114 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
the boys sometimes say, “get the hang” of it. 
Those of you who have seen the American Agricul¬ 
turist's larger or Compound Microscope, know that 
It has a Camera Lucida, 
to allow the magnified objects to bo drawn. That 
Camera Lucida acts on precisely the same principle 
as this drawing toy; it is a thin plate of glass so 
placed as to allow you to see the image from the 
microscope and your pencil at the same time. There 
are various forms of the Camera Lucida, and some 
are much used for certain kinds of drawing. You 
have no doubt seen a Camera Obscura, in which a 
glass throws the image of an object or a view upon 
a white screen or paper in a dark room or box. 
Camera Obscura means “ dark chamberwhen the 
other instrument was invented which allowed the 
image to be seen without darkening the room, it 
was called Camera Lucida, or “light chamber,” 
though there need not be any room or chamber 
about it. Some years ago there was, in London, a 
remarkable exhibition, by a Prof. Pepper, known as 
Pepper’s Ghost. 
An image like a real one was seen to move about 
and talk, and yet the spectators could see objects 
behind the body of the man or woman, which would 
appear and fade away in the most wonderful man¬ 
ner. This effect was produced by having a large 
plate of glass so placed that the image of a con¬ 
cealed person was reflected by it, and the reflected 
image only visible to the astonished spectators. 
M'lee Kitty in Trouble. 
A good, patient, and playful kitten is often pre¬ 
ferred by a child to a lifeless doll. It serves a bet¬ 
ter purpose, because it is a living, moving, and 
feeling thing. On account of the kitten being able 
to feel, she is sometimes made to suffer pain at the 
hands of her young attendant. The child does not 
hurt the pet intentionally, but often overdoes in 
its desire to be kind. I have a case like this in 
mind, where there was a little warm-hearted girl, 
who had, as her two companions at play, a large 
and generous dog and a kitten of no great size. 
The kitten, being so much the smaller needed, as 
she thought, all the greater care. It would take a 
volume to tell all that 
happened to this kitten 
before it grew to be a 
strong and noble cat. 
The tight places into 
which she was put for 
safe-keeping sometimes 
nearly took her life. 
The half day that she 
spent in the pillow case 
was only equalled by 
the severe warming 
which she received in 
the oven on a day when 
the air out-of-doors was 
below zero, and her 
young keeper thought 
she must be cold. Per¬ 
haps nothing annoyed 
Kitty more frequently 
than the strings, rib¬ 
bons, etc., that were 
tied about her neck in 
so tight and secure a 
manner as to make her 
cough and choke. At 
times she must “play 
sick ” for the amuse¬ 
ment of her nurse, and 
then, of course, the first 
thing was to have a bib 
put on and be fed. The 
tying on of the bib was 
a trial to her, because 
in the child’s anxiety to 
make it stay, she would 
draw the ends too tight. 
This work was so over¬ 
done one day that in 
her suffering and fright 
poor Kitty escaped from 
her nurse and ran to 
the barn where she 
found “Old Rover,” 
and implored him, as 
her great and powerful 
friend, to help her out 
of her trouble—and the 
bib. The artist presents 
us with the scene at 
this trying moment in 
the eventful life of the 
pet kitten. The dog 
does not seem to real¬ 
ize the situation, and 
though interested in his 
little friend, he does 
not see the trouble, and 
makes no attempts to 
help her, other than by 
his sympathetic look 
and voice. But the 
trouble is not all with 
Kitty. The little girl 
has, after all, had the 
hardest part to bear, and 
as she comes running 
to find her pet, she is 
more filled with anxiety 
and fear than her patient. She will gladly untie the 
cloth that is about Kitty’s neck, and put her pet at 
ease by many kind strokes of its soft fur and kind 
words of pure, childish sympathy. The little nurse 
will promise never to do so again; a soft pillow 
will be given to Kitty, and all will be at peace. 
“Old Rover” will again lie down, and the pussy 
will purr both the child and herself to sleep. In 
this pleasant way ends many a trial of youth—out 
of the dark clouds of childish distress soon breaks 
the bright light of joy. Uncle Hal. 
