Various

“ Naturalists have encountered great difficulty in their attempts to study the habits of the flamingo in its native haunts, for it is a very shy and cautious bird, and no flock is ever found without a sentinel posted to give notice of the approach of danger. This is usually the largest, and probably the oldest and wisest, bird of the flock. At the least sound it lifts its large head as high in the air as the long neck will allow, and looks about on every side. If any boat or hunter is seen, the whole flock, with loud screechings, instantly vanishes among the tall water-grasses. ”

“ Her mother was awake, and, putting down the supper, Nora hastened to tell her story; but to her surprise her mother listened in dismay.
"Oh, Nora!" exclaimed Mrs. Mayne. "What have you done, my darling? I would rather have parted with anything, before that little screen. It was my one relic of the past!"
Poor Nora! her heart swelled with grief. She was tired and worn with anxiety, and looking at her mother piteously she burst into a flood of tears.
[Pg 685]
The Deanery at Nunsford is a large old house full of beautiful rooms, each, it seems to me, setting the charms of the next at defiance. ”

“ Its nest is described by those naturalists who have been fortunate enough to see it as an immense heap of mud and water-grasses in the depths of some solitary swamp, where the mother bird broods patiently for thirty days on her two glistening white eggs. When the little ones are hatched they take to the water immediately, and swim about as lively as young ducks ”

“ But one afternoon, about four o'clock, Hank Sweeny, my guide, came to me with the announcement that the dog was gone.
"Chawed up his rope, and skedaddled," as Hank expressed it. "I reckon he must 'a smelled that thar panther that was to the spring last night. He's death on panthers."
"What are you going to do?" I inquired, anxiously.
"Well, I reckon I'll fetch some more wood into camp, so as you can keep up a fire, then I'll take and row around the lake and up the creek, and yell for him; he won't go fur," answered Hank. ”

“ I grew desperate, and fired the whole five shots as rapidly as I could, and was just reaching for my revolver, when Hank came rushing up the bank followed by his dog.
"What on earth is the matter?" he shouted. I pointed to the motionless form in the tree, and gasped, "A panther! See his eyes! Shoot him, Hank!" I was nearly beside myself with fear by this time, and my hair stood on end, like wire.
Hank looked at the tree for a moment, then turning to me, fairly shouted, "A panther! Why, you—" and here he burst into a roar of laughter. "A panther! ”

“ An open wagon was the mode of conveyance, and as the driver was quite large, while Captain Pratt was no small party, there was no other way for Tim to ride save curled up in the end, where he could keep a look-out for Tip, who was, of course, to follow on behind as fast as his short legs would permit. ”

“ I am a little girl six years old. I can not read very much yet, so my mamma reads Young People to me. I have a little brother Arthur; he is in the country now. I would rather stay with my mamma. Before we moved to the city we had a black dog named Prince, who would play "hide-and-seek" with us, and would always find us. I had a dear little pussy named Flossie, but she died. She used to curl herself up in my hat and go to sleep. I have four dolls, and lots of treasures. When I am old enough I will write a letter myself. ”

“ On shipboard there is a great variety of knots, hitches, bends, splices, etc., but the larger portion of these can only be adapted to the particular requirements of a vessel, many of them having a special duty to perform. The chief virtue of a knot is to hold well and be easily cast off.
There are three parts to a rope besides the ends: the standing part, which is the part leading from the end made fast; the running part, which is the part used or hauled; and the bight, which is the curve of the rope.
Fig. 1. ”

“ The feathers on the body of the flamingo are white, delicately tinted with rose-color. Its wings, which are very large, are of the most brilliant scarlet, and the long quills are black. It is a very sociable bird, and is always seen in flocks of several hundred. ”

“ Although "Wiggles" have formed a feature of Young People from the beginning, and have excited a very general interest amongst our youthful artists, many of our correspondents write that they do not understand them. For the benefit of these we will explain that Wiggles, sometimes called "recondite forms," are lines forming portions of the outlines of pictures. New Wiggle No. 21 is one of these lines, and it forms part of the outline of a picture already drawn by "our artist." ”

“ Old Riley was visibly excited. He called all his men to the place selected, and set them at work building the dam, while Hamp looked on, and occasionally made a suggestion for simplifying the work. The dam was finished at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at six o'clock the water had risen two feet six inches, while the back water had passed the quarry.
"There!" said Hamp; "that proves my work. The water is level, of course, as far up as back water shows itself, and we have six inches of back water at the quarry to two feet six inches at the dam: so the fall is two feet." ”

