AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
3T7 
1876.] 
which stood looking over the wall, until she reached the 
woods. She went in under the cool shade of the trees 
by a Ml tie path, which went down into hollows and up on 
rocks, and around trees and through ferns, until it reach¬ 
ed a brook. Katy sat down on a stone by the bank, and 
looked into the water. Away hack in the woods she 
could hear it tumbling, and gurgling, and laughing at the 
stones which tried to keep it from going on its way, but 
here it was very still. Close by Katy s seat was a little 
pool, with a sandy bottom, and below it a shallow fall, 
where the water made a low sound like some one sing¬ 
ing to a baby. Overhead the trees waved their long 
branches, and the wind in the leaves made solt music, as 
though it were answering the brook. 
Anyone would think that such beautiful sights and 
sounds could not but make a child very good and very 
happy, but Katy, pretty Katy. was very far from being 
good just now. She was watching the curious long-leg¬ 
ged water-beetles skimming and jerking on the surface 
of the pool, and waiting until one came quite near, she 
caught it suddenly and put it, in hcrapron. And now let 
us see what Katy has been hiding there this Jong time. 
First, there was a red and black butterfly, which has torn 
the edges of its pretty wings in trying to get out of its 
prison ; then there is a great yellow moth and a tiny 
lady-bird, a big brown grasshopper, and the water-beetle. 
Katy took out the butterfly, and as she was doing so, 
the lady-bird flew away home, but. the- butterfly was not 
so quick, he only crawled around and around Katy’s hand 
with his soft legs, as though asking her to help him. But 
all that Katy did was to pull off two of his pretty wings, 
to see if he could fly with the other two. Now, if a but¬ 
terfly could get along with two wings, God would not 
have given it four, so Kalj had quite ruined the poor 
creature, and after trying in vain to make it fly, she grew 
tired of it and threw it down in the grass—not having 
the kindness even to kill it, and so end its misery. 
Then Katy took up the moth and laid it down flat on 
the top of the water. Poor moth I it’s wings grew wet 
and heavy, so that it could not raise them, and though it 
did not sink, it was forced to float with the stream. 
Katy laughed to see it carried over the fall, and away 
down the brook, until she could see it no more. The 
water-beetle was the next victim ; Katy wanted to see if 
he could live underwater, so she pulled a thread out. of 
her apron, and fastened one of his legs to the golden-rod. 
Then she held him under the water a long while, and 
when at last she drew him out, his long legs were all 
drawn up—he did not move, the poor insect, though it 
lives in the water, must breathe air, and was now drown¬ 
ed and dead. 
Now the grasshopper had been shut up in the dark a 
long time, and f cling rather lonely, he resolved to fiddle. 
So fiddle he did, and a very merry tune it was. though he 
could not help wishing for his brothers and cousins to 
dance to his music. Katy heard him, and peeped into 
her apron to see. There lie was, using one of his wings 
for a Addle and the other for a bow. 
•' How funny ! ” said Katy, as she took out the grass¬ 
hopper, and holding it by one of its long legs, to prevent 
its jumping off, waited for it to fiddle again. But the 
grasshopper was not used to being watched so closely 
while he was playing, even if he could have done any¬ 
thing with some one holding him like that. So, after 
waiting a long while, and hearing nothing, Katy pulled 
off both the fiddle and the bow, and threw the fiddler 
away. Then she arose, went back by the little path to the 
edge of the wood, across the rye field, through the or¬ 
chard, with the shadows about her feet, and the sunlight 
on her hair, and so home. 
There was a pretty green insect setting in a chestnut 
tree which grew by the brook. The green insect saw all 
which Katy had done. While she was there, it. was afraid 
to speak, but after she was gone, in the evening, when 
all was still, he told it all to his cousin, who lived in a 
maple tree on the border of the wood. This second green 
insect had seen Katy coming out of the woods, tripping 
along, with the sunshine on her brown curls, and the 
golden-rod in her hand. He could not believe such a 
lovely little girl could be so cruel. 
“It can't be,’’ he said, “I don’t, believe it.” 
“ But I tell you it’s so,” said the first green insect, “ I 
saw it with my own eyes ! ” 
“ It must have been some one else,” said his cousin, 
“ Katy couldn’t.” 
“But. Katy did!" chirped the first, “Katy didn’t!” 
cried the second. 
