den worms or small pieces of raw beef. They should be kept in a bright room, but not exposed to the hot summer sun.-RAYMOND L. DITMARS, New York Zoological Park.

A FUNNY ARMOR-PLATED ANIMAL NEW YORK CITY. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Will you please tell me where armadillos live when they are at home, and what they have to eat?

Your true friend,

BAYARD L. MILLS.

The armadillos live exclusively in the warmer parts of the earth. If you were to meet one, you would know it immediately by the peculiar strong, horny plates with which its body is defended, giving it the appearance of an animal enveloped in the plate-armor worn in the time of Charles I. When attacked, these odd animals roll themselves up, wrap their tails round them, and raise the whole array of sharp-edged scales with which their body is covered, and bid defiance to almost any enemy except man. They live on ants and termites, or white ants, as they are called. They capture the insects by thrusting among them their long slender tongues, covered with a gummy substance. When the tongue is covered it is quickly withdrawn, and the ants swallowed. To gain access to the ants, the armadillos are furnished with powerful claws to tear down the dwellings of their prey. The natives

A MUSEUM GROUP OF ARMADILLOS.

of the countries where they live consider them great delicacies when roasted in their shells. R. L. HONEYMAN.

SEVERAL years ago, our family spent a summer in an old, rather dilapidated, farm-house. When we arrived, we found that some one was ahead of us, for a pair of wrens was keeping house in a large untidy nest on the mantel of an unused room.

Never was there a happier pair of housekeepers The mother bird carefully and lovingly warmed the eggs, while her mate proclaimed his happiness to the world. "Nicest nest, nicest mate in the world," he sang, "and woe, woe, woe to any intruder into this Eden."

A short time afterward, we heard a commotion in the neighborhood of the wrens' nest, and, peeping into the room, we saw that the much dreaded "intruder" had come. A pretty, sleek, brown wren had emerged from the depths of an old mirror hanging on the wall. Chirping and twittering angrily, our little minstrel was cling

"ALONG THE WAY." BY CLARA ADDENBROOK, AGE 13. (SILVER BADGE.)

side. Twelve men out of the one hundred won through to the other side. Among the wounded were my grandfather and one great-uncle. On the next attempt to cross, my other two great-uncles were wounded. One of them lay on the battle-field for six days without

she brushed away her tears and tried to cheer herself with a book.

It was Christmas eve, and at twilight the door-bell rang, and Betty ran to open the door. There stood Grandfather and two tall boys who were strangers.

"These are your cousins Bob and Jack," explained Grandfather. Then, as Betty shook hands with the two, he added, "I did n't tell you they were coming because I wanted to give you a pleasant surprise."

A pleasant surprise! Indeed, it was! After the first

And I know it 's Princess Bluebell, and Prince Canter

bury, too:

And sweet Lady Hare-bell with Lord Bell-flower

dancing;

And many, many more, whose names I do not know, But who are, I assure you, most entrancing.

And they dance and sing so gaily, on the garden's grassy floor,

By the candles of a hundred fireflies lighted; And the tinkle, jingle, tinkle, jingle, echoes more and

more,

Till all the tiny insects are affrighted.

But they dance until the morning, till at last the dawn approaches,

When fairy folk must always disappear.

Then with many tiny tinklings and pretty little jinglings, And perhaps from one or two of them a shiny, dew