JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.

Ho, my merry young folk, salute with all your courtesy the stately Lady February, who now steps into the year between two stalwart fellows, January and March. The one casts a beautiful white mantle around her and cheers her with stories of happy firesides and glowing faces. The other, tugging at the mantle, hints to her in odd, blustering fashion of coming leaf and bird-song, and of hidden flowers longing to spring up at her feet. She likes well his martial tread and melting glances, admires the other's frosty beard and clanging mail, and calls them both her brothers. But it is not at them she smiles. She is thinking of the pretty festival she brings into the year, her play-time, so to speak, when she may see

Merry Cupids, with tiny darts,

Aiming straight at the children's hearts.

Welcome, welcome, then, good Lady February -thou and thy dainty Valentines!

BOMBAST.

A BIRD that travels every winter to the Southern States has told me about a plant which grows there, and which, he insists, enriches the whole civilized world. Its white, fluffy, bursting, beautiful product furnishes one of the most important materials found in America to-day.

Now, it's very strange that such an excellent thing as this should be connected in Deacon Green's mind with an ugly quality known as bombast. The Deacon has n't a bit of this quality himself, but he is a dictionary hunter, always searching for the inner meaning of words, and from what I've heard him say I know he associates bombast with fluffy things, especially with this beautiful plant of which my bird has told me.

Who among you, my learned chicks, can explain it to me? Why is bombast called bombast? And if it must be called bombast, what in the name of bombast has this valuable white material to do with it?

THE RABBIT IDENTIFIED.

LOWELL, MASS., Dec. 11, 1882. DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT: I am a little girl, and only fourteen years old, but as I have been brought up in the West, it is not hard for me to answer what kind of a rabbit that is. I have seen many of them, and I have heard them called Jack-Rabbits or Jackass-Rabbits, on account of their very long ears. This rabbit does not live in the woods, but only in the prairies.

Mark Twain, in his book entitled "Roughing It," gives a description of it. It is the largest, longest-eared rabbit in the world. Mr. Twain says it goes like a streak of lightning. Still it is very easy to kill it, because I am told that, when it has run for a few hundred steps, it will stop, and sit up, just as in your picture, and will allow any one to come very near, if you do not go straight to it. All you have to do is to circle around it and pretend you do not see it. But you must not stop a moment. stop, off it goes. It lives in the sage-brush, and is often caught by the prairie-wolves or coyotes. That's all I know about it. Yours truly, MINNIE VINCELETTE.

Jack thanks you, Minnie, and all the boys and girls who have answered the rabbit's question.

WALKING UNDER WATER.

AN athlete who exhibited in New York not long ago was considered a wonder, they say, because he could stay under water long enough to walk about a few steps on the bottom. But there are some Indians in Northern California, I am told, who think nothing of such a performance. They do it every little while as a matter of convenience. These Indians live among the mountains, where heavy rains at their sources will sometimes make boiling torrents out of streams that were narrow rills an hour before. When these Indians find such a stream across their road, and know that it is too swift to be swum, each one gets a heavy stone, places it upon the top of his head, and walks across on the bottom, weighted down by the stone. They can stay under water for two minutes in this way; and, by choosing smooth and gravelly places, cross streams several rods in width.

64 OLD WILDEY."

H. E. S. sends your Jack this true story, which is well worth the telling:

You must know that Old Wildey was a wild duck that, four years ago, came one fine day in December to the mill-pond, among the other ducks, and swam with them until they got almost to the place where Grandfather fed them; then it was afraid to come any nearer, and would fly away again. Grandfather told us children not to frighten it, and perhaps after a while it would come and be fed with the others. And he told the workmen in the iron-mill not to shoot at Old Wildey or frighten her, and thus it happened that every night, when he called the tame ducks to the shore to feed them, Old Wildey came a little nearer and a little nearer, till one night she came to the grassy bank and looked at the other ducks eating up the grains of Indian corn that Grandfather fed to them.