“ Katy did 1 ” s.aid one ; “ Katy didn’t,” said the other, 
and so they kept it up all night, and not only that night, 
but all the nights until frost came. Soon all the green 
insects in tho woods and fields around held one of two 
•pinions, either that Katy did, or that she didn’t. And 
so it has been from that time. 
Listen almost any night after the first of August, and 
you will hear them, hundreds of these green insects, re¬ 
peating Katv’s name, and wherever there is found one 
who thinks Katy did, there is found another who is sure 
She didn’t. But yon and I know that Katy did. 
Asussa. Sue’s CiitaUs*. 
James II. Foster says: “Can you tell me why the 
1st ot April is called April fool’s day ? ”—That is a very 
“ vexed question,” James ; antiquarians have searched 
in vain for the origin ; one writer thinks that we get it 
from tho French, whose poisson ci'Avril (April fish) is 
said to refer to the mackerel, a silly fish, which is caught 
with so simple a bait as a piece of red flannel. The Hin¬ 
doos have their “April fool’s” day, which they call their 
Ilali least. The Romans had their Festum Fatuorum, or 
Fool’s Holiday, which classic writers claim to be ident¬ 
ical in date with our All Fool’s Hay; and it is said that 
they got it from the East. By some it has been traced to 
the passage in our Saviour’s life, when he was sent back 
and forth from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod to Pilate. 
But the most remote, approximately definite origin, of 
which I find any account, is one which ascribe’s it to the 
mistake of Noah, in senuing the dove out of th’e ark be¬ 
fore the waters had abated, and that, as the legend has it, 
on the first day of the month, which among the Hebrews 
answers to our April. If any of our readers can givo us a 
more probable origin, we should be glad to hear from them 
on the subject. Yotir other questions should have been 
propounded to 2-15 Broadway, as they are on business. 
A. N. J. has “ heard of one kind of patchwork, called 
* Philadelphia pavement,’ ” and asks if I have ever heard 
of it, and can I give her 
the pattern, and tell her 
how many blocks it. takes 
for a large-sized quilt.— 
There may be more than 
one pattern of that, name, 
but the only one I know 
of is made to represent 
the brick-work of a side¬ 
walk. You can make 
your blocks, or patches, 
any size, from that of the 
original brick (four inches 
by eight) down to one 
inch by half-an-inch, and you can easily estimate the 
number required by a simple calculation. Unlike the 
“block” pattern, you need not be particular about 
light and shade. Figure 1 shows the manner of laying 
the “ pavement,” or arranging the blocks. 
Cecii.ia. —You do not say what size you want your 
“ doll-pincushion,” so I will give yon the proportions of 
a large one, and you can diminish them to suit yourself. 
Figs. 2 and 3. —section and braid. 
You will need six pieces of the shape of figure 2, six 
inches long and three wide, (in the longest and widest 
places). Common red and white flannel, alternated, and 
braided with black braid, make quite a pretty cushion. 
If the “ braiding pattern ” 
on figure 2 is too simple, 
you can try figure 3, and if 
you begin it where the 
dotted lines point, you can 
keep the braid continuous. 
Tho center-section may be 
worked with tho initial 
desired. You can cover 
the seams, where the sec¬ 
tions are joined, with 
fancy braid or gimp. 
When the pincushion is 
well stuffed, (it should 
have unbleached muslin 
under the flannel, cut the 
same as the flannel, and 
sewed first,) sew the doll’s head firmly on to it, then 
drape tho waist, as in figure 4, (the red and white flannel 
together.) sew it in place at. the back, and keep it in 
place in the front, by sticking a large pin through the 
center-folds into the cushion. 
Minnie C.—Instructions for making a card-receiver 
were given in the American Agriculturist a few months 
ago. We kept insects oft'of our rose-trees, by pouring 
tobacco-water over the stems, and the way we prepared 
the tobacco-water was to take the stumps of cigars our 
gentlemen left after smoking, put them into a bottle, 
cover them with water, and let them stand a day or two. 
After using from the bottle what you require, add more 
water, and shake it well, for future use. 
M. J. K. says: “Dear Aunt Sue: Will you please give 
us the solution of the accompanying riddle? It, is very 
old, and we can not find anybody who knows the answer. 
