Boys’ Column.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2041, 11 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Boys’ Column.

A Patriotic Goose. IJv Hope Howard. When our ship was down on the Potomac d nine the war we kept a number of geese on board, which wc fattened fur our table. A lame om- cm uigt hem at tract,cat the attention of ilie sailors, who made a pet of it, and by d 'cocs it came to have the Hourly of the dap-

It made its way into the olneers’ quarters, v.iiiniut their repaint as well. When they usee talking together it would wake up. with (hat m vement of head and neck peculiar to !hs ._n,Mso family, place itself between them, lo ,k from one to not her as if studying their meaning. interject a "Qua, qua” here and t hep *, and till up t) e pauses with a gibberish which was irresistibly funny, am! was always icreivcd with shouts of laughter.

The Cf lose s-cmed catch the subject of our talk. If it wen; Furious, as indeed itoften was in those dark days, all its intonations would be in a corresponding key. deep and guttural. If. on the contrary, we were discussing affairs of lin . :i''ss. it won at exhibit all the import - anc and eiremnstama; of thorough business knowledec. giving advice objecting to prop -dioin. till we wore almost inclined to think the spiiit of it ithschild was within the eo .se. Uni when we were spinning yarns, and relieving the tedium by some jolly stories, then the g0,.-; was in its element, it would fairly seiceii. and its gabble-gabble no( long could sal, lue. We came to look it]mn it as a tanuliar spirit as well a- a disinterested friend. We often threw it off the ship to give it a swim, and I tie fist t inm with misgivings, thinking it might go ashore and escape us, hut it always returned to the ship after a short absence. After it, had been with us some time it seemed lo languish, and wc thought it felt tin; loss of its gou-e-kin. and the goose-ponds with their growth of fungi, and the daily promenades'with the Hock, ami the military drill. Who krew but it was the captain of otieof those, trainbands which we meet in our country rambles, every head and neck str -teh'ed out. as if all were bent on some crave and absorbing purpose ? Sometimes when its tiead dropped, and we seemed to detect an expression of melancholy in the eyes;, we thought, it. might be dreading a courtmartial tor desertion, and consequent punishment.

After bolding ;i council of war over it. we agreed, painful as il would be to us, to part with it. We wore about to leave on a three necks’ cruise to provision ships and cun-boats alone the line. We enlaced a fanner, opposite wnose Imm-slcad our ship lay. to care for it. and ioddingit an affectionate farewell, sent it ashore at the last moment before we set sail.

Our round of duty completed, wc returned to our old auchm-agc. The Potamao was at that time swarming with ships of every sue and build. We would have thought it only a practised eye which could select one from many others gathered there. Judge of our surprise when, arriving within sight of the farmer’s house, we discovered our pet about mid-way between the shore and ship, making for ns in hot haste. Its jov seemed so ecstatic that at times it rose in’the water and Happed its wings, making the spray rise like a water-spout. When taken on board it went from one to another ot the officers and crew, running its bead into their hands, (ina-gnaapraing. gabble-gabble-gabbling, and saying in unmistakable language that, it preferred a sea life to that on shore : that the lime it bad lived with us had convinced it that a life on the ocean wave and the society of the ward-room had elevated it above the corn-crib and the goose-pool, and its aspirations were for companionship of a higher kind, and a possible Admiral’s rank in the bright future. Ant Lore. "Stop, do -top, Halliol Sec what you are doing! I’d try to be less awkward, if! were you."

lie’s kickiny up a dreadful dust,” said Elmore. *• He’s destroyin'; a whole city with all its wealth, ami may even be killing whole families, babies and all." lioth boys looked at Pncle Prank in a horrified way, and then looked quietly and curiously at the ground. “ It's only an old ant hill, unelc.” “ Only an ant hill 1 And what is that but a city of many thousand people, a lew hundred times smaller than you, it is true, but alive and capable uf feeling and planning and working." “1 believe you about the numbers—Just see them swarm! lint weren't you jokiuy about the wealth of the city? 1 don't sec any hanks and stores.” There were banks and stores, nevertheless and all this year's crops and yoods in them.” The boys looked, rather than asked what kind of yoods were in an ant hill. “ There was stored in that city what was worth as much to its owners as your own father's stock of groceries and hank account to him—wheat seed, crumbs of bread, grain and sugar, shreds of meat, dead buys, etc., enough to last all winter. Suppose you lake all the provi-ions out of Melbourne .' ’ ‘■Well,” said repentant ll.al, "I'll bring them my pockets full of wheat and tilings, and that will pay them all back,” All, perhaps, but the trouble of assorting and storing them." “Storing’ Storing? Po they go tu that trouble ?'" ■■ Docs unir papa in his store mix Hour and hams and coffee and groceries together.’ Fancy these ants mixing crumbs of bread, grain’, dead liies. bits of sugar or apple, and dried insects all together I They have a place for everything, and put every thing in its place " . ■• 1 ’>; 1 1 what about the babies “ Don't you see those white things they are carrying away?"

•• They are grains of rice, I suppose." “ They are nothing ~f the kind, hut baby aids being carried to a place of safety." •• i'd hate awfully to be one of their babies, and get .nothing for breakfast but dried bugs and < o ; weed seeds.” M istaken again, Their babies are fed on the sweetest and richest of milk.” ■> Can these, fellows carry milk, too. orhavc they milkmen as well as banks and stores •■ better than that; they keep their own cows—the aphis, a kind of plant louse, which exudes drops of honey-like fluid just adapted to baby ants. They watch these creatures—sometimes they shut them up to keep them from rnnmng off—and milk them by pressing the body with their forefeet.” " I'll watch, what 1 kick after this.” *• And remember Uotl made the ants as well as you.”