masts are "stepped" (_i. e._, put in) before
the launching occurs. But practically a ship is first launched, and then
shears are rigged, and she is fitted out with her spars.

[Illustration: "A LITTLE MISER."]

LIVING HONEY-COMBS.

BY CHARLES MORRIS.

"Isn't it queer what dumb things animals are?" asked Harry Mason, as he
looked up inquiringly into the face of his uncle. "Here's my dog Roger;
why, he knows nothing except to hunt for bones, and to bark at tramps.
And there are the cows, and the horses, and the pigs--what do they know
that's of any account? I'd like somebody to tell me that."

"They know enough to know when dinner is ready, and I could not say that
for some boys that I am acquainted with," replied his uncle,
quizzically.

"Oh yes, that's me, I know," rejoined Harry, laughing. "But that's
because I have something else to think of. Now they don't think of
anything but their dinners. And they are always eating. That's about all
they live for."

"Perhaps they think more than you imagine, Harry," said his uncle,
looking down from his arm-chair which he had leaned back comfortably
against a tree. "They don't talk, it is true; but they have other ways
of showing their thoughts. I could tell you some stories about the good
sense of animals that would open your eyes."

"Oh yes, about elephants squirting water all over a tailor, and that
sort of thing," said Harry, disdainfully. "I have read all that. But I
mean something else. Why can't they build themselves houses, like men
do, with chimneys and fires? And why don't they have farms, and roads to
travel in, and barns?"

"And cows to milk?" broke in little Willie Mason; "and somebody to work
for them and to fight for them--and--and pies, and candy, and such?"

Uncle Ben looked down with a comical expression upon the eager little
fellow, with his bright young face and his sparkling blue eyes.

"Perhaps they do," he said.

"Oh, now, Uncle Ben!" cried Harry and Willie in chorus. "You're only
funning now. Who ever heard of cows building houses?"

"I didn't say cows," replied Uncle Ben.

"But there can't be any animal that builds houses and barns, and raises
crops," persisted Harry.

"Indeed there is, then," rejoined his uncle. "And milks cows, too, and
has armies and workmen, as Willie says; and builds roads and bridges,
and digs tunnels, and carries umbrellas. I don't know any that bakes
pies, but I could name more than one that lives