. J. Morris Leeds, 
Edmund J. Young, Alice Suit, " E.jW. " James M. Evans, 
J. W. Diddle, Emma Findley, M. D. Wires. W. James 
Haskell, Motile E. Jocobv, J. C. Norton. E. Leonard. 
Clarence C. Howard, H. P. Guirrant. Eli Mendenhale, J. 
T. Norton, Samuel Yeakle. Jr., "Old Rusty," Jennie 
Cook, Eugene Lane, Almeron, O. Meade, "A. LT. S^" 1 
Willie and Bertie, W. S. Carver. Irwin Chase. Ella 
Staples. Emma Sturmwald, John Andes. J. K. Hallock, 
A. H. Mahaffey, Frank A. Lawrence. William Worden 
jtfarryatt, Franklin Belford, James aud Edward Jones. 
No. 252. Illustrated Pcbus.— For Farmers' boys to study. 
