initial commit of ebook 16123HEADmain

1 files changed, 6072 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/16123.txt b/16123.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a4f413
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16123.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6072 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls,
+Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878
+       Scribner's Illustrated
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Mary Mapes Dodge
+
+Release Date: June 23, 2005 [EBook #16123]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A BRAVE GIRL.]
+
+[See Letter-Box.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ST. NICHOLAS.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. V.          JUNE, 1878.          No. 8.
+
+[Copyright, 1878, by Scribner & Co.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A TRIUMPH.
+
+BY CELIA THAXTER.
+
+
+  Little Roger up the long slope rushing
+      Through the rustling corn,
+  Showers of dewdrops from the broad leaves brushing
+      In the early morn,
+
+  At his sturdy little shoulder bearing
+      For a banner gay,
+  Stem of fir with one long shaving flaring
+      In the wind away!
+
+  Up he goes, the summer sunshine flushing
+      O'er him in his race,
+  Sweeter dawn of rosy childhood blushing
+      On his radiant face.
+
+  If he can but set his standard glorious
+      On the hill-top low,
+  Ere the sun climbs the clear sky victorious,
+      All the world aglow!
+
+  So he presses on with childish ardor,
+      Almost at the top!
+  Hasten, Roger! Does the way grow harder?
+      Wherefore do you stop?
+
+  From below the corn-stalks tall and slender
+      Comes a plaintive cry--
+  Turns he for an instant from the splendor
+      Of the crimson sky,
+
+  Wavers, then goes flying toward the hollow,
+      Calling loud and clear:
+  "Coming, Jenny! Oh, why did you follow?
+      Don't you cry, my dear!"
+
+  Small Janet sits weeping 'mid the daisies;
+      "Little sister sweet,
+  Must you follow Roger?" Then he raises
+      Baby on her feet,
+
+  Guides her tiny steps with kindness tender,
+      Cheerfully and gay,
+  All his courage and his strength would lend her
+      Up the uneven way,
+
+  Till they front the blazing East together;
+      But the sun has rolled
+  Up the sky in the still Summer weather,
+      Flooding them with gold.
+
+  All forgotten is the boy's ambition,
+      Low the standard lies,
+  Still they stand, and gaze--a sweeter vision
+      Ne'er met mortal eyes.
+
+  That was splendid; Roger, that was glorious,
+      Thus to help the weak;
+  Better than to plant your flag victorious
+      On earth's highest peak!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ONE SATURDAY.
+
+BY SARAH WINTER KELLOGG.
+
+
+It was an autumn day in the Indian summer time,--that one Saturday.
+The Grammar Room class of Budville were going nutting; that is, eight
+of them were going,--"our set," as they styled themselves. Besides the
+eight of "our set," Bob Trotter was going along as driver, to take
+care of the horses and spring wagon on arrival at the woods, while the
+eight were taking care of the nutting and other fun. Bob was fourteen
+and three months, but he was well-grown. Beside, he was very handy at
+all kinds of work, as he ought to have been, considering that he had
+been kept at work since his earliest recollection, to the detriment of
+his schooling.
+
+It had been agreed that the boys were to pay for the team, while the
+girls were to furnish the lunch. In order to economize space, it was
+arranged that all the contributions to the lunch should be sent on
+Friday to Mrs. Hooks, Clara of that surname undertaking to pack it all
+into one large basket.
+
+It was a trifle past seven o'clock Saturday morning when Bob Trotter
+drove up to Mr. Hooks's to take in Clara, she being the picnicker
+nearest his starting point. He did not know that she was a put
+off-er. She was just trimming a hat for the ride when Bob's wagon was
+announced. She hadn't begun her breakfast, though all the rest of the
+family had finished the meal, while the lunch which should have been
+basketed the previous night was scattered over the house from the
+parlor center-table to the wood-shed.
+
+Clara opened a window and called to Bob that she would be ready in
+a minute. Then she appealed to everybody to help her. There was a
+hurly-burly, to be sure. She asked mamma to braid her hair; little
+brother to bring her blue hair-ribbon from her bureau drawer; little
+Lucy to bring a basket for the prospective nuts; big brother to get
+the inevitable light shawl which mamma would be sure to make her take
+along. She begged papa to butter some bread for her, and cut her steak
+into mouthfuls to facilitate her breakfast, while the maid was put to
+collecting the widely scattered lunch. Mamma put baby, whom she was
+feeding, off her lap--he began to scream; little brother left his
+doughnut on a chair--the cat began to eat it; little Lucy left her
+doll on the floor--big brother stepped on its face, for he did not
+leave his book, but tried to read as he went to get the light shawl;
+papa laid down his cigar to prepare the put-offer's breakfast--it went
+out; the maid dropped the broom--the wind blew the trash from the
+dust-pan over the swept floor. Clara continued to trim the hat. As she
+was putting in the last pin, mamma reached the tip end of the hair,
+and called for the ribbon to tie the braid. "Here 'tis," said little
+brother. "Mercy!" cried Clara, "he's got my new blue sash, stringing
+it along through all the dust. Goose! do you think I could wear that
+great long wide thing on my hair?" Little brother said "Scat!" and
+rushed to the rescue of his doughnut, while Lucy came in dragging the
+clothes-basket, and big brother entered with mamma's black lace shawl.
+
+"Well, you told me to get a light one," he replied to Clara's
+impatient remonstrance, while Lucy whimpered that they wouldn't have
+enough nuts if the clothes-basket wasn't taken along.
+
+However, when Bob Trotter had secured Clara Hooks, the other girls
+were quickly picked up, and so were the four boys, for Bob was brisk
+and so were his horses. Dick Hart was the last called for. He had been
+ready since quarter past six, and with his forehandedness had worried
+his friends as effectually as the put-offer had hers. When the wagon
+at last appeared with its load of fun and laughter, he felt too
+ill-humored to return the merry greetings.
+
+"A pretty time to be coming around!" he grumbled, climbing to his
+seat. "I've been waiting three hours."
+
+"You houghtn't to 'ave begun to wait so hearly," said Bob, who
+had some peculiarities of pronunciation derived from his English
+parentage.
+
+"It would be better for you to keep quiet," Dick retorted. "You ought
+to have your wages cut, coming around here after nine o'clock. We
+ought to be out to the woods this minute."
+
+"'Taint no fault of mine that we haint," said Bob, touching up his
+horses.
+
+"Whose fault is it, if it isn't yours?" Dick asked.
+
+Clara Hooks was blushing.
+
+"Let the sparrer tell who killed Cock Robin," was Bob's enigmatical
+reply.
+
+"What's he talking about?" said Julius Zink.
+
+"I dunno, and he don't either," replied Dick.
+
+"He doesn't know that or anything else," said Sarah Ketchum.
+
+It was not possible for Sarah to hear a dispute and not become an open
+partisan.
+
+"I know a lady when I see 'er," said Bob.
+
+"You don't," said Dick, warmly. "You can't parse horse. I heard you
+try at school once."
+
+"I can curry him," said Bob.
+
+"You said horse was an article."
+
+"So he is, and a very useful harticle."
+
+One of the girls nudged her neighbor, and in a loud whisper intimated
+her opinion that Bob was getting the better of Dick. At this Dick grew
+warmer and more boisterous, maintaining that the boys ought not to pay
+Bob the stipulated price since they were so late in starting.
+
+"Hif folks haint ready I can't 'elp it," said Bob.
+
+"Who wasn't ready?" demanded Constance Faber. "You didn't wait for me,
+I know."
+
+"And you didn't wait for me or Mat Snead," added Sarah Ketchum,
+"because we walked down to meet the wagon."
+
+Clara Hooks's face had grown redder and redder during the
+investigation; but if Clara _was_ a put-offer, she was not a coward or
+a sneak.
+
+"He waited for me," she now said, "but I think it's mean to tell it
+wherever he goes."
+
+"I haint told it nowheres."
+
+"You just the same as told; you hinted."
+
+"Wouldn't 'ave 'inted ef they hadn't kept slappin' at me," was Bob's
+defense, which did not go far toward soothing the mortified Clara.
+
+Not all of this party were pert talkers. Two were modest: Valentine
+Duke and Mat Snead. These sat together, forming what the others called
+the Quaker settlement, from the silence which prevailed in it. The
+silence was now broken by a remark from Valentine Duke irrelevant to
+any preceding.
+
+"Nuts are plentier at Hawley's Grove than at Crow Roost," he jerked,
+out, and then locked up again.
+
+"Say we go there, then," said Kit Pott.
+
+"Let's take the vote on it. Those in favor of Hawley's say aye."
+
+The ayes came storming out, as though each was bound to be the first
+and loudest.
+
+"Contrary, no," continued the self-made president; and Bob Trotter
+voted solidly "No!"
+
+"We didn't ask you to vote," said Dick, returning to his quarrel.
+
+Dick was constitutionally and habitually pugnacious, but he had such
+a cordial way of forgiving everybody he injured that people couldn't
+stay mad with him. Indeed, he was quite a favorite.
+
+"I'm the other side of the 'ouse," Bob answered Dick. "You can't carry
+this hidee through without my 'elp."
+
+"We hired you to take us to the woods."
+
+"You 'ired me and my wagin and them harticles--whoa!" (Bob's
+"harticles" stopped)--"to take you to Crow Roost. You didn't 'ire me
+for 'Awley's, and I haint goin' ther' without a new contract."
+
+"What difference is it to you where we go?" Dick demanded. "You belong
+to us for the day."
+
+"Four miles further and back,--height miles makes a difference to the
+harticles."
+
+Murmurs of disapproval rendered Dick bold.
+
+"Suppose we say you've _got_ to take us to Hawley's," he said, warmly.
+
+"Suppose you do," said Bob, coolly.
+
+"I'd like to know what you'd say about it," said Dick, warmly.
+
+"Say it and I'll let you know," said Bob, coolly,--so very coolly that
+Dick was cooled.
+
+A timely prudence enforced a momentary silence. He forebore taking a
+position he might not be able to hold. "Say, boys, shall we _make_ him
+take us to the grove?"
+
+Bob smiled. Val Duke smiled, too, in his unobtrusive way, and
+suggested modestly, "We ought to pay extra for extra work."
+
+"Pay him another quarter and be done with it," said Kit Pott.
+
+Beside being good-natured, Kit didn't enjoy the stopping there in the
+middle of the road.
+
+"It's mighty easy to pay out other people's money," sneered Dick,
+resenting it that Kit seemed going over to the enemy.
+
+Kit's face was aflame. His father had refused him any money to
+contribute toward the picnic expenses, and here was Dick taunting him
+with it before all the girls.
+
+"You boys teased me to come along because you didn't know where to
+find the nuts," said Kit.
+
+The girls began to nudge each other, making whimpered explanations and
+commentaries, agreeing that is was mean in Dick to mind Kit, and Clara
+Hooks spoke up boldly;
+
+"I wanted Kit to come along because he's pleasant and isn't forever
+quarreling."
+
+"Oh!" Dick sneered more moderately, "we all know you like Kit Pott.
+You and he had better get hitched; then, you'd be pot-hooks."
+
+This set everybody to laughing, even Dirk's adversary, Bob Trotter.
+
+"Pretty bright!" said Julius Zink.
+
+"Bright, but not pretty," said Mat Snead, blushing at the sound of her
+voice.
+
+"Hurrah! Mat's waked up," said Julius.
+
+"It's the first time she's spoken since we started," said Sarah
+Ketchum.
+
+"This isn't the first time you've spoken," Mat quietly retorted,
+blushing over again.
+
+Everybody laughed again, even Sarah Ketchum.
+
+"Sarah always puts in her oar when there's any water," said Constance
+Faber.
+
+"I want to know how long we're to sit here, standing in the middle of
+the road," said Julius.
+
+Again everybody laughed. When grammar-school boys and girls are on
+a picnic, a thing needn't be very witty or very funny to make them
+laugh. From the ease with which this party exploded into laughter,
+it may be perceived that in spite of the high words and the pop-gun
+firing, there was no deep-seated ill-humor among them.
+
+"To Crow Roost and be done with it!" said Dick.
+
+"All right," assented several voices.
+
+"Crow Roost, Bob, by the lightning express," said Dick, with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"But, as you were so particular," said Sarah to Bob, "we're going to
+be, too. We aint going to give you any lunch unless you pay for it."
+
+"Not a mouthful," said Clara.
+
+"Not even a crumb," said Constance.
+
+Nobody saw any dismay in Bob's face.
+
+I don't intend to tell you about all the sayings and all the laughter
+of those boys and girls on their way to Crow Roost. They wouldn't like
+to have me, and you wouldn't. Bob Trotter ran over a good many grubs
+and way-side stumps, and at every jolt Constance screamed, and Dick
+scolded and then laughed. Mat Snead spoke three words. She and
+Valentine had been sitting as though in profound meditation for some
+forty minutes, when he said: "Quite a ride!"
+
+"Very; no, quite," she answered, in confusion.
+
+Sarah Ketchum said everything that Mat didn't say. She was Mat's
+counterpart.
+
+All grew enthusiastic as they approached the woods, and when the wagon
+stopped they poured over the side in an excited way.
+
+"What shall we do with the lunch-basket?"
+
+"Leave it in the wagon," said Sarah Ketchum, whose counsel, Kit said,
+was as free as the waters of the school pump.
+
+Clara objected to leaving it. Bob would eat everything up. "Let's take
+it along."
+
+"Why, no," said Julius.
+
+He was the largest of the boys, and, according to the knightly code,
+he remembered the carrying of the basket would devolve upon him.
+
+"Yes, we must carry it along," Sarah Ketchum insisted. "Bob sha'n't
+have a chance at that basket if I have to carry it around on my back."
+
+Constance, too, said, "Take it along."
+
+"It's easy enough for you girls to insist on having the basket toted
+around," said Dick, "because girls can't carry anything when there are
+boys along; but suppose you were a poor little fellow like Jule."
+
+"I wont have to climb the trees with it on my back, will I?" said
+Julius. "I'll tell you," he continued, lowering his tone--Bob had
+heard all the preceding remarks--"we'll hang our basket on a hickory
+limb. It will be safe from hogs, and the leaves will hide it from
+Bob."
+
+This proposition was approved, and the basket was carried off a short
+distance and slyly swung into a sapling. Then the eight went scurrying
+through the woods, leaving Bob with the horses. Wherever they saw a
+lemon-tinted tree-top against the sky or crowded into one of those
+fine autumn bouquets a clump of trees can make, there rushed a squad
+of boys, each with his basket, followed by a squad of girls, each with
+her basket.
+
+But in a very short time the girls were tired and the boys hungry. All
+agreed to go back to the lunch. So back they hurried, the nuts rolling
+about over the bottoms of the baskets. Julius had the most nuts; he
+had eleven. Mat had the smallest number; she had one.
+
+[Illustration: "'I BELIEVE SHE'S GONE DRY,' SAID KIT."]
+
+"I hope you girls brought along lots of goodies," said Dick. "Seems to
+me I never was so hungry in my life."
+
+"I believe boys are always hungry," said Sarah Ketchum.
+
+Val Duke was leading the party. He got along faster than the others,
+because he wasn't turning around every minute to say something. He
+made an electrifying announcement:
+
+"A cow's in the basket!"
+
+"Gee-whiz!" said Dick, rushing at the cow. "Thunder!" said Julius, and
+he gathered a handful of dried leaves and hurled them at the beast.
+Kit said "Ruination!" and threw his cap. Clara said "Begone!" and
+flapped her handkerchief in a scaring way. Sarah Ketchum said, "Shew!
+Scat!" and pitched a small tree-top. It hit Dick and Valentine.
+Constance said "Wretch!" and didn't throw anything. Mat didn't say
+anything and threw her hickory-nut. Val threw his basket, and hung
+it on the cow's horn. She shook it off walked away a few yards, then
+turned and stared at the party.
+
+"Lunch is gone, every smitch of it!" said Kit.
+
+"Hope it'll kill her dead!" said Sarah Ketchum.
+
+"We'd better have left it in the wagon. Bob couldn't have eaten it
+all," said Clara.
+
+"I wish Jule had taken it along," said Dick.
+
+"I wish Dick had taken it along," said Julius.
+
+"But what're we going to do?" said Constance.
+
+"We might buy something if anybody lived about here."
+
+"There isn't any money."
+
+"Dick might give his note, with the rest of us as indorsers," said
+Julius.
+
+
+"We might play tramps and beg something."
+
+"But nobody lives around here."
+
+"Hurrah!" said Dick, who had been prowling about among the slain.
+"Here's a biscuit, and here's a half loaf of bread."
+
+"But they're all mussed and dirty," said Sarah.
+
+"You might pare them," Mat suggested.
+
+"Yes, peel them like potatoes," said Julius.
+
+"But what are these among so many? The days of miracles are past."
+
+"What shall we do?" said one and another.
+
+"Milk the cow," said Mat.
+
+Boys and girls clapped their hands with enthusiasm, and cried
+"Splendid!" "Capital!" etc.
+
+"I'll milk her," said Dick. "Hand me that cup. I'm obliged to the cow
+for not eating it."
+
+The cow happened to be a gentle animal, so she did not run away at
+Dick's approach, yet she seemed determined that he should not get into
+milking position. She kept her broad, white-starred face toward him,
+and her large, liquid eyes on his, turning, turning, turning, as he
+tried over and over to approach her flanks, while the others stood
+watching in mute expectancy.
+
+"Give her some feed," said Mat.
+
+"Feed! I shouldn't think she could bear the sight of anything more
+after all that lunch," said Dick. "Beside, there isn't any feed about
+here."
+
+Somebody suggested that Bob Trotter had brought some hay and corn
+for his horses. Dick proposed that Julius should go for some. Julius
+proposed that Dick should go. Valentine offered to bring it, and
+brought it--some corn in a basket.
+
+"Suke! Suke, Bossy! Suke, Bossy! Suke!" Dick yelled as though the cow
+had been two hundred feet off instead of ten. He held out the basket.
+She came forward, sniffed at the corn, threw up her lip and took a
+bite. Dick set the basket under her nose and hastened to put himself
+in milking position. But that was the end of it. He could not milk a
+drop.
+
+"I can't get the hang of the thing," he said.
+
+"Let me try," said Kit.
+
+Dick gave way, and Kit pulled and squeezed and tugged and twisted,
+while the others shouted with laughter.
+
+"I believe she's gone dry," said Kit, very red in the face. At this
+the laughers laughed anew.
+
+"Some of you who are so good at laughing had better try."
+
+Kit set the cup on a stump and retired.
+
+Sarah Ketchum tried to persuade everybody else to try, but the other
+boys were afraid of failure and the girls were afraid of the cow.
