1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRIO CJLT UR 1ST. 
359 
TRANSITIONS. 
(In the following puzzles you are to change only one 
letter at a time until you resolve the first word into the 
second. For instance, to change cat into dog , do it thus 
—cat, cot, cog, dog. Some might do it thus—cat, hat, 
hag, hog, dog; hut the former is the more creditable, 
having the fewer changes. It will add to the interest, if 
several of you take the same words to metamorphose, and 
see who will accomplish it first, and in the fewest moves.) 
1. Change June to July. 4. Change mine to bond. 
2. Change two to six. 5. Change pool to lake. 
3. Change came to went. 6. Change book to play. 
(and any other changes that may suggest themselves to 
you. Of course you are not allowed to coin words, but 
must use only such as are to bo found in the English 
dictionary.) Aunt Sue. 
POSITIVES AND COMPARATIVES. 
(Examples. —Positive, an animal; comparative, fresher. 
Onu, newer. Positive, a fastening; comparative, part of 
a wheel. Tie, tire.) 
1. Positive, to divide ; comparative, a city. 
2. Part of a dress-maker’s small trimmings—an animal. 
3. A pronoun—a period of time. 
4. A blow—an article of apparel. 
5. What, many object to take—a support. 
6. An adjective—a kitchen utensil. Bessie. 
DECAPITATIONS. 
1. Behead a word sometimes sad and sometimes glad, 
and leave a number. 
2. Behead a breath and leave a reptile. 
3. Behead a certain article of food and leave what you 
do with it. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
Opposites (Geographical), — 1. Lapland. 2. Iowa. 3. 
Sleepy Hollow. 4. Jackson. 5. Sicily. 6. Providence. 7. 
America. 8. Annapolis. 
Pi.—There was once a doctor who, when asked what was 
good for mosquitoes, wrote back, “How do you suppose I 
can tell unless 1 know what ails the mosquito.” 
Transposed Proverb.—H onesty is the best policy. 
1 Illustrated Rebus, No. 478.— Be what you seem to be, 
j but above all be honest. 
“ EMclcy,” or tour‘‘Honied Toad.” 
BY ARCHER. 
A few years since, a friend in Texas sent me one of 
those curious little reptiles known as the “ Horned 
Toad.” Poor little fellow, he is dead now, a victim to 
the teeth and jealousy of the red and silken-haired set¬ 
ter that lies at my feet. In the first place this odd look¬ 
ing little fellow was not a toad at all, but merely a gen¬ 
tle and harmless kind of lizard; he had a long tail like 
others of the lizard family; and why they should call 
him a “ toad ” I am sure I can not understand. My little 
Kissa said when she first saw him, 11 he is ossel homely,” 
but then, as she afterwards remarked when she had fairly 
made his acquaintance, he was “ dreadful dood.” ¥es! 
and he was good, for a more quiet and inoffensive creature 
could not well be found; and his little black eyes would 
sparkle with pleasure when he heard my voice, or when 
And how ho could eat 1 He never had enough; and 1 
verily believe that if I had a bushel of flies to give hits 
he would have eaten them, or died in the attempt. H© 
was a piggish little fellow anyway, never being entirely 
satisfied with what he received from our hands. 
The scientific title of my little pet, that is, the name be¬ 
stowed upon it by naturalists, is “ Phrynosoma cornulum ,” 
and I thought to call him by the name of “Tappy,” fay 
short: but the children at once raised a great cry, declare 
ing that it was an “ ugly name,” and thereupon dubbed 
him “ Dicky ” on the spot, and “Dicky” he was ever 
after. I said lie was homely, and so lie was; but after 
we had him a little while we did not think so. How h© 
looked you can know from the engraving; you have only 
to imagine a creature like that, about the length and 
width of your hand, that is, supposing you are eight or 
ten years old, and you may have some idea ol our “Dicky.” 
His flat, toadish sort of a body he could blow up and 
swell out to twice or three tunes its usual size when he 
liked—as the frog in the fable did when he wanted to be 
as big as an ox. He was covered with a lot of little 
spines or thorns, extending down his back, along his 
sides, and on to the tail. Those upon the edges of the 
body were regular prickles like saw teeth ; and four or 
five little horns projected back of his head on the nape 
of the neck, looking as if he wore a collar of leather stuck 
full of carpet tacks, nis color was not unlike that of a 
common toad, with a grayish-yellowish mottled belly. 
