ousands of miles?

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you, World, at all!
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper inside me seemed to say,
"You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot;
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!"

_Lilliput Lectures._

C--A--T.

FOR THE VERY LITTLE ONES.

Be quiet, good Tabby!
See how still you can be,
For I'm going to teach you
To spell C--A--T.

I'll show you the way
Mother reads it to me:
She looks very sober,
And says C--A--T.

Fred says you can't learn,
But we'll show him that we
Can learn, if we please,
To spell C--A--T.

To what little May said
Tabby did not agree,
And I doubt if she learned
To spell C--A--T.

[Illustration: C--A--T.]

THE GIRAFFE.

The creature which forms the subject of this paper is the giraffe, or
camelopard (_Camelopardalis Giraffa_) noted for its wonderful and
beautiful form and its remarkable habits.

At the first sight of a giraffe, the spectator is struck by its
enormously long neck, and will naturally ask himself how it is
supported, and how its mobility is preserved. Every one who has the
least acquaintance with anatomy is aware that a strong and very
elastic ligament passes down the back of the neck, and acts as a strap
by which the head is preserved from falling forward. In the giraffe
this ligament (popularly called the paxwax) is of great length and
thickness, and is divided into longitudinal halves, and proceeds, not
only down the entire neck, but along the back, nearly to the tail. So
powerful a band requires correspondingly large attachments; and
accordingly we find that the vertebrae of the shoulders send out
enormously long perpendicular processes, which give to the shoulder
that height which is so eminent a characteristic of the animal. To
these processes the ligament of the neck is fastened by accessory
bands, which add both to its strength and elasticity.

The natives of Southern Africa make great use of this ligament, which
is carefully removed and dried. When the native wishes to make a
kaross, or any other article of apparel, he soaks a piece of the
ligament in water, and then beats it with a stone. This treatment
causes it to split into filaments, which can be worked to almost any
degree of fineness, and with these the n