+Sarah said if somebody would hold the animal's head so that it
+couldn't hook, she'd milk--she knew she could. But nobody offered to
+take the cow by the horns; so everything came to a stand-still except
+Sarah's talking and the cow's eating. Then Bob Trotter came in sight,
+all his pockets standing out with nuts. They called him. Sarah Ketchum
+explained the situation and asked him if he could milk.
+
+"I do the milkin' at 'ome," Bob replied.
+
+"Wont you please milk this cow for us? We don't know how, and we want
+the milk for dinner."
+
+There came a comical look into Bob's face, but he said nothing. The
+eight knew what his thoughts must be.
+
+"We oughtn't to have said that you couldn't have any of our lunch,"
+said Sarah Ketchum.
+
+"We didn't really mean it," said Clara. "When lunch-time came we would
+have given you lots of good things."
+
+"That's so," said Dick. "Sarah told us an hour ago that she meant to
+give you her snow-ball cake because she felt compuncted."
+
+By this time Bob had approached the cow. He spoke some kind words
+close to her broad ear, and gently stroked her back and flanks. Then
+he set to work in the proper way, forcing the milk in streams into the
+cup, the boys watching with admiration Bob's ease and expertness, Dick
+wondering why he couldn't do what seemed so easy. In a few seconds the
+cup was filled.
+
+"Now, what're you going to do?" said Bob. "This wont be a taste
+around."
+
+"You might milk into our hats," said Julius.
+
+"I've got a thimble in my pocket," said Sarah Ketchum.
+
+"Do stop your nonsense," said Constance; "it's a very serious
+question--a life and death matter. We're a company of Crusoes."
+
+But the boys couldn't stop their nonsense immediately. Dick remarked
+that if the cow had not licked out the jelly-bowl and then kicked it
+to pieces it might have been utilized. Then some one remembered a
+tin water-pail at the wagon. This was brought, and Bob soon had it
+two-thirds filled with milk. Then the question arose as to how they
+were all to be served with just that quart-cup and two spoons. They
+were to take turns, two eating at a time.
+
+"I don't want to eat with Jule," Dick said. "He eats too fast."
+
+The young people paired off, leaving out Bob. Then they all looked at
+him in a shame-faced, apologetic way.
+
+"You needn't mind me," said Bob, interpreting their glances. "I don't
+want to heat with none of you. I've got some wittals down to the
+wagon."
+
+"Why, what have you got?" said Sarah Ketchum. She felt cheap, and so
+did the others.
+
+"Some boiled heggs and some happles and some raw turnups," said Bob.
+
+Eight mouths watered at this catalogue. Sarah Ketchum whispered:
+
+  "For a generous slice of turnip,
+  I'd lay me down and die."
+
+"I don't keer for nothing but a hegg and a happle, myself," said Bob.
+"May be you folks would heat the hother things. There's a good lot of
+happles."
+
+The eight protested that they could do with the milk and bread, but
+urged the milk on Bob.
+
+"No, I thank you," he said.
+
+"He's mad at us yet," Mat whispered.
+
+"Look here," said Sarah Ketchum to Bob, "if you don't eat some of this
+milk, none of us will. We'll give it to the cow."
+
+"No, we won't do that," Julius said: "we'll hold you and make you
+drink it. If you have more apples than you wish, we'll be glad of
+some; but we aren't going to take them unless you'll take your share
+of the milk."
+
+"And we'll get mad at you again," said Clara.
+
+"I'll drink hall the milk necessary to a make-hup," said Bob.
+
+When the lunch was eaten, Mat said she didn't think they ought to have
+milked the cow. The folks would be so disappointed when they came to
+milk her at night. May be a lot of poor children were depending on the
+milking for their supper. Val, too, showed that his conscience was
+disturbed.
+
+"You needn't worry," said Dick. "They'll get this milk back from the
+lunch she stole."
+
+"But they couldn't help her stealing."
+
+"And I couldn't help milking her," said Dick.
+
+At this there was a burst of laughter. Then Mat wrote on a scrap of
+paper: "This cow has been milked to save some boys and girls from
+starvation. The owner can get pay for the milk by calling at Mr.
+Snead's, Poplar street, Budville."
+
+"Who'll tie it on her tail?" asked Mat.
+
+"I will," said Val, promptly, glad to ease his conscience.
+
+And this he did with a piece of blue ribbon from Mat Snead's hat.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MRS. PETER PIPER'S PICKLES.
+
+BY E. MUeLLER.
+
+
+[Illustration: Two crows.]
+
+"There's nothing in that bush," said one old crow to another old crow,
+as they flew slowly along the beach.
+
+"No, nothing worth looking at," answered the other old crow, and then
+they alighted on a dead tree and complained that the egg season was
+over.
+
+That was because they were fond of sandpipers' eggs, and there were
+none in that bush. No eggs were there, to be sure, but there sat Mrs.
+Peter Sandpiper, talking to two fine young sandpipers, just hatched.
+
+"Nothing worth looking at!" said she, indignantly. "Well, anything but
+a crow would have more sense! Nothing in this bush, indeed! Pe-tweet,
+pe-tweet!"
+
+[Illustration: "TANGLED IN THE LONG GRASS."]
+
+And truly she might well be angry at any one snubbing those young ones
+of hers. Their eyes were so bright, their legs were so slim, and their
+beaks so sharp that it was delightful to see them. And they turned out
+their toes so gracefully that, the first time they went to the sea to
+bathe, everyone said Mrs. Peter Sandpiper had reason to be proud of
+her children. But just as soon as they could run they got into all
+sorts of troubles, and vexed Mrs. Sandpiper out of her wits.
+
+[Illustration: "THEY TURNED OUT THEIR TOES SO GRACEFULLY."]
+
+"Such a pair of young pickles I never hatched before!" said she to
+Mrs. Kingfisher, who came to gossip one day.
+
+"Well, well, my dear," said Mrs. Kingfisher, "boys will be boys;
+by the time they are grown up they will be all right. Now, my dear
+Pinlegs was just such--"
+
+[Illustration: "OH, MY! HE'S GOING BACKWARDS!"]
+
+But Mrs. Sandpiper had to fly off, to see what Pipsy Sandpiper was
+doing, and keep Nipsy Sandpiper from swallowing a June beetle twice
+too big for him. They were great trials. They were always eating the
+wrong kind of bugs, and having indigestion and headaches. They were
+forever getting their legs tangled up in long wet grass, and screaming
+for Mrs. Peter Sandpiper to come help them out, and at night they
+chirped in their sleep and disturbed Mrs. Sandpiper dreadfully by
+kicking each other. At last she said she could stand it no longer;
+they must take care of themselves. So she cried "Pe-tweet, good-by,"
+and then she flew away, leaving Pipsy and Nipsy alone by the sea to
+take care of themselves.
+
+[Illustration: "THIS IS TWICE AS DEEP AS YOU WERE IN."]
+
+It was quite a trouble at first, for Mamma Sandpiper had always helped
+them to bugs and worms, one apiece, turn about, so all was fair. But
+now Pipsy always wanted the best of everything, and Nipsy, being good
+tempered, had to eat what his brother left. One day bugs were very
+scarce, and both little Sandpipers were so hungry that they could have
+eaten a whole starfish--if he had come out of his shelter. Suddenly
+Nipsy, who was a trifle near sighted, said he saw a large beetle
+coming along the beach. They ran quickly to meet it. But what in
+the world was it! It had legs; oh, such legs! They were larger than
+Pipsy's and Nipsy's put together. Its back was like a huge shell, and
+its eyes were dreadful. The little sandpipers looked at each other in
+terror.
+
+[Illustration: "THERE, IN THE TWILIGHT, HE SAW A LONELY FIGURE
+STANDING ON ONE LEG."]
+
+But a mild little voice from the creature relieved them.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said he. "Let me introduce myself. C. Crab, Esq.,
+of Oyster Bay."
+
+"Oh, ah! Indeed!" said Pipsy. "Glad to know you, I'm sure."
+
+"I think I must have lost my way," said C. Crab, Esq. "Could you
+oblige me by telling me if you see any boys near?"
+
+"Any boys?" said Pipsy and Nipsy, looking at each other. "Never saw
+one in my life. What do they look like? Have they many legs? Are they
+fat? Are they good to eat?" asked both the hungry little sandpipers.
+
+"They are creatures," said the crab, with a groan,--"creatures a
+thousand times larger than we are. They have strings. They tie up
+legs and pull. They throw stones. If you ever see a boy, run for your
+life."
+
+"Good gracious me!" cried both the little sandpipers. "How very
+dreadful!"
+
+But there were no boys in sight; so C. Crab grew sociable, and offered
+to show them a place where bugs were plenty. "Just get on my back,"
+said he, "and I'll have you there in no time."
+
+So they got on his back. It was very wet and slippery, but they held
+on with their toes, while C. Crab gave himself a heave and started.
+
+"Oh, my!" exclaimed Nipsy. "He's going backward!"
+
+"He actually is!" cried Pipsy. "At this rate we'll get there day
+before yesterday, wont we?"
+
+"Surely," said Nipsy. "How very horrid of him when we are so hungry!
+What a slow coach!"
+
+"Let's jump off quick, or he'll take us clear into last week!" cried
+the silly sandpipers, and then they skipped off and ran down the beach
+in the opposite direction. C. Crab called to them, but it was no use,
+so he went on his way. But as for the sandpipers, they went on getting
+into trouble. The day was hot, and after they had run some distance,
+they stepped into the water to cool off. Nipsy stepped in first, but
+the water was up to his breast and it frightened him, so he stepped
+out again.
+
+"Pooh!" said Pipsy. "You're afraid, YOU are! Look at me!"
+
+Then he jumped in, and only his head stuck out.
+
+"This is twice as deep as you were in!" he cried, turning up his bill,
+and rolling his eyes.
+
+"You're sitting down, _you_ are!" cried Nipsy, in scorn.
+
+"I'm not," said Pipsy.
+
+"You are. I can see your toes all doubled up, even if the water _is_
+muddy," said Nipsy, and rushed at him to punish him for bragging.
+
+They both rolled under the water, and then out on the shore, dripping
+wet and very angry with each other.
+
+Pipsy went home to the old bush and was very miserable. He wanted
+something to eat, and did not know where to find anything. Nipsy went
+high up the beach, and found a lot of young hedge-crickets. But he did
+not half enjoy them. They were fat and smooth, and he was hungry, but
+crickets had no flavor without Pipsy to help eat them. But he was
+angry at him yet.
+
+"He must come to me," he said, sternly, to the cricket he was eating.
+
+The cricket said nothing, being half-way down his throat, and pretty
+soon Nipsy could stand his feelings no longer. Catching up the
+largest, smoothest, softest cricket, he ran down to the shore as fast
+as his legs could carry him. There, in the twilight, he saw a lonely
+figure standing on one leg.
+
+"Pipsy!" he cried.
+
+"Nipsy!" cried Pipsy.
+
+And they flew to each other.
+
+"Here's a glorious fat cricket for you."
+
+"Forgive me, Nipsy," said his brother.
+
+And then they were happy.
+
+[Illustration: Blossoms.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+UNDER THE LILACS.
+
+BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SOMEBODY GETS LOST.
+
+
+Putting all care behind them, the young folks ran down the hill, with
+a very lively dog gamboling beside them, and took a delightfully
+tantalizing survey of the external charms of the big tent. But people
+were beginning to go in, and it was impossible to delay when they came
+round to the entrance.
+
+Ben felt that now "his foot was on his native heath," and the superb
+air of indifference with which he threw down his dollar at the
+ticket-office, carelessly swept up the change, and strolled into the
+tent with his hands in his pockets, was so impressive that even big
+Sam repressed his excitement and meekly followed their leader, as he
+led them from cage to cage, doing the honors as if he owned the whole
+concern. Bab held tight to the tail of his jacket, staring about her
+with round eyes, and listening with little gasps of astonishment or
+delight to the roaring of lions, the snarling of tigers, the chatter
+of the monkeys, the groaning of camels, and the music of the very
+brass band shut up in a red bin.
+
+Five elephants were tossing their hay about in the middle of the
+menagerie, and Billy's legs shook under him as he looked up at the big
+beasts whose long noses and small, sagacious eyes filled him with awe.
+Sam was so tickled by the droll monkeys that they left him before the
+cage and went on to see the zebra, "striped just like Ma's muslin
+gown," Bab declared. But the next minute she forgot all about him in
+her raptures over the ponies and their tiny colts, especially one mite
+of a thing who lay asleep on the hay, such a miniature copy of its
+little mouse-colored mamma that one could hardly believe it was alive.
+
+"Oh, Ben, I _must_ feel of it!--the cunning baby horse!" and down went
+Bab inside the rope to pat and admire the pretty creature, while its
+mother smelt suspiciously at the brown hat, and baby lazily opened one
+eye to see what was going on.
+
+"Come out of that, it isn't allowed!" commanded Ben, longing to do the
+same thing, but mindful of the proprieties and his own dignity.
+
+Bab reluctantly tore herself away to find consolation in watching the
+young lions, who looked so like big puppies, and the tigers washing
+their faces just as puss did.
+
+"If I stroked 'em, wouldn't they purr?" she asked, bent on enjoying
+herself, while Ben held her skirts lest she should try the experiment.
+
+"You'd better not go to patting them, or you'll get your hands clawed
+up. Tigers do purr like fun when they are happy, but these fellers
+never are, and you'll only see 'em spit and snarl," said Ben, leading
+the way to the humpy camels, who were peacefully chewing their cud and
+longing for the desert, with a dreamy, far-away look in their mournful
+eyes.
+
+Here, leaning on the rope, and scientifically chewing a straw while he
+talked, Ben played showman to his heart's content till the neigh of a
+horse from the circus tent beyond reminded him of the joys to come.
+
+"We'd better hurry along and get good seats before folks begin to
+crowd. I want to sit near the curtain and see if any of Smithers's lot
+are 'round."
+
+"I aint going way off there; you can't see half so well, and that big
+drum makes such a noise you can't hear yourself think," said Sam, who
+had rejoined them.
+
+So they settled in good places where they could see and hear all that
+went on in the ring and still catch glimpses of white horses, bright
+colors, and the glitter of helmets beyond the dingy red curtains. Ben
+treated Bab to peanuts and pop-corn like an indulgent parent, and she
+murmured protestations of undying gratitude with her mouth full, as
+she sat blissfully between him and the congenial Billy.
+
+Sancho, meantime, had been much excited by the familiar sights and
+sounds, and now was greatly exercised in his doggish mind at the
+unusual proceeding of his master; for he was sure that they ought to
+be within there, putting on their costumes, ready to take their turn.
+He looked anxiously at Ben, sniffed disdainfully at the strap as if to
+remind him that a scarlet ribbon ought to take its place, and poked
+peanut shells about with his paw as if searching for the letters with
+which to spell his famous name.
+
+"I know, old boy, I know; but it can't be done. We've quit the
+business and must just look on. No larks for us this time, Sanch, so
+keep quiet and behave," whispered Ben, tucking the dog away under the
+seat with a sympathetic cuddle of the curly head that peeped out from
+between his feet.
+
+"He wants to go and cut up, don't he?" said Billy, "and so do you, I
+guess. Wish you were going to. Wouldn't it be fun to see Ben showing
+off in there?"
+
+"I'd be afraid to have him go up on a pile of elephants and jump
+through hoops like these folks," answered Bab, poring over her
+pictured play-bill with unabated relish.
+
+"Done it a hundred times, and I'd just like to show you what I can
+do. They don't seem to have any boys in this lot; shouldn't wonder if
+they'd take me if I asked 'em," said Ben, moving uneasily on his seat
+and casting wistful glances toward the inner tent where he knew he
+would feel more at home than in his present place.
+
+[Illustration: AT THE CIRCUS.]
+
+"I heard some men say that it's against the law to have small boys
+now; it's so dangerous and not good for them, this kind of thing. If
+that's so, you're done for. Ben," observed Sam, with his most grown-up
+air, remembering Ben's remarks on "fat boys."
+
+"Don't believe a word of it, and Sanch and I could go this minute and
+get taken on, I'll bet. We are a valuable couple, and I could prove it
+if I chose to," began Ben, getting excited and boastful.
+
+"Oh, see, they're coming!--gold carriages and lovely horses, and flags
+and elephants, and everything!" cried Bab, giving a clutch at Ben's
+arm as the opening procession appeared headed by the band, tooting and
+banging till their faces were as red as their uniforms.
+
+Round and round they went till every one had seen their fill, then the
+riders alone were left caracoling about the ring with feathers flying,
+horses prancing, and performers looking as tired and indifferent as if
+they would all like to go to sleep then and there.
+
+"How splendid!" sighed Bab, as they went dashing out, to tumble off
+almost before the horses stopped.
+
+"That's nothing! You wait till you see the bare-back riding and the
+'acrobatic exercises,'" said Ben, quoting from the play-bill, with the
+air of one who knew all about the feats to come, and could never be
+surprised any more.
+
+"What are 'crowbackic exercises?'" asked Billy, thirsting for
+information.
+
+"Leaping and climbing and tumbling; you'll see--George! what a
+stunning horse!" and Ben forgot everything else to feast his eyes
+on the handsome creature who now came pacing in to dance, upset and
+replace chairs, kneel, bow, and perform many wonderful or graceful
+feats, ending with a swift gallop while the rider sat in a chair on
+its back fanning himself, with his legs crossed, as comfortably as you
+please.
+
+"That, now, is something like," and Ben's eyes shone with admiration
+and envy as the pair vanished, and the pink and silver acrobats came
+leaping into the ring.
+
+The boys were especially interested in this part, and well they
+might be; for strength and agility are manly attributes which lads
+appreciate, and these lively fellows flew about like India rubber
+balls, each trying to outdo the other, till the leader of the acrobats
+capped the climax by turning a double somersault over five elephants
+standing side by side.
+
+"There, sir, how's that for a jump?" asked Ben, rubbing his hands with
+satisfaction as his friends clapped till their palms tingled.
+
+"We'll rig up a spring-board and try it," said Billy, fired with
+emulation.
+
+"Where'll you get your elephants?" asked Sam, scornfully, for
+gymnastics were not in his line.
+
+"You'll do for one," retorted Ben, and Billy and Bab joined in his
+laugh so heartily that a rough-looking man who sat behind them,
+hearing all they said, pronounced them a "jolly set," and kept his eye
+on Sancho, who now showed signs of insubordination.
+
+"Hullo, that wasn't on the bill!" cried Ben, as a parti-colored clown
+came in, followed by half a dozen dogs.
+
+"I'm so glad; now Sancho will like it. There's a poodle that might
+be his ownty donty brother--the one with the blue ribbon," said Bab,
+beaming with delight as the dogs took their seats in the chairs
+arranged for them.
