We were rather afraid of punishment, at least by being sent supperless to bed; and I think we never loved grandma so much as when, calling us into the kitchen, she gave us one of the best suppers we ever had in our lives.
All that was ever said to us was said by grandpa the next morning, with a comical twist of his eye. "Boys, when you want another hornets' nest, you needn't go quite so far after it. There's a splendid one over the northeast end of the barn."
The Davises had a man with a wonderful magic lantern that day.
[THE "PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR."]
BY SARAH COOPER.
Some one has probably imagined that this curious floating animal looks like a Portuguese war vessel, and on that account has given to the innocent and defenseless creature a name which seems to us very inappropriate. We will not be dismayed, however, by a forbidding name, for the graceful animal is not in the least warlike. I hope you may all have the pleasure some day of seeing one floating over the sea like a fairy vessel, not minding the winds or the storms. You will be delighted with its beauty, and you will wonder how so frail a bark can withstand the waves.
When we examine it we shall find it to be a transparent pear-shaped bladder, about nine inches long, throwing off like a soap-bubble bright blue colors tinged with green and crimson. On top of the bladder there is a wavy rumpled crest of delicate pink. This may perhaps act as a sail.
PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.