"The flowers are now withered," said Ellen, and she threw them out
of the window.

So there lay the Water-Lily with its fine white petals on the dirty
ground.



POWDER-POST

By C. A. Stephens

There is a tiny borer which eats seasoned oak wood, boring
thousands of minute holes through it till it becomes a mere shell,
and turning out a fine white powder known among country folk as
"powder-post." When a shovel or a pitchfork-handle snaps suddenly,
or an axe-helve or a rake's tail breaks off under no great strain,
the farmer says, "'Twas powder-post."

If this small pest obtains lodgment in a barn, or in the oak finish
or furniture of a house, it is likely to do a vexatious amount of
damage, and no practicable method of checking its ravages has been
found. Varnishes do not exclude it. Boiling will kill the borer,
but furniture and wainscotings are not easily boiled.

From the frames of old buildings, when of oak, powder-post will
sometimes run in streams when a beam or brace is struck.

But everything has its virtues, if only they can be found out; and