I have not entered into the details of iron ship-building, the practical part of which the boy will learn in the same yard in which he learns to work in wood; for it is presumed that he is going to some large yard to obtain his instruction. Indeed, in this occupation it is the practical part that is the easiest and the most interesting to young learners. They are apt to slight the theoretical knowledge required and to long to spend their time in the shipyard with real tools, doing real work, for a real ship. With the boy who, through force of circumstances, has to enter on the life of a journeyman and earn wages, there is more excuse for hastening to that branch of the work than for the lad who is better situated in life. The journeyman will learn construction last and from his master. Under the plan I have suggested, the other lad will learn the general principles of construction before he goes to the shipyard; at least he will not have to commence with turning the grindstone. His first few visits will be confined to watching the men at their work; then he will gradually make himself familiar with the use of the different tools. The journeyman will receive at first $1 a day; during the second year, $1.50 a day, and be gradually advanced until he receives the regular wages, at the present time from $3 to $3.25 a day. It would not be advisable to make any estimate of the profits of boat-building as a business, for, no matter what they are now, by the time my young reader has started a shipyard, they may be entirely different, owing to the increase or decrease in the cost of material and labor. [Illustration] [Illustration: "THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET."] WHAT IT WAS. BY MALCOLM DOUGLAS Oh, they were as happy as happy could be, Those two little boys who were down by the sea, As each with a shovel grasped tight in his hand, Like a sturdy young laborer dug in the sand! And it finally happened, while looking around, That, beside a big shell, a small star-fish they found,-- Such a wonderful sight, that two pairs of blue eyes Grew large for a moment with puzzled surprise. Then--"I know," said one, with his face growing bright, "It's the dear little star that we've watched every night; But last night, when we looked, it was nowhere on high, So, of course, it has dropped from its home in the sky!" [Illustration] CAPTAIN JACK'S FOURTH-OF-JULY KITE. BY DANIEL C. BEARD. "Well, if that isn't the queerest sight!" exclaimed a passenger on the cars going from Flushing to New York, last Independence Day. And all the passengers on that train, and on all other trains during the day, echoed the same words. It was a very strange occurrence.