So it appears that ambergris means simply gray amber. Like the fossil gum, pieces of it were found now and then on the seashore, where they had been cast up by the waves; hence, doubtless, the giving of the same name to both. The substance has been used for centuries in sacerdotal rites of the church, and with fragrant gums was formerly burned in the apartments of royalty. To some extent it was employed as a medicine and to flavor certain dishes. Nowadays it is utilized almost exclusively by perfumers, in the preparation of fine scents, being first converted into a tincture by dissolving it in alcohol. ORIGIN OF HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. ANCIENT PARALLEL OF OUR JINGLE. "A Kid! A Kid!" Sang the Hebrew Children in Lieu of Our Parable from the Pages of Mother Goose. The sources of our nursery rhymes are many, and slowly to be traced out. Many of them have a lineage with serious historical meaning; others seem to have been suggested by the forms of more serious verses or parables. Take "The House That Jack Built"; many sources and parallels have been dug out. The Kafirs of South Africa tell a story like it in form and substance. The most interesting parallel, however, is an ancient Hebrew parable called "The Two Zuzim," the summation of which is as follows: [This is] the kid that my father bought for two zuzim. [This is] the cat that ate the kid, etc. [This is] the dog that bit the cat, etc. [This is] the stick that beat the dog, etc. [This is] the fire that burned the stick, etc. [This is] the water that quenched the fire, etc. [This is] the ox that drank the water, etc. [This is] the butcher that slew the ox, etc. [This is] the angel of death that killed the butcher, etc. [This is] Yaveh, that vanquished the angel of death, etc. Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua. BY ELIJAH KELLOGG. It is Friday afternoon. The "scholars" of School Number Nine, having droned through a week of lessons, are beginning the "weekly exercises." Come visitors--Freddy Jones's mother and aunt, and William Groso's father, and the minister, and old Mrs. Huggins, who never misses the occasion, though she has no children of her own. Teacher, working into her voice an unwonted note of encouragement, calls the first name on the program, and Freddy Jones, his legs very stiff, marches to the platform, jerks his head toward teacher, and faces his mates. His legs are no longer stiff; on the contrary, his knee-joints seem to be made of whalebone. His mouth is dry and his forehead is clammy. Freddy is not the biggest or strongest of the boys; he is not a leader among them. He has even been known to play with the girls. He is sandy as to hair and complexion, and stubby as to hands and feet and nose. Yet he begins: "Ye call me chief----"