| | The bobolink belongs to the blackbird family, strange to say, as do also the red-winged blackbird and the meadowlark. The bobolink is early to arrive and early to leave. Sometimes by ~ The Boys' and Girls' . SPORTS, STORIES, 'GAMES, PUZZLES, HANDICRAFT, SCIENCE, ADVENTURE, are en dees a JOKES, CARTOONS * BAS One may go to an April Fool party with his mind firmly made up that he will believe nothing he sees or hears, but if the hostess is clever, before that person has been at the party many minutes he will find that, in spite of his resolutions, he's been tricked, and the laugh's on him! For instance, when hé goe% into the house and sees a "Wet Paint" sign on a door, the natural thing to if he thinks be will realize the sign is only part of the April foolishness, for the door is safe and dry. When wraps are taken off, fhe guests will be annoyed to find, upon looking in the mirror, that they 'are perfect frights. Trying to fix up a i bit with powder that turns out to be flour, and trying to see their back {hair in a handglass that has a black front, will finally force the truth on them that the mirror is @ distorted the Fourth of July you may see this jet black bird, with back and | wings of white and a buff patch on| his neck, starting from the northern | fields toward the south. The bobo- | links descend in hordes on the rice plantations of 'the South when the grain is in the milk, doing millions of dollars of damage to the crops. The rice-bird, as he is called there, is snared or poisoned and it is com- mon to buy for fifty cents in the markets half a dozen birds that have been shot, pliacked and prepared for the oven. . As the bobolink- travels south his! feathers change to a winter suit of striped brown such as sparrows wear. Those that escape death by the angry owners of the rice-fields go by way of Florida to Brazil for the colder months, The Gay Red-Wing Down among the cat-tails by the water the red-winged blackbird lives and sings his gurgling song. An author of bird stories says that his "Oo-long-tee-eee" sounds as if he bad water in his windpipe! The redwing's like a soldier in a black uniform with scarlet and buff epaulets, or shoulder straps. . His rusty-feathered mate lays eggs in a nest down among the reeds only a few inches above the water's The eggs are laid in May and are pale blue, spotted and blotched. While the red-winged blackbird's family is young, the father sings in a lusty rich voice close beside it, very proud of his babies, He circles about the nest pecking angrily at any passerby whom he always suspects of want- ing to rob him of his fledglings. But by July the fussy father has become a restless family deserter. He flocks away with other birds, leavitig his babes to the care of their mother. >. The meadowlark has a rude habit of turning his back upon us as though he considers his yellow breast with its black crescent too beautiful io gaze upon. Ia Is a ie of protective coloring, or the, Drawnieh mogtled back an wings blend in with'the grasses of the Seids where he lives. His nest, too, is made of grasses, flat on the ound, so it is no wonder the enn allows his mowing machine to pass over the nest, often ruining eggs and all before he sees it. The mate, which is just like the male, is kept securely at home in the nest arched over grass while her husband walks in his stiff, long- d way to a stump or low fence to sing "Spring o' the Year!" his tender, sweet song, | bi .|Behead agai one, which accounts for their odd appearance. 'On the way back down- {stairs some one will be sure to pick up .a lost handkerchief; only to find that it is fastened to a string and was put there to tease trusting folk. And if by that time he hasn't learned to view the party with a mistrustful eye, he may try to pick up a quarter from the floor, which he won't be able to do because it is glued there. When the Table's Turned Soon an April Fool game is started. The hostess gathers a crowd Fround, ber, explaining that {she will be abf€ to tell the name of any musical number her friends select if they will only. beat time silently with their fingers. The hostess leaves Sie room to allow Ber guests to decide upon a popular piece. When she refyrns, all beat time in unison, makihg no sound. The hostess listens, then exclaims that she has guessed it. "What are we playing?" asked the leader. "You are all playing the fooll" is the hostess' reply. Every One Makes a Rhyme A game to play with paper and pencil is Foolish Rhymes. Papers are passed around, the top of each bearing the words: . ZIt happened once on April Fool" Each person adds a second line that rhymes, then, turning down the paper so that what he has written is concealed, he passes the sheet on to the next one, who adds a third rhyming line. When the fourth line is completed, the papers are passed again, then opened and read one at a time. The players have been in« structed to make their lines humor- have passed to him is this: M"It happened orice on April Foal, The Autumn air was fresh and cool, He cried, 'I will not to school!' Fair Alice was a small white mule." below. The oriole'is nota plentiful species of bird, and considering those that are killed in their baby- hood, the eggs that are destroyed when crows, screech owls, grackles and even red