One doll-y, one;

O, now we 'll have fun!

Two doll-ies, two; There's room here for you.

Three doll-ies, three; Here, take t' oth-er knee. Four doll-ies, four;

Just room for one more.

Five doll-ies, five; O-ho! sakes a-live!

Six doll-ies, six; Well, well! what a fix!

Sev-en doll-ies, sev-en; Don't scare up e-lev-en. Eight doll-ies, eight; Hi, hi! you 're too late.

School-ma'am assures me that Monsieur Cornu, as this astronomer is called, has sent a full account of the rainbow to the French Academy of Sciences. Now, this academy is n't a boys' and girls' school, pray understand, but an institution for grown people. The Deacon says it's an academy where the sciences themselves go to school, but that must be only his odd way of stating it.

ABOUT SLATE-PENCILS.

WELL, well, it 's delightful to ask you young folk a question; for straightway your replies come pouring in! I wish you could read all the letters that came to settle the slate-pencil question; but as that is not practicable, I must be content with thanking the good writers thereof - one and all — and reading to you these two letters selected from the budget:

WAWARSING, N. Y., May 30, 1884. DEAR JACK: In the June number of ST. NICHOLAS you asked where slate-pencils come from.

Slate-pencils are of two kinds--slate and soap-stone. Soap-stone, or steatite, is a variety of talc, which is a mineral of a light-green color, and greasy to the touch. It is used as a blackboard crayon.

The deposit of soap-stone from which our pencils come is at Castleton, Vermont. The mineral is worked immediately after it is quarried, as it would become hard and brittle from exposure to the air. The stone is split, and sawn into small pieces, and then split again into pieces about seven inches long by one wide, and one-third of an inch thick. After undergoing the successive operations of planing, rounding, sawing, and sharpening, about one one-hundredth of the original stone appears in the form of pencils. The waste is used in the manufacture of paper.

There is a variety of slate called "graphite slate," which is used for tracing lines, and when of sufficiently good quality, as a drawing Respectfully, NORMAN T. SAUNDERS.

crayon.

DEAR MR. JACK: I would like to reply as briefly as I can to your query in the June ST. NICHOLAS regarding slate-pencils.

Broken refuse slate is used mostly in their manufacture. A large quantity is put into a huge mortar, and pounded into small particles. It next goes into the hopper of a mill; thence into a bolting-machine, from which it comes out as fine as flour. It is then mixed with a small quantity of pulverized soap-stone, and the whole is kneaded into a stiff dough, by passing it through rollers.

This dough is now made into charges- that is, short cylinders, four or five inches thick, and containing from eight to ten pounds each. Some of these are placed in a retort with a changeable nozzle, so as to regulate the size of the pencil, and subjected to tremendous pressure, which pushes the mixture through the nozzle in a long cord, like a slender snake, passing it over a table, slit at right angles with the cords, to give passage to a knife which cuts them into the proper lengths.

Next comes the drying, which occupies a few hours; and they are then ready for the baking process, after which they go to the finishing-room, where rapidly revolving emery wheels smooth and point them ready for use. Yours truly, E. M. C.

A STRANGE SEA VOYAGE.

MARCH 20, 1884DEAR JACK: ST. NICHOLAS told some funny stories about birds getting rides on the backs of fishes, and I saw a strange thing a few days ago. As the steamer Gate City was coming from Savannah, the captain thought he saw a wreck. He steered the ship over to it, and it proved to be a very large dead whale floating on the water, with its side high and dry, and on top of him was a big sea turtle stealing a ride. Did you ever hear of such a funny sea voyage? Yours respectfully,

A HEN CONQUERS A RAT.

A. L. H.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 6, '84DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT: Our daily paper contains this morning such an interesting account of a brave hen defending her chickens that I am going to copy part of the story, so that you may show it to all the other ST. NICHOLAS boys. The paper says it is a true story and that the hen is California born and bred, which of course pleases me, for I am a San Francisco boy.

"The hen," says our writer, "while scratching with her brood of chickens recently, was charged upon by a full-grown rat. She immediately gathered her flock and awaited the onslaught. The rat, somewhat checked by her bold front, crouched for a moment, and then made a dart for one of the chicks. In an instant the old hen

flew at her enemy, and striking it with her bill, grabbed it by the back and threw it in the air. The rat came down with a thump upon the walk, but before it could regain its feet the hen repeated the performance, and kept it up until the rat was only able to crawl away a few feet and die. After contemplating her foe for a few moments, the old hen called her brood around her and walked off."

That's what I call pluck, for I can tell you it is not every hen

that will face a full-grown rat. Rats steal chickens sometimes from right under their mothers' noses. If that hen had been born in ancient

Rome instead of in California, I suppose we all should be learning

the story from our Roman histories. Capitol was n't a circumstance to her.

The goose that saved the Your admiring friend, WALTER G. B.

OIL ON THE TROUBLED WATERS.

ELIZABETH, N. J. DEAR JACK: I read in Cassell's Magazine that a Scotch gentleman, Mr. Gordon, of Dundee, had invented a shell which would distribute a large quantity of oil over the sea, so as to calm the stormy waves. The writer goes on to say that this shell can be fired from a mortar, and that it is fitted with two fuses, which are set alight by the explosion in the gun, and burn although the shell is under water. On the bursting of the shell, the oil spreads over the surface, producing smooth water. The plan, he adds, was recently tried with success; the object being to still the sea between two ships in order to let a boat pass from one to the other.

Now, this idea seemed to me so excellent that I immediately pro

ceeded to experiment for myself. I filled our bath-tub nearly full of water, and then, after lashing the miniature sea into fury, I poured a bottleful of oil upon it, and lo! the waves subsided beautifully. So far, so good; but there was another storm raised in that otherwise happy home which I prefer not to describe in this letter. Yours respectfully,

JOHN L.

P. S. How was I to know that olive oil costs like sixty?

THE BUSY BEE.

ONE of the girls of the Red School-house has had a present of an apron, I hear, and Deacon Green has written her a verse in honor of the occasion.

THE BUSY WASP.

TALKING of the busy bee, it seems that my friend Sir John Lubbock, the patient and painstaking British naturalist, has had the boldness to pry into certain personal matters of insect life. In short, he has been timing a bee and a wasp to find out which insect was the smartest; and lo, and behold! the wasp came out ahead-left the busy bee nowhere, in fact. You shall read the very account which has been sent to my pulpit:

"As regards the industry of wasps, Sir John Lubbock timed a bee and a wasp, for each of which he provided a store of honey, and he found that the wasp began earlier in the morning (at four A. M.) and worked on later in the day. This particular wasp began work at four in the morning, and went on without any rest or intermission till a quarter to eight in the evening, during which time she paid Sir John one hundred and sixteen visits."

A FEW SIMPLE GARDEN QUESTIONS.

WHAT very common and well-known leaf bears the letter V plainly marked in lighter green on its surface? What leaf bears a mark resembling a horseshoe?

What flower carries a well-formed lyre which can be discovered by gently pulling the flower apart?

What blue flower bears well-imitated bumblebees?

What double flower seems formed of tiny dovelike things meeting their bills?

What graceful leaf grows its seed on its under surface?

Can any one find two blades of ribbon-grass exactly alike?

Please address "Jack-in-the-Pulpit," in care of THE CENTURY COMPANY, 33 East Seventeenth street, New York.