1883 .] 
AMERICAS AGRICULTURIST. 
533 
“ Oh, the darling little parrot!” cried Gertie, 
“ just what we’ve wished and wished for—you 
dear, good uncle !”—“She will soon he a great 
talker,” he said, stroking the bird’s bright green 
and red feathers, “ but now she can say only a few 
phrases she has picked up on the sly, as it were. 
For nearly five days she’s been shut up behind the 
boards in the garret, in the slope of the roof, you 
know, with no one to talk to but - ” 
“The Ghost! the Ghost!” screamed Poll, 
strutting about on her perch. “ Run, run ! Who’s 
afraid?” 
“ Why ! She was just repeating our own words !” 
whispered Gertie to Harry, “and we were so 
frightened; pretty Poll, let me stroke your head.” 
—“ Don’t be afraid !” said Polly, coaxingly. 
The Children’s Hour. 
Our children look upon the hour before bedtime 
as their own personal property. 
When the tea-things are cleared away, we all 
repair to the dining-room ; grandpa lays aside his 
newspaper, and grandma her knitting, and for a 
while we make the w'elkin ring with “Puss in the 
Corner,” “Open the Gates,” and the rest, all as 
fresh and dear to the children’s hearts now as they 
were to ours twenty years ago. 
Cousin Annie brought a reinforcement of games 
and amusements to us this fall, when she came on 
her yearly visit, and as we had Aunt Lucy and her 
three little ones at the same time, and sister Susie 
from around the corner with five more, these, with 
our own four, made a merry party indeed. We de¬ 
cided to devote the first half hour to the very little 
ones. “ Who has the Button ?” is a never-failing 
delight to them. It is amusing to watch little 
three-year-old Hobart’s face in the grand suspense 
while the button is going the rounds—“Hold fast 
what I give you”—and the supreme moment of 
the day to him is when, at the call of “Button, 
arise!” he is able to jump up and show it in his 
own fat little hands. 
Then they play “ Rorum, Corum, Torum.” All 
go out of the room but one, who places some 
small article agreed upon in the room, but though 
not prominent, it must be in sight. Then all come 
in and look around, touching nothing, only using 
their eyes. The one who sees it first gives no sign, 
but quietly sits down, cailing, “Rorum, Corum, 
Torum.” Each one, as he or she discovers it, sits 
down, saying the mystic words. Finally, when all 
have found it,the one who saw it first hides it again. 
We had a new and good variation of the “ Dutch 
Doll,” which pleased the older ones as much as the 
children. One of the older boys laid down on the 
floor on his back, with his legs under the sofa, 
holding his hands together and high in the air. 
His arms were dressed in a child’s clothes, with 
his hands for the head, stuffed so that a baby’s cap 
could fit it, and the face made by a handkerchief 
marked with charcoal to represent eyes, nose and 
mouth. The boy’s head must have a pillow on each 
side and a light shawl thrown over, to give him 
plenty of breathing room, also drapery on the sofa 
to hide his legs. Then the children are called in 
and made to stand at a little distance and ask ques¬ 
tions, which the Dutch Doll answers by nods or 
shakes of the head. It can dance, go to sleep (by 
falling backward slowly on the sofa, or some 
one’s lap), shrug its shoulders, shiver, or go 
through any number of antics according to the 
genius of the operator. Or it can be made a 
talking doll by the boy disguising his voice. 
I wonder how many little ones have tried the 
“ Cathedral Bell ” with a silver table-spoon tied to 
the middle of a long piece of twine. Take one 
end of the twine in the right hand and one in the 
left, and hold it in each ear. Place two wooden 
chairs back to back, a little distance apart, and 
swing the spoon from one to the other, letting it 
strike the back of the chairs. The sound is like a 
sweet, deep-toned church-bell. 
Perhaps hereafter I will tell you of some of the 
older children’s games, and their tableaux, which 
keep them busy many a rainy day and winter 
evening. Florence Stanley. 
The Bird’s Nest Fungus. 
