Those wise folk, the botanists, call our goblin tree by its odd Indian name of the "Yucca" palm. [Illustration: THE YUCCA PALM.] This plant of the desert for a long time was considered valueless. But not long ago it was discovered that the fiber of the Yucca could be made into an excellent paper.[E] And now one of the great English dailies, the London _Telegraph_, is printed upon paper made from this goblin tree. Indeed, the _Telegraph_ has purchased a large plantation in Arizona, merely for the purpose of cultivating this tree, and manufacturing paper from it. So, you see, the Yucca is now a newspaper plant. ONE MORE LIVING BAROMETER. DEAR JACK: As you have told us so much about living barometers, I want to tell you that I have one. Mine is a red squirrel. Just before a "cold snap" she will be surly and sleepy. When she is angry, she will spread her lower teeth apart. She will play like a kitten. I call her Gipsy, and she is my chief pet. Your constant reader, M. M. M. [Footnote E: For an article describing the manufacture of paper, see ST. NICHOLAS for August, 1884, page 808.] EDITORIAL NOTES. In a note which accompanied the article in our present number, "When Shakspere was a Boy," Miss Kingsley desires us to state that she owes much valuable information about charms (mentioned on page 488), and also about Shaksperean games and customs, to Mr. Richard Savage, of the Shakspere Birthplace Museum, Stratford-on-Avon. * * * * * In his story of "The Great Snow-ball Fight," printed in our March number, Mr. Barnard showed how some boys put out the fire in the Widow Lawson's house, by snow-balling it. This may have appeared to some readers almost impossible, but it was based upon an actual occurrence. And an instance of that mode of at least preventing a fire, was recorded in the New York papers of February 11th. It appears in an account of the burning of the stables of the Meadow Brook Hunt Club, at Hempstead, Long Island. "No modern appliance for extinguishing fire was at hand," says one journal, "but there was plenty of snow, and this was banked up about the adjoining stables, and undoubtedly saved them from being burned. Whenever sparks from the burning building fell on the adjacent barns, they were quickly extinguished by well-directed snow-balls thrown upon them." THE LETTER-BOX. CONCORD, N. H. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Lena and I play dolls very often, but the latest game we play is throwing cards into a hat placed on the floor about six feet away. Lena put in thirty-two out of fifty-two. If you have room enough to print this in your Letter-box, I should like to read it. Yours truly, RUTH A. M.