But as she was a wild duck, and did not know that Indian corn was fit to eat, she just stood looking at them eating it. Well, one night she walked up among the other ducks, and turned her head to one side, and looked at the grains of corn with one eye; then she turned her head to the other side and looked at the corn with the other eye; then she took a single grain up in her bill, and held it a moment, and then swallowed it; then she carefully picked up two or three more grains, and ate them and flew away. This delighted us grandchildren very much. The next night she seemed to have found out that corn was as good for wild ducks as it was for tame ones, so she walked up among the other ducks, and when Grandfather threw them down the corn she ate it up as fast as ever she

could. In the course of a few weeks, when Grandfather called the ducks, she would fly out of the water, and would be the first one that would come to be fed, and before spring came she would eat out of his hand. So it went on until the early part of May, when the leaves were out and the meadows were dotted over with the golden dandelion, and blue in spots with tufts of violets. Then we all noticed that Old Wildey would occasionally leave the other flock and fly away out of sight, and after a while return again, until one day, about the middle of May, she disappeared and we saw her no more. However, about the first of November, a flock of seven wild ducks were seen on the lake, and when the tame ducks came home to be fed, one of the wild ducks left the flock and came up and ate corn with them. It was Old Wildey! And so it has been every year since. About the middle of May, when the ice begins to break up in the Northern lakes, Old Wildey leaves her winter home to go north and make her nest and raise her brood of young ones. As she is a black duck, we suppose she must go up to the lakes in Canada, or perhaps to Labrador; and every autumn, about the first of November, she returns to her old home in Pennsylvania. Each year, Grandfather and Grandmother and the aunts and grandchildren, when they come to Laurel, as the old place is called, wonder if Old Wildey will come back. This time, when Auntie Hannah came in and told Grandfather that Old Wildey had come, he put aside his newspaper, and went to the feed-room for some corn, and called out, "Come along home, my duckie," when Wildey just flew out of the water and came up to him and ate the corn out of his hand. Although she had been away for six months, she had not forgotten the voice that called her, or the hand that had fed her during the winter.

and them what the Deacon said when he first read your letter and saw the photograph: "They are funny," said he, with a queer smile, "but I can't understand what Bessie means by 'you would almost take them for men, they look so natural.' Because, to my mind," he remarked, slowly, "men never seem more unnatural than when fighting duels. But," he continued, "the next thing she says that they look too ridiculous for anything'

-is as true of men duelists as of these frogs. Yes, unnatural and ridiculous! -those two words, in my opinion, describe dueling to a T," concluded the good Deacon, with a thump of his cane, as he turned to consult the Little School-ma'am about one of her dictionary conundrums that had been too much for him.

I never saw a duel of any sort in my life, and am no authority in such matters, but the Deacon

NEW YORK. DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT: A friend of mine has on one of the shelves of his cabinet a funny group of two stuffed frogs fighting with swords. I send you a photograph of it, and hope you will show it to your ST. NICHOLAS boys and girls. The figures are made of real frogs' skins stuffed with cotton, stood up on their hind legs, and fastened in the attitude of fencers. Each has a tiny iron sword fixed to his right "hand" or fore-foot, but the smaller frog is the best swordsman, as he has just succeeded in making a dangerous thrust that pierces his adversary's breast. When you look at them, you would almost take them for two little men fighting a duel, they look so natural, but when you pick them up and see that they are only frogs, they look too ridiculous for anything. They seem to be fighting in dead earnest, and yet their big frog-mouths make them look as if they were laughing. Even the fellow that is wounded looks as if he were grinning. am sure all your boy-and-girl friends, dear Jack, would be amused if they could see this frog duel, and I hope you will show them a copy of the photograph I send you. With much love to the Little School-ma'am, and yourself, Your friend, BESSIE L. G.

The frog-duel shall be shown to the boys and girls, with pleasure, Bessie. But I must tell you

is generally right, and was so emphatic with that last sentence that I resolved to report it verbatim

as the Little School-ma'am says- to my boyfriends. If you find that the Deacon was in the wrong, young cavaliers, just let me know.

THE "JABBERWOCKY" ONCE MORE.

GALENA, ILL., Dec. 10, 1882. DEAR JACK: I thought every one had read the "Jabberwocky." I have read the book about one hundred times; "Through the Looking-glass," it is called.

"

The poem is on page 21, and the explanation on page 126. "English-speaking children can understand it as well as anybody can, but no one can understand it very well, though it sounds sensible enough. It was written by a Mr. Lewis Carroll, and Mamma told me that he was an English clergyman.