Children, while at play, frequently find objects 
which are strange and -interesting to them, and 
these, when brought home, become puzzles to older 
heads. Recently a young friend sent us some 
“little bird’s nests,” as he called them, and asked 
us to explain why they should be placed along the 
sides and between the cracks of au old wooden 
side walk. These little “ bird’s nests ” arc not 
made by any kind of bird. No known bird is 
small enough to be satisfied with such tiny “nests” 
as these. A number of these “nests” are shown, 
natural size, in figure 1, as they appeared upon a 
piece of rotten plank. The young reader may 
think that some other animal made the “cups” 
for its young. Perhaps a frog, or more likely a 
wasp, or some other kind of insect! It may take 
the young reader along time to guess the origin of 
these little “nests” full of “eggs.” You may be 
somewhat surprised, but these little objects 
are plants. They are very peculiar looking plants 
and do not at all resemble the grasses, the rose 
bushes or the maple trees, which grow close by 
the old side walk. Did you ever see a mould upon 
the top of a piece of cheese, or on a slice of bread 
or cake ? If so, you saw a tiny forest of minute 
plants. You may have seen a somewhat similar 
“ grove ” on the top of the blacking for your 
boots, or even upon the boots (possibly inside), 
when taken from a damp place after a week of 
repose. Those boots may have been used to upset 
various toad-stools in the pasture or garden. We 
are approaching the nature of the 
“ bird’s nests.” Do you guess 
what they are ? If you said they 
were a peculiar form of a toad¬ 
stool, it would not be far from 
right. These little “nests’’grow 
from small seeds called spores, 
and the “bird’s nest” develops 
upon the decayed planks of the 
side-walk. It belongs to a large 
group of small plants, some of 
which we have mentioned. The 
name -of the group is Fungi , and 
none-of its members have leaves 
or flowers. The fact that some 
plants have no blossoms is not 
new to you, we presume, because 
all such familiar plants as mosses, 
lichens, and ferns, never produce 
any flowers. At first the “bird’s 
nest” is very minute, but it soon 
increases in size and appears like 
a little ball fasteued upon a piece 
of decayed wood. In a few days 
the top of the ball bursts open, and within is a 
cavity containing a number of small bodies which 
maybe called the “eggs.” You may guess that 
these are the seeds, or spores, of the plant. They 
are more than that; each one of these little bodies 
contains hundreds and thousands of the spores, 
eyes open as they go through life. All of us live 
surrounded by interesting and wonderful things. 
An Illustrated ISebus. — It is sometimes 
well to set a truth in an obscure form, that it may 
be the more clearly remembered when found. 
What Makes the Sea Luminous'? 
Those who travel in our northern waters in 
warm weather, may see at night numerous bright 
sparks in the water. In tropical seas these are 
Fig. 2.—NEST ENLARGED. 
Fig. 1.—“ bird’s 
NESTS.” 
Fig. 3.— SECTION OF 
NEST. 
which are therefore extremely small, and can only 
be seen with the aid of a microscope. The “ bird’s 
nest ” fungus is a strange little plant, which has no 
flowers, and feeds upon the moisture of the decay¬ 
ing side-walk. This fungus may be found on rich 
earth and in many other places. 
We wish our young readers would keep their 
much more abundant, and even in the Gulf of 
Mexico we have seen this phenomenon so marked 
that the sea was literally one of “liquid fire,” 
wherever it was disturbed. The appearance of 
this light in the water naturally suggests the in¬ 
quiry as to its cause, and some of our young cor¬ 
respondents who live on the coast have asked in 
effect, “ What makes the sea luminous ?” On land 
there are, as you are aware, several insects which 
emit light. In the Northern States the very com¬ 
mon “fire-fly,” or “lightning-bug,” a beetle, is 
seen flitting about in warm nights, showing a 
bright spark, and in tropical countries there arc 
much more brilliant insects. The cause of this 
phosphorescence, as it is called, is not very well 
understood. Several marine animals give off a 
similar light, especially the jelly fishes, or Medu¬ 
sas. These are very variable in size, some being a 
foot across, while others are so small as to require 
a microscope to see them distinctly. The engrav¬ 
ing gives the general appearance of these crea¬ 
tures, though some are more nearly globular than 
the one shown. They are almost transparent, and 
appear like a mass of jelly. Several of the smaller 
kinds, when disturbed by the keel of a vessel, by 
the paddle-wheels of a steamer, or by the stroke 
of an oar, emit a bright light. When very abund¬ 
ant, as they often are in the seas of warm coun¬ 
tries, the display made by these minute creatures 
is, on a dark night, strikingly beautiful. 