“ With the left hand pass d over c down through the loop, after which you will have the knot represented in Fig. 17, which can be at once drawn apart by the ends e and f.
Fig. 18.
Fig. 19.
A breastknot is only an ornament. It can be tied with ribbon, and makes a very pretty bow, or can be used by the ladies as a frog for a sacque. It consists, first, of three half-hitches overlapping each other as in Fig. 18. Interweave the part a under b and over c; b over a and under d. Then draw out the bight a over e, and the bight b over f, when we will have the knot as in Fig. 19. ”

“ I am a little cripple, and have not been out of bed for six months, with the hip-disease. I can not move except as others move me. Will some of the young people who read your paper send me something to read, as that is the only amusement I have? ”

“ My sister and I take Young People, and love it dearly. We always look for it on Thursday. We enjoy reading the letters in the Post-office Box. My sister is twelve, and I am nine years old. We have three brothers younger than ourselves. I saw a letter in one of our papers written by a little boy who signed his name Frankie Thomas, which is the very same name as that of our youngest brother. We have talked a great deal about it, and we wonder if he is as sweet and pretty as our dear little Frankie is.
Essie T.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ”

“ I ventured.
"And leave the camp alone?" answered Hank, in fine scorn. "Why, that deer would draw all the cats in the neighborhood. Keep the fire a-going, and you're all right."
I thought to myself that I would much prefer to be out of the way when all the cats in the neighborhood came to investigate the deer; but Hank was in the boat, and I could hear the splash of the oars as he pulled up the lake. I sat by the fire, with Hank's rifle on my knees, listening as the sound of his voice calling the dog died away in the distance. I examined the rifle, and saw that it was loaded ”

“ A FLAMINGO AND HIS ENEMY THE OCELOT.
The harmless and peaceful flamingo has many enemies besides man. Beasts of prey are prowling abroad at night, and pounce upon these birds while they are sleeping in their marshy homes. In the great South American swamps the ocelot is one of its most formidable foes. The ocelot is a very small member of the panther family, and is found in Mexico and all through the American tropics. ”

“ I wanted my mamma to write to you when I was in Troy, but I had not any pets to write about, and my mamma told me to wait till I got to the sea-shore.
Now we are here. The ocean is all around us except on one side. We are on the lowest part of Rhode Island, on a point reaching away out into the ocean. I am almost the only little girl, as there is only one other here. She is May Kempton, and she lives here always.
May has five kittens. One kitten has double paws, and three kittens have two to three toes more than they ought to have, and one kitten is like all other kittens. ”

“ There are three or four boys and girls here who take Young People, but who are only nine years old. As yet none of our club have discovered any facts worth reporting. We will meet every two weeks, and I will report the doings of this society regularly once a month.
E. S. Beck, Secretary.
The following exchanges are offered by correspondents:
One stamp from each of the following countries, for a triangular Cape of Good Hope stamp and a Straits Settlement stamp: Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Holland, Brazil, Belgium, Hungary, England, France, Germany, and Bavaria. ”

“ You tell your mother you're a-goin' to New York right away, boy, an' 'at ole Riley Vaughn's a-goin' to foot all the bills outen your interest in the comin' factory. You'll study all sorts o' figgerin' work an' machine principles in the big school in New York what's called the School o' Mines, an' then you'll go to all the big factories an' things. ”

“ Then she would show her visitor what Hamp had done. He had constructed an ingenious water-wheel with which to make the most of the power afforded by the spring, and had set it at a variety of tasks. A stretch of line shafting passed under the floor of the house, and bands were passed through the floor to the churn and the sewing-machine, and even the sausage-chopper could be attached at will. "I don't deny that it's handy, and saves work," said his mother. "And now he's made a sort of fan in the dining-room, and has set that going too, so that it keeps the flies off the table. ”

“ I've known Captain Pratt a good many years, an' I know he will treat you just as if he was your father. Three dollars is a good deal of money for a little shaver like you."
Tim looked at Sam for a moment doubtfully, and then he thought of what Mr. Simpson had said about his remaining at the farm.
"Can I take Tip with me?"
"Oh, that's your dog, is it? He hain't a very handsome one, but I suppose you can find a chance for him somewhere on the boat. Yes, you can take him."
"Then I'll go with you."
"All right. I shall start from this store to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. Will you be here?" ”

