1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
27 
'thin little maiden, who made a stiff curtesy, and 
■began chatting in words of one syllable, which the 
nine-year-old boy considered extremely silly. “ I 
will bring in the pets,” said Primer at last, and 
running out of the room, returned, carrying little 
A B Ab.—a wee morsel of an infant, in her arras, 
and followed by a small black cat and dog. “ When 
you see A B Ab. you may know the cat and dog 
are not far behind,” said Mrs. Reader, taking the 
baby, who at sight of his Uncle Elocution, began 
to tremble and cry. “ The Professor is so big, he 
frightens her,” explained Mrs. Reader, “and some¬ 
times he even shuts Primer up.” Speller now 
passed around some alphabet crackers and cups of 
capital tea, which Mr. Pedagogue seemed to enjoy 
hugely, but Teddy was disgusted because his let¬ 
ters would spell nothing but Dunce, at which 
Primer laughed so immoderately, he was very glad 
when his school teacher called him to take leave. 
The next house they entered was a very grand 
and spacious mansion, filled with curiosities from 
all parts of the world, and from the maps that 
lined the walls, Teddy was sure it must be the 
home of Madame Geography. This lady was very 
changeable, now warm and candid in her manner, 
then cold and frigid, and her oldest child, Atlas, 
was almost as flat as Miss Primer ; so Teddy 60 on 
left her, and went to play with the twins, Northern 
and Southern Hemispheres, round, jolly little fel¬ 
lows, oueof whom was sitting in an open window, 
laughing at the antics of a white bear in the yard 
outside, and the other stretched out on the hearth 
rug, playing with a little bird with beautiful plu¬ 
mage. They invited him to a game of marbles, but 
in place of the ordinary alleys and agates, they had 
tiny globes, which they' rolled about the floor. 
Teddy now began to feel hungry, and was very 
•glad when Atlas ordered the zones to bring in re¬ 
freshments, and soon after, five servants entered, 
bearing large trays, laden 'with a variety of dainties. 
■“ These came from all parts of the world,” said 
Atlas; “north, south, east, and west.” Teddy 
was delighted, until Madame Geography held up a 
luscious fruit, and asked him from whence it came, 
and she would only give him those viands of which 
he could tell the country where they grew, or were 
manufactured, and not being a very studious youth, 
die sometimes found this exceedingly difficult, and 
was obliged to let many of the tempting delicacies 
pass him by. But in spite of all, he enjoyed this 
-visit more than the former one, and with a some¬ 
what lighter heart, accompanied his master to the 
rrather grim abode of Mrs. Mathematics, where 
They were admitted by Blackboard, the colored 
waiter, who was broader than he was long, with 
teeth like white chalk. And so they wandered from 
house to house, calling upon this and that family, 
^enjoying what we hope is in store for all our readers, 
A Hatpt New Tear. 
An Investigation.—How it Came Out. 
Do not know the Minnikins ? They are little 
chaps who live in the country of Stori-bux. They 
go about cutting up pranks ; are friends of good 
and kind people, but like to annoy those who 
annoy others. It is said that whenever any man 
looks at one, the Minnikin stops and curls himself 
up in some droll shape, and, though you may look 
-as carefully as you can, and may find toad-stools, 
.-shells, frogs, and many other things, not a Minni¬ 
kin was ever found or seen. How the artist man- 
raged to see them, and tell this story with his pen- 
•cil, we have not been able to find out. But, had he 
mot seen them, how could he have drawn them? 
A party of these wild little fellows, being out one 
day, saw something hanging upon the lower branch 
of a tree. What was it? One declared it was a 
bag of money, which the shepherd had hung up 
there; another said it must be a new kind of fruit; 
still another was sure that it was a new trap for 
catching Minnikins; and a reward, it was well 
known, had been offered, not for a Minnikin, but 
for a quart or small measure of them. At last it 
was decided to investigate, and the leader of the 
gang made his preparations. Had the Minnikins 
observed the things about them more closely, and 
given less time to pranks, they would have known 
that this was a hornet’s nest—rather fattened, to 
be sure, but that’s the way the stori-bux hornets 
Off the coast, from Cape Cod and southward, the 
sea lays like a plain, gently inclining downward, 
out to from 70 to 120 miles, where the water is 
500 to 600 feet in depth. Then the bottom drops 
down like the 
make them. After much 
help, and boosting, and giv¬ 
ing of backs,- first one, enter¬ 
ed, and then the others. It 
was arranged that the last 
one, the smallest of all, 
should stay below and keep 
watch. When the little one 
saw the last before him dis¬ 
appearing through the open¬ 
ing, he could stand it no 
longer, and, catching the 
pack-thread, up he went. 