But he could change these colors at will, seemingly, to 
look like what he might be lying on, much the same as 
does his cousin the chameleon. When on my desk, he 
would manage somehow, especially when flies came sail, 
ing by, to look like the dark-green cloth that covers it; 
and once when placed on the russet-colored plush of the 
buggy seat, he looked so much like it, that on one occiu 
sion I did not notice him, and nearly sat down on him, 
“ Dicky ” did not like dead flies, and would not touch 
them unless very hungry, and not always then. He pre¬ 
ferred to catch them for himself, though he would fre¬ 
quently take them from my fingers. He would lie on 
the window seat for hours, enjoying the warm sun, per. 
fectly quiet until some fly came buzzing close by, when 
ho would open his sleepy eyes, and with a quick dart of 
his tongue gather the insect in. If the wind should stir 
dead flies, or if I breathed upon them, he seemed to think 
them alive, and they would disappear down his little 
throat one by one with amazing rapidity. He would eat' 
some spiders, others again he would not. A “ Daddy- 
Long-legs,” or “Father Gray-beard,” he specially disliked; 
and if one were placed before him, he would puff out his 
body, arch up his tail, and then back off, at the same 
time opening his mouth and gaping as if very much 
frightened; and if it insisted on going towards him, ho 
would shuffle off as fast as his stumpy legs could carry 
hint. Another thing, lie did not breathe as most animals 
do, in a regular manner, but like turtles, taking the air 
into his mouth and swallowing it, where it could be con¬ 
veyed into the lungs at pleasure. When the cold weather 
came, “Dicky” was inclined to go to sleep, to hyber- 
nate , as it is called, so we rolled him up in some cotton 
and laid him away in his box on a shelf m a dark closet; 
and though he was frequently taken down and examined, 
he never showed any signs of life until the following 
spring, except once when he was left a few moments ia 
a very hot ro in. Well, as hinted before, the dog killed 
Numerical Enigmas.— 1. Be sure you are right, then go 
ahead. 2 Westmoreland County. 
A PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PROVERB PUZZLE. 
The answer is a proverb of seven words. Each numeral under the pictures represents a letter in that word of the 
proverb. Get your slate, or piece of paper, and write down the first seven numerals in a row. Take, for example, 
the “ fan ” above ; put the F under figure2, the A under figure 3, and the N under figure 5. Write down the names of 
the other things represented, letter by letter, under the given numerals, in the same way, until you have put them all 
down ; then arrange the loiters to form the right word, until you have the 7 words necessary to complete the proverb. 
I am composed of 32 letters: 
My 1, 11, 24, 20, 25, 27, 22. 8, is a nunnery or monastery. 
My (5, 8. 2, 9. 13, is to overwhelm. 
My 13, 5, 3, 7, is a kind of tooth. 
My 4. 14. 10, 31, 29, 30, is to slope. 
My 32, 15, 12, 23, is to bark. 
My 17, 26, 8, 15, is dismal. 
My 19, 18, 21, 30, is to yield. 
My 6. 28, 23, is to plunge. 
My whole is one of Baron Rothschild’s maxims, and 
contains good advice. 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
1. A dialect. 5. A West India island. 
2. A goddess. 6. A mixture or medley. 
3. A flowering pot. 7. A flag or banner. 
4. A Shakspearean character. 
The primals and finals name two of Scott’s characters. 
Isola. 
CHARADES. 
1. My first is a mold, my second an article, my third a 
trap: my whole is often used by bailer dancers. 
2. My first is under, my second is a conjunction, my 
third is a noise, my fourth we all do: my whole is sub¬ 
ject. Guilielmus. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE JULY NUMBER. 
Drop-Letter Words.— 1. Abstemious 2 Topography. 
8. Progenitor. 4. Investment. 5. Fraternity. 6. Curmud¬ 
geon. 7. Seamstress. 8. Remunerate. 
Mixed Proverbs.— Where there's a will there’s a way. 
Necessity is the mother of invention. Many hands make 
light work. Time and tide wait for no man Brevity ie the 
BOul of wit. 
Double Acrostic. 
Parrot—Monkey. 
P- al -M 
A—lonz —O 
R— aisi — N 
R— ac — K 
O—rang—E 
T — urke—Y 
Cross-word.— Pinchbeck. 
Changed Heads.— 1. Biaht, 
might, light, sight, wight, 
fight.right, tight.eight night. 
Metagram. — Shade : in 
which may be found the 
words- has, had, dash ; shad, 
head, sea, ash; he, she; as ; 
sad;a; ah! 
THE SO-CALLED “ HORNED TOAD 
I took him from his box and laid him oil my desk. Cer¬ 
tainly he must have known that 1 never made sport of 
his ungainiiness: moreover it was T that always brought 
him food. It was amusing to see him put out his cun¬ 
ning iitt.le tongue for a fly with a quick little dart like 
movement, and funnier still to see it disappear with a 
gulp down his throat, after which he would wink and 
blink his eyes witli satisfaction ; then he would raise his 
head, twinkle his eyes and wiggle his tail, as much as to 
say, “Some more of the same sort if you please, sir!” 
him, after we iiad him a liitle over a year The children 
cried and vowed they would have nothing io do with 
■ Hark ” any more, and even mamma looked teary about 
the eyes. I don t. know but I could Have cried myself 
with but little effort. In his native home in Texas our 
“Dicky” would doubtless have enjoyed himself less, 
because there he would have hid among stones and rocks 
to escape from danger; blit be might have had a longer 
life and a less eventful one than it was. (We have several 
times received specimens of these toads from our readers 
