ally draws out his long legs and pretty wings. When he has plumed his feathers, so to speak, away he goes across the field-sometimes stalking along in a most haughty manner on his great stilts, and sometimes making use of his wings-in search of his bride. With his two great faceted eyes and his three ocelli, or simple ones, he soon spies out her whereabouts, even among the clouds of relatives, gnats, &c., which hover near the quiet stream wandering through his native meadow. Her graceful tapering body is her chief charm in his eyes, for his own is comparatively short and stumpy. Perhaps with his long feathery antennæ he whispers sweet words of love. Her own are much shorter than his, and so plain, therefore she holds him in admiring awe and bends her blushing cheek to the sweep of his graceful moustaches. Very brief is their wedded happiness. They must make the most of their long legs and gauzy wings during their short life, or they will see but little of the bright sunlit world they appear to enjoy so much. Behind the two wings is a pair of tiny organs looking under the microscope like clubs in shape. Some naturalists believe that the sense of hearing or taste is in these halters or poisers, as they are termed. Another use for them is satisfactorily ascertained which is, that they act as balancers to steady the insect in its flight, in much the same manner as the long pole serves to make Blondin secure on his high rope. If one of the poisers is cut off, the Daddy Long-legs flies on one side; if both be removed, the insect cannot fly at all. For the Crane-fly the loss of these organs would be a serious affair, especially as it is so prone to lose its legs. With not a leg to stand upon and halters gone the creature would be in such a sorry plight that perhaps the best thing that could happen to it would be for a bird to come along and with its beak put ant end to the misery of poor Daddy or Jenny as the case might be. "Go, child of pleasure, range the fields, Taste all the joys that spring can give ; A DOMESTIC MINSTREL. THE happy homes of England are proverbial. In no other country is domestic comfort so much thought of or appreciated as in our own dear land, and, probably, the humble roof of the fairly wellto-do working man covers a family circle which for affection and peaceful happiness is often to be envied by those who are on a higher rung of the social ladder. A large, clean, comfortable kitchen, with the kettle singing merrily on the glowing fire, the table piled with nicely-cut slices of bread-andbutter, and the teapot expecting every moment to receive into its bosom the passionate outpouring of the kettle's surging contents, is a picture of home comfort rarely or never seen out of our island. The bright-faced mother-her hard day's work finished -sits with her knitting ready to welcome her husband. and the children, as they come trooping into the room, some from work and some. from school, all fresh from their evening ablutions. They take their accustomed seats round the homely hospitable board. The heaps of bread-and-butter disappear like magic, giving evidence of healthy appetites. When all have finished, "many hands make light work" in restoring things to their proper places, and soon the happy party are seated, some with sewing, and some with pipes, around the cheerful fire, and with chatter and graver talk the evening passes only too quickly. Should conversation fiag, however, and silence reign for a few minutes among the happy group, a bright chirp is often heard proceeding from the hearthstone. Chirp, chirp, chirp, louder and louder it sounds in the continuing silence; but the moment a word is spoken, or a movement made, it ceases as suddenly as it began. What a cheerful little sound it is! No wonder that the maker of it should be regarded with favour. Its bright ditty always brings to mind such a scene as has been described, and a welcome is always given to the "cricket on the hearth." But what is a cricket? To most people it is |