+
+Sancho did like it only too well, for he scrambled out from under the
+seat in a great hurry to go and greet his friends, and, being sharply
+checked, set up and begged so piteously that Ben found it very hard
+to refuse and order him down. He subsided for a moment, but when the
+black spaniel, who acted the canine clown, did something funny and was
+applauded, Sancho made a dart as if bent on leaping into the ring to
+outdo his rival, and Ben was forced to box his ears and put his feet
+on the poor beast, fearing he would be ordered out if he made any
+disturbance.
+
+Too well trained to rebel again, Sancho lay meditating on his wrongs
+till the dog act was over, carefully abstaining from any further sign
+of interest in their tricks, and only giving a sidelong glance at the
+two little poodles who came out of a basket to run up and down stairs
+on their fore paws, dance jigs on their hind legs, and play various
+pretty pranks to the great delight of all the children in the
+audience. If ever a dog expressed by look and attitude, "Pooh! I could
+do much better than that, and astonish you all, if I was only allowed
+to," that dog was Sancho, as he curled himself up and affected to turn
+his back on an unappreciative world.
+
+"It's too bad, when he knows more than all those chaps put together.
+I'd give anything if I could show him off as I used to. Folks always
+liked it, and I was ever so proud of him. He's mad now because I had
+to cuff him, and wont take any notice of me till I make up," said Ben,
+regretfully eyeing his offended friend, but not daring to beg pardon
+yet.
+
+More riding followed, and Bab was kept in a breathless state by the
+marvelous agility and skill of the gauzy lady who drove four horses at
+once, leaped through hoops, over banners and bars, sprang off and on
+at full speed, and seemed to enjoy it all so much it was impossible to
+believe that there could be any danger or exertion in it.
+
+Then two girls flew about on the trapeze, and walked on a tight rope,
+causing Bab to feel that she had at last found her sphere, for, young
+as she was, her mother often said:
+
+"I really don't know what this child is fit for, except mischief, like
+a monkey."
+
+"I'll fix the clothes-line when I get home, and show Ma how nice it
+is. Then, may be, she'll let me wear red and gold trousers, and climb
+round like these girls," thought the busy little brain, much excited
+by all it saw on that memorable day.
+
+Nothing short of a pyramid of elephants with a glittering gentleman in
+a turban and top boots on the summit would have made her forget this
+new and charming plan. But that astonishing spectacle and the prospect
+of a cage of Bengal tigers with a man among them, in imminent danger
+of being eaten before her eyes, entirely absorbed her thoughts till,
+just as the big animals went lumbering out, a peal of thunder caused
+considerable commotion in the audience. Men on the highest seats
+popped their heads through the openings in the tent-cover and reported
+that a heavy shower was coming up. Anxious mothers began to collect
+their flocks of children as hens do their chickens at sunset; timid
+people told cheerful stories of tents blown over in gales, cages upset
+and wild beasts let loose. Many left in haste, and the performers
+hurried to finish as soon as possible.
+
+"I'm going now before the crowd comes, so I can get a lift home. I see
+two or three folks I know, so I'm off;" and, climbing hastily down,
+Sam vanished without further ceremony.
+
+"Better wait till the shower is over. We can go and see the animals
+again, and get home all dry, just as well as not," observed Ben,
+encouragingly, as Billy looked anxiously at the billowing canvas over
+his head, the swaying posts before him, and heard the quick patter of
+drops outside, not to mention the melancholy roar of the lion which
+sounded rather awful through the sudden gloom which filled the strange
+place.
+
+"I wouldn't miss the tigers for anything. See, they are pulling in the
+cart now, and the shiny man is all ready with his gun. Will he shoot
+any of them, Ben?" asked Bab, nestling nearer with a little shiver of
+apprehension, for the sharp crack of a rifle startled her more than
+the loudest thunder-clap she ever heard.
+
+"Bless you, no, child; it's only powder to make a noise and scare 'em.
+I wouldn't like to be in his place, though; father says you can never
+trust tigers as you can lions, no matter how tame they are. Sly
+fellers, like cats, and when they scratch it's no joke, I tell you,"
+answered Ben, with a knowing wag of the head, as the sides of the cage
+rattled down, and the poor, fierce creatures were seen leaping and
+snarling as if they resented this display of their captivity.
+
+Bab curled up her feet and winked fast with excitement as she watched
+the "shiny man" fondle the great cats, lie down among them, pull open
+their red mouths, and make them leap over him or crouch at his feet as
+he snapped the long whip. When he fired the gun and they all fell as
+if dead, she with difficulty suppressed a small scream and clapped her
+hands over her ears; but poor Billy never minded it a bit, for he was
+pale and quaking with the fear of "heaven's artillery" thundering over
+head, and as a bright flash of lightning seemed to run down the tall
+tent-poles he hid his eyes and wished with all his heart that he was
+safe with mother.
+
+"'Fraid of thunder, Bill?" asked Ben, trying to speak stoutly, while a
+sense of his own responsibilities began to worry him, for how was Bab
+to be got home in such a pouring rain.
+
+"It makes me sick; always did. Wish I hadn't come," sighed Billy,
+feeling, all too late, that lemonade and "lozengers" were not the
+fittest food for man, or a stifling tent the best place to be in on a
+hot July day, especially in a thunder-storm.
+
+"I didn't ask you to come; _you_ asked _me_; so it isn't my fault,"
+said Ben, rather gruffly, as people crowded by without pausing to hear
+the comic song the clown was singing in spite of the confusion.
+
+"Oh, I'm _so_ tired," groaned Bab, getting up with a long stretch of
+arms and legs.
+
+"You'll be tireder before you get home, I guess. Nobody asked _you_ to
+come, anyway;" and Ben gazed dolefully round him wishing he could see
+a familiar face or find a wiser head than his own to help him out of
+the scrape he was in.
+
+"I said I wouldn't be a bother, and I wont. I'll walk right home this
+minute, I aint afraid of thunder, and the rain wont hurt these old
+clothes. Come along," cried Bab, bravely, bent on keeping her word,
+though it looked much harder after the fun was all over than before.
+
+"My head aches like fury. Don't I wish old Jack was here to take me
+back," said Billy, following his companions in misfortune with sudden
+energy, as a louder peal than before rolled overhead.
+
+"You might as well wish for Lita and the covered wagon while you are
+about it, then we could all ride," answered Ben, leading the way to
+the outer tent, where many people were lingering in hopes of fair
+weather.
+
+"Why, Billy Barton, how in the world did you get here?" cried a
+surprised voice, as the crook of a cane caught the boy by the collar
+and jerked him face to face with a young farmer, who was pushing along
+followed by his wife and two or three children.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Eben, I'm so glad you found me! I walked over, and it's
+raining, and I don't feel well. Let me go with you, can't I?" asked
+Billy, casting himself and all his woes upon the strong arm that had
+laid hold of him.
+
+"Don't see what your mother was about to let you come so far alone,
+and you just over scarlet fever. We are as full as ever we can be, but
+we'll tuck you in somehow," said the pleasant-faced woman, bundling up
+her baby, and bidding the two little lads "keep close to father."
+
+"I didn't come alone. Sam got a ride, and can't you tuck Ben and Bab
+in too? They aint very big, either of them," whispered Billy, anxious
+to serve his friends now that he was provided for himself.
+
+"Can't do it, anyway. Got to pick up mother at the corner, and that
+will be all I can carry. It's lifting a little; hurry along, Lizzie,
+and let us get out of this as quick as possible," said Uncle Eben,
+impatiently; for going to a circus with a young family is not an easy
+task, as every one knows who has ever tried it.
+
+"Ben, I'm real sorry there isn't room for you. I'll tell Bab's mother
+where she is, and may be some one will come for you," said Billy,
+hurriedly, as he tore himself away, feeling rather mean to desert the
+others, though he could be of no use.
+
+"Cut away and don't mind us. I'm all right, and Bab must do the best
+she can," was all Ben had time to answer before his comrade was
+hustled away by the crowd pressing round the entrance with much
+clashing of umbrellas and scrambling of boys and men, who rather
+enjoyed the flurry.
+
+"No use for us to get knocked about in that scrimmage. We'll wait a
+minute and then go out easy. It's a regular rouser, and you'll be as
+wet as a sop before we get home. Hope you'll like that?" added Ben,
+looking out at the heavy rain pouring down as if it never meant to
+stop.
+
+"Don't care a bit," said Bab, swinging on one of the ropes with a
+happy-go-lucky air, for her spirits were not extinguished yet, and
+she was bound to enjoy this exciting holiday to the very end. "I like
+circuses so much! I wish I lived here all the time, and slept in a
+wagon, as you did, and had these dear little colties to play with."
+
+"It wouldn't be fun if you didn't have any folks to take care of you,"
+began Ben, thoughtfully looking about the familiar place where the men
+were now feeding the animals, setting their refreshment tables, or
+lounging on the hay to get such rest as they could before the evening
+entertainment. Suddenly he started, gave a long look, then turned to
+Bab, and thrusting Sancho's strap into her hand, said, hastily: "I see
+a fellow I used to know. May be he can tell me something about father.
+Don't you stir till I come back."
+
+Then he was off like a shot, and Bab saw him run after a man with a
+bucket who had been watering the zebra. Sancho tried to follow, but
+was checked with an impatient:
+
+"No, you can't go! What a plague you are, tagging around when people
+don't want you."
+
+Sancho might have answered, "So are you," but, being a gentlemanly
+dog, he sat down with a resigned expression to watch the little colts,
+who were now awake and seemed ready for a game of bo-peep behind their
+mammas. Bab enjoyed their funny little frisks so much that she tied
+the wearisome strap to a post and crept under the rope to pet the tiny
+mouse-colored one who came and talked to her with baby whinneys and
+confiding glances of its soft, dark eyes.
+
+Oh, luckless Bab! why did you turn your back? Oh, too accomplished
+Sancho! why did you neatly untie that knot and trot away to confer
+with the disreputable bull-dog who stood in the entrance beckoning
+with friendly wavings of an abbreviated tail? Oh, much afflicted Ben!
+why did you delay till it was too late to save your pet from the
+rough man who set his foot upon the trailing strap and led poor Sanch
+quickly out of sight among the crowd.
+
+"It _was_ Bascum, but he didn't know anything. Why, where's Sanch?"
+said Ben, returning.
+
+A breathless voice made Bab turn to see Ben looking about him with as
+much alarm in his hot face as if the dog had been a two years' child.
+
+"I tied him--he's here somewhere--with the ponies," stammered Bab, in
+sudden dismay, for no sign of a dog appeared as her eyes roved wildly
+to and fro.
+
+Ben whistled, called and searched in vain, till one of the lounging
+men said, lazily:
+
+"If you are looking after the big poodle you'd better go outside; I
+saw him trotting off with another dog."
+
+Away rushed Ben, with Bab following, regardless of the rain, for both
+felt that a great misfortune had befallen them. But, long before this,
+Sancho had vanished, and no one minded his indignant howls as he was
+driven off in a covered cart.
+
+"If he is lost I'll never forgive you; never, never, never!" and Ben
+found it impossible to resist giving Bab several hard shakes which
+made her yellow braids fly up and down like pump handles.
+
+"I'm dreadful sorry. He'll come back--you said he always did," pleaded
+Bab, quite crushed by her own afflictions, and rather scared to see
+Ben look so fierce, for he seldom lost his temper or was rough with
+the little girls.
+
+"If he doesn't come back, don't you speak to me for a year. Now, I'm
+going home." And, feeling that words were powerless to express his
+emotions, Ben walked away, looking as grim as a small boy could.
+
+A more unhappy little lass is seldom to be found than Bab was, as she
+pattered after him, splashing recklessly through the puddles, and
+getting as wet and muddy as possible, as a sort of penance for her
+sins. For a mile or two she trudged stoutly along, while Ben marched
+before in solemn silence, which soon became both impressive and
+oppressive because so unusual, and such a proof of his deep
+displeasure. Penitent Bab longed for just one word, one sign of
+relenting; and when none came, she began to wonder how she could
+possibly bear it if he kept his dreadful threat and did not speak to
+her for a whole year.
+
+But presently her own discomfort absorbed her, for her feet were
+wet and cold as well as very tired; pop-corn and peanuts were not
+particularly nourishing food, and hunger made her feel faint;
+excitement was a new thing, and now that it was over she longed to
+lie down and go to sleep; then the long walk with a circus at the
+end seemed a very different affair from the homeward trip with a
+distracted mother awaiting her. The shower had subsided into a dreary
+drizzle, a chilly east wind blew up, the hilly road seemed to lengthen
+before the weary feet, and the mute, blue flannel figure going on
+so fast with never a look or sound, added the last touch to Bab's
+remorseful anguish.
+
+Wagons passed, but all were full, and no one offered a ride. Men and
+boys went by with rough jokes on the forlorn pair, for rain soon made
+them look like young tramps. But there was no brave Sancho to resent
+the impertinence, and this fact was sadly brought to both their minds
+by the appearance of a great Newfoundland dog who came trotting after
+a carriage. The good creature stopped to say a friendly word in his
+dumb fashion, looking up at Bab with benevolent eyes, and poking his
+nose into Ben's hand before he bounded away with his plumy tail curled
+over his back.
+
+Ben started as the cold nose touched his fingers, gave the soft head a
+lingering pat, and watched the dog out of sight through a thicker mist
+than any the rain made. But Bab broke down; for the wistful look
+of the creature's eyes reminded her of lost Sancho, and she sobbed
+quietly as she glanced back longing to see the dear old fellow jogging
+along in the rear.
+
+Ben heard the piteous sound and took a sly peep over his shoulder,
+seeing such a mournful spectacle that he felt appeased, saying to
+himself as if to excuse his late sternness:
+
+"She _is_ a naughty girl, but I guess she is about sorry enough now.
+When we get to that sign-post I'll speak to her, only I wont forgive
+her till Sanch comes back."
+
+But he was better than his word; for, just before the post was
+reached, Bab, blinded by tears, tripped over the root of a tree, and,
+rolling down the bank, landed in a bed of wet nettles. Ben had her
+out in a jiffy, and vainly tried to comfort her; but she was past
+any consolation he could offer, and roared dismally as she wrung her
+tingling hands, with great drops running over her cheeks almost as
+fast as the muddy little rills ran down the road.
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear! I'm all stinged up, and I want my supper; and my
+feet ache, and I'm cold, and everything is _so_ horrid!" wailed the
+poor child lying on the grass, such a miserable little wet bunch that
+the sternest parent would have melted at the sight.
+
+"Don't cry so, Babby; I was real cross, and I'm sorry. I'll forgive
+you right away now, and never shake you any more," cried Ben, so full
+of pity for her tribulations that he forgot his own, like a generous
+little man.
+
+"Shake me again, if you want to; I know I was very bad to tag and lose
+Sanch. I never will any more, and I'm so sorry, I don't know what to
+do," answered Bab, completely bowed down by this magnanimity.
+
+"Never mind; you just wipe up your face and come along, and we'll tell
+Ma all about it, and she'll fix us as nice as can be. I shouldn't
+wonder if Sanch got home now before we did," said Ben, cheering
+himself as well as her by the fond hope.
+
+"I don't believe _I_ ever shall, I'm so tired my legs wont go, and the
+water in my boots makes them feel dreadfully. I wish that boy would
+wheel me a piece. Don't you s'pose he would?" asked Bab, wearily
+picking herself up as a tall lad trundling a barrow came out of a yard
+near by.
+
+"Hullo, Joslyn!" said Ben, recognizing the boy as one of the "hill
+fellows" who come to town Saturday nights for play or business.
+
+"Hullo, Brown," responded the other, arresting his squeaking progress
+with signs of surprise at the moist tableau before him.
+
+"Where goin'?" asked Ben with masculine brevity.
+
+"Got to carry this home, hang the old thing!"
+
+"Where to?"
+
+"Batchelor's, down yonder," and the boy pointed to a farm-house at the
+foot of the next hill.
+
+"Goin' that way, take it right along."
+
+"What for?" questioned the prudent youth, distrusting such unusual
+neighborliness.
+
+"She's tired, wants a ride; I'll leave it all right, true as I live
+and breathe," explained Ben, half ashamed yet anxious to get his
+little responsibility home as soon as possible, for mishaps seemed to
+thicken.
+
+"Ho, _you_ couldn't cart her all that way! she's most as heavy as a
+bag of meal," jeered the taller lad, amused at the proposition.
+
+"I'm stronger than most fellers of my size. Try, if I aint," and Ben
+squared off in such scientific style that Joslyn responded with sudden
+amiability:
+
+"All right, let's see you do it."
+
+Bab huddled into her new equipage without the least fear, and Ben
+trundled her off at a good pace, while the boy retired to the shelter
+of the barn to watch their progress, glad to be rid of an irksome
+errand.
+
+At first, all went well, for the way was down hill, and the wheel
+squeaked briskly round and round; Bab smiled gratefully upon her
+bearer, and Ben "went in on his muscle with a will," as he expressed
+it. But presently the road grew sandy, began to ascend, and the load
+seemed to grow heavier with every step.
+
+"I'll get out now. It's real nice, but I guess I _am_ too heavy," said
+Bab, as the face before her got redder and redder, and the breath
+began to come in puffs.
+
+"Sit still. He said I couldn't. I'm not going to give in with him
+looking on," panted Ben, and pushed gallantly up the rise, over the
+grassy lawn to the side gate of the Batchelors' door-yard, with his
+head down, teeth set, and every muscle of his slender body braced to
+the task.
+
+"Did ever ye see the like of that now? Ah, ha!
+
+    'The streets were so wide,
+    and the lanes were so narry,
+    He brought his wife home
+    on a little wheelbarry,'"
+
+sung a voice with an accent which made Ben drop his load and push back
+his hat, to see Pat's red head looking over the fence.
+
+To have his enemy behold him then and there was the last bitter drop
+in poor Ben's cup of humiliation. A shrill approving whistle from the
+hill was some comfort, however, and gave him spirit to help Bab out
+with composure, though his hands were blistered and he had hardly
+breath enough to issue the command:
+
+"Go along home, and don't mind him."
+
+"Nice childer, ye are, runnin' off this way, settin' the women
+disthracted, and me wastin' me time comin' after ye when I'd be
+milkin' airly so I'd get a bit of pleasure the day," grumbled Pat,
+coming up to untie the Duke, whose Roman nose Ben had already
+recognized, as well as the roomy chaise standing before the door.
+
+"Did Billy tell you about us?" asked Bab, gladly following toward this
+welcome refuge.
+
+"Faith he did, and the Squire sint me to fetch ye home quiet and aisy.
