Tree-tuds, when they are on a tree, or on the top rale ov a phence, hav the faculty ov disguising their personal looks, and appearing exactly like the spot where they set. I have often put mi hand on them in getting over a phence. They wont bight nor jaw back, but they feal az raw and kold az the yelk ov an egg. The tree-tud livs upon flies and sitch like vittles, but if they dont git enny thing tew eat, they dont strike for higher wages. A tree-tud will liv all summer on a south wind, with an ockashional drop ov dew to wet hiz song. They kan outdiet any bug or jumping thing i kno ov. THE PORKUPINE. The porkupine iz a kind ov thorny woodchuck. They are bigger than a rat, and smaller than a calf. They liv in the ground, and are az prikly all over az a chesnutt burr, or a case ov the hives. It iz sed that they hav the power ov throwing their prickers like a javelin, but this iz a smart falshood. An old dog wont tutch a porkupine enny quicker than he would a phire brand, but yung dogs pitch into them like urchins into a sugar hogshed. The konsequentz ov this iz they git their mouths philled with prickers, which are bearded, and kant bak out. A porkupine’s quill when it enters goes klean thru and cums out on the other side ov things. This iz a way they hav got. The porkupine iz not bad vittles, their meat tastes like pork and beans with the beans left out. They hav a cute way ov stealing apples known only to a phew. I hav seen them run under an apple tree, and rolling over on the fruit which had fallen from the tree, carry oph on their prickers a dozen ov them. I hav often told this story to people, but never got enny tew beleave it yet. Porkupines hav got a destiny tew phill, it may be only a hole in the ground, but they kan phill that az phull az it will hold. DEVIL’S DARNING NEEDLE. This floating animal iz a fly about twenty times az big az a hornet, with a pair ov wings on him az mutch out ov proporshun tew hiz boddy az a pair ov oars are to a shell boat. They hang around mill ponds in hot weather, and when i waz a boy if one ov them cum and sot on the further end ov the log whare i waz a setting i alwus aroze and gave him the whole of the log. They hav a boddy like a piece ov wire, sharp at the end, and look az tho they mite sting a phello cheerfully, but i beleave there iz no more sting in them than thare iz in kold water. All children are afrade ov them, and i kno ov one man now who had rather enkounter a wild kat (provided the kat waz up in the top ov a tree and likely to stay thare) than tew intersect a devil’s darning needle. They derive their name from the shape ov their boddys and their devilish appearance generally. (See Webster’s unabridged on this subjekt.) {AFFURISMS.} RAMRODS. The higher up we git, the more we are watched--the rooster on the top ov the church-steeple, is ov more importance, altho’ he is tin, than two roosters in a barn-yard.