When he fairly reached the 
opening, he called out, “Wotluck?” and in the 
excitement of the moment lost his balance. What 
happened, the lower engraving shows. They learn¬ 
ed something by the adventure, though—that a 
hornet’s nest is made of paper, and that just one 
Minnikin too many will break it. It was fortunate 
that the nest was an old and deserted one. Had 
those active,—and, if not warm-hearted, at least 
warm-footed—house builders been at home, the 
story might have had a different ending. 
Curiosities of the Ocean. 
Very many of our young friends have not seen 
an ocean, or have much idea how large it is, though 
their school maps show that the two largest, the 
Pacific and the Atlantic, cover almost half of the 
globe. Think of a steamer going from New York 
to Liverpool, where the Atlantic is comparatively 
narrow. Some steamships sail faster than many rail¬ 
road trains ordinarily run. One going all the while, 
16 miles an hour, or a mile in ft minutes, requires 
more than nine days and nights going across. 
Most think of the bottom of the sea as a broad, 
flat, sandy bed, but it is about as uneven as a coun¬ 
try covered with mountains, and at least some por¬ 
tions of it abound in animal life. The sun’s light 
does not go very far down, but all the deeper parts 
are always as dark as midnight. The fish which 
live three-quarters of a mile below the surface 
have no eyes, as they would be useless. The 
United States Fish Commission has, during eleven 
years past, made some 2,000 soundings and dredg¬ 
ings on the Atlantic coast, between Labrador and 
New Jersey, of which Prof. Verrill, of Tale Col¬ 
lege, has conducted about 500. His accounts of 
these experiments are full of interest. 
Sometimes the dredges bring up stones weighing 
500 to 1,000 lbs., which have been dropped by 
melting icebergs floating down from the north. 
side of a steep 
mouutain, and 
the water is 5,000 
to6,000 feet deep. 
The top of this 
ocean mountain, 
or higher plain, is 
covered all over 
with fishes,crabs, 
shrimps, etc., so 
thickly that a 
diver’s hand 
could hardly 
touch the bottom 
without grasping 
some of them. 
Sharks and dol¬ 
phins arc there in 
countless thou¬ 
sands. The trawls 
let down to drag 
the bottom bring 
up so many of 
these living crea¬ 
tures as to show 
that the ocean 
bed there is car¬ 
peted with them. 
If a ship sinks, these animals con¬ 
sume every part of it except the metals, 
and these soon rust away. Every bone 
of man and fish is eaten, and the wood 
is destroyed by the borers. The only 
thing made by man which Prof. Verrill 
found was a child’s rubber doll. The 
fish either respected this, or could not 
crush or digest it — probably the latter. 
The deep water is very cold, so that 
fish found at the surface far north live 
in these lower layers or strata of cold 
water. The codfish takes a whole oyster 
in his mouth, crushes the shell with 
his strong teeth, swallows the inside, and spits out 
the shell. Sometimes the dredge shows great 
mounds of these shells. The Fish Commission has 
dredged up about 800 different species of fish and 
crustacoe (shell-fish, crabs, etc.), of which not half 
had ever before beeu seen by naturalists. 
Answer to Christmas Stocking Puzzle. 
Little Tommy hung up his stocking on Christ¬ 
mas Eve, and in the morning found it filled to over¬ 
flowing. The first thing he drew out was a drum ; 
the next, a top; then a package of fresh dates, aud 
a box of sugar-plums. These were followed by a 
cane, an immense orange , two books, a handful of 
nuts, a pair of skate', a stick of peppermint, and a 
penknife, while hidden away in the toe was a bright 
gold dollar. 
New Year’s Customs. 
Some odd New Year’s customs formerly prevailed 
in the rural portions of England, and in remote 
parts, may still be found to some extent. One of 
the most curious of these is called the “Apple 
Howling,” which, besides giving the boys a frolic, 
was supposed to secure a good crop of fruit for 
the coming season. On New Tear’s Eve, a troop 
of these sturdy country urchins, armed with strong 
sticks, would visit all the orchards in the neighbor¬ 
hood, and encircling the apple trees, repeat in 
chorus the following words : 
“ Stand fast root, bear well top, 
Pray God send us a howling crop. 
Every twig, apples big, 
Every bough, apples enou’. 
Ilats full, caps full. 
Full quarter sacks full.” 
One of their number accompanied this chorus on a 