He wrote " Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," too; but I think I am that "Through the Looking-glass" is the nicer of the two. sure that Rose Barrows would "chortle in her joy" to read it. Your "frabjous" reader,

LOUIE MCCLELLAN.

NEW YORK, July 5, 1882.

DEAR MRS. FRY: I was very much pleased with your asking me to write to you. I liked all the teachers very much. They treated me very kindly. I liked the meals; the best dinner I thought was when we had the pea-soup, meat, potatoes, bread, and pudding. I always had enough to eat. I loved to go in bathing and play in the water. The swings and pin-wheel I enjoyed too. I liked to sit on the grass, or near the water, and read a story book or paper, and I think it's very pleasant to sleep in the little bed, and ask our Heavenly Father to keep us from harm during the day. I liked everything that I saw. Little brother and sister were so happy, and are always talking about going again. I thank you, Mrs. Fry, for asking us to come again. I will stop now, because I am not very big, so I must not write a very long letter.

Yours truly,

LENA MOHRMAN.

FOUR COMPOSITION SUBJECTS.

In accordance with our promise, we offer four composition subjects for this month. (See ST. NICHOLAS for October and January.) THE MAGNA CHARTA.

How My ELEPHANT SWAM.

THE SKATING-RACE.-A STORY. WAS CASABIANCA TRULY WISE?

THE story of "Doris Lee's Feather Fan" is not altogether a flight of fancy, as is proved by the following item from the Sydney, Australia, Telegraph-on which Mr. Converse's interesting narrative is

founded:

SAVED BY AN ALBATROSS.

A singular story has been related to us by the master of the bark "Gladstone," which arrived from London last Saturday. On the 22d of last month, while the vessel was in latitude 42 degrees south and longitude 90 degrees east, a seaman fell overboard from the starboard gangway. The bark was scudding along with a rough sea and moderate wind, but on the alarm of "man overboard" being given she was rounded to, and the starboard life-boat was lowered, manned by the chief officer and four men. A search for the unfortunate man was made, but owing to the roughness of the sea he could not be discovered; but the boat steered to the spot where he was last seen. Here they found him floating, but exhausted, clinging for bare life to the legs and wings of a huge albatross. The bird

had swooped down on the man while the latter was struggling with the waves and attempted to peck him with its powerful beak. Twice the bird attacked its prey unsuccessfully, being beaten off by the desperate sailor, battling with two enemies, the water and the albatross, both greedy and insatiable. For the third time the huge white form of the bird hovered over the seaman, preparatory to a final swoop. The bird, eager for its meal, fanned its victim with its wide-spread wings. Suddenly a thought occurred to him that the huge form so close to his face might become his involuntary rescuer. Quick as thought he reached up and seized the bird, which he proceeded to strangle with all his might. The huge creature struggled with wings and paddles to free itself. In the contest the sailor was beaten black and blue, and cruelly lacerated, but he held his own, and slowly the bird quivered and died. The carcass floated lightly on the waves, its feathers forming a comfortable support for the exhausted man, who had so narrowly escaped a lingering death. But another danger awaited him. He was not much of a swimmer, and the excitement of the extraordinary conflict began to tell upon him. He was faint and grew giddy. But with one arm around the albatross's body, under the wing, and one hand clutching the bird's feet, the sailor awaited his chance of rescue. Presently he heard his comrades shout from the boat, and in a few minutes more was safe on board the bark, though a good deal shaken and exhausted.

NEW YORK.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I was walking down Broadway one day, and saw such a funny sign over the entrance to a little basementshop. It read, "Shoes Blacked Inside." Now, dear ST. NICHOLAS, I for one can't imagine why anybody should wish to have the inside of his shoes blacked. Can you? Yours truly, JOHN R. F.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have never taken the ST. NICHOLAS by the month until this month. I have always taken it at the end of the year bound. I live in Washington, and go to play in the park every afternoon. When I say the park, I mean Farragut Park, which is in front of our house. The people here are making a great fuss about tho Garfield Fair; it is in the rotunda of the Capitol; but it is a failure, because it is for his monument instead of a hospital, and who could wish for a better or more beautiful monument than a hospital? A friend of mine went to it and said it was very close, and my mamma, who went with the President, said that the crowd was immense, and advised me not to go; but now I must close, as I think you must be tired of reading my long letter. Please print this, as it is my first. Your faithful reader, CAROLINE S. S.

