302 
AMEEICAK AaEICTJLTIJRIST. 
[July, 
]y, but steadily to ascend.— “Let us out, let us 
out,” seroamed Charlie, strutjgliug to his feet, but 
already the earth was many yards below, and he 
saw Jack’s horror-stricken face as he tried vainly to 
clutch the hanging ropes. Bobby would have 
jumped, but Charlie held him back, and poor little 
Mab whined piteously, as she was tossed from side 
to side by the sw.aying motion, and the ship of the 
air with its youthful passengers ilew relentlessly 
: upward and onward. “ There is no help for it,” 
gasped Charlie at last, sinking back white and 
trembling, “we are olf for Cloudlaud and no mis¬ 
take.”-—“ But what will become of us ? ” asked 
Bobby, struggling manfully to keep back the tear.s 
as he watched the crowds below fade into tiny 
specks, the friendly houses and trees, and even the 
Haines of the burning building disappear in the 
distance.—“I don’t know,” groaned Charlie, and 
oh, how he wished himself back in the old cherry 
tree, while the faces of his father and mother rose 
reproachfully before him. 
“It was Jack’s fault for cutting the first rope,” 
said Bobby, “ and the others could not have been 
securely fastened.”—“ We ought never to have 
gotten into the car,” said Charlie, “ and here 
comes the rain.” Sure enough, they had entered 
a wet cloud, and were drenched to the skin, but 
as they mounted higher the sky became clear, al¬ 
though they could see it was raining beneath 
them. They were above the clouds which shut 
out the earth like a heavy fog. 
“It is sort of fun, too,” exclaimed Bobby, be¬ 
coming exhilarated, “like flying, and how small 
everything seems.”—“Fun I don’t fancy,” said 
Charlie, gloomily, “ and the trouble is we don’t 
know where we may come down.”—“ In Europe, 
or Africa, maybe,” cried Bobby, rather pleased at 
the idea.—“ In the ocean more likely, to be 
drowned and eaten by sharks, and I think we are 
descending now. Throw out a second bag.” 
They did so just as they skimmed the toji of some 
forest trees, which made the ear careen so they 
had to cling to the sides for dear life. 
On they went, sometimes one way, sometimes 
the other, as the various currents of air struck 
them, now in danger of being dashed to pieces 
against some tree or rock, now floating out of 
sight of human habitation, and it seemed as though 
they must have travelled hundreds of miles by the 
time they saw the sun set in crimson and gold, 
and the stars come out in the blue vault above. 
“ I am hungry,” said Bobby, and then he thought 
of the box of provisions. “Madam Green Veil 
will have to give us her supper to-night,” and he 
drew out a couple of sandwiches, one of which he 
pressed upon Charlie, who, however, was too forlorn 
to eat, bitterly regretting his disobedience, and 
clasping the dog in his arms, murmured : “ Oh ! 
Mab, poor Mab ! shall we ever see home again ! ” 
There was no moon, and the darkness settled 
down thick and dense. It was useless to look out 
any longer, and at length overcome with dread 
and homesickness, the two boys said their pirayers, 
and sobbed themselves to sleep; while beneath the 
cloudy sky the frail bark drifted on without guide 
or ballast, truly at the mercy of the winds. It 
must have been about midnight, when a severe 
shock awakened each lad with a frightened scream, 
to find themselves once more at rest. The balloon 
had come to a standstill, but where ? “ We are in 
a tree or in a jungle,” said Bobby, putting out his 
hands and feeling in the darkness.—“ For here are 
leaves all around us, and the ropes seem to be 
caught in the branches.”—“ Shall we try and reach 
the ground,” asked Cliarlic, “the balloon may fly 
off with us again.”—“No, I guess its gas is pretty 
well exhausted. Better wait until daylight, or we 
may land in a nest of cannibals or rattlesnakes. 
We may be in Japan, for all we know.”—Mab be¬ 
gan to whine, but was quieted with a piece of 
meat, for fear of awaking the savages or beasts of 
prey, and shivering with cold in the chill morning 
air, the boys sat imagining all sorts of horrors. 
For to their excited imagination every rustle was 
a venomous snake, and every shadow a crouching 
foe, while minutes seemed hours, and tlicy could 
hardly believe it was but yesterday they had seen 
Jack’s terrified face gazing after them in fright 
and amazement as the balloon left the park. 