“ I can not walk far at a time. I have a chair on wheels in which I ride when I am tired of walking. My brother and I have a pony that we call Daisy. I have a phaeton to drive out in.
I like "The Cruise of the Ghost'" best of all the stories so far. I like the Wiggles very much; mine have appeared in three numbers. I can draw quite well, and I am learning to paint in oil colors. When in the country I try to sketch a little.
Wilfred H.
Swampscott, Massachusetts.
As so many little boys and girls have told about their pets, I thought I would tell about mine. I have a white mouse named Pippo ”

“ There are many knots used by sailors that would prove of good service to people on shore if they only knew how to make and apply them. Boys on a farm can put to excellent advantage these simple contrivances when they have to rely upon their own resources in the use of ropes and small lines. ”

“ It is a bird of wondrous beauty. It has a slender, gracefully formed body, long thin legs, and a very long, flexible neck. When it stands erect, its neck stretched in the air, its head is fully six feet from the ground. ”

“ Hallie J. Perkins, Lynchburg, Virginia.—In forming your Natural History Society you may include any friends you choose. Whether or not they are subscribers to Young People makes no difference. You will find it a good plan to read the correspondence in Young People at your meetings. ”

“ Hamp spent three years in study, and returned an accomplished mechanical engineer. He went into the factory as old Riley's partner, and his work has been to improve machinery and processes. The firm own many patents now on things of his invention, and the factory is the centre of a prosperous region, in which Mr. Hampden See is an especially respected citizen. ”

“ We have room to publish only a few of the hundreds of ideas of each Wiggle that are sent to us, and there is no regular time fixed for their publication; but those that are drawn with the greatest care, and sent in the earliest, stand the best chance of being published. ”

“ You may preserve them by passing over the freshly gathered leaves a warm iron, on which you have rubbed bees-wax, or you may press the leaves between the pages of an old book, and when dry, coat them with very thin varnish, put on with a soft camel's-hair brush. The secret of pressing flowers and ferns successfully is in laying them immediately in a dark place under a weight, and changing the papers over them as these become moist. ”

“ This is the most important knot, and can be used in more situations than any other, and is always readily undone. It is very handy in making fast a boat's painter, and in tying fish-lines to sinkers.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 9.
Fig. 10.
By means of two half-hitches (Fig. 7) one can secure with the end of a rope almost anything. When the same hitch is made around a spar it is called a clove-hitch (Fig. 8) . A fisherman once had a daughter for whose hand there were two suitors—a sailor and a landsman. ”

“ There is a favorite little trick called a Tom-fool's knot. It amounts only to a sleight-of-hand, and must be made very deftly to be effective. First hold the cord by the parts a and b as in Fig. 16. Then pass, with the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, the part c under d and up through the loop. ”

“ I plant my sticks—"
"Never mind about how you do it; I can't understand that ef you explain it; but look me in the eyes, boy. This thing means thousands o' dollars to Riley Vaughn ef you've got your answer right. I kin understand that much; an' ef you've worked out this big sum right for me, I'll choke the next man that says you're a dunce jest 'kase you don't take kindly to old Penruddock's chatterin' sort o' learnin'. I'll do it, or my name ain't Riley Vaughn, an' that's what I've been called for nigh onto fifty-five year now." ”

“ A square or reef knot.—First make a plain overhand knot as in Fig. 1. Take the uppermost end b, place it over and under the part a, and draw the ends tightly. Then it will appear as in Fig. 2. If you pass the ends in a contrary direction, you will make what sailors call a granny knot, which is a term of ridicule to the green hands, who often tie them through mistake. A story is told that a sea-captain, who had on board of his packet a number of passengers, and was continually missing from his well-stocked larder some of his choicest bits, concluded to set a trap, and catch the thief. ”

“ How in natur' kin I raft stone down a creek that ain't got more'n six inches o' water in it, a-bubblin' around among the stones of the bottom?"
"Well, you see," said Hamp, "I've levelled up from here to the quarry, and there's only two feet fall, or a little less, and the banks are nowhere less than five feet high ”

“ The father of the maiden was in a quandary which of the young men to choose for her future husband, as they both seemed to be equally attractive; so one day he summoned them to his side, and gave each a long cord, saying that the one who made the greatest number of overhand knots (Fig. 1) in the least time should be accepted. They started to work in good earnest, the landsman drawing his long ends carefully through the loops, while the sailor rapidly slipped small half-hitches over his thumb as in Fig. ”