+When ye found me, I'd jist stopped here to borry a light for me pipe.
+Up wid ye, b'y, and not be wastin' me time stramashin' afther a
+spalpeen that I'd like to lay me whip over," said Pat, gruffly, as Ben
+came along, having left the barrow in the shed.
+
+"Don't you wish you could? You needn't wait for me; I'll come when I'm
+ready," answered Ben, dodging round the chaise, bound not to mind Pat,
+if he spent the night by the road-side in consequence.
+
+"Bedad, and I wont then. It's lively ye are; but four legs is better
+than two, as ye'll find this night, me young mon!"
+
+With that he whipped up and was off before Bab could say a word to
+persuade Ben to humble himself for the sake of a ride. She lamented
+and Pat chuckled, both forgetting what an agile monkey the boy was,
+and as neither looked back, they were unaware that Master Ben was
+hanging on behind among the straps and springs, making derisive
+grimaces at his unconscious foe through the little glass in the
+leathern back.
+
+At the lodge gate Ben jumped down to run before with whoops of naughty
+satisfaction, which brought the anxious waiters to the door in a
+flock; so Pat could only shake his fist at the exulting little rascal
+as he drove away, leaving the wanderers to be welcomed as warmly as if
+they were a pair of model children.
+
+Mrs. Moss had not been very much troubled after all; for Cy had told
+her that Bab went after Ben, and Billy had lately reported her safe
+arrival among them, so, mother-like, she fed, dried, and warmed the
+runaways, before she scolded them.
+
+Even then, the lecture was a mild one, for when they tried to tell the
+adventures which to them seemed so exciting, not to say tragical, the
+effect astonished them immensely, as their audience went into gales of
+laughter, especially at the wheelbarrow episode, which Bab insisted on
+telling, with grateful minuteness, to Ben's confusion. Thorny shouted,
+and even tender-hearted Betty forgot her tears over the lost dog to
+join in the familiar melody when Bab mimicked Pat's quotation from
+Mother Goose.
+
+"We must not laugh any more, or these naughty children will think they
+have done something very clever in running away," said Miss Celia,
+when the fun subsided, adding soberly, "I _am_ displeased, but I will
+say nothing, for I think Ben is already punished enough."
+
+"Guess I am," muttered Ben, with a choke in his voice as he glanced
+toward the empty mat where a dear curly bunch used to lie with a
+bright eye twinkling out of the middle of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BEN'S RIDE.
+
+
+Great was the mourning for Sancho, because his talents and virtues
+made him universally admired and beloved. Miss Celia advertised,
+Thorny offered rewards, and even surly Pat kept a sharp look-out for
+poodle dogs when he went to market; but no Sancho or any trace of him
+appeared. Ben was inconsolable, and sternly said it served Bab right
+when the _dog_-wood poison affected both face and hands. Poor Bab
+thought so, too, and dared ask no sympathy from him, though Thorny
+eagerly prescribed plantain leaves, and Betty kept her supplied with
+an endless succession of them steeped in cream and pitying tears. This
+treatment was so successful that the patient soon took her place in
+society as well as ever, but for Ben's affliction there was no cure,
+and the boy really suffered in his spirits.
+
+[Illustration: BEN AND LITA AT THE BROOK.]
+
+"I don't think it's fair that I should have so much trouble--first
+losing father and then Sanch. If it wasn't for Lita and Miss Celia,
+I don't believe I could stand it," he said, one day, in a fit of
+despair, about a week after the sad event.
+
+"Oh, come now, don't give up so, old fellow. We'll find him if he's
+alive, and if he isn't I'll try and get you another as good,"
+answered Thorny, with a friendly slap on the shoulder, as Ben sat
+disconsolately among the beans he had been hoeing.
+
+"As if there ever could be another half as good!" cried Ben, indignant
+at the idea; "or as if I'd ever try to fill his place with the best
+and biggest dog that ever wagged a tail! No, sir, there's only one
+Sanch in all the world, and if I can't have him I'll never have a dog
+again."
+
+"Try some other sort of a pet, then. You may have any of mine you
+like. Have the peacocks; do now," urged Thorny, full of boyish
+sympathy and good-will.
+
+"They are dreadful pretty, but I don't seem to care about 'em, thank
+you," replied the mourner.
+
+"Have the rabbits, all of them," which was a handsome offer on
+Thorny's part, for there were a dozen at least.
+
+"They don't love a fellow as a dog does; all they care for is stuff to
+eat and dirt to burrow in. I'm sick of rabbits." And well he might be,
+for he had had the charge of them ever since they came, and any boy
+who has ever kept bunnies knows what a care they are.
+
+"So am I! Guess we'll have an auction and sell out. Would Jack be a
+comfort to you? If he will, you may have him. I'm so well now, I can
+walk, or ride anything," added Thorny, in a burst of generosity.
+
+"Jack couldn't be with me always, as Sanch was, and I couldn't keep
+him if I had him."
+
+Ben tried to be grateful, but nothing short of Lita would have healed
+his wounded heart, and she was not Thorny's to give, or he would
+probably have offered her to his afflicted friend.
+
+"Well, no, you couldn't take Jack to bed with you, or keep him up in
+your room, and I'm afraid he would never learn to do anything clever.
+I do wish I had something you wanted, I'd so love to give it to you."
+
+He spoke so heartily and was so kind that Ben looked up, feeling that
+he had given him one of the sweetest things in the world--friendship;
+he wanted to tell him so, but did not know how to do it, so caught up
+his hoe and fell to work, saying, in a tone Thorny understood better
+than words:
+
+"You are real good to me--never mind, I wont worry about it; only it
+seems extra hard coming so soon after the other----"
+
+He stopped there, and a bright drop fell on the bean leaves, to shine
+like dew till Ben saw clearly enough to bury it out of sight in a
+great hurry.
+
+"By Jove! I'll find that dog, if he is out of the ground. Keep your
+spirits up, my lad, and we'll have the dear old fellow back yet."
+
+With which cheering prophecy Thorny went off to rack his brains as to
+what could be done about the matter.
+
+Half an hour afterward, the sound of a hand-organ in the avenue roused
+him from the brown study into which he had fallen as he lay on
+the newly mown grass of the lawn. Peeping over the wall, Thorny
+reconnoitered, and, finding the organ a good one, the man a
+pleasant-faced Italian, and the monkey a lively animal, he ordered
+them all in, as a delicate attention to Ben, for music and monkey
+together might suggest soothing memories of the past, and so be a
+comfort.
+
+In they came by way of the Lodge, escorted by Bab and Betty, full
+of glee, for hand-organs were rare in those parts, and the children
+delighted in them. Smiling till his white teeth shone and his black
+eyes sparkled, the man played away while the monkey made his pathetic
+little bows, and picked up the pennies Thorny threw him.
+
+"It is warm, and you look tired. Sit down and I'll get you some
+dinner," said the young master, pointing to the seat which now stood
+near the great gate.
+
+With thanks in broken English the man gladly obeyed, and Ben begged to
+be allowed to make Jacko equally comfortable, explaining that he knew
+all about monkeys and what they liked. So the poor thing was freed
+from his cocked hat and uniform, fed with bread and milk, and allowed
+to curl himself up in the cool grass for a nap, looking so like a
+tired little old man in a fur coat that the children were never weary
+of watching him.
+
+Meantime, Miss Celia had come out, and was talking Italian to Giacomo
+in a way that delighted his homesick heart. She had been to Naples,
+and could understand his longing for the lovely city of his birth, so
+they had a little chat in the language which is all music, and the
+good fellow was so grateful that he played for the children to dance
+till they were glad to stop, lingering afterward as if he hated to set
+out again upon his lonely, dusty walk.
+
+"I'd rather like to tramp round with him for a week or so. Could make
+enough to live on as easy as not, if I only had Sanch to show off,"
+said Ben, as he was coaxing Jacko into the suit which he detested.
+
+"You go wid me, yes?" asked the man, nodding and smiling, well pleased
+at the prospect of company, for his quick eye and what the boys let
+fall in their talk showed him that Ben was not one of them.
+
+"If I had my dog I'd love to," and with sad eagerness Ben told the
+tale of his loss, for the thought of it was never long out of his
+mind.
+
+"I tink I see droll dog like he, way off in New York. He do leetle
+trick wid letter, and dance, and go on he head, and many tings to
+make laugh," said the man, when he had listened to a list of Sanch's
+beauties and accomplishments.
+
+"Who had him?" asked Thorny, full of interest at once.
+
+"A man I not know. Cross fellow what beat him when he do letters bad.
+
+"Did he spell his name?" cried Ben, breathlessly.
+
+"No, that for why man beat him. He name Generale, and he go spell
+Sancho all times, and cry when whip fall on him. Ha! yes! that name
+true one, not Generale?" and the man nodded, waved his hands and
+showed his teeth, almost as much excited as the boys.
+
+"It's Sanch! let's go and get him, now, right off!" cried Ben, in a
+fever to be gone.
+
+"A hundred miles away, and no clue but this man's story? We must wait
+a little, Ben, and be sure before we set out," said Miss Celia, ready
+to do almost anything, but not so certain as the boys. "What sort of
+a dog was it? A large, curly, white poodle, with a queer tail?" she
+asked of Giacomo.
+
+"No, Signorina mia, he no curly, no wite, he black, smooth dog, littel
+tail, small, so," and the man held up one brown finger with a gesture
+which suggested a short, wagging tail.
+
+"There, you see how mistaken we were. Dogs are often named Sancho,
+especially Spanish poodles, for the original Sancho was a Spaniard,
+you know. This dog is not ours, and I'm so sorry."
+
+The boys faces had fallen dismally as their hope was destroyed; but
+Ben would not give up, for him there was and could be only one Sancho
+in the world, and his quick wits suggested an explanation which no one
+else thought of.
+
+"It may be my dog--they color 'em as we used to paint over trick
+horses. I told you he was a valuable chap, and those that stole him
+hide him that way, else he'd be no use, don't you see, because we'd
+know him."
+
+"But the black dog had no tail," began Thorny, longing to be
+convinced, but still doubtful.
+
+Ben shivered as if the mere thought hurt him, as he said, in a grim
+tone:
+
+"They might have cut Sanch's off."
+
+"Oh, no! no! they mustn't, they wouldn't!"
+
+"How could any one be so wicked?" cried Bab and Betty, horrified at
+the suggestion.
+
+"You don't know what such fellows would do to make all safe, so
+they could use a dog to earn their living for 'em," said Ben, with
+mysterious significance, quite forgetting in his wrath that he had
+just proposed to get his own living in that way himself.
+
+"He no your dog? Sorry I not find him for you. Addio, signorina!
+Grazia, signor! Buon giorno, buon giorno," and, kissing his hand, the
+Italian shouldered organ and monkey, ready to go.
+
+Miss Celia detained him long enough to give him her address, and beg
+him to let her know if he met poor Sanch in any of his wanderings, for
+such itinerant showmen often cross each other's paths. Ben and Thorny
+walked to the school-corner with him, getting more exact information
+about the black dog and his owner, for they had no intention of giving
+it up so soon.
+
+That very evening, Thorny wrote to a boy cousin in New York giving
+all the particulars of the case, and begging him to hunt up the man,
+investigate the dog, and see that the police made sure that everything
+was right. Much relieved by this performance, the boys waited
+anxiously for a reply, and when it came found little comfort in it.
+Cousin Horace had done his duty like a man, but regretted that he
+could only report a failure. The owner of the black poodle was a
+suspicious character, but told a straight story, how he had bought
+the dog from a stranger, and exhibited him with success till he was
+stolen. Knew nothing of his history and was very sorry to lose him,
+for he was a remarkably clever beast.
+
+"I told my dog man to look about for him, but he says he has probably
+been killed, with ever so many more, so there is an end of it, and I
+call it a mean shame."
+
+"Good for Horace! I told you he'd do it up thoroughly and see the
+end of it," said Thorny, as he read that paragraph in the deeply
+interesting letter.
+
+"May be the end of _that_ dog, but not of mine. I'll bet he ran away,
+and if it _was_ Sanch he'll come home. You see if he doesn't," cried
+Ben, refusing to believe that all was over.
+
+"A hundred miles off? Oh, he couldn't find you without help, smart as
+he is," answered Thorny, incredulously.
+
+Ben looked discouraged, but Miss Celia cheered him up again by saying:
+
+"Yes, he could. My father had a friend who kept a little dog in Paris,
+and the creature found her in Milan and died of fatigue next day. That
+was very wonderful, but true, and I've no doubt that if Sanch _is_
+alive he will come home. Let us hope so, and be happy while we wait."
+
+"We will!" said the boys, and day after day looked for the wanderer's
+return, kept a bone ready in the old place if he should arrive at
+night, and shook his mat to keep it soft for his weary bones when he
+came. But weeks passed, and still no Sanch.
+
+Something else happened, however, so absorbing that he was almost
+forgotten for a time, and Ben found a way to repay a part of all he
+owed his best friend.
+
+Miss Celia went off for a ride one afternoon, and an hour afterward,
+as Ben sat in the porch reading, Lita dashed into the yard with the
+reins dangling about her legs, the saddle turned round, and one side
+covered with black mud, showing that she had been down. For a minute,
+Ben's heart stood still, then he flung away his book, ran to the
+horse, and saw at once by her heaving flanks, dilated nostrils and wet
+coat, that she must have come a long way and at full speed.
+
+"She has had a fall, but isn't hurt or frightened," thought the boy,
+as the pretty creature rubbed her nose against his shoulder, pawed the
+ground and champed her bit, as if she tried to tell him all about the
+disaster, whatever it was.
+
+"Lita, where's Miss Celia?" he asked, looking straight into the
+intelligent eyes, which were troubled but not wild.
+
+Lita threw up her head and neighed loud and clear as if she called her
+mistress, and turning, would have gone again if Ben had not caught the
+reins and held her.
+
+"All right, we'll find her;" and, pulling off the broken saddle,
+kicking away his shoes, and ramming his hat firmly on, Ben was up like
+a flash, tingling all over with a sense of power as he felt the bare
+back between his knees, and caught the roll of Lita's eye as she
+looked round with an air of satisfaction.
+
+"Hi, there! Mrs. Moss! Something has happened to Miss Celia, and I'm
+going to find her. Thorny is asleep; tell him easy, and I'll come back
+as soon as I can."
+
+Then, giving Lita her head, he was off before the startled woman had
+time to do more than wring her hands and cry out:
+
+"Go for the Squire! Oh, what shall we do?"
+
+As if she knew exacty what was wanted of her, Lita went back the way
+she had come, as Ben could see by the fresh, irregular tracks that cut
+up the road where she had galloped for help. For a mile or more they
+went, then she paused at a pair of bars which were let down to allow
+the carts to pass into the wide hay-fields beyond. On she went again
+cantering across the new-mown turf toward a brook, across which she
+had evidently taken a leap before; for, on the further side, at a
+place where cattle went to drink, the mud showed signs of a fall.
+
+"You were a fool to try there, but where is Miss Celia?" said Ben,
+who talked to animals as if they were people, and was understood much
+better than any one not used to their companionship would imagine.
+
+Now Lita seemed at a loss, and put her head down as if she expected to
+find her mistress where she had left her, somewhere on the ground.
+Ben called, but there was no answer, and he rode slowly along the
+brook-side, looking far and wide with anxious eyes.
+
+"May be she wasn't hurt, and has gone to that house to wait," thought
+the boy, pausing for a last survey of the great, sunny field, which
+had no place of shelter in it but one rock on the other side of the
+little stream. As his eye wandered over it, something dark seemed
+to blow out from behind it, as if the wind played in the folds of a
+skirt, or a human limb moved. Away went Lita, and in a moment Ben
+had found Miss Celia, lying in the shadow of the rock, so white and
+motionless he feared that she was dead. He leaped down, touched her,
+spoke to her, and receiving no answer, rushed away to bring a little
+water in his leaky hat to sprinkle in her face, as he had seen them
+do when any of the riders got a fall in the circus, or fainted from
+exhaustion after they left the ring, where "do or die" was the motto
+all adopted.
+
+In a minute, the blue eyes opened, and she recognized the anxious face
+bending over her, saying faintly, as she touched it:
+
+"My good little Ben, I knew you'd find me--I sent Lita for you--I'm so
+hurt I couldn't come."
+
+"Oh, where? What shall I do? Had I better run up to the house?" asked
+Ben, overjoyed to hear her speak, but much dismayed by her seeming
+helplessness, for he had seen bad falls, and had them, too.
+
+"I feel bruised all over, and my arm is broken, I'm afraid. Lita tried
+not to hurt me. She slipped, and we went down. I came here into the
+shade, and the pain made me faint, I suppose. Call somebody, and get
+me home."
+
+Then, she shut her eyes, and looked so white that Ben hurried away
+and burst upon old Mrs. Paine, placidly knitting at the end door, so
+suddenly that, as she afterward said, "it sca't her like a clap o'
+thunder."
+
+"Aint a man nowheres around. All down in the big medder gettin' in
+hay," was her reply to Ben's breathless demand for "everybody to come
+and see to Miss Celia."
+
+He turned to mount, for he had flung himself off before Lita stopped,
+but the old lady caught his jacket and asked half a dozen questions in
+a breath.
+
+"Who's your folks? What's broke? How'd she fall? Where is she? Why
+didn't she come right here? Is it a sunstroke?"
+
+As fast as words could tumble out of his mouth Ben answered, and then
+tried to free himself, but the old lady held on while she gave her
+directions, expressed her sympathy, and offered her hospitality with
+incoherent warmth.
+
+"Sakes alive! poor dear! Fetch her right in. Liddy, get out the
+camphire, and Melissy, you haul down a bed to lay her on. Falls is
+dretful uncert'in things; shouldn't wonder if her back was broke.
+Father's down yender, and he and Bijah will see to her. You go call
+'em, and I'll blow the horn to start 'em up. Tell her we'll be pleased
+to see her, and it wont make a mite of trouble."
+
+Ben heard no more, for as Mrs. Paine turned to take down the tin horn
+he was up and away.
+
+Several long and dismal toots sent Lita galloping through the grassy
+path as the sound of the trumpet excites a war-horse, and "father and
+Bijah," alarmed by the signal at that hour, leaned on their rakes to
+survey with wonder the distracted-looking little horseman approaching
+like a whirlwind.
+
+"Guess likely grandpa's had 'nother stroke. Told 'em to send over
+soon's ever it come," said the farmer calmly.
+
+"Shouldn't wonder ef suthing was afire some'r's," conjectured the
+hired man, surveying the horizon for a cloud of smoke.
+
+Instead of advancing to meet the messenger, both stood like statues in
+blue overalls and red flannel shirts, till the boy arrived and told
+his tale.
