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 And 
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 
