THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
375 
which hail grown up out of a mission school, and, al¬ 
though nearly unlimited as to numbers, was very 
limited as to salary and other trifles, owing to its being 
chiefly composed of poor people. On this occasion there 
were few grown people present besides the superinten¬ 
dent aud teachers, but there were nearly three hundred 
children of all sorts, sizes and colors! Polydeen was 
sure she had never seen so many colored children before 1 
Their round, woolly heads were bobbing about in all 
quarters of the room. Such laughing and chattering, 
and running, and jumping as was going on was almost 
deafening. Evidently the teachers meant to allow the 
children to enjoy themselves in their own way so long 
as they did no damage. 
But soon the supper was passed around and then they 
settled down into comparative quiet, for most of them 
had come there to eat anil set to work as if they meant 
to do it thoroughly I If Pollydeen had been amazed at 
the noise, she was at least as much amazed at the eat¬ 
ing. One boy who sat near her emptied his plate into 
his pockets and then reiilled the former from the bas¬ 
kets and trays which were being continually passed 
about. And a little girl no older than Pollydeen had six 
round frosted cakes in her lap underneath her well- 
filled plate ! If auy one took anything that he or she 
did not like it was tasted and then thrown on the floor. 
Two or three little boys ate until they were running- 
over-full and had to be carried out, but they soon came 
back and began to eat again, to Pollydeen’s great alarm. 
After the supper was over the presents were taken 
from the large, well-filled tree at the farther end.of the 
room by the superintendent, and distributed by the 
teachers to the children whose names were found on 
them. Many' of these presents were garments and 
other useful things, but there were toys enough, as was 
evident from the increased tumult which now arose. 
Such a blooming of tin trumpets, and crowing of toy 
roosters, and barking of china dogs, and mewing of 
cotton-flannel cats, and crying of wax dolls, was surely 
never heard before ! 
Then Pollydeen remembered that she had left her tin 
trumpet and tambourine in the cars beside Helen. 
But all this time there had been much anxiety at 
Pollydeen’s home on her account. The family waited 
and watched for her coming until the afternoon was 
nearly over, and then Mrs. Dean declared something 
must be done, and Mr. Dean decided the gout was not 
of much consequence after all, and put on his coat and 
hat and went in search of Pollydeen. While he was 
gone Helen’s telegram arrived and Mrs. Dean could not 
endure to sit idly at home while her husband uselessly 
interviewed railroad men and policemen at the Fitch¬ 
burg depot, so she started for Cambridge. 
Arrived at Rev. John P. Smith’s she found Pollydeen 
had not been there, and she felt certain that the man 
into whose charge Helen had placed her had abducted 
her. But Mr. Smith calmly suggested that Pollydeen 
would scarcely prove an easy subject for abuction, and 
that it was much more likely that he had taken her to 
the wrong Smith, since it was quite possible there might 
be more than one John Smith in so large a city. 
Upon consulting the directory they were satisfied that 
there was but one other John Smith who was a minis¬ 
ter, and that was John L., and they proceeded at once 
to his house, which they found dark and deserted. But 
they went to the next house, where they were told that 
they would find Mr. Smith and his family at the church. 
Having found the church it was an easy matter to 
find Mr. Smith, who, considering that Mrs. Dean was 
an entire stranger to him, certainly manifested an ex¬ 
traordinary amount of pleasure at meeting her. He 
led her straightway to a little girl, with a shabby, 
patched dress, braided hair, and toothless gums, and 
Mrs. Dean, with a pang of disappointment, exclaimed, 
“There is some mistake, that is not at all like my 
child.” 
But at the sound of her voice Pollydeen looked up, 
and crying out, “ Mamma ! Mamma ! ” rushed into her 
arms. 
When, a few hours later, Mrs. Dean tucked Pollydeen 
into her soft bed in her own beautifully furnished room, 
the child murmured sleepily, “Oh! how nice, and 
clean, aud quiet it is here! ” 
And the next day Pollydeen wrote to Helen that she 
needn’t send back the tin trumpet and tambourine or 
get the fire-crackers and torpedoes for the Fourth, for 
she (Pollydeen) had heard noise enough to last her life¬ 
time ! Susie A. Bisbee. 
LONG DAYS IN PLANT-GROWTH. 
The Norwegian plant-geographer, Scliiiber, a short 
time ago called attention to some striking and sur¬ 
prising peculiarities manifested by vegetation in 
high latitudes, which he ascribed to the intensive 
light effects of the long days. Most plants in those 
regions produce much larger and heavier seeds than in 
lower latitudes: and the differences in some cases is 
astonisliing. Dwarf Beans taken from Christiana to 
Drontheim gained more than sixty per cent, in weight; 
and Thyme, from Lyons, when planted in Drontheim, 
showed a gain of seventy-one per cent. Grain is 
heavier in the north than in more southern latitudes; 
and Norwegian seed, planted at Breslau, fell off greatly 
the first year. Another remarkable fact is that the in¬ 
crease of weight in the northern latitudes takes place 
through the assimilation of non-nitrogenous substances, 
while the protean products have no part in it. The 
leaves also, in most plants, grow larger in high latitudes, 
and, at the same time, take on a deeper, darker color. 
This peculiarity, first noticed by Griseback and Martins, 
has been observed not only in most of the wild trees 
and shrubs, but also in fruit trees, and even in kitchen- 
garden plants. It has further been observed that the 
flowers of most plants are larger and more deeply 
colored, and that many flowers which are white in the 
South become in the North violet.— Pop. Science Monthly. 
