After the calking is done, the painters will take their turn. They will put on two or three coats of paint; then the carvers and gilders will make a handsome figure-head; every thing will look as neat as a new pin; and then it will be time to be thinking of a name for the vessel, for, if I am not mistaken, the ship will be ready for launching. Let us fancy that we are present at the launch. I think I see her now gliding into the deep water that awaits her. She floats away from her cradle. She sits like a duck upon the water. She is staunch and strong and tight. So far the work has been well done. What comes next? [Illustration] The riggers will now take her in hand. Masts and yards and shrouds and sails will soon be in their places. Soon we shall see her in the harbor all ready for sea; and by and by, with sails all set and streamers all afloat, she will move gracefully down the bay. May she always have fair winds and prosperous voyages! UNCLE CHARLES. LOUIS'S NEW PLANT. LOUIS moved to a new home last spring, and, to his delight, had the use of a plot of ground for a garden. Beans, morning-glories, and other common plants, edged the little space; but his mamma planned to have some new thing in the centre. So they planted three or four peanuts. Louis expected to raise peanuts enough for the whole neighborhood; and one lady to whom he mentioned it engaged a bushel on the spot. In due time a little plant appeared, carrying one of the nuts on its head; but, finding that too much of a load, it left the parent nut on the surface of the ground, and sent bright green leaves up, and little threads of roots down, until, with its sisters, which had been growing in the same way, it made a group of three pretty plants. All summer Louis took pride in showing them. Although they grew so finely, many persons prophesied that they would never bear nuts. But, in the latter part of September, Louis dug from one of his plants a nut which was perfect in form, though not yet divided into shell and meat. It was like a raw potato. He waited patiently, and early in November he dug a saucer-full of well-ripened nuts. The plants had sent out a shoot from each joint, and these grew downward into the ground, and at the end of each shoot grew a nut. So Louis thinks it is correct to call it a ground-nut. Louis took a sample of the nuts to "The Nursery" office, and it was pronounced to be of good quality. Although he could not supply the order for a bushel, he intends to try again next year, and hopes to raise a larger crop. AUBURNDALE, MASS. LOUIS'S MAMMA. [Illustration] THE WOULD-BE TRAVELLERS. [Illustration] ARTHUR.