+
+"Sho, that's bad," said the farmer, anxiously.
+
+"That brook always was the darndest place," added Bijah, then both
+men bestirred themselves helpfully, the former hurrying to Miss Celia
+while the latter brought up the cart and made a bed of hay to lay her
+on.
+
+"Now then, boy, you go for the doctor. My women folks will see to
+the lady, and she'd better keep quiet up yender till we see what the
+matter is," said the farmer, when the pale girl was lifted in as
+carefully as four strong arms could do it. "Hold on," he added, as Ben
+made one leap to Lita's back. "You'll have to go to Berryville. Dr.
+Mills is a master hand for broken bones and old Dr. Babcock aint.
+'Tisn't but about three mile from here to his house, and you'll fetch
+him 'fore there's any harm done waitin'."
+
+"Don't kill Lita," called Miss Celia from the cart, as it began to
+move.
+
+But Ben did not hear her, for he was off across the fields, riding as
+if life and death depended upon his speed.
+
+"That boy will break his neck!" said Mr. Paine, standing still
+to watch horse and rider go over the wall as if bent on instant
+destruction.
+
+"No fear for Ben, he can ride anything, and Lita was trained to leap,"
+answered Miss Celia, falling back on the hay with a groan, for she had
+involuntarily raised her head to see her little squire dash away in
+gallant style.
+
+"I should hope so; regular jockey, that boy. Never see anything like
+it out of a race-ground," and farmer Paine strode on, still following
+with his eye the figures that went thundering over the bridge, up the
+hill, out of sight, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
+
+Now that his mistress was safe, Ben enjoyed that wild ride mightily,
+and so did the bay mare; for Lita had good blood in her, and proved it
+that day by doing her three miles in a wonderfully short time. People
+jogging along in wagons and country carry-alls, stared amazed as the
+reckless pair went by. Women, placidly doing their afternoon sewing at
+the front windows, dropped their needles to run out with exclamations
+of alarm, sure some one was being run away with; children playing by
+the roadside scattered like chickens before a hawk, as Ben passed with
+a warning whoop, and baby-carriages were scrambled into door-yards
+with perilous rapidity at his approach.
+
+But when he clattered into town, intense interest was felt in this
+bare-footed boy on the foaming steed, and a dozen voices asked, "Who's
+killed?" as he pulled up at the doctor's gate.
+
+"Jest drove off that way; Mrs. Flynn's baby's in a fit," cried a stout
+lady from the piazza, never ceasing to rock, though several passers-by
+paused to hear the news, for she was a doctor's wife, and used to the
+arrival of excited messengers from all quarters at all hours of the
+day and night.
+
+Deigning no reply to any one, Ben rode away, wishing he could leap a
+yawning gulf, scale a precipice, or ford a raging torrent, to prove
+his devotion to Miss Celia, and his skill in horsemanship. But no
+dangers beset his path, and he found the doctor pausing to water
+his tired horse at the very trough where Bab and Sancho had been
+discovered on that ever-memorable day. The story was quickly told,
+and, promising to be there as soon as possible, Dr. Mills drove on to
+relieve baby Flynn's inner man, a little disturbed by a bit of soap
+and several buttons, upon which he had privately lunched while his
+mamma was busy at the wash-tub.
+
+Ben thanked his stars, as he had already done more than once, that
+he knew how to take care for a horse; for he delayed by the
+watering-place long enough to wash out Lita's mouth with a handful of
+wet grass, to let her have one swallow to clear her dusty throat, and
+then went slowly back over the breezy hills, patting and praising the
+good creature for her intelligence and speed. She knew well enough
+that she had been a clever little mare, and tossed her head, arched
+her glossy neck, and ambled daintily along, as conscious and
+coquettish as a pretty woman, looking round at her admiring rider to
+return his compliments by glances of affection, and caressing sniffs
+of a velvet nose at his bare feet.
+
+Miss Celia had been laid comfortably in bed by the farmer's wife and
+daughters, and, when the doctor arrived, bore the setting of her arm
+bravely. No other serious damage appeared, and bruises soon heal, so
+Ben was sent home to comfort Thorny with a good report, and ask the
+squire to drive up in his big carry-all for her the next day, if she
+was able to be moved.
+
+Mrs. Moss had been wise enough to say nothing, but quietly made what
+preparations she could, and waited for tidings. Bab and Betty were
+away berrying, so no one had alarmed Thorny, and he had his afternoon
+nap in peace,--an unusually long one, owing to the stillness which
+prevailed in the absence of the children; and when he awoke he lay
+reading for a while before he began to wonder where every one was.
+Lounging out to see, he found Ben and Lita reposing side by side on
+the fresh straw in the loose box, which had been made for her in the
+coach-house. By the pails, sponges and curry-combs lying about, it was
+evident that she had been refreshed by a careful washing and rubbing
+down, and my lady was now luxuriously resting after her labors, with
+her devoted groom half asleep close by.
+
+"Well, of all queer boys you are the queerest, to spend this hot
+afternoon fussing over Lita, just for the fun of it!" cried Thorny,
+looking in at them with much amusement.
+
+"If you knew what we'd been doing you'd think I ought to fuss over
+her, and both of us had a right to rest!" answered Ben, rousing up as
+bright as a button; for he longed to tell his thrilling tale, and had
+with difficulty been restrained from bursting in on Thorny as soon as
+he arrived.
+
+He made short work of the story, but was quite satisfied with the
+sensation it produced; for his listener was startled, relieved,
+excited and charmed, in such rapid succession, that he was obliged to
+sit upon the meal chest and get his breath before he could exclaim,
+with an emphatic demonstration of his heels against the bin:
+
+"Ben Brown, I'll never forget what you've done for Celia this day, or
+say 'bow-legs' again as long as I live!"
+
+"George! I felt as if I had _six_ legs when we were going the pace. We
+were all one piece, and had a jolly spin, didn't we, my beauty?" and
+Ben chuckled as he took Lita's head in his lap, while she answered
+with a gusty sigh that nearly blew him away.
+
+"Like the fellow that brought the good news from Ghent to Aix," said
+Thorny, surveying the recumbent pair with great admiration.
+
+"What fellow?" asked Ben, wondering if he didn't mean Sheridan, of
+whose ride he had heard.
+
+"Don't you know that piece? I spoke it at school. Give it to you now;
+see if it isn't a rouser."
+
+And, glad to find a vent for his excitement, Thorny mounted the
+meal-chest, to thunder out that stirring ballad with such spirit that
+Lita pricked up her ears, and Ben gave a shrill "Hooray!" as the last
+verse ended,
+
+  "And all I remember is friends flocking round,
+  As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground,
+  And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine,
+  As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine,
+  Which (the burgesses voted by common consent)
+  Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent."
+
+(_To be continued_.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MASTER MONTEZUMA.
+
+(_With Illustrations copied from Mexican Hieroglyphics_.)
+
+By C.C. HASKINS.
+
+[Note.--Montezuma II., the last of the Aztec (or native Mexican)
+emperors, was born about 1480. He was taken prisoner by Hernando
+Cortes, the commander of the Spanish army which conquered Mexico, and,
+in the hope of quelling an insurrection which had arisen among his
+former subjects, he consented to address them from the walls of his
+prison. Stung by the apparent desertion of their leader to the cause
+of the enemy, the Mexicans assaulted him with stones and other
+missiles. He was struck on the temple by one of the stones, and died
+from the effects in a few days. The illustrations are true copies of
+old Mexican pictures, which appeared originally in the "Collection
+of Mendoza," a work frequently referred to by all writers on ancient
+Mexico.--C.C.H.]
+
+
+The Emperor Montezuma was a great man, and historians have recorded
+much about him, but of his earlier life, when he was plain Master
+Montezuma, comparatively little is known of this rising young
+gentleman.
+
+Master M. commenced his earthly career as a crying baby, in the
+year "one cane," which, when properly figured down according to the
+Gregorian calendar, would be about the year of our Lord 1480.
+
+No sooner had Master M. reached the fourth day of his existence, than
+the nurse, under instructions from his anxious mamma, took off what
+few clothes the poor boy had on, and repairing to the baptismal font
+in the yard, sprinkled cold water upon his naked breast and lips,
+presented his credentials in the shape of offerings to propitiate the
+gods of war, agriculture, etc., whose names you will find further
+along in this history, repeated a prayer in which "the Lord was
+implored to wash away the sin that was given him before the foundation
+of the world, so that the child might be born anew," and told the
+three little boys who sat near by, what Master M.'s name was to be.
+The three little boys left off eating their parched corn, and boiled
+beans, repeated the name, and the little baby was christened.
+
+Now, if Master M. had been a girl--which he was not--the offerings
+would have been a mat, a spinning machine and a broom, all of which
+would have been buried under the _metate_, the stone where corn was
+ground. As it was, the offerings were implements of war, articles of
+metal, pottery, etc., and these were buried, as near as they could
+guess at the location, where they either hoped or feared there might
+some day be a battle with their enemies.
+
+When Master M. had eaten and slept and kicked and cried for sixteen
+days longer, his parents took him to the priest, and to the teacher,
+and promised that he should be instructed by these worthy gentlemen in
+war, politics, religion, and other branches of general education. They
+promised that he should be an Alfalqui, or priest, and should also
+serve in the army as a soldier. In that little, wiggling baby, that
+seemed all fists and mouth, it was impossible to foresee the future
+Emperor of Mexico, whose name has since become familiar to the
+civilized world.
+
+Young Master M. worried along pretty well, and up to six years of
+age had done nothing remarkable. At this age he was granted one and
+one-half rolls at a meal, and commenced doing little errands and
+picking up scattered beans and corn in the Tianquez, which is what the
+Mexicans called the market-place.
+
+The restless spirit of a military chieftain now began to show itself
+in the embryo warrior, and, by the time he had reached his eighth
+year, discipline became necessary to curb his growing inclination to
+despotism. He was fast becoming one of that class of boys who think
+"it's too bad to be good all the time." In the second picture see the
+scalding tears! Whether Master M. is sorry that he has done wrong, or
+whether he only fears being pricked with those terrible thorns of the
+aloe with which he is threatened, or is crying because he is cold, who
+shall tell? It is hard, sometimes, to tell what eight-year-old boys
+are crying for, whether they live in the United States or in Mexico.
+
+Master M. may have been better than most boys, and it may be that
+his father was a better driver than leader for his little ones. Some
+fathers are. In any event, when Master M. was ten years old there
+came another opportunity for weeping and wailing, and Master M. was
+submitted to the mortification of lying on the damp ground all day
+while he listened to a parental lecture; and this, too, after he was
+twelve years old!
+
+Then Master M. reformed, and became an industrious, faithful boy. I
+have sometimes questioned whether he wasn't hungry, and if he had been
+better fed whether he would not have done better. At fourteen years of
+age they gave him two rolls at a meal, and he was instructed in the
+art of fishing with a net. You can tell how old the boy is by the
+number of round marks in the picture, and the person who is speaking
+is denoted by a tongue in front of the mouth.
+
+When his fifteenth year came, Master M. found he would have plenty to
+do. After this, old Mr. M. had no trouble with him. It is curious--the
+more we have to do, the less liable we are to do something we should
+not, and--let us all study on that half an hour, some day, and see
+what we can make of it.
+
+[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA'S PARENTS TAKE HIM TO THE PRIEST AND
+THE TEACHER.]
+
+He had two teachers, the priest and the military professor. It seemed
+as if everything was to be learned. There was arithmetic, he learned
+to make figures. A round, blue dot stands for one.
+
+Five of them make five, and ooooo-o (five and one) is six, and in that
+way it runs up to ten. If he wanted to say "twenty" he made a flag,
+and for forty he made two flags.
+
+Just imagine such a multiplication table as this: Five times four is
+one flag. Flag times flag is one plume. Flag times plume is one purse!
+Let's see; a purse, then, would equal 8,000. Yes, and if he wanted to
+write 4,000 he would draw only half a purse. All the examples in their
+arithmetic were worked by such tables as these.
+
+Then there were lessons in time. He had to learn that five days make a
+week, four weeks make a month, and eighteen months make a year; and as
+all that footed up only three hundred and sixty days, they threw in
+what they called the five unlucky days that belonged to no month, to
+fill up before they commenced a new year. And then he found another
+arrangement for doing what we do with our leap-year, for, once in
+fifty-two years they put in twelve and one-half extra days, which is
+something like setting the clock ahead when you find it is too slow by
+the town bell or the fire alarm.
+
+[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA MUST BE PUNISHED.]
+
+He learned that this kind of calendar had been in use a long time, and
+was the result of careful study and calculation by the wise priests of
+the olden time; and, when he wanted to know how long, he counted up
+the bundles of reeds which represented centuries, and found that
+it had been in use over four hundred years. And all this, you must
+remember, was before San Salvador was discovered by Columbus. Then he
+had to study all about the naming of the years and the cycles. How, if
+this year was "one rabbit," next year would be "two cane," the third
+"three flint," the next "four house," and these four elements,
+representing air, water, fire, earth, would be thus repeated up to
+thirteen, and then they would commence at one again, so that the
+fourteenth year would be "one cane," etc., and in four of these cycles
+of thirteen they would reach a cycle of fifty-two years, or, as they
+called it, a "bundle," and as the twelve and one-half days additional
+would end one cycle of fifty-two years at midday, and the next at
+midnight, they bundled two of these together and called it "an old
+age." The number fifty-two was an unlucky number, and these old
+Mexicans believed that at the end of a cycle of that number of years,
+at some time, the world would be depopulated, the sun put out, and,
+after death and darkness had reigned awhile, it would all begin afresh
+with a new race of people.
+
+[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA IS TAUGHT HOW TO FISH.]
+
+So, when a cycle or bundle was completed, all fires were extinguished
+and not rekindled during the five unlucky days. Household goods which
+could no longer be of any service, dishes, household articles, etc.,
+were broken; every one gave up all hope, and abandoned himself to
+despair while awaiting the expected ruin.
+
+[Illustration: MASTER MONTEZUMA IS TALKED TO BY HIS FATHER.]
+
+On the evening of the fifth day of sorrow, the priests gathered the
+people together in a procession and marched to a temple, about two
+leagues from the city. Here they would sit like bumps on a log until
+midnight, and then, when the constellation which we call the Pleiades
+came exactly overhead, the danger was over. Two sticks were rubbed
+together over the breast of a captive who had been selected for the
+sacrifice, until fire was produced by the friction, the funeral pile
+was lighted, the body burned, and messengers, many of whom could run
+long distances, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, would
+light their torches and spread the joyful news of danger averted,
+while carrying the "new fire" into all parts of the empire. Then would
+follow a regular old-fashioned frolic, something like a centennial,--a
+jollification few had ever seen and most would see but once in a
+life-time. There must be no drunkenness, however; that was a high
+crime, in some instances punished by death. If the intemperate party,
+man or woman, was over seventy years of age, however, no notice was
+taken of it,--they were old, and had rights and privileges not granted
+to younger members of the community.
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING THE BRIDE.]
+
+Master M. had much to learn about deities. At the head of these stood
+one, infinite, supreme ruler, "the unknown God," and next beneath him
+came Tezcatlipoca, the "son of the world," supposed to be the creator
+of the earth, Huitzilopotchli was the god of war, a sort of Mars, but
+with very much more name. Then there was the god of air, Quetzatcoatl,
+who controlled vegetation, metals, and the politics of the country.
+Here is something Master M. was taught to believe of him:
+
+When this god, whom we will call Q, was on earth, vegetation was so
+wonderfully prolific that a single ear of corn was all a man could
+carry. Everything the people needed grew spontaneously. Cotton grew
+more beautifully tinted than the dyers of the present time could color
+it. Richest perfumes loaded temperate breezes, and everywhere the
+gaudiest-colored birds filled the air with most entrancing harmonies.
+Q had some little difficulty, however, with the rest of the gods, and
+was obliged to leave his little paradise. When he embarked in his
+wizard snake-skin canoe on the shore of the gulf, he told his friends
+that his descendents would one day return and bless the land as he had
+done, and that they would be like him,--tall, fine looking, with dark
+hair, white skins, and flowing beards. Alas! this belief was in no
+small degree the cause of their ruin; for the invading Spaniards quite
+nearly answered this description of Q's descendants.
+
+[Illustration: THE WEDDING OF MONTEZUMA.]
+
+There were thirteen of the principal deities, as Master M. learned,
+each of whom required sacrifices more or less horrible. For instance,
+there was the "soul of the world," I forget his other name. He must
+be propitiated now and then. A year before the fatal day, a tall,
+beautiful, well-formed, unblemished captive was selected to play the
+part of this god for one year. He must have all these qualifications
+to make the resemblance as perfect as possible. He was now treated
+as a god. Everything he could wish, everything it was thought could
+possibly conduce to his pleasure, comfort, or happiness, was furnished
+without stint. He slept on the softest of couches in the most gorgeous
+of chambers; his raiment was profuse and expensive, and the whole
+surroundings were, as far as possible, in keeping with his high and
+holy estate. Birds and music, flowers and rare perfumes pleased every
+sense, and everything, save liberty, was his. This happy-go-lucky sort
+of life continued until the day fixed for the sacrifice. Then joy gave
+way to sadness, pain, death! Stripped of his costly raiment, he was
+taken by a procession of priests to a royal barge, thence across a
+lake to a temple about a league from the city, where, as he mounted
+the weary steps of the huge edifice, he flung aside the garlands of
+flowers and broke the musical instruments which had been a joy to him
+in his past days. At the summit of the temple, in full view of the
+assembled multitude below, he was barbarously put to death by a
+priest, in order to propitiate the cruel god to whom the temple
+was dedicated. And Master M. was taught that the moral of all this
+savagery was, that human joys are transitory, and the partition
+between sorrow and happiness is a very thin one, or words to that
+effect.
+
+Master M. learned that there were many other inferior gods, each of
+which had festivals, sacrifices, etc., proportioned to his rank and
+power; that nearly every hour of the day was dedicated to some god or
+other; but I cannot tell you all he learned of these strange deities.
+
+[Illustration: A PEACE-OFFERING IN THE YEAR ONE RABBIT.]
+
+He studied the history of the temples, and learned why they were four
+or five stories high with the stairs on the outside, and why he had to
+go entirely round the temple to find the next flight of stairs as he
+went up or down; and why each story was smaller than the next lower,
+and learned that some of these buildings were over one hundred feet
+square and as many feet high, and had towers forty or fifty feet high
+on their summits; and all about the everlasting fire which burned on
+the tops of these temples, and that there were so many of these that
+the whole country for miles around was always brilliantly illuminated.
