A. B. C.--For getting rid of the pest of little red ants that infest cupboards, we have recommended the use of a solution of alum, but we have just been advised to employ it hot. The right proportions are as follows:--Take two pounds of alum, dissolve it in two or three quarts of boiling water, and let it stand on the fire until the alum has disappeared; then apply it with a brush, while nearly boiling, to every joint and crevice in your closets, wooden bedsteads, pantry shelves, and also to those in the floor, and of the skirting boards and wainscotes. When you have your ceilings whitewashed, add plenty of alum to the lime, and when your house paint is washed, use cool alum water, which is obnoxious to cockroaches. Sugar barrels and boxes may be kept free from ants by the simple plan of drawing a wide chalk band round the edge of the receptacle, taking care that the band be unbroken, or else the vermin will cross over the broken line. STAR-GAZER.--The largest telescope, at present existing, is that at the Lick Observatory, having an object glass of thirty-six inches diameter. Next follows that at Pulkova, Russia, having a glass of thirty inches. The next below that is at the University of Virginia, of twenty-six inches. Harvard possesses the fourth in size, with a twenty-four inch glass; and the fifth is that of Princeton College. That of Yerkes, the latest of the celebrated productions at Cambridge, Mass., is rated at forty inches in diameter. But all the American Telescopes, even the last-named, are eclipsed by the forthcoming monster of Paris, exceeding even the Lick by eleven inches. It will be 186 feet in length, and on view, ready for use, in 1900, at the proposed _Exposition_. The image is to be received on a level mirror, 75 inches in diameter. DAISY.--Do not be misled by the advertisements, offering high wages to female emigrants, as domestic servants at Johannesburg and the Transvaal. A government "caution" has been issued. ROBERT.--You seem to be getting on very well with your class of boys, and to manage them satisfactorily. We can only suggest that you should select a book for them occasionally, out of which you might read, such as Dr. Smiles' _Self-Help_, and also that you relate to them something about brave and noble men like General Gordon and many others. A boys' magazine will sometimes help you to think of topics, such as the _Boy's Own Paper_. You might get a penny number now and then. CURIOSITY.--Why not take _Cottage Gardening_, published weekly by Cassell & Co., price ½d. There are plenty of small manuals which you will find advertised in it.