ORCHARD FARM, Nov. 5, 1885. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: The story of Tad Lincoln reminded me of an anecdote of him, told me by a friend, whose father was intimate with President Lincoln, and I think present at the scene. It was at

a Cabinet meeting, of rather exceptional gravity, even in those grave times. The gentlemen were all standing around the table, Mr. Lincoln with his back to the door, when it was suddenly burst open, and with a 66 whoop!" in dashed Tad; diving between his father's long legs, he popped his grinning face over the edge of the table, and looked gleefully around to see the result of his startling entry. Needless to say, those grave gentlemen, one and all, burst into a hearty laugh.

With many thanks for the great enjoyment that the ST. NICHOLAS affords to my children, and to their father and mother, I remain your friend, A. E. S.

IN connection with the "Art and Artists installment for this month, we give a list of the most celebrated works of the artists therein mentioned:

The following are the principal works of Hubert van Eyck still in existence: In the church of St. Bavon at Ghent, two central panels of the great altar-piece painted for Judocus Vydt; in the Brussels Museum, "Adam and Eve"-two panels from same altar-piece; in the Berlin Museum, six panels from same altar-piece.

The principal works of Jan van Eyck still in existence are: In the Antwerp Museum, "St. Barbara," "The Virgin Mary," "The Virgin," "St. George," and "St. Donatus"; Academy of Bruges, Virgin and Child with Saints," and a portrait of his wife; Brussels Museum, "The Adoration of the Magi"; Berlin Museum, "A Head of Christ," another head, almost life-size, and "The Virgin and Child, with Trees and a Fountain"; Dresden

Gallery, triptych, "Madonna and Child with Saints"; Städel Gallery, Frankfort, "The Madonna' del Luca'"; Belvedere Gallery, Vienna, two portraits; Museum at Madrid, "The Triumph of Christianity"; Museum at Lille, "The Crucifixion"; Louvre, Paris, "The Virgin and Donator"; National Gallery, London, portraits of Arnolfini and his Wife, portrait of a Man in a Green Hood, and portrait of a Man in a Red Head-dress; Hermitage, St. Petersburg, "The Annunciation."

The chief works of Quintin Massys in European galleries are: In the Museum at Antwerp, a triptych, "Entombment of Christ": Museum at Berlin, "Madonna and Child," nearly life-size, and a Cardinal reading; Dresden Gallery, "A Banker and Clients"; Pinakothek, Munich, "The Money Changers"; Louvre, Paris, "Banker and his Wife"; National Gallery, London, "The Money Changers"; Hermitage, St. Petersburg, "Madonna in Glory."

The chief works of Rubens in the galleries of Europe are: Pitti Gallery, Florence, portraits of himself and his brother with Lipsius and Grotius, called "The Four Philosophers"; Uffizi Gallery, Florence, "Battle of Ivry," "Entry of Henry IV. into Paris," portrait of his wife, and two mythological pictures; Palazzo Brignoli, Genoa, "Mars, Venus, and Cupid"; Brera, Milan, "The Last Supper"; Capitol Gallery, Rome, "Finding of Romulus and Remus"; Colonna Palace, Rome, Assumption of the Virgin"six different works, two of which are triptychs; Museum of Brussels, four sacred subjects, several portraits, and a picture of " Venus and Vulcan"; Van der Hoop Museum at Amsterdam, portrait of Helen Fourment, and one of Marie de Medici; Museum at the Hague, portraits of his two wives, a Family Group, and other portraits; Berlin Museum, six pictures; one is a beautiful Group of Children with fruit; Gallery at Cassel, "Flight into Egypt," and a "Holy Family"; Dresden Gallery, a fine collection of twenty subjects; Städel Gallery, Frankfort, "King David and the Harp," and "Diogenes"; Pinakothek, Munich, sixteen different pictures, among which are portraits of himself and his two wives; Belvedere, Vienna, eighteen pictures; Lichtenstein Gallery, Vienna, the famous picture of "The Sons of Rubens," and three others; Madrid Museum, twenty-one pictures, among which is the famous "Brazen Serpent" and other fine works; Louvre, Paris, thirty-four pictures, among which are those of the life of Marie de Medici and several important portraits; Dulwich Gallery, portrait of his mother, and "Venus, Mars, and Cupid": National Gallery, London, twelve pictures; Hermitage, St. Petersburg, thirty-five pictures.