+
+I must pass over a long period in the life of Master M. with the mere
+remark that he graduated in both his military and religious classes
+with the highest honors, and acquitted himself to the most perfect
+satisfaction of both the alfalquis, or priests, and the teachcauhs,
+which is nearly the same as our word teachers.
+
+Master M. had, for a long time, cherished a hope that some day he
+might press the throne as king of Mexico. So, like the Yorkshire lad
+who begged salt of a stranger eating eggs near him, so as to have
+the salt ready in case any one _should_ ask him to accept an egg, he
+prepared himself fully for the possible emergency, and became not only
+a military general, but a leading alfalqui.
+
+And then he married. I have not room to give you the whole picture,
+but here is the way it was done.
+
+A lady whose position in society required her to negotiate the match,
+having previously made all the necessary arrangements, one evening,
+hoisted the happy damsel on her back, and accompanied by four young
+women (I have drawn only one) each bearing a torch, headed the joyous
+procession and marched to the house of Master M., where she dropped
+her cargo of precious humanity. Then the alfalqui asked them if they
+were mutually agreed on matrimony, and of course, they said "yes,"
+when he proceeded to tie their clothes together. Then two old
+patriarchs and two good old grandmothers (one of each of which I have
+copied for you) delivered little sermons suited to the occasion. The
+new couple walked seven times round a blazing fire, partook of a feast
+with their friends, heard a final sort of a "ninety-ninthly and to
+conclude" parting word from the four old people, and then, just as all
+married people do, went to housekeeping, and having their own way as
+much as possible. One thing they could not do. There was no law
+of divorce to appeal to then; death was the only judge who could
+entertain the question of separation.
+
+[Illustration: PROTECTING THE GRAIN FROM RATS, IN THE YEAR ONE
+RABBIT.]
+
+Master M. will now disappear, to re-appear as the Emperor. In the
+year "ten rabbits," or A.D. 1502, the monarch died, and the electoral
+college selected Master M. to supply his place. In the household of
+each monarch there was an electoral board of four nobles, whose duty
+it was, on the death of the ruler, to elect his successor from among
+the sons and nephews of the crown. Having done this, and so notified
+the successor, they selected four nobles to fill their own places,
+and vacated their electoral chairs. Master M. when waited upon to be
+notified of his election to fill his uncle's place, was very busy
+sweeping down the stairs in the great temple dedicated to the god of
+war!
+
+Four years after becoming emperor, Montezuma, to appease the gods,
+made a sacrifice of a young gentleman captive by transfixing him with
+arrows. This, you see, was in the year "one rabbit." It is recorded
+that in this year the rats overran the country so completely that
+the inhabitants had to stand guard at night with blazing torches to
+prevent their devouring the grain sown in the fields.
+
+With the last picture, I take pleasure in introducing to you Master M.
+in his new position as Emperor of Mexico, seated in the royal halls.
+
+For further particulars, read "The Conquest of Mexico," by Prescott.
+
+[Illustration: THE EMPEROR MONTEZUMA, SEATED IN THE ROYAL HALLS.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A LONG JOURNEY.
+
+BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD.
+
+  "We sail to-day," said the captain gay,
+  As he stepped on board the boat that lay
+  So high and dry, "Come now, be spry;
+  We'll land, at Jerusalem by and by!"
+
+  Away they sailed, and each craft they hailed;
+  While down in the cabin they bailed and bailed;
+  For the sea was rough, and they had to luff
+  And tack, till the captain cried out "Enough!"
+
+  They stopped at Peru, this jolly crew,
+  And went to Paris and Timbuctoo;
+  And after a while they found the Nile,
+  And watched the sports of the crocodile.
+
+  They called on the Shah, and the mighty Czar,
+  And on all the crowned heads near and far;
+  Shook hands with the Cid--they really did!
+  And lunched on top of the pyramid!
+
+  To Afric's strand, or northern land,
+  They steer as the captain gives command;
+  And fly so fast that the slender mast
+  Goes quivering, shivering in the blast!
+
+  Then on to the ground with a sudden bound,
+  Leaps Jack--'t was a mercy he wasn't drowned!
+  The sail is furled, the anchor hurled,
+  "We've been," cry the children, "all round the world!"
+
+  By billows tossed, by tempests crossed,
+  Yet never a soul on board was lost!
+  Though the boat be a sieve, I do not grieve,
+  They sail on the ocean of "Make-believe."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE RED CANAL-BOAT.
+
+BY M.A. EDWARDS.
+
+
+The morning sun had not mounted high enough in the sky to send
+his rays into Greta's room, when she was awakened by a noise. She
+listened. It was the sound of a boat grating against the side of the
+canal. Who could be coming to their back door so early? She sprang out
+of bed, and ran quickly to the open window. A disappointment awaited
+her. It was only her father's boat, which the maid-servant Charlotte
+was pushing along, slowly making her way to the landing-stairs.
+
+"Where have you been so early, Charlotte?" called out Greta.
+
+"Are you there, youngsters?" said Charlotte, looking up at the two
+bright faces at the window; for the little Amelia had been roused by
+her sister's wild jump from the bed, and had also run to the window.
+
+"Bad Charlotte, to wake us so early!" cried Amelia.
+
+Charlotte laughed. "You wouldn't think me bad, Minchen, if you knew
+all the good things I've been buying at market. Have you forgotten
+your cousins are coming to-day, all the way from over the sea? I'm
+sure they'll be hungry enough."
+
+"What you got?" asked Amelia (usually called Minchen).
+
+"Fine Beemster cheese, sweet butter, fresh salad, and plenty of fruit.
+And there are lots of good things at the bottom of the basket. I'll
+leave you to find out what they are." And Charlotte made the boat
+fast, and carried the heavy basket into the house.
+
+It was not necessary for Charlotte to remind these little girls of
+the cousins who lived in the city of New York, in the far-off land of
+America. For the last month little else had been talked of in the Van
+Schaick mansion besides the expected visit of the Chester family. Mrs.
+Van Schaick and Mrs. Chester were sisters, and this was but the second
+visit the latter had paid her old Holland home since her marriage. On
+the first visit her children were not with her; but now Mr. Chester
+was coming, and the two boys. Many were the wild speculations the
+girls indulged in with regard to Americans,--what they would look
+like, and what they would say and do.
+
+Great, then, was their surprise, when the travelers arrived, to find
+that their aunt Chester was very like their mother in appearance and
+dress. Mr. Chester did not in the least resemble their father, but he
+was not unlike many other men they had seen, and he did not dress in
+wild-beast skins. As for the boys, Greta poured her tale of woe into
+the ears of the sympathizing Charlotte. "They are just like English
+boys!" she said, contemptuously. Greta had often seen English boys,
+and there was nothing uncommon about them.
+
+This was soon forgotten, however, when Greta discovered what pleasant
+companions the boys were, and that they could put the Dutch words
+together almost as correctly as Greta herself. Will Chester, who had
+reached the dignified age of thirteen, had felt much troubled at the
+thought that he would have "only girls" to play with at Zaandam,
+especially as Greta was a year younger than himself. But when the two
+girls, instead of bringing forward their dolls and tea-sets with
+which to entertain their visitors, produced from their treasures
+two good-sized toy canal-boats, fully equipped with everything a
+canal-boat needed, he admitted to himself that girls who liked to sail
+boats might be good for something.
+
+Secretly, however, he thought that a canal-boat was a poor kind of
+vessel to have, and wished his cousins owned such beautiful ships as
+he and Martin had; for among the last things bought before leaving
+New York were two little sailing-vessels--the "America" and the
+"Columbus." Mr. Chester said Holland was full of water, and these were
+proper toys to take there.
+
+The two canal-boats, being precisely alike, were distinguished from
+each other only by their names. Greta's had "Wilhelmina" painted on
+the side in black letters, while Minchen's had "Gouda" in red letters.
+They were similar to American canal-boats in shape, and of a dark
+red-brown color. Will thought them stumpy and heavy-looking; and he
+did not admire the red sails with crooked gaffs, and smiled at the
+blue pennants, stretched out on stiff frames that turned with the
+wind. But when Greta showed him a tiny windlass on the deck, by means
+of which she easily raised and lowered the mast, he came to the
+conclusion that a Dutch canal-boat was not to be despised.
+
+"I do this when we pass under bridges," she explained.
+
+"Where are your mules for drawing your boat?"
+
+"My boat sails!" she said, proudly. "If there is no wind, I drag it
+along myself. That is the way we do in our country."
+
+[Illustration: "CHARLOTTE WAS PUSHING THE BOAT ALONG, MAKING HER WAY
+TO THE LANDING-STAIRS."]
+
+The American vessels were now unpacked and displayed. When the girls
+saw these sharp-prowed, graceful ships, with their tapering masts
+and pretty sails, their eyes glistened, and they declared that never
+before had they seen anything so lovely. Their, pride in their
+canal-boats suffered a woful downfall. The boys proposed to try all
+the vessels on the canal at the back of the house, but Greta objected.
+
+"Mother never lets us go there to sail our boats," she said. "It is
+a dirty place, and she is afraid we will fall in. But there is a
+beautiful stream by the mill where we are going to-morrow, and there
+we can try our boats, and see which goes the fastest."
+
+"Let us take a walk, then," said Martin. "I want to look at this queer
+place."
+
+The Van Shaicks lived in Zaandam, and it is indeed a queer place to
+American eyes. It is a large town, with but two streets, one on each
+side of the Zaan River; but these two extend for a long distance, and
+are crossed at frequent intervals by canals, so that Martin soon got
+tired counting the little bridges the children passed over in their
+walk. Will was not quite sure whether the brick-paved street was all
+road-way or all sidewalk.
+
+"I don't see any carriages," he said, after studying this matter for
+some time.
+
+"People don't ride much here," said Greta. "There are plenty of
+carriages in Amsterdam."
+
+"How do you get about, then?"
+
+"On our feet and in boats. Look at our fine river, and there are ever
+so many canals! What do we want with carriages?"
+
+"It must be jolly going everywhere in boats," said Will. "I should
+like that!"
+
+"We have some very pretty boats," said Greta, much pleased. "Oh!
+wouldn't you like to go fishing? I'll ask father to take us some day
+soon. I saw a net in the market-boat this morning."
+
+"Well, if that isn't funny!" cried Martin, with a burst of laughter.
+Will joined in the laugh, and Greta looked around in vain to discover
+the cause of their merriment.
+
+"Looking-glasses on the _outside_ of the houses!" explained Martin,
+pointing to one opposite. "I guess they're put there for the girls to
+look in as they walk along," he added, mischievously. "They can't wait
+to get home to admire themselves."
+
+Sure enough, there was a mirror outside the window, set at such an
+angle that the persons inside the house could see who was passing up
+and down the street. And there was a mirror on the next house, and the
+next.
+
+"Why, they are on all the houses!" said Will.
+
+"To be sure!" said Greta. "What is there funny in that? And the girls
+don't look in them any more than the boys, Mr. Martin. Don't you ever
+want to know what is going on in the street?"
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+"How are you going to do it without the looking-glass to tell you?"
+
+"Use my own eyes, to be sure!"
+
+"Whose eyes do you use when you look in a glass?" said Greta.
+
+Martin looked puzzled, and had no reply ready; and Will thought his
+cousin Greta very clever, although she was a girl, and a year younger
+than himself.
+
+But Martin soon recovered his composure.
+
+"What lots of flowers!" was his next comment. "They are everywhere,
+except in this brick pavement, and nothing could grow here, it is so
+clean."
+
+"And such pretty houses in the gardens!" said Will.
+
+"But they are so small," said Martin, "It would take a dozen of them
+to make a New York house."
+
+"My goodness!" said Greta, turning her head back as far as she could,
+and looking at the sky. "How do you ever see up to their roofs?"
+
+"Divide Martin's twelve by four, and you will come nearer the truth,"
+said Will, laughing. "But, at any rate, the houses are pretty--painted
+green and yellow, with red-tiled roofs."
+
+The next thing the boys observed was the loneliness of the streets. In
+America a town of twelve thousand inhabitants would have more of an
+air of bustle, they said. Will liked the quiet, "for a change," as he
+expressed it, and because it made him feel, somehow, as if he owned
+the place. Martin declared it to be his opinion that the people kept
+out of the streets for fear that their shoes would soil them, and that
+accounted for the almost spotless cleanliness everywhere.
+
+The streets were not deserted, however; for, at intervals, there were
+row-boat ferries across the river, and occasionally a man or woman
+would be seen in one of these boats.
+
+There were also a number of children, and some women, in the streets.
+These apparently belonged to the poorer classes. Hats and bonnets were
+scarce among them, though all the women, and many of the little girls,
+had on close-fitting muslin caps. They wore short, loose sacques, and
+short dress skirts, made up without trimmings. The boys were dressed
+in jackets and baggy trousers. All wore clumsy wooden shoes.
+
+The Van Schaick family followed the French fashions, as we do in
+America; the difference between the two countries being that here
+every one attempts to follow the prevailing style, while in Holland
+this change of fashion is confined to the wealthy; the middle and
+lower classes preserving the same style of costume from generation to
+generation.
+
+A good many of the children in the street were carrying painted iron
+or stone buckets, with a tea-kettle on the top. After proceeding some
+distance up the street, Will and Martin saw some of them coming out of
+a basement door-way, still with the buckets in their hands; but clouds
+of steam were issuing from the tea-kettle spouts!
+
+"What place is that?" asked Will.
+
+"It is the fire-woman's," said Greta.
+
+"And who and what may she be? I have heard of water-women, sometimes
+called mermaids, but never before did I hear of a fire-woman."
+
+"She don't _live_ in fire," said Greta; "she _sells_ it. What do the
+poor people in your country do in summer without a fire-woman? Come
+and look in."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE FIRE-WOMAN'S.]
+
+By this time they had reached the place. Over the door was the sign
+"_Water en vuur te koop_."[1] It was not necessary for the children to
+go inside. They could see the whole apartment through the wide-open
+door-way. An old woman stood by a stove, or great oven, with a pair
+of tongs, taking up pieces of burning peat and dropping them into
+the buckets of the children, and then filling their tea-kettles with
+boiling water from great copper tanks on the stove. For this each
+child paid her a Dutch cent, which is less than half of one of ours.
+
+    [Footnote 1: "Water and fire to sell."]
+
+"I understand it," said Will, after they had stood at the door some
+time, amused at the scene. "This saves poor people the expense of a
+fire in the summer-time. They send here for hot water to make their
+tea."
+
+"Yes," said Greta, "and for the burning peat which cooks the potatoes
+and the sausage for their supper."
+
+"Why don't they use coal?" asked Martin. "It is ever so much better."
+
+"No, the peat answers their purpose much better," said Will. "It burns
+slowly, and gives out a good deal of heat for a long time."
+
+"And the smell of it is so delicious," added Greta.
+
+A little further on; the children came out on an open space, which
+gave them a good view of the surrounding flat country, and of the
+wind-mills that stand about Zaandam--a forest of towers. It was a
+marvelous sight. Hundreds of giant arms were beating the air, as if
+guarding the town from invisible enemies.
+
+Greta was proud and pleased that her cousins were so impressed with
+the great numbers of towers and the myriads of gigantic whirling
+spokes.
+
+"My father says there is nothing grander than this in all Holland,"
+she said. "There are four hundred of them, and more, but you can't
+see them all from here. Do you see that mill over yonder? That is my
+father's, and we are going there to-morrow."
+
+The boys could not distinguish one tower from another at that
+distance.
+
+"What kind of mill is it?" asked Will.
+
+"A flour-mill."
+
+"Are all these flour-mills?"
+
+"Oh no! There are saw-mills, colza-oil mills, mustard-mills,
+flax-mills, and other kinds I don't remember."
+
+It was now nearly supper-time, and the little group returned home.
+
+The next morning, the whole party--four grown-up people, four
+youngsters, and four boats (the "Wilhelmina," the "Gouda," the
+"America," and the "Columbus")--were all taken up the Zaan River in a
+row-boat for about three miles, and then up a small stream to the mill
+where they were to spend the day.
+
+The first thing in order was the inspection of the mill, which was
+unlike anything they had ever seen in America. The tower was of brick.
+It was three stories high, over a basement. In the basement were the
+stables and wagon-house; over this was the granary, and flour and meal
+store; above this were the bolting-rooms, the ground wheat running
+through spouts to the store-rooms below. On the next floor above were
+the mill-stones, and the simple machinery that turned them. And, above
+all, at the very top of the tower, was the main shaft of the great
+wings outside. These wings caught the winds, and compelled them
+to work the machinery with such force as to make the strong tower
+tremble. There were balconies around the first and third stories of
+the mill. It was quite a picturesque object standing among low trees
+on a pretty, quiet stream, the banks of which were higher and more
+uneven than was usual in that part of the country.
+
+The miller lived in a small house near the mill with his wife and his
+little daughter Hildegarde, the latter of whom was near Greta's age.
+
+The boys did not take as much interest in the miller's house as their
+parents took; but when they were shown into a large outer room, and
+were told it was the cow-stable, they had no words with which to
+express their astonishment. They would have said it was the show-room
+of the place. There was not a speck on the whitewashed walls; the pine
+ceiling was so clean it fairly glistened; there were crisp, white
+muslin curtains at the windows. The raised earthen floor was covered
+with pure white sand, arranged in fancy designs. There were some small
+round tables standing about, and on them were ornaments of china and
+silver, and a variety of knick-knacks.
+
+During the summer the cows were in the pasture day and night, but in
+the winter they occupied this room. Then the tables were removed, but
+the place was kept very neatly. This was necessary, for the stable
+adjoined the house, and the party passed into the barn through a door
+in the cow-stable.
+
+All except the two boys. Will hung back and motioned to Martin not to
+go into the barn.
+
+"I am tired of this sort of thing," he said. "Let us go and sail our
+boats."
+
+"Very well," said Martin, "I'll call the girls."
+
+"No," said Will; "there are too many of them. They'll only be in the
+way. They'll have a good time together, and we'll have some fun by
+ourselves."
+
+Martin seldom dissented from Will's decisions, so the two boys went
+back into the house to get their ships, and passed out of another
+door to the bridge and across the stream. They had gone but a short
+distance when Martin, who had seemed very thoughtful, stopped opposite
+the mill.
+
+"There is a man in the balcony," he said. "I'll ask him to call to
+the girls to come. It isn't fair to go without them. You know Greta
+thought _so_ much of sailing her boat with ours."
+
+"Nonsense," said Will. "She has got other company now. I don't believe
+they know how to manage their boats, and we will have to help them.
+Girls always have to be taken care of."
+
+"But," persisted Martin, "you said that Greta was real smart and a
+first-rate fellow--girl, I mean."
+
+"She is well enough for girls' plays; but what can she know about
+boats? Come along!"