squirrels plunder the oriole's nest, it is small wonder that the birds are scarce. Orioles until they are about three years old are usuaily a dull brown- ish orange yellow scolor like their mother, but they turn brilliant in tinie. The oriole's song is a syn- copated tootle. Compared to the sweet music of many other birds of the orchard, it seems that he is the ragtime-singer of the group, throw- ing out a few notes, then pecking for a few minutes at a caterpillar or beetle, and breaking forth again, Oriole eggs are white with fine lines and speckles of black. Cowbird Is Wicked The cowbird'is the disreputable member of the blackbird family. He is a walking bird that follows the cows and feeds upon the parasites on their backs: This blackbird with his "coffee-brown head, neck and breast is shut out from polite society in the bird world because of the law- do is to walk past gingerly, though |- ous, so a sample of what one may : - You should select your most innocent guest to send on the "Fool's Errand." "Wrinisns | HOW TO GIVE A PARTY ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY . plant in the center! The best joke of all at the gary is one patterned after an old Scotc! trick for April Fool. The hostess may call aside some very conscien- tious person and explain that she cannot serve refreshments without some more plates. © She hands him a note to' to a neighbor, tell- ing him that Ye Green will read there what is wanted and give him the things to bring back. The boy starts out, never suspecting that thére is an April Fool sign on his back. At Mrs. Green's door he learns that he must go over to Mrs. Brown's for the dishes, for she has just loaned her best china to her daughter, who js giving a party. Mrs. Brown, it seems, "no ice cream plates, and the note, so she rs, does notask for diner plates, er suggestion is that the next door to Mrs. Smith's. 1 the boy has not "tumbled" by this tim he may continue on his fool's erran until somebody tells him the note explains that those who receive it are to each send the boy on to another person. 'If the guests at "FINE POINTS OF THE GAME the party have been put wise to the trick being played on their com- rade, his §bty-handed return will be greeted with much laughter. Ref Come Next The dining table centerpiece at an April Fool party may on first Flalce seem to be the conventional ket of fruit. On closer inspection it turns out to be a choice collection of assorted vegetables, carefully scrubbed Irish potatoes, carrots, radishes, celeryy even a purple egg- Small menus in front of the places unce these refreshments: STORIES OF PRECIOUS JEWELS THE DIAMOND IS QUEEN OF ALL THE GEMS Chocolate Sundse Oranges Cake Empty plates are passed first. No one person gets the same kind or size. One may receive a bread-and- butter plate, another a soup dish, still another a 'meat platter. When oranges are passed, each guest helps himself from the fruit basket fn which they. are piled. He takes a Spoon at the same time he receives his orange, and the one who passes tells those i served that the oranges are to-bé eaten with the spoon. Then it is discovered that the tops of the oranges come off and the orange shell contains "orange sherbet. What appears to be a platter of chocolate sundaes turns out, when each guest is served to one, to be cones of cake covered with chocolate icing. Since the orange turned out to be the ice cream, and the ice cream the cake, the guests wonder what the cake on the menu will be, About that time little cakes of soap, guest size, are given 'out as favors, A team that sees the ball in tht hands of the opponent nearly all the time will Soon become discouraged) A The ball is the main object of the ; game, therefore the teat that neve gets it, feels that its cause is lost. That is one reason for striving for| possession of the ball--it keeps up the morale of your team at the same time it breaks down that of the opposing one. - Most players form the habit of executing maneuvers on the cour in a certain way. It is for thes habits that a player must watch in! order to check the .opponent. He may find that a player invariably! Jivols in a certain direction. When ¢'has learned this, he can anticipate his opponent's movement and block] Sg a pass. When Mvancing. upon a player, Jou should watch his eyes, just as oxer watches his adversary's eyes. Unless the opponent is experienced,| he will betray the direction in which he intends to throw the ball, and you may see how to block the pass. In dribbling, one way'to evade the opponent is to shift fron one side to the other, as indicated in' the pic- ture above, thus after following your dribble 'on one side for two or three will be thrown off and that is how the bill of fare turns| out. i | * The queen of precious stones is the diamond. It is of greater value thart any other precious stone, and is undoubtedly the most beautiful. In early Greek days the diamond was called adamas, meaning "the unsubduable," because of its hard- ness and resistarice to fire, Pliny, an early writer, gave a description of &, saying it fxtecded i value all uman thin ing the property fit only for Es and not all kings at that, © lessness of the female, who d S her eggs in the nests of other birds, letting various members of the neighborhood