THE INTELLIGENT PARROT.
Have a parrot, or other bird, carved and painted, with simple springs to make the head turn and the mouth to open, mounted on a hollow shelf against the wall.
Through its body, one leg, the hollow shelf, and thence through the wall, into an adjoining apartment, where your confederate can overhear, run a tube with a mouthpiece, to which the lips or a bellows can be applied.
On pretty Polly being addressed, she will whistle, sing, scream at command, and answer to sensible questions.
CLOVES.
Cloves are the unopened flowers of a small evergreen tree that resembles, in appearance, the laurel or the bay. Each clove consists of two parts, a round head, which is the four petals or leaves of the flowers rolled up, enclosing a number of small stalks or filaments. The other part of the clove is terminated with four points, and is, in fact, the flower-cup, and the unripe seed-vessel. All these parts may be distinctly shown if a few leaves are soaked for a short time in hot water, when the leaves of the flowers soften, and readily unroll.
DANDELION RING CHAINS.
Pull some dandelions with long stems and cut off the flowers. As the stems are hollow, the upper or smaller end can be bent round to enter the other, so making a link, of a number of which a chain can be formed.
IMMORTELLES.
When fresh, scrape the flower leaves with a blunt knife to make each petal curl.