[These are but a small portion of Rubens' works, but are those most easily seen by travelers.]

CHICAGO, ILL., Oct. 5, 1882.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We all like the ST. NICHOLAS very much. It is almost fought for here. We all want to read it first. Several years ago we used to "take turns" looking at the pictures, and then I would read the stories aloud. We found that was the only way to keep from fighting for it.

But sometimes, when I got to the most interesting places, I would be so interested that I would forget to read aloud, and read on to myself. My brothers did n't like that very much. Just the other day, when the September number came, I was reading ST. NICHOLAS, and Ma called me to supper, and I put the book on my chair, and sat on it while I ate my supper. When my brother finished his supper he (as he says) "made a sneak over to the window where I had been sitting, and grabbed the ST. NICHOLAS he saw there. I was "laughing in my sleeve," for I knew it was an old one. Imagine his chagrin when he found it was one he had read!

We were much interested in "Donald and Dorothy," and sorry to have it end. I always feel as if I had lost a friend when the story ends. Yours respectfully, DAISY M. BROWN.

LEWISBURG, W. VA.

DEAR. ST. NICHOLAS: My brothers Mason and Charlie commenced to take ST. NICHOLAS eight years ago, when I was only one year old. "If nothing happens" I expect we will take it a long time, for I have three little sisters younger than myself, and a baby brother just six months old. We have had five volumes bound, and Father is going to have the other three bound. I am very sorry our books are so abused, but there are so many little folks to handle them. Mother cut out some of the pictures to frame. I think the picture of Raphael is beautiful. Our father has given us a beautiful little pony; we call her Gypsy.

I hope you will not think I have written too long a letter.
Your little friend,
MARY MILLER MATHEWS.

THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION-TWENTY-THIRD

REPORT.

Now the snows have gone, and the earth is warm again; the birds are singing, and the violets are blossoming in the borders of the wood. What is it? "Lost our reckoning," have we? "Two months too early?" Mercury below zero?" Ah-but, my dear little friends in fur-lined dolmans and warm pea-jackets, you forget that you live only on one edge of the A. A. We are talking about the other-the Californian edge. Everything can't be true everywhere, you know, at the same time. This month we give you a few questions to answer, and, by the way, can't you all sharpen your eyes a bit and find questions tucked in here and there all through the little letters which make up our monthly reports? A good many boys and girls write and ask us to give more questions, just as if questions were n't questions unless arranged in a column and labeled ! You will find a large number in the back numbers of the ST. NICHOLAS for the past six months, not answered yet, either. And now, before we give you the list of new Chapters, we wish to thank our many kind friends who have helped us answer puzzling queries.

Professors in several of our leading colleges, Yale and Harvard, Williams and Cornell; University of Michigan and Maine State College; Amherst and Lafayette; Boston Institute of Technology, and School of Natural History, besides many teachers of academies and high schools and several distinguished specialists, have most generously volunteered their aid in the determination of minerals, the analysis of plants, and the classification of insects and other animals. [Oh, yes; insects are animals-did n't you know that?] To all these gentlemen we return infinite thanks, and now we want still more assistance. A great many shells are sent to us for identification, and if some one who loves conchology, and has books and labeled specimens and check-lists, and all that, would kindly signify his willingness to help us out now and then with the name of some refractory Unio or Lelix; and if some one wise in fossils would allow us to send him an occasional relic of the distant past for identification, it would be a cause for still further gratitude. The Association is working earnestly, growing steadily, and the latest number on our register is 4550.

In September, my little brother Hoza caught a black cricket, and pulled off one of its legs, when a hair-snake commenced to crawl out of the cricket's body. Directly after, another crawled out also. We put them into a bowl of water and kept them about two weeks, when they had increased in size, and to double their former length. Has any one else ever found them in crickets or other insects? ZOA GOODWIN.

[Professor Agassiz, in his "Methods of Study," tells of finding "hair-snakes" in the legs of grasshoppers. He says that they are born in water, work their way thence into the legs of grasshoppers, thence into their stomachs, where they grow until they burst the insect, when they again seek the water. We must confess to an elevation of the eyebrows on first reading this remarkable statement in Prof. A's book-but this little girl's letter is a strong corroboration. If a less distinguished authority had written the book, we should still conjecture that the hair-snakes are born as parasites in the body of the insect. If not, how can they "work their way into the legs of grasshoppers"? We don't think much of a grasshopper that would patiently endure the working-in process.]