+
+Martin said no more, and the boys proceeded for some distance up the
+stream.
+
+"If we go around that bend," said Will, "we will be out of sight of
+the mill, and can have our own fun."
+
+Around the bend they found a bridge, and a little way above this the
+stream widened into a large pool, the banks of which were shaded by
+willows. There they launched the schooner "America" and the sloop
+"Columbus" with appropriate ceremonies. The sails and the rudders were
+properly set for a trip across the pool. The ships bent gracefully to
+the breeze, and went steadily on their course, the little flags waving
+triumphantly from the mast-heads. They moved so gracefully and behaved
+so beautifully that Martin expressed his sorrow that the girls were
+not there to see them. Will made no reply, but he felt a twinge of
+remorse as he remembered how Greta had looked forward to this sail as
+a great event. He tried to quiet his conscience with the consideration
+that it was much better for her not to be there; for she would
+certainly have felt mortified at the contrast between their pretty
+vessels and the poor canal-boats.
+
+The boys crossed the bridge, and were ready for the arrival of their
+vessels in the foreign port. Then they started them on the return
+voyage and recrossed the bridge to receive them at home.
+
+This was done several times, but at last there was an accident. Will's
+schooner, the "America," from some unknown cause, took a wrong tack
+when near the middle of the pool, and going too far up, got aground
+upon a tiny, grassy island. She swayed about for a minute, and the
+boys hoped she would float off, but soon the masts ceased to quiver.
+The "America" had quietly moored herself on the island as if she
+intended to remain there forever. What was to be done? The longest
+pole to be found would not reach the island from either bank, or from
+the bridge, and the pool was deep. Will began to think it was a pretty
+bad case.
+
+[Illustration: THE BOYS WITH THEIR BOATS.]
+
+"What a beauty!" "Isn't it just lovely!" "Pretty! pretty! pretty!"
+
+These exclamations came respectively from Greta, Hildegarde, and
+Minchen, and had reference to the "Columbus," which was gliding up
+to the bank where the boys stood, with its sails gleaming in the
+sunshine, while it dipped and courtesied on the little waves. The
+girls were coming around the bend. Greta and Minchen had their
+canal-boats, and Hildegarde carried a great square of gingerbread.
+
+"That's the most beautiful thing I ever saw!" cried Greta. In her
+admiration of the vessel, she had forgotten her wounded dignity. For
+she had arranged with Hildegarde that, after giving the boys their
+share of gingerbread, they should walk proudly and silently away.
+
+As Greta had broken the compact by speaking, Hildegarde entered upon
+an explanation: "We have been down the stream looking for you--"
+But here she was interrupted by a frown from Greta, who suddenly
+recollected the slight that had been put upon them.
+
+"Naughty boys to run away!" said little Minchen. "You sha'n't see my
+boat sail!"
+
+"My ship is aground on that island," said Will, willing to change the
+subject. "I have no way of getting her off. I wonder if the boat we
+came in is too large to be got up here."
+
+"The boat was taken back to Zaandam," said Hildegarde, "and our boat
+is away, too."
+
+"The 'America' will have to stay where she is, then," said Will,
+trying to speak cheerfully.
+
+"Pretty ship is lost! Too bad!" said Minchen, pityingly. Then
+brightly: "I'll give you mine!-_may be_," she added in a doubtful
+tone, as her glance fell lovingly upon the boat she was hugging under
+her arm.
+
+Meantime, Greta had been studying the situation. She now turned to
+Will. "I can get your ship off," she said. "Take care of my boat till
+I come back, and don't sail her on any account. I wont be gone long."
+
+She handed her boat to Will, and was around the bend in an instant;
+and it was not very long before the anxious group heard the sound of
+her rapid footsteps returning. Will thought she had gone to the mill
+to get some one to help them, but she came back alone, and all she
+brought with her was a large ball of cord.
+
+Martin and Minchen asked her twenty questions while she made her
+preparations, but she would not reveal her plans, although it was
+evident from the way she went to work that she had a very clear idea
+of what she intended to accomplish.
+
+In the first place, she said the whole party must go further up the
+bank, so as to get above the "America," which was on the lower edge of
+the little island. When they had gone far enough, she tied one end of
+the cord to the rudder-post of her canal-boat. Then she turned the
+cunning little windlass, and slowly up went the mast to its full
+height. The next thing was to unfurl the sail, set it properly, and
+set the rudder,--all of which she did deftly and correctly, making
+Will feel ashamed of what he had said about the ignorance of girls.
+
+She placed the boat on the water. The sail filled, and off went the
+"Wilhelmina" with a slow, true, steady motion, her red sail glowing in
+the sunshine, and her stiff little pennant standing straight out in
+the wind. As the boat crossed the pool, Greta played out the cord
+carefully, so as not to impede its motion. When it reached the other
+side and had gently grounded on the shelving shore, Greta gave the
+line into Will's hand.
+
+"If you will hold this," she said, "I will go across the bridge."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself to do that," said Will, "I will go over."
+
+"No," said Greta, "I wish to go. I am captain of my own craft, and I
+know how to manage my 'Wilhelmina.'"
+
+"I had no idea she was so pretty," said Will. "She is a true, stanch
+little sailer."
+
+"She don't show off until she is on the water," said Greta, smiling,
+"and then she sails like a real boat. Do you know what I am going to
+do when I get to the other side?"
+
+"I can guess. You will send your boat back to me from below the island
+while I hold this end of the cord. That will bring the line around my
+ship and pull her off."
+
+"I thought of that, but it is too risky. If anything should go wrong
+with my boat, the line might get tangled; or there might be too great
+a strain, and the ship would come off with a jerk and be tumbled
+bottom upward into the water. I intend to untie the cord from the
+boat, and you and I must walk slowly down toward the 'America,'--I on
+that side, and you on this. We must hold the cord low so as to catch
+the mast under the sail, if we can."
+
+"All right," said Will.
+
+Greta walked quickly down the bank, across the bridge, and up the
+other side until she reached the "Wilhelmina." Placing the boat on the
+bank for safety, she took the cord off, and, holding it firmly, walked
+slowly down toward the island. Will did the same on his side of the
+pool. The cord went skimming over the surface of the water, then it
+passed above the tops of the long grass on the island. This brought
+the line on a level with the top-sail. This would not do; for a
+pressure up there might capsize the schooner. Both of the workers saw
+that they must slacken the line a little to get it into the proper
+place. Now was the critical time; if the line was too much slackened
+it might slip under the vessel and upset it that way. Gently they
+lowered it until it lay against the mainmast below the sail.
+
+"Take care!" screamed Will to Greta.
+
+"Go slow!" screamed Greta to Will.
+
+Gently they pulled against the schooner, and, inch by inch, she
+floated off into the open water.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Will, as the "America" gave herself a little shake,
+and, catching the wind, sailed slowly and somewhat unsteadily for the
+home port, which, however, she reached in safety. "Wind up the cord!"
+shouted Greta, just in time to prevent Will's throwing it aside. He
+wondered what further use she had for the cord. It might go to the
+bottom of the pool for aught he cared, now that the ship was safe. But
+he wound it up as directed. It would have been quite a grief to the
+thrifty little Dutch girl if so much fine cord had been wasted.
+
+Thus ignominiously came in the stately ship "America," which Will had
+set afloat with such pride! And it is doubtful whether she would
+have come in at all, but for the stanch Dutch canal-boat that he had
+regarded with a good deal of disdain.
+
+If Will had been a girl, he would have exhausted the complimentary
+adjectives of the Dutch language in praise of his cousin; but being a
+boy, he only said, "Thank you, Greta."
+
+The children remained at the pool until called to dinner; and after
+that meal, they went back again and stayed until it was time to return
+to Zaandam, so fascinated were they with sailing their vessels. These
+changed hands so often that it was sometimes difficult to tell who had
+charge of any particular boat, and a good deal of confusion was the
+result. In justice to the "America," it must be stated that she cut no
+more capers, and was the admiration of all.
+
+Will had his faults, and one of these was the very high estimate
+he placed on his own opinions. But he was generous-hearted, and he
+admitted to himself that Greta had shown more cleverness than he in
+the "America" affair. "She was _quicker_, anyway," he thought. "It
+is likely that plan would have occurred to me after a time, but she
+thought of it first. And it was good of her to help me; for she knew
+that I went away so as not to play with her." It was not pleasant to
+him to know that a girl had shown herself superior to him in anything
+he considered his province; but he magnanimously forgave her for this,
+and he said to Martin, after they were in bed that night:
+
+"I've pretty much made up my mind to give my schooner to Greta. I
+believe she thinks it the prettiest thing ever made."
+
+"If you do that," said Martin, "I'll give my sloop to Minchen."
+
+This plan was carried out, and the girls were more delighted than if
+they had had presents of diamonds. But they insisted that the boys
+should accept their canal-boats in exchange, the result of which
+was that the Chesters, on their return to America, produced quite a
+sensation among their schoolmates. For American-built vessels could be
+bought in many stores in New York, but a Dutch canal-boat, with a red
+sail, and a mast that was raised and lowered by a windlass, was not to
+be found in all the city.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BUTTERFLY CHASE.
+
+BY ELLIS GRAY.
+
+
+  Dear little butterfly,
+  Lightly you flutter by,
+       On golden wing.
+  Drops of sweet honey sip,
+  Deep from the clover tip,
+       Then upward spring.
+
+  Over the meadow grass
+  Swift as a fairy pass,
+       Blithesome and gay;
+  Toy with the golden-rod,
+  Make the blue asters nod--
+       Off and away!
+
+  Butterfly's dozing now,
+  Golden wings closing now,--
+       Softly he swings.
+  Tiny hands fold him fast,
+  Gently unclose at last,--
+       Fly, golden wings!
+
+  Quick! for he's after you,
+  With joyous laughter new,--
+       Mischievous boy!
+  Swift you must flutter by;
+  He wants you, butterfly,
+       For a new toy!
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+HOW TO MAKE A TELEPHONE.
+
+BY M.F.
+
+
+What is a telephone?
+
+Up go a hundred hands of the brightest and sharpest of the readers of
+ST. NICHOLAS, and a hundred confident voices reply:
+
+"An instrument to convey sounds by means of electricity."
+
+Good. That shows you have some definite idea of it; but, after all,
+that answer is not the right one. The telephone does not convey sound.
+
+"What does its name mean, then?" do you ask?
+
+Simply, that it is a far-sounder; but that does not necessarily imply
+that it _carries_ sounds afar. Strictly speaking, the telephone only
+changes sound-waves into waves of electricity and back again. When
+two telephones are connected by means of a wire, they act in this
+way,--the first telephone changes the sound-waves it receives into
+electric impulses which travel along the wire until they reach the
+second telephone, here they are changed back to sound-waves exactly
+like those received by the first telephone. Accordingly, the listener
+in New York seems to hear the very tones of his friend who is speaking
+at the other end of the line, say, in Boston.
+
+Still you don't see how.
+
+It is not surprising, for in this description several scientific facts
+and principles are involved; and all boys and girls cannot be expected
+to know much about the laws of sound and electricity. Perhaps a little
+explanation may make it clearer.
+
+The most of you probably know that sound is produced by rapid motion.
+Put your finger on a piano wire that is sounding, and you will feel
+the motion, or touch your front tooth with a tuning-fork that is
+singing; in the last case you will feel very distinctly the raps made
+by the vibrating fork. Now, a sounding body will not only jar another
+body which touches it, but it will also give its motion to the air
+that touches it; and when the air-motions or air-waves strike the
+sensitive drums of our ears, these vibrate, and we _hear_ the sound.
+
+You all have heard the windows rattle when it thunders loudly, or when
+cannons have been fired near-by. The sound waves in the air fairly
+shake the windows; and, sometimes, when the windows are closed, so
+that the air-waves cannot pass readily, the windows are shattered by
+the shock. Fainter sounds act less violently, yet similarly. Every
+time you speak, your voice sets everything around you vibrating in
+unison, though ever so faintly.
+
+Thus, from your every-day experience you have proof of two important
+facts,--first, sound is caused by rapid motion; second, sound-waves
+give rise to corresponding motion. Both these facts are involved in
+the speaking telephone, which performs a twofold office,--that of the
+ear on the one hand, that of our vocal organs on the other.
+
+To serve as an ear, the telephone must be able to take up quickly and
+nicely the sound-waves of the air. A tightened drum-head will do that;
+or better, a strip of goldbeaters'-skin drawn tightly over a ring
+or the end of a tube. But these would not help Professor Bell, the
+inventor of the telephone we shall describe, since he wanted an ear
+that would translate the waves of sound into waves of electricity,
+which would travel farther and faster than sound-waves could.
+
+Just when Mr. Bell was thinking how he could make the instrument he
+wanted, an important discovery in magnetism was made known to him--a
+discovery that helped him wonderfully. You know that if you hold a
+piece of iron close to a magnet the magnet will pull it, and the
+closer the iron comes to the magnet the harder it is pulled. Now, some
+one experimenting with a magnet having a coil of silk-covered wire
+around it, found that when a piece of iron was moved in front of the
+magnet and close to it without touching, the motion would give rise to
+electric waves in the coil of wire, which waves could be transmitted
+to considerable distances.
+
+This was just what Mr. Bell wanted. He said to himself, "The sound
+of my voice will give motion to a thin plate of iron as well as to a
+sheet of goldbeaters'-skin; and if I bring this vibrating plate
+of iron close to a magnet, the motion will set up in it waves of
+electricity answering exactly to the sound-waves which move the iron
+plate."
+
+So far, good. But something more was wanted. The instrument must not
+only translate sound-waves into electric impulses, but change these
+back again into sound-waves; it must not only hear, but also _speak!_
+
+You remember our first fact in regard to sound: it is caused by
+motion. All that is needed to make anything speak is to cause it to
+move so as to give rise to just such air-waves as the voice makes. Mr.
+Bell's idea was to make the iron plate of his sound-receiver speak.
+
+He reasoned in this way: From the nature of the magnet it follows that
+when waves of electricity are passed through the wire coil around the
+magnet, the strength of the magnet must vary with the force of the
+electric impulses. Its pull on the plate of iron near it must vary in
+the same manner. The varying pull on the plate must make it move,
+and this movement must set the air against the plate in motion in
+sound-waves corresponding exactly with the motion setting up the
+electric waves in the first place; in other words, the sound-motion in
+one telephone must be exactly reproduced as sound-waves in a similar
+instrument joined to it by wire.
+
+Experiment proved the reasoning correct; and thus the
+speaking-telephone was invented. But it took a long time to find
+the simplest and best way to make it. At last, however, Mr. Bell's
+telephone was perfected in the form illustrated below. Fig. 1 shows
+the inner structure of the instrument. A is the spool carrying the
+coil of wire; B, the magnet; C, the diaphragm; E, the case; F, F, the
+wires leading from the coil, and connecting at the end of the handle
+with the ground and line wires. Fig. 2 shows how a telephone looks on
+the outside.
+
+[Illustration: BELL'S TELEPHONE. Fig. 1 and Fig. 2]
+
+So much for description. You will understand it better, perhaps, if
+you experiment a little. You can easily make a pair for yourself, rude
+and imperfect, it is true, but good enough for all the tests you may
+want to apply.
+
+For each you will want: (1) a straight magnet; (2) a coil of
+silk-covered copper wire; (3) a thin plate of soft iron; (4) a box to
+hold the first three articles. You will also want as much wire as you
+can afford, to connect the instruments, and two short pieces of wire
+to connect your telephones with the ground. (Two wires between the
+instruments would make the ground-wires unnecessary, but this would
+use up too much wire.) The magnet and the coil you will have to buy
+from some dealer in electrical apparatus. They need not cost much. A
+small cigar-box will answer for the case.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3. A "CIGAR-BOX" TELEPHONE.]
+
+In one end of the box cut a round hole, say, three inches across.
+Against this hole fasten a disk of thin sheet-iron for the vibrator or
+"diaphragm." For a mouth-piece use a small can, such as ground spices
+come in, or even a round paper box.
+
+Now, on the inside of the box, place the magnet, the end carrying the
+coil almost touching the middle of the diaphragm, and fix it firmly.
+Then, to the ends of the copper wire of the main coil fasten two
+wires,--one for the line, the other for the "ground-wire."
+
+This done, you will have an instrument (or rather two of them) very
+much like Fig. 3. A is the mouth-piece; B, the diaphragm; C, the coil;
+D, the magnet; E, E, the wires.
+
+The receiving and sending instruments are precisely alike, each
+answers for both purposes; but there must be two, since one must
+always be hearing while the other is speaking.
+
+When you speak into the mouth-piece of one telephone, the sound of
+your voice causes the "diaphragm" to vibrate in front of the magnet.
+The vibrations cause the magnet's pull upon the diaphragm to vary in
+force, which variation is answered by electrical waves in the coil and
+over the wires connected with it. At the other end of the wire the
+pull of the magnet of the speaking telephone is varied exactly in
+proportion to the strength of the electric impulses that come over the
+wire; the varying pull of the magnet sets the diaphragm in motion,
+and that sets the air in motion in waves precisely like those of the
+distant voice. When those waves strike the listener's ear, he _seems_
+to hear the speaker's exact tones, and so, substantially, he does
+hear them. The circumstance that electric waves, and not sound-waves,
+travel over the wires, does not change the quality of the resulting
+sound in the least.
+
+I think you now understand Bell's telephone.
+
+The telephones of Edison, Gray, and others, involve different
+principles and are differently constructed.
+
+One invention very often leads to another, and the telephone already
+has an offspring not less wonderful than itself. It is called the
+speaking-phonograph. It was invented by Mr. Edison, one of the
+gentlemen, just mentioned.
+
+Evidently, Mr. Edison said to himself: "The telephone hears and
+speaks; why not make it write in its own way; then its record could
+be kept, and any time after, the instrument might read aloud its own
+writing." Like a great genius as he is, Mr. Edison went to work in the
+simplest way to make the sound-recorder he wanted. You know how the
+diaphragm of the telephone vibrates when spoken to? Mr. Edison took
+away from the telephone all except the mouth-piece and the diaphragm,
+fastened a point of metal, which we will call a "style," to the center
+of the diaphragm, and then contrived a simple arrangement for making
+a sheet of tin-foil pass in front of the style. When the diaphragm is
+still, the style simply scratches a straight line along the foil. When
+a sound is made, however, and the diaphragm set to vibrating, the mark
+of the style is not a simple scratch, but an impression varying in
+depth according to the diaphragm's vibration. And that is how the
+phonograph writes. To the naked eye, the record of the sound appears
+to be simply a line of pin points or dots, more or less close to each
+other; but, under a magnifier, it is seen to be far more complicated.
