logue of his Museum, which his father did very willingly. Then
Charley wrote down in this the name and the native place of each of his
birds, and under this he recorded all his uncle told him about them. He
left besides, under each name, a page or two blank, so that he might
have room to set down whatever else he might find out about them.

All this took his spare hours for several days more, and after finishing
his labels on his Museum and his Catalogue, he felt quite proud of their
orderly and neat appearance and he had good reason to feel satisfied
for they made a very pretty show. Then he invited his father and mother
to walk up and see what he had done, for he had before requested them
not to come up, till he got ready for them. They were both very much
pleased with all his doings, and praised him a good deal. They said,
they hoped that he would be as neat and orderly in all he did, as he had
been here, for it would help him very much in his studies or in his
business matters. They told him there was a good saying, which he had
better write down and put up over his little desk, so that he could
often see it, "A place for every thing, and every thing in its place."
They said, too, it was an excellent plan to write down, as he had in his
catalogue, all the particulars he knew about anything, for he could
understand and remember them better, when they had once been all put on
paper.

[Illustration]

STUFFED SKINS.

"Now, Charley," said Mr. Brown at his next visit, "I've got some new
curiosities for your Museum; that is, stuffed animals. You know I told
you, about your birds, that the skin was taken off carefully and filled
out plumply with some dry, soft substance. Just so it is with these
animals."

[Illustration: ERMINE IN HIS SUMMER DRESS.]

Here, first, look at this Ermine, which, for a very long while, has been
so famous for its beautiful fur, that kings and nobles have paid a
high price for it to trim their robes, This fur in summer is dark
colored, but in winter it is an elegant white, except on the tip of the
tail, where it is jet black.

The Ermine lives in the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds, and it
preys on hares and rabbits and almost every other creature it is strong
enough to master.

I will tell you a story about the Ermine. Mr. Sturgis, of Boston, was
formerly engaged in trading with the natives on the north west-coast of
America, for furs.

The natives had no currency. But