FACTS ABOUT PR]i;ciOUvS STONK.S. 29 
with its head turned downwards. But it made no differ¬ 
ence ill the end, for the fish went np throngh the hole in 
the ice and Pike could hear it flopping about above him. 
There were other holes made in the ice that day, and 
many shiners swam about with hooks and lines attached to 
them. Many more pickerel were caught, but none nearly 
so large as the first one. The boy had never seen one half 
so large, and had tried very hard to land it. That had 
been more than he conld do, and his hands had blisters on 
them ; but the little girl praised him for his strength and 
spirit, and did not laugh at him again that day. 
Pike had seen enough of fishing ; so he went away to an¬ 
other part of the lake and passed the winter quietl)u 
Facts about Precious Stones. 
The diamond, queen of precious stones, keeps herself in 
unsullied purit}^ from all combinations, and at the same 
time holds the secret of her birth and education locked se¬ 
curely within her own breast, so that the cleverest of our 
scientists cannot tell how or when she was formed ; neither 
can they explain why pure carbon in one part of the world 
should appear as a sparkling gem, and in another should 
present itself as the very useful but hardly ornamental 
plumbago or black lead. 
Ranking next the diamond in value comes corundum, 
which seems able to assume any color. It may be quite 
clear and resemifle the diamond except in a lesser degree 
of hardness ; or yellow, when it is known as topaz. Orig¬ 
inally “ topaz ” meant a yellow stone, but as yellow stones 
are numerous the word “ oriental ” is prefixed to show its 
superiority to every other kind of yellow stone. Again, 
corundum may take a blue tint and produce a sapphire ; 
or red and become a ruby ; green and rank as an emerald ; 
or purple and be known as an amethyst; but to distinguish 
