ry practical joke.

* * * * *

Two years ago I visited my native town. Resuming my old place by the barn
window, I gazed across the intervening forest to where Harry used to
stand and signal to me. Tacked up against the window-sill was my old
"signal code," covered with dust and cobwebs. Harry was hundreds of miles
away, carving himself a name among his fellow-men. Of all the friends of
former days, scarcely one remained in the old town. And I could only
wish, with all my heart, that I were once again enjoying my boyhood's
happy hours.

-----

[B] If the buildings should be painted, the flags should
be of a color that would contrast with that of the paint.

JENNIE FINDS OUT HOW DISHES ARE MADE.

Ah! I know something! I know something you girls don't know! I know how
they make dishes what you eat off of; and it's just the same way they
make dolly's dishes, I guess.

Yes, I _do_ know. And I've got some pictures papa _drawed_ for me, too,
and I'll tell you all about them. They're in my pocket right under my
handkerchief. I put them under my handkerchief because I don't want them
to get dirty. I've got some 'lasses candy on top. I haven't got enough,
or I'd give you all some.

Papa took me to a _pottery_. I don't know why they call it a pottery, for
they make cups and saucers, and sugar-bowls, and everything. First the
man took us through the _dressing-room_. I did not see any dresses, nor
anybody dressing themselves. I only saw piles of dishes and men and women
hammering at them. I asked papa why they called it that, and he said,
wait till we come back, for that was the very last of all. So we went on
into the yard. I looked into one part of the building where it was all
dark, with three great chimneys, broad on the ground and narrow high up.
But the man and papa went right on, round to the other side of the
building.

There wasn't anything to see, though, but horses and carts hauling clay,
and great heaps of it on the ground. I wouldn't have called it anything
but dirt, but papa said it was _kaolin_, not exactly dirt, but clay. He
spelt it for me.

There was another of those big chimneys in the yard, only bigger. The man
said that was where they dried the clay. Then he led us to a little door
in the side of the house, and we went in. That brought us into a little
room where they were getting the clay ready.

First there was a sand-screen--like Mike