One of our members found, in a quarry in Maine, a very curious kind of granite. The minerals which compose granite, instead of being mixed as usual, were in layers-first feldspar, then quartz, and mica on top. MATTIE PACKARD.

I think I can give Mr. Tucker, of Galveston, the name of the fish he mentions. The Torpedo oculata, or Eyed Torpedo. It belongs

Correspondence with view to exchanges. - Robt. G. Leavitt, Sec., Webster, Mass.

The Stroud, England, Chapter desire to thank their American friends for many kind letters and offers of exchange. They are very sorry that they can not, on account of the number, reply to them all. Agatized and petrified wood from the Rocky Mountains.-H. L. Wadsworth, Box 2772, Denver, Col.

We wish to know whether mackerel have scales.-A. A., Drifton, Pa.

Labeled insects, for butterflies.-- C. C. Beale, Faulkner, Mass. Please have the address of East Pittsburgh changed to "J. F. McCune, Broad street, East Pittsburgh, Pa.

REPORTS FROM CHAPTERS.

Would n't it be delightful to make a visiting tour among our four hundred Chapters, shake hands with our five thousand earnest workers, inspect the growing cabinets, and ask and answer the many questions which start to the lip? Well, suppose we start! and here we are at Bryan, Ohio. Miss Ethel Gillis, the Secretary of Chapter 323, meets us and tells us that the Chapter is prospering finely, and shows us a new scrap-book, which it is proposed to fill with choice clippings. She does n't say much about Bryan -not as much as we would like to hear- but we shall have time for that by and by. Her Chapter has been grappling with the geode question, and concludes that "water deposited small particles of sand in hollow cavities, which in time became hardened," but there was a minority report from one who thinks that they were the homes of some species of insect, and formed of mud, which has become petrified.

But to

But Bryan is far behind us, and we are in State College, Pennsylvania. By the way, how much geography we can learn by finding on the map the home of each Chapter! We might take a map of the United States and make a red dot on each town represented. The map would look as if it had been sprinkled with red pepper. return: Mr. George C. McKee thinks it is "bad news " that four brave, persevering members are keeping up their interest in the A. A., when "seven of twelve have resigned, and one gone away on a long visit." By no means! Four zealous workers are better than a hundred half-hearted ones. A Chapter never loses anything by pruning.

What a leap! A sniff of salt air, a long ocean voyage in a second of imagination, and we stand in Yokohama, Japan. "I have read with great interest," says H. Loomis, in regard to the A. A. I have made a collection of butterflies. This is a wonderful country for the study of nature. To visit the fish-market is like going to a museum. I got here a fish of a very odd shape. It is about an inch and a half long, and covered with a hard scaly or bony substar.ce. I should be glad to correspond with any who desire to obtain specimens of wood, fishes, butterflies, etc.'

Home again, and in Newport, R. I. F. J. Cotton kindly shows us the fine cabinet of his Chapter. We notice especially the large collection of insects, and the skulls of a sheep, a cat, a rat, and a turtle. They have found that horneblende is in nearly every stone wall in the vicinity, and have discovered poison ivy hanging its green flowers as high as seven feet from the ground. We are much pleased by a little salt-water aquarium, which seems to be prospering well, and are quite astonished to see a yellow warbler's nest of four stories. Every boy knows that when the mischievous cow-bunting lays her cumbrous eggs among the dainty treasures of the yellow warbler, that resolute bird sacrifices her own, and seals them and the intruder in a common tomb by building a second nest right on top of the old one. But who else ever found a case like this, where the patient warbler had built her nest four times over?

From Rhode Island to Kansas without a jar or a jolt! Willie Plank says this is the town of Independence, and that the Chapter is progressing. At every meeting essays are read, and he has collected individually nearly one hundred plants.

While stopping at Independence, we get a letter from Boston,

Mass., in which Miss Edith Buffum tells us that Chapter 261 has increased its membership to twenty-two, and that it is known among its members as the "Wood, Field, and Shore" Chapter.

