the players misses it or makes a "fault," which consists in failing to return the ball into the opposite court, whereupon the other player scores "ace"- that is, fifteen.

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The server now changes to the base-line of his own left court, and serves the ball as before, but into the left front court of the striker-out. The next stroke, if won by the previous winner, raises his score to thirty, the next to forty, and the fourth is game." But the other player may have won sundry strokes, and the two may have forty at the same time. The score in such case stands, "deuce all." The next stroke won scores "vantage" for its player-" vantage in " when in favor of the server, 66 vantage out" when in favor of the striker-out; but if the next falls to his opponent the score returns to "deuce," and so on, returning to "deuce," until one of the players wins two strokes in succession. This ends the first game.

The second is opened by the striker-out of the first, who becomes server, and so alternately in the successive games. A "set" consists of eleven games. Therefore, the player who first scores six games wins the set. If both players win five games, the score is called " games all," and the winner of the next game scores "vantage game." If he lose the next game thereafter, the score goes back to "games all," and so on until one or the other wins two games in succession.

In three and four-handed tennis the court is of the same length (seventy-eight feet), but is thirty-six feet wide, and the net should, therefore, be forty

two feet long, so as to extend beyond the side-lines, as in the case of the smaller court. The dotted lines in diagram show the plan of the large court.

The same general rules of play apply, but with a few necessary changes. Suppose, for instance, that the four distinguished personages mentioned in the famous royal game referred to, were to undertake a set at modern tennis: Charles V. and Henry VIII. against the Prince of Orange and the Marquis of Brandenburg. Charles would serve the first game; Orange, the second; Henry, the third, and Brandenburg, the fourth. The two not serving or striking-out would act as "fielders," watching for unexpected strokes, or trying to make good the failures of their respective partners.

If it were a three-handed set, as, for instance, Henry against Orange and Brandenburg, then Henry would serve the first game; Orange, the second; Henry, the third, and Brandenburg, the fourth; Henry, the fifth, and so on.

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There are scores of "tricks and customs" that can only be learned by experience. The ball may be tossed or sent straight and swift over the net, or cut," ," that is, given a rotary motion, so that its rebound will be at a perplexing angle. Every player has individual peculiarities, and almost all have some weak point of play which the keen server or observer soon finds out. It is impossible to describe all these here; but enough has been said to enable any one to begin his tennis practice with some understanding of the fine qualities of this truly royal game.

Two little girls, with checked sun-bonnets on their heads and tin pails in their hands, were walking along the sidewalk of a certain town in Maine. One was named Lizzie Pulsifer, and the other Hannah Cooke. Lizzie was eight years old; so was Hannah. I would mention the name of the town, but they are both women now, with little girls of their own, and they might not like to be laughed at. Did I tell you it was a spring morning? Well, it was in early May. When they reached Fred Starke's house, Fred, who was out in the yard, screamed:

"Good-morning, girls! where are you going?" "We 're going blueberrying," said Hannah. "Ha! ha! ha!" was Fred's reply. "I hope you'll get your pails full. Blueberrying! Ha! ha! ha!" "Well, I think we shall," replied Lizzie. "I know where they used to be very thick."

"You do!" said Fred. "I hope they will be thick now. You'd better go fishing. That's what I'm going to do." And he turned away, still laughing heartily.

When they left Fred, the girls walked along quietly again until they reached the railroad.

"We shall have to walk along on the track a little way," said Hannah; "but we can watch for trains."

They walked for some time, stepping from sleeper to sleeper, until Lizzie saw smoke in the distance. Hannah said it was a train coming, and that they must hurry off the track as fast as they could. So, long before the train arrived, they had climbed a fence and were in a pretty pasture on the edge of the woods.

There they looked around for blueberries. They found plenty of lovely pink-and-white arbutus (or, as they called them, May-flowers), and great bunches of purple violets, and white houstonias with their yellow eyes, and ground-nut blossoms; and on bushes which looked, Hannah said, very much like blueberry bushes, they found pretty, white, bellshaped flowers, just tinted with pink, but they could n't find any blueberries. They picked the young checkerberry leaves which were just peeping out of the ground; and, at last, getting bolder, they strayed a little way into the woods and gathered some lovely ferns. But not a blueberry was

to be seen.

"It 's queer," said Hannah. "I wonder where the blueberries are. I know this is the place where they used to be so thick, 'cause that's the very stump Mother climbed over. She could n't climb the fence anywhere else, you know, 'cause 't was so high. But we 'll keep on searching."