hatch and rear her , greedy babies. ; he yellow warbler outwits the cowbird by weaving a new bottom in her nest over the egg that the skulking bird manages to sneak in. Her own speckled eggs 'may be sealed up with it, but she knows if she hatches a 'cowbird that her own youngsters will starve while the in- truder devours all the food she works herself to death to provide for the nest. She may have to sedling up the eggs beneath, and such nests, when found, are very interesting to ne. / PETER PUZZLE SAYS-- Behead a " get an animal, a t a the verb to be. Behead fo cut and get to pefceive. . Behead again get. the object with which you per- weave two or even three floors, |) The illustration shows how dia- monds were once used in England to make frames for painted minia- tures and cameos. The Indian and Arabian stones were at that time the most famous, their hardness being so great that people said if the stones were struck with a hammer, even the iron and anvil would be torn apart, but the diamond would be unharmed. Other superstitions held that the less first dipped in fresh goat's lood. In Brazil in 1727 some one dis- covered that the sparkling stones being used by the negroes for count- ers in their card es were valua- ble diamonds. . Diamond mines were immediatel pied up ad proved a source of w thou, razilian diamonds were not conSidered in Europe to be of equal value to those 3 dia. stone could not be burned away un-|} Australia, thodgh they are but small ones. ? z South "Africa has become the treasure trove of diamonds in recent times. . In 1867 a Dutch farmer bought a bright stone from a native to give to hs children for a play- {thing. A travkler who saw it dis- covered that it was a diamond of value. An investigation of the source proved that a wealth of | diamonds was to be found in the vicinity, Since that time a large part of the diamond supply is brought from the Orange River dis- trict near the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Diamonds are cut in several ways. Two diamonds are securely fastened and rubbed together until each has obtained the desired shape: A "rose- cut" diamond is one which is flat underneath and topped by twelve or more little facets, the uppermost ending in a point. The Orloff diamond in the sceptre of the emperor of Russia has been known through history as one of the largest. One story says it formed the eye of an idol in India and was stolen by a Frenchman: another says it belonged to a. Shak of Persia who was murdered. An Armenian merchant took it to Paris and sold it. Somehow it cage into the possession of Count Orloff, who bought it for the Empress Catherine (for a fabulous sum. The Pitt dia- mond is another with a history. It was mounted in the hilt of the sword of state worn by Napoleon I. These unusually largé diamonds seem to pass eventually into the hands of royalty, for the Austrian royal fam- ily owns the third large: i ke, and L y possesses the Koh-i-noor, which means Mountain of; Light. 'It was mined -near Golconda, so history says, and worn 5,000 years by an Indiag hero. Some sa t the Koh-i-noor and the Orloft diamonds by the Great Mogul. It was cut up into thirds, the last part hays if 'most wonderful diamond Is Hardest Mineral Diamonds are of great importance in the manufacture of other precious stones. Because the diamond is the hardest of all mineral substances, its dust can be used effectively on the other stones. It cuts, polishes and slices other gems. The of a crystal is rounded and used to cut and engrave glass and steel. The black diamond is for i hard rocks. The most desirable is of a pure white<hue, but it Is found in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown and black, The "brilliant" modern, and shows off the beauty of the diamond best. It is cut in faces both at top and bottom, the rincipal face 'of which is flat. There are fifty-eight faces altogether, thirty- two on the top and twenty-four on the back. A yery slight imperfec- tion may greatly lower the value of the diamond. Many - curious superstitions are connected with the diamond. It was, believed to be magnetic, to strengthen Joisons, and sometimes to be capable of driving away mad- ness. The diamond was believed to influence its wearer to be and braves It is especially lucky for all persons born in pril to wéar diamonds. PETER 'PUZZLE SAYS-- . See if yop can solve these B-Head- ings: Behead a stream to make a bird. Behead to flower and get a weaving machine. Bghead some- thing that sweeps and get what it Behead to bat the eye and get part of a chain. Behead again and get a writing fluid. Behead the edge and Set 2 Place Soghate Be- cape. - 2g fom 0 tata s were arts of the same great stone}. own ing beep found in India in 1832, but |re united would have d boring] IN SNOPPYQUOP LAND 4 "SEEMS QUEER © : | cut is the most] the etc," and Cicero is is new South-Easter that there is "nothing in it." (That's wha examined Cicero's head.) Doesn' there in his new spring underwear, his one button art hat and his "FS. The colli a kiddo in the spring, tra a tham---a: 3 hysan floves, a his hand t' chrisanth--er, a call it x rose, T can spell that} flower. w, the corner has got a collie Impossible ! Youth (poetically): "Drink to me ith thi i a can't; I don't wear glasses." - -