"

Now for a pleasant little visit at Ottumwa, Iowa, where is one of the most ancient and honorable of our Chapters, No. 15, nearly two years old! The enthusiastic Secretary, Will R. Lighton, says: "Our society is doing splendidly. Thirty-three active and as many honorary members.' "How about those geodes?" we ask. "We have been debating that question. Some of us think one way and some another. Some say, agates are formed by water which holds silica, opal, and the coloring matter of the different layers in solution. This water filters into cavities and deposits its minerals there, and as opal does not crystallize, the silica also is prevented from forming its crystals. Now, agate geodes must be formed in the same way, the only difference being that in the geode there is no opal, and consequently the quartz crystals develop perfectly. What seems to be a proof of the non-intervention of animal or vegetable life is the formation of a cave. Mammoth Cave, for instance, is nothing but a monstrous lime-stone geode. Another proof is that geodes are found in traprocks, which were formed before life appeared on the earth.'

While we are in Iowa, and thinking of geodes, we must step over to Waverly without fail, and have a chat with Mr. L. L. Goodwin, who has sent so many fine specimens to different members of the A. A. My first acquaintance with geodes," he says, "was about seven years ago. Finding them closely associated with other forms of animal life, I jumped to the conclusion that they were of animal origin. Since the question was first asked in ST. NICHOLAS, I have given the subject more careful attention, and am fully convinced that my first impression was correct. I find in their immediate vicinity, above, below, and around them, shells, bivalve and univalve, fishes, and other sorts of animal remains. The geodes are nearly all of the same general form, as much so as any class of animals, and of all sizes from peas to pumpkins, showing growth. The small ones vastly preponderate, as the young always outnumber the old in all sorts of animals. clude, therefore, that when these limestone bluffs were first formed from soft mud, the sediment retained the animals whose remains we now find in the rocks, and among others, doubtless some animal of a fleshy or cartilaginous body, perhaps having a thin, frail shell like a sea-urchin, of solidity sufficient to hold the sediment in place until it hardened. Then the whole body wasted away, a concretionary shell having formed around it, and during the succeeding ages this shell became lined with beautiful crystals."

On our way home, we look in upon a Chapter very recently organized in Galesburg, Ill., Charles F. Getlemy, Secretary. Their cabinet already contains a number of insects. The boys are making new cabinets, and " preparing for a busy, delightful time in the near future." They are also collecting cocoons, and intend to watch the moths and butterflies "hatch out." Coming back to Lenox, we are just in time to take from the post-office the following condensed reports from Chapters assigned to John F. Glosser, Berwyn, Pa.: The members of Chapter 126, East Philadelphia, now wear their new solid silver badges.Chapter 109 (C), Washington, D. C., has a new constitution and by-laws. From the editor's book, which is read at each meeting, we make the following extracts: "Sapphires include the ruby, topaz, and amethyst.' "The distinction between rocks and minerals was first noted by Cronstedt in 1758." "Silver can be hammered into sheets 1-1000,000 of an inch thick." [One millionth. of an inch thin, we should say.] "The ash tree puts on its leaves earlier and sheds them later than any other tree.'

While, as will be readily judged from the foregoing reports, the A. A. is highly prosperous, it, of course, has happened in regard to a comparatively few Chapters that the reverse is true. The following have been discontinued: Nos. 3, 4, 61, 84, 88, 94, 112, 122, 136, 158, 162, 244, and 341. Various causes have been assigned; removal from town, graduation from school, dying out of enthusiasm, internal dissension. The law of the "survival of the fittest holds good with our society, whether it does in nature or not. The years are an excellent filter, and through them come the boys and girls of real earnestness of purpose, and strength of perseverance. It must needs happen that times of dullness come to every Chapter. Then is the time for hardest work and most faithful endeavor. Let the drones drop out, let the disaffected go their way, but let the workers stick to it, even if, as in one or two cases we could name, only one member remains in a Chapter. By and by, others will again catch his inspiration, and the Chapter will grow larger and more prosperous than ever. You may ask the Secretary of Albany "A" if this is not so! By the way, if any Chapter does feel that it can not longer hold together, it will do us a great favor, and save the whole association confusion, if it will kindly notify the President promptly of its own decease. All communications are to be sent to

HARLAN H. BALLARD,

Principal of Lenox Academy, Lenox, Mass.