At last the day dawned, and with it a great and 
wonderful surprise ; for as the light revealed sur¬ 
rounding objects, they rubbed their eyes and gazed 
at each other in mute astonishment. A tropical 
scene, with palms and cocoanuts, and dusky forms, 
would not have amazed them half as much as did 
the reality, when they discovered that they were 
not in Europe, Asia, or Africa, but anchored safe 
and firm in the leafy boughs of Deacon Dodge’s 
favorite cherry tree.—“ Is it a dream ?” ejaculated 
Charlie, staring at the old stone-house, the familiar 
well, and the juicy- Ox-hearts, now discolored and 
cracked open by yesterday’s storm. The collapsed 
balloon forbade that, however, and now Mab’s 
joyful barks brought Jack Martin tearing from the 
house, to shout and hurrah in an ecstacy of de¬ 
light and welcome. When they once more touched 
the earth, Charlie felt as though he would rather 
meet a band of savages than his anxious pale-faced 
parents, who now came hurrying to meet and greet 
them.—“ Oh, papa,” he cried, “ I am so sorry the 
Ox-hearts are spoiled, and you may take my rifle, 
and all that I have to pay for them.” 
But the good Deacon only sobbed as he clasped 
his sou in his arms.—“ My dear hoy ! I am sure 
you have been punished enough, and I care for 
nothing since you are safe at Cherry Farm.” 
Charlie never forgot the terrors of that night in 
the clouds, and though scientific men decided that 
the balloon went some distance west, and then, 
the wind veering, was blown almost directly hack 
again; the hoys scorn the idea, and are sure they 
travelled thousands of miles, if indeed they did not 
go round the world on their unexpected journey. 
The Doctor’s Talks, 
One of my young friends asks about “ Monkey’s 
Bread,” a fruit which he has seen mentioned in 
some book. Monkey’s Bread is the fruit of a tree 
better known as the Baobab tree, a native of the 
western portions of Africa, and known to botanists 
as Adamonia digitata. The tree is noticeable for 
the great size of the trunk in proportion to its 
hight. Trees with a trunk thirty feet in diameter 
are only about seventy feet high. The tree is also 
remarkable for the great length of its branches 
and of its roots. The shape of its leaves, and of 
its very large white flowers is shown below in 
figure 1. The fruit, also shown, is sometimes a 
foot in length, and has within a mealy pulp, which 
is mixed with stringy fibres; it has a very pleasant 
sour taste, and is eaten not only by monkeys, but 
by the people, who usually cat it with sugar, which 
the monkeys doubtless do not add. 
I was reading the other day of the manner in 
which the English bumble bees injure the bean 
crop. The bean most commonly cultivated in 
England, is a kind seldom seen in this country. It 
has a tall, straight stem, with long flowers in little 
clusters. These flowers are too long for the bee to 
enter the usual way and reach the honey, as its 
Fig. 2.— BUMBLE BEE CUTTING ELOWEKS. 
tongue is too short. The bee wants the honey, 
and failing to get at it in one way, he does just as 
you would do—he tries another. Knowing that 
there is honey at the bottom of the flower, the 
bee cuts a hole through from the outside, and 
reaches the sweets by a short cut, as shown in fig¬ 
ure 2. This is very “ cute ” on the part of the bee, 
but had for the farmer, as the pods from the blos- 
Fig. 3.— death’s head moth. 
soms thus injured, seldom ripen. Some farmers 
pay boys to hunt for and destroy the bee’s nests, 
while others think that, on the whole, no great harm 
is done, as a portion of the pods are not injured, 
and these grow all the larger for the thinning. 
YANKEE BEES AS SMART AS BRITISH. 
It is not only the English bees that make use of 
this trick to get at the honey, but our own bees do 
the same. The beautiful Rocky Mountain Colum¬ 
bine first came into cultivation a dozen or more 
years ago ; its great beauty is due, in part, to the 
very long spurs to its flowers. One morning I 
discovered the flowers, upon my only plant, in a 
miserably bedraggled condition. On examination, I 
found that each spur had a small hole near its end. 
What could have made it ? When more flowers 
opened I was early on the watch, and found that 
the bumbles, failing, so to speak, to enter by the 
froiF ujor, and reach the honey at the bottom of 
the long spurs, broke in at the rear, and like sensible 
bees, cut a hole through which they could reach 
the honey with their tongues without trouble, 
“now CAN I KNOW THE DEATH’S HEAD MOTH?” 
This is a question that has been more than once 
asked of me, the questioners not being aware that 
this is an European insect. The caterpillar is very 
large, and in Europe feeds upon the potato plant, 
just as our great green Potato-worm—more fre¬ 
quently called Tomato-worm—does in this country. 
The moth, (figure 3,) the largest in Great Britain, 
has a spread of six inches; its wings are brown, 
marked with yellowish and black. The hack of 
the moth is black, and on its chest there is a mark¬ 
ing in light yellow, which closely resembles the 
picture of a skull. In Europe the ignorant people, 
while not at all afraid of the caterpillar, which 
does all the mischief, have many superstitions 
about the moth. Its appearance in the house, 
especially if it flies against and puts out the light, 
is thought to foretell serious illness or death. 