Just then the town-clock, in the distance, struck. "Oh! it's eleven o'clock," exclaimed Hannah, who had counted each stroke aloud, “and Mother told us to be home at twelve. We shall have to start, and we have n't got a single blueberry. What do you s'pose made your Aunt Sarah laugh so, when I asked her if we could stay till we got our pails full ?"

"I don't know," said Lizzie, thoughtfully; "and Fred laughed, too, when we told him we were going blueberrying. What was he laughing at?"

"Oh! I don't know, I'm sure," said Hannah; "he's always laughing. But I don't care. We've had a good time, any way.”

They climbed the fence again, and found themselves close to the ditch by the side of the railroad. The spring rains had filled it with water. They could not resist the temptation to take off their shoes and stockings and wade in it. They were having the best time of all then, when Lizzie exclaimed:

"Hannie, we might catch some fish. See! there's one.

Let's try."

"We have n't any hooks,” objected Hannah. "Well, we might hold our pails and catch some";

and Lizzie held hers against the running water, and, sure enough, she caught a little one that was coming down with the current. “Oh, Hannie! perhaps we can get enough to fry for dinner!” she cried.

She put her fish up on the bank in a safe place, and then she and Hannah went to fishing in good

earnest.

It was rather slow work after that; but, when Hannah had caught three and Lizzie three, they heard the clock striking twelve.

So, with their bunches of flowers, ferns, and checkerberry leaves, and their pails of fish, they started for home. Their dresses were draggled and spattered with muddy water, and they carried their shoes and stockings in their hands. They did not dare to take time to put them on, lest the fish could not be fried for dinner.

"How many blueberries have you picked?” shouted Fred, who was on the lookout for them. "We could n't find the place,” said Hannah; so we thought we'd go fishing, and we've had good luck. Lizzie caught three and I caught three." "What kind are they? -- trout?"

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"Yes, I think so," said Hannah, as she lifted her pail-cover cautiously, for him to peep in.

Fred was well acquainted with the different kinds of fish in the neighboring streams, but, when he saw Hannah's three, he gave a roar of laughter.

"Oh, my!" he screamed. "Trout! What beauties! They'll do to go with the blueberries you did n't get. Oh, dear! that's too rich! Hurry home, girls, or you can't get 'em fried for dinner."

The girls went on, wondering what pleased Fred so much. As Lizzie went up the hill to her uncle's house, she thought she heard a loud laugh from Hannah's father. As she went in at the back door, she met her Uncle James, who was just coming out.

"I never saw such a laughing time as this is!" said Hannah to him, with a rather resentful pout. "But I don't care. We 've caught some trout for dinner. There are three-one for you, one for Aunt Sarah, and a little one for me. It wont take long to fry 'em, will it?"

"No, I guess not," said Uncle James. "Let's see," and he opened the pail.

Then he laughed boisterously.

THE armadillos are

the mail-clad warriors of nature; and the most completely armored of the whole odd family of armadillos is a beautifully ornamented little fellow called by the naturalists Tolypentes, and, by the Brazilians, "bolita." "Bolita" means "little ball," and the armadillo was so named because it has the power of rolling itself up into the shape of a ball. Its various shields are so arranged that when the bolita rolls itself up, it makes a perfect ball of hard shell.

A traveler in Brazil tells of watching some little children at play tossing a large ball, about the size of a foot-ball. When they were tired of the game they threw the ball on the ground, and to his surprise it turned into an animal, and ran hastily away. It was one of these little armadillos.

The same traveler says that he has seen these animated balls used by a little child in playing with a kitten. The game may have annoyed the bolita, but it could not have caused it any injury, because of the perfect protection afforded by its armor.

It has need of all the protection it can have,

for it lives in a land where the mischievous monkey is plentiful. Anybody who has seen monkeys teasing each other, will be able to gain some idea of the torment the slow-witted armadillo must undergo as it is passed about from one to another of a party of monkeys. When Tolypentes is set upon by the frolicsome monkeys, however, it suddenly curls up, and is safe within itself. The baffled tor

mentors turn it over and over, looking in great astonishment for the tail they know must be there. If Tolypentes had any sense of humor he would certainly laugh heartily within his shell at the chattering, grinning crowd gathered about him.

As the bolita, like the other armadillos, burrows in the earth, it has forefeet suitable for that work. Its toes are armed with long and hard claws, which enable it to dig with wonderful quickness. Instead of walking upon the flat part of its front feet, the bolita walks upon the tips of its toes, and in doing so looks comically dainty and mincing. At the same time it can move with much more swiftness than would be supposed.

The armadillos live only in South America, and are all small in size compared to the gigantic armadillo that lived ages ago. The largest now living is not more than three feet long, while that of former ages was as large as a big dining-table.