Papa says, ‘ write and ask Aunt Sue ; if she can’t tell you, 
nobody can.’ ”-This is the enigma: 
“ There was a man of Adam’s race, 
Who had a certain dwelling-place ; 
He had a house all covered o’er, 
Where no man dwelt, since or before. 
“ It was not built by human art, 
Of brick or lime in any part, 
Of rock or stone in cave or kiln. 
But curiously was wrought within. 
“ ’Twas not in heaven, nor yet in hell, 
Nor on the earth where mortals dwell ; 
Now, if you know this man of fame. 
Tell where he lived and what his name.”’ 
According to Scripture, that “ man ” only tarried three 
days and three nights in that “curious” “dwelling- 
place,” and his name was “Jonah.” 
Milly F. W., another puzzled one, writes: “I have 
been given a problem to find out, and I can’t see any 
sense in it.”_“ Brooks and Smith went out shooting. 
Brooks shot four pigeons, and Smith shot Brooks. How 
many birds did they get in all?—Answer: 17.”-Of 
course, the problem was given to you in writing, Milly; 
it is a sort, of a catch , and the catch is in writing the B of 
Brook’s name (as many do) like the figure 13. If you 
look at it now, with this explanation, you will wonder 
you didn’t notice it before : “ Brooks shot four pigeons, 
and Smith shot 13 rooks.”—4-(-13=17. 
—--- 
r fTIic ©actor’s ’a’.jllkw—Alsosit Stress 
and Steel. 
To answer the simple questions as to tho difference be¬ 
tween cast and wrought iron, and between iron and steel, 
I thought best to begin back at the beginning, and last 
month I told you in what shape iron was found in the 
earth, the ore, and how it is separated from the ore, or 
reduced , as it is called. You will recollect that I told you it 
was by heating the iron ore with coal. That the coal or car¬ 
bon took the oxygen away from the iron, and left that by it¬ 
self. This is a wry simple process, and is still followed, 
but it will answer foronly the very purest ores, those that 
contain only iron and oxygen, or are pure oxides of iron. 
Much of the iron ore of the world, though very good ore, 
is not so pure as this, but has with it other matters, and 
iron can not be separated by simp y roasting it with coal. 
One of these matters is silex, which you know in the 
form of pure sand, and in order to get the iron from these 
ores, the silex must be got rid of. So besides coal, there 
is put into the furnace with these ores, a lot of limestone. 
Lime at a high heat readily unites with the silex, and 
form a sort of glass, which melts and floats above tho 
melted iron, the lime taking the silex away from the iron, 
leaves that to be drawn oft'. Whatever is added to an oro 
in this way, to aid in separating the metal, is called a 
fl.ux, and the melted flux with the impurities of the ore, 
is the slag. 
In whatever way iron is obtained from the ore, it is 
cast iron, which is usually run into a gutter in a bed of 
sand, from the sides of which, at right angles, go off 
shorter gutters,into which the melted iron runs, and there 
cools, as short, thick, rough bars known ns pigs, and iron 
in this shape is pig-iron. It is supposed to have been 
given this name because the pigs in a row along the sides 
of the central gutter, reminded some one of a large litter 
of real pigs sucking at their mother. You know how 
many things are made from cast iron, from the heavy 
pillar that holds up a building, to the smallest hinge ; you 
know that our stoves, our cooking pots and skillets, and 
an almost endless number of things are of cast iron. To 
cast these, molds have first to be made, and the pig- 
iron put into a furnace with coal and melted again, and 
when melted it is run into the mold or cast. I can not 
now tell you about, tho molds, other than that they are 
made by bedding a pattern, of the article to be made of 
iron, in very fine sand, taking it out again, and then 
pouring in the melted iron to till the place made by the 
pattern. Molding is a trade by itself, and one that often 
requires much skill and ingenuity; when there is a 
chance, boys and girls should try to visit a foundry, and 
see how these things are done. I have said that cast iron 
conld be melted, and this makes it for many things the 
most useful kind of iron, but it is also very brittle. On 
every place there is in some corner a box or heap of old 
iron, where broken stove covers, kettles, pieces of farm 
machines, and other things, show that iron is not so 
strong but it will break ; if yon strike some hot very thick 
piece of the old iron a sharp blow with a hammer, you 
will see how short, it breaks; now look at the broken 
surfaces: they are not smooth like broken glass, but look 
all full of rough points. Cast iron .is not pure iron, in 
Fig. 4. —PINCUSHION. 
