and mica itself, when it is well crystallized, puts itself into such masses, as if to show us how others are made.  Here is a brown six-sided crystal, quite as beautifully chiseled at the sides as any castle tower; but you see it is entirely built of folia of mica, one laid above another, which break away the moment I touch the edge with my knife.  Now, here is another hexagonal tower, of just the same size and color, which I want you to compare with the mica carefully; but as I cannot wait for you to do it just now, I must tell you quickly what main differences to look for.  First, you will feel it far heavier than the mica.  Then, though its surface looks quite micaceous in the folia of it when you try them with the knife, you will find you cannot break them away—­

Kathleen.  May I try?

L. Yes, you mistrusting Katie.  Here’s my strong knife for you.  (Experimental pause.  Kathleen doing her best.) You’ll have that knife shutting on your finger presently, Kate; and I don’t know a girl who would like less to have her hand tied up for a week.

Kathleen (who also does not like to be beaten—­giving up the knife despondently.).  What can the nasty hard thing be?

L. It is nothing but indurated clay, Kate:  very hard set certainly, yet not so hard as it might be.  If it were thoroughly well crystallized, you would see none of those micaceous fractures; and the stone would be quite red and clear, all through.

Kathleen.  Oh, cannot you show us one?

L. Egypt can, if you ask her; she has a beautiful one in the clasp of her favorite bracelet.

Kathleen.  Why, that’s a ruby!

L. Well, so is that thing you’ve been scratching at.

Kathleen.  My goodness! (Takes up the stone again, very delicately; and drops it.  General consternation.)

L. Never mind, Katie, you might drop it from the top of the house, and do it no harm.  But though you really are a very good girl, and as good-natured as anybody can possibly be, remember, you have your faults, like other people, and, if I were you, the next time I wanted to assert anything energetically, I would assert it by “my badness,” not “my goodness.”

Kathleen.  Ah, now, it’s too bad of you!

L. Well, then, I’ll invoke, on occasion, my “too-badness.”  But you may as well pick up the ruby, now you have dropped it; and look carefully at the beautiful hexagonal lines which gleam on its surface, and here is a pretty white sapphire (essentially the same stone as the ruby), in which you will see the same lovely structure, like the threads of the finest white cobweb.  I do not know what is the exact method of a ruby’s construction, but you see by these lines, what fine construction there is, even in this hardest of stones (after the diamond), which usually appears as a massive lump or knot.  There is therefore no real mineralogical distinction between needle crystals and knotted crystals,