+
+Now for the reading. The impression on the foil exactly records the
+vibrations of the diaphragm, and those vibrations exactly measure the
+sound-waves which caused the vibrations. The reading simply reverses
+all this. The strip of foil is passed again before the diaphragm,
+the point of the style follows the groove it made at first, and
+the diaphragm follows the style in all its motions. The original
+vibrations are thus exactly reproduced, setting up sound-waves in
+the air precisely like those which first set the machine in motion.
+Consequently, the listener hears a minutely exact echo of what the
+instrument heard; it might have heard it a minute, or an hour, or a
+year, or a thousand years before, had the phonograph been in use so
+long.
+
+What a wonderful result is that! As yet, the phonograph has not been
+put to any practical use; indeed, it is scarcely in operation yet, and
+a great deal must be done to increase the delicacy of its hearing and
+the strength of its voice. It mimics any and every sort of sound with
+marvelous fidelity, but weakly. Its speech is like that of a person
+a long way off, or in another room. But its possibilities are almost
+infinite.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ONLY A DOLL!
+
+BY SARAH O. JEWETT.
+
+
+[Illustration: "Polly, my dolly!"]
+
+  Polly, my dolly! why don't you grow?
+        Are you a dwarf, my Polly?
+  I'm taller and taller every day;
+    How high the grass is!--do you see that?
+  The flowers are growing like weeds, they say;
+    The kitten is growing into a cat!
+        Why don't you grow, my dolly?
+
+  Here is a mark upon the wall.
+        Look for yourself, my Polly!
+  I made it a year ago, I think.
+    I've measured you very often, dear,
+  But, though you've plenty to eat and drink,
+    You haven't grown a bit for a year.
+        Why don't you grow, my dolly?
+
+  Are you never going to try to talk?
+        You're such a silent Polly!
+  Are you never going to say a word?
+    It isn't hard; and oh! don't you see
+  The parrot is only a little bird,
+    But he can chatter so easily.
+        You're quite a dunce, my dolly!
+
+  Let's go and play by the baby-house:
+        You are my dearest Polly!
+  There are other things that do not grow;
+    Kittens can't talk, and why should you?
+  You are the prettiest doll I know;
+    You are a darling--that is true!
+        Just as you are, my dolly!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+DAB KINZER: A STORY OF A GROWING BOY.
+
+BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
+
+
+Between the village and the inlet, and half a mile from the great
+"bay," lay the Kinzer farm. Beyond the bay was a sand-bar, and beyond
+that the Atlantic Ocean; for all this was on the southerly shore of
+Long Island.
+
+The Kinzer farm had lain right there--acre for acre, no more, no
+less--on the day when Hendrik Hudson, long ago, sailed the good ship
+"Half-Moon" into New York Bay. But it was not then known to any one
+as the Kinzer farm. Neither was there then, as now, any bright and
+growing village crowding up on one side of it, with a railway station
+and a post-office. Nor was there, at that time, any great and busy
+city of New York, only a few hours' ride away, over on the island of
+Manhattan. The Kinzers themselves were not there then; but the bay and
+the inlet, with the fish and the crabs, and the ebbing and flowing
+tides, were there, very much the same, before Hendrik Hudson and his
+brave Dutchmen knew anything whatever about that corner of the world.
+
+The Kinzer farm had always been a reasonably "fat" one, both as to
+size and quality, and the good people who lived on it had generally
+been of a somewhat similar description. It was, therefore, every
+way correct and becoming for Dabney Kinzer's widowed mother and his
+sisters to be the plump and hearty beings they were, and all the more
+discouraging to poor Dabney that no amount of regular and faithful
+eating seemed to make him resemble them at all in that respect.
+
+Mrs. Kinzer excused his thinness to her neighbors, to be sure, on the
+ground that he was "such a growing boy;" but, for all that, he caught
+himself wondering, now and then, if he would never be done with that
+part of his trials. For rapid growth has its trials.
+
+"The fact is," he said to himself, one day, as he leaned over the
+north fence, "I'm more like Ham Morris's farm than I am like ours. His
+farm is bigger than ours, all 'round; but it's too big for its fences,
+just as I'm too big for my clothes. Ham's house is three times as
+large as ours, but it looks as if it had grown too fast. It hasn't
+any paint, to speak of, nor any blinds. It looks a good deal as if
+somebody'd just built it there and then forgot it and gone off and
+left it out-of-doors."
+
+Dabney's four sisters had all come into the world before him, but he
+was as tall as any of them, and was frequently taken by strangers for
+a good two years older than he really was.
+
+It was sometimes very hard for him, a boy of fifteen, to live up to
+what was expected of those two extra years.
+
+Mrs. Kinzer still kept him in roundabouts; but they did not seem to
+hinder his growth at all, if that was her object in so doing.
+
+There was no such thing, however, as keeping the four girls in
+roundabouts, of any kind; and, what between them and their mother, the
+pleasant and tidy little Kinzer homestead, with its snug parlor and
+its cozy bits of rooms and chambers, seemed to nestle away, under the
+shadowing elms and sycamores, smaller and smaller with every year that
+came.
+
+It was a terribly tight fit for such a family, anyway; and, now that
+Dabney was growing at such a rate, there was no telling what they
+would all come to. But Mrs. Kinzer came, at last, to the rescue, and
+she summoned her eldest daughter, Miranda, to her aid.
+
+A very notable woman was the widow. When the new railway cut off part
+of the old farm, she had split up the slice of land between the iron
+track and the village into "town lots," and had sold them all off by
+the time the railway company paid her for the "damage" it had done the
+property.
+
+The whole Kinzer family gained visibly in plumpness that
+year,--except, perhaps, Dabney.
+
+Of course, the condition and requirements of Ham Morris and his big
+farm, just over the north fence, had not escaped such a pair of eyes
+as those of the widow, and the very size of his great barn of a house
+finally settled his fate for him.
+
+A large, quiet, unambitious, but well brought up and industrious young
+man was Hamilton Morris, and he had not the least idea of the good in
+store for him for several months after Mrs. Kinzer decided to marry
+him to her daughter Miranda. But all was soon settled. Dab, of course,
+had nothing to do with the wedding arrangements, and Ham's share was
+somewhat contracted. Not but what he was at the Kinzer house a good
+deal; nor did any of the other girls tell Miranda how very much he was
+in the way. He could talk, however, and one morning, about a fortnight
+before the day appointed, he said to Miranda and her mother:
+
+"We can't have so very much of a wedding; your house is so small, and
+you've chocked it so full of furniture. Right down nice furniture it
+is, too; but there's so much of it. I'm afraid the minister'll have to
+stand out in the front yard."
+
+"The house'll do for this time," replied Mrs. Kinzer. "There 'll be
+room enough for everybody. What puzzles me is Dab."
+
+"What about Dab?" asked Ham.
+
+"Can't find a thing to fit him," said Dab's mother. "Seems as if he
+were all odd sizes, from head to foot."
+
+"Fit him!" exclaimed Ham. "Oh, you mean ready-made goods! Of course
+you can't. He'll have to be measured by a tailor, and have his new
+suit built for him."
+
+"Such extravagance!" emphatically remarked Mrs. Kinzer.
+
+"Not for rich people like you, and for a wedding," replied Ham; "and
+Dab's a growing boy. Where is he now? I'm going to the village, and
+I'll take him right along with me."
+
+There seemed to be no help for it; but that was the first point
+relating to the wedding concerning which Ham Morris was permitted to
+have exactly his own way. His success made Dab Kinzer a fast friend of
+his for life, and that was something.
+
+There was also something new and wonderful to Dabney himself in
+walking into a tailor's shop, picking out cloth to please himself, and
+being so carefully measured all over. He stretched and swelled himself
+in all directions, to make sure nothing should turn out too small. At
+the end of it all, Ham said to him:
+
+"Now, Dab, my boy, this suit is to be a present from me to you, on
+Miranda's account."
+
+Dab colored and hesitated for a moment; but it seemed all right, he
+thought, and so he came frankly out with:
+
+"Thank you, Ham. You always was a prime good fellow. I'll do as much
+for you some day. Tell you what I'll do, then. I'll have another suit
+made, right away, of this other cloth, and have the bill for that one
+sent to our folks."
+
+"Do it!" exclaimed Ham. "Do it! You've your mother's orders for that.
+She's nothing to do with my gift."
+
+"Splendid!" almost shouted Dab. "Oh, but don't I hope they'll fit!"
+
+"Vit?" said the tailor. "Vill zay vit? I dell you zay vit you like a
+knife. You vait und zee."
+
+Dab failed to get a very clear idea of what the fit would be, but it
+made him almost hold his breath to think of it.
+
+After the triumphant visit to the tailor, there was still a necessity
+for a call upon the shoe-maker, and that was a matter of no small
+importance. Dab's feet had always been a mystery and a trial to him.
+If his memory contained one record darker than another, it was the
+endless history of his misadventures with boots and shoes. He and
+leather had been at war from the day he left his creeping clothes
+until now. But now he was promised a pair of shoes that would be sure
+to fit.
+
+So the question of Dab's personal appearance at the wedding was all
+arranged between him and Ham; and Miranda smiled more sweetly than
+ever before upon the latter, after she had heard her usually silent
+brother break out so enthusiastically about him as he did that
+evening.
+
+It was a good thing for that wedding that it took place in fine summer
+weather, for neither kith, kin, nor acquaintances had been slighted in
+the invitations, and the Kinzers were one of the "oldest families."
+
+To have gathered them all under the roof of that house, without either
+stretching it out wider or boiling the guests down, would have been
+out of the question, and so the majority, with Dabney in his new
+clothes to keep them countenance, stood or sat in the cool shade of
+the grand old trees during the ceremony, which was performed near the
+open door, and were afterward served with the wedding refreshments, in
+a style that spoke volumes for Mrs. Kinzer's good management, as well
+as for her hospitality.
+
+The only drawback to Dab's happiness that day was that his
+acquaintances hardly seemed to know him. He had had almost the same
+trouble with himself when he looked in the glass that morning.
+
+Ordinarily, his wrists were several inches through his coat sleeves,
+and his ankles made a perpetual show of his stockings. His neck, too,
+seemed usually to be holding his head as far as possible from his coat
+collar, and his buttons had no favor to ask of his button-holes.
+
+Now, even as the tailor had promised, he had received his "first
+fit." He seemed to himself, to tell the truth, to be covered up in a
+prodigal waste of nice cloth. Would he ever, ever grow too big for
+such a suit of clothes as that? It was a very painful thought, and he
+did his best to put it away from him.
+
+Still, it was a little hard to have a young lady, whom he had known
+before she began to walk, remark to him: "Excuse me, sir, but can you
+tell me if Mr. Dabney Kinzer is here?"
+
+"No, Jenny Walters," sharply responded Dab, "he isn't here."
+
+"Why, Dabney!" exclaimed the pretty Jenny, "is that you? I declare,
+you've scared me out of a year's growth."
+
+"I wish you'd scare me, then," said Dab. "Then my clothes would stay
+fitted."
+
+Everything had been so well arranged beforehand, thanks to Mrs.
+Kinzer, that the wedding had no chance at all except to go off well.
+Ham Morris was rejoiced to find how entirely he was relieved of every
+responsibility.
+
+"Don't worry about your house, Hamilton," the widow said to him the
+night before. "We'll go over there as soon as you and Miranda get
+away, and it'll be all ready for you by the time you get back."
+
+"All right," said Ham. "I'll be glad to have you take the old place in
+hand. I've only tried to live in a corner of it. You don't know how
+much room there is. I don't, I must say."
+
+Dabney had longed to ask her if she meant to have it moved over to the
+Kinzer side of the north fence, but he had doubts as to the propriety
+of it, and just then the boy came in from the tailor's with his bundle
+of new clothes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Hamilton Morris was a very promising young man, of some thirty
+summers. He had been an "orphan" for a dozen years, and the wonder was
+that he should so long have lived alone in the big square-built house
+his father left him. At all events, Miranda Kinzer was just the wife
+for him.
+
+Miranda's mother had seen that at a glance, the moment her mind
+was settled about the house. As to that and his great, spreading,
+half-cultivated farm, all either of them needed was ready money and
+management.
+
+These were blessings Ham was now made reasonably sure of, on his
+return from his wedding trip, and he was likely to appreciate them.
+
+As for Dabney Kinzer, he was in no respect overcome by the novelty and
+excitement of the wedding. All the rest of the day he devoted himself
+to such duties as were assigned him, with a new and grand idea
+steadily taking shape in his mind. He felt as if his brains, too, were
+growing. Some of his mother's older and more intimate friends remained
+with her all day, probably to comfort her for the loss of Miranda,
+and two or three of them, Dab knew, would stay to tea, so that his
+services would be in demand to see them safely home.
+
+All day long, moreover, Samantha and Keziah and Pamela seemed to find
+themselves wonderfully busy, one way and another, so that they paid
+even less attention than usual to any of the ins and outs of their
+brother.
+
+Dabney was therefore able, with little difficulty, to take for himself
+whatever of odd time he might require for putting his new idea into
+execution.
+
+Mrs. Kinzer herself noticed the rare good sense with which her son
+hurried through with his dinner and slipped away, leaving her in
+undisturbed possession of the table and her lady guests, and neither
+she nor either of the girls had a thought of following him.
+
+If they had done so, they might have seen him draw a good-sized bundle
+out from under the lilac-thicket in the back yard, and hurry down
+through the garden.
+
+A few minutes more and Dabney appeared on the fence of the old
+cross-road leading down to the shore. There he sat, eying one
+passer-by after another, till he suddenly sprang from his perch,
+exclaiming: "That's just the chap. Why, they'll fit him, and that's
+more'n they ever did for me."
+
+Dab would probably have had to search along the coast for miles
+before he could have found a human being better suited to his present
+charitable purposes than the boy who now came so lazily down the road.
+
+There was no doubt about his color, or that he was all over of about
+the same shade of black. His old tow trousers and calico shirt
+revealed the shining fact in too many places to leave room for a
+question, and shoes he had none.
+
+"Dick," said Dabney, "was you ever married?"
+
+"Married!" exclaimed Dick, with a peal of very musical laughter. "Is I
+married? No! Is you?"
+
+"No," replied Dabney, "but I was mighty near it, this morning."
+
+"Dat so?" asked Dick, with another show of his white teeth. "Done ye
+good, den. Nebber seen ye look so nice afore."
+
+"You'd look nicer'n I do, if you were only dressed up," said Dab.
+"Just you put on these."
+
+"Golly!" exclaimed the black boy. But he seized the bundle Dab threw
+him, and he had it open in a twinkling. "Anyt'ing in de pockets?" he
+asked.
+
+"Guess not," said Dab; "but there's lots of room."
+
+"Say dar was!" exclaimed Dick. "But wont dese t'ings be warm!"
+
+It was quite likely, for the day was not a cool one, and Dick never
+seemed to think of pulling off what he had on before getting into his
+unexpected present. Coat, vest, and trousers, they were all pulled on
+with more quickness than Dab had ever seen the young African display
+before.
+
+"I's much obleeged to ye, Mr. Kinzer," said Dick, very proudly, as he
+strutted across the road. "On'y I dasn't go back fru de village."
+
+"What'll you do, then?" asked Dab.
+
+"S'pose I'd better go a-fishin'," said Dick. "Will de fish bite?"
+
+"Oh, the clothes wont make any odds to them," said Dabney. "I must go
+back to the house."
+
+And so he did, while Dick, on whom the cast-off garments of his white
+friend were really a pretty good fit, marched on down the road,
+feeling grander than he ever had before in all his life.
+
+"That'll be a good thing to tell Ham Morris when he and Miranda come
+home again," muttered Dab, as he re-entered the house.
+
+Late that evening, when Dabney returned from his final duties as
+escort to his mother's guests, she rewarded him with more than he
+could remember ever receiving of motherly commendation.
+
+"I've been really quite proud of you, Dabney," she said to him, as
+she laid her plump hand on the collar of his new coat and kissed him.
+"You've behaved like a perfect gentleman."
+
+"Only, mother," exclaimed Keziah, "he spent too much of his time with
+that sharp-tongued little Jenny Walters."
+
+"Never mind, Kezi," said Dab. "She didn't know who I was till I told
+her. I'm going to wear a label with my name on it, when I go over to
+the village, to-morrow."
+
+"And then you'll put on your other suit in the morning," said Mrs.
+Kinzer, "You must keep this for Sundays and great occasions."
+
+When the morning came, Dabney Kinzer was a more than usually early
+riser, for he felt that he had waked up to a very important day.
+
+"Dabney," exclaimed his mother, when he came in to breakfast, "did I
+not tell you to put on your other suit?"
+
+"So I have, mother," replied Dab; "this is my other suit."
+
+"That!" exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer.
+
+"So it is!" cried Keziah.
+
+"So it isn't," added Samantha. "Mother, that's not what he had on
+yesterday."
+
+"He's been trading again," mildly suggested Pamela.
+
+"Dabney," said Mrs. Kinzer, "what does this mean?"
+
+"Mean!" replied Dabney, "Why, these are the clothes you told me to
+buy. The lot I wore yesterday were a present from Ham Morris. He's a
+splendid fellow. I'm glad he got the best of the girls."
+
+That was a bad thing for Dabney to say, just then, for it was resented
+vigorously by the remaining three. As soon as quiet was restored,
+however, Mrs, Kinzer remarked:
+
+"I think Hamilton should have consulted me about it; but it's too late
+now. Anyhow, you may go and put on your other clothes."
+
+"My wedding suit?" asked Dab.
+
+"No, indeed! I mean your old ones; those you took off night before
+last."
+
+"Dunno where they are," slowly responded Dab.
+
+"Don't know where they are?" repeated a chorus of four voices.
+
+"No," said Dab. "Bill Lee's black boy had 'em on all yesterday
+afternoon, and I reckon he's gone a-fishing again to-day. They fit him
+a good sight better'n they ever did me."
+
+If Dabney had expected a storm to come from his mother's end of the
+table, he was pleasantly mistaken, and his sisters had it all to
+themselves for a moment. Then, with an admiring glance at her son, the
+thoughtful matron remarked:
+
+"Just like his father, for all the world. It's no use, girls. Dabney's
+a growing boy in more ways than one. Dabney, I shall want you to go
+over to the Morris house with me after breakfast. Then you may hitch
+up the ponies, and we'll do some errands around the village."
+
+[Illustration: DAB GIVES DICK HIS OLD CLOTHES.]
+
+Dab Kinzer's sisters looked at one another in blank astonishment,
+and Samantha would have left the table if she had only finished her
+breakfast.
+
+Pamela, as being nearest to Dab in age and sympathy, gave a very
+admiring look at her brother's second "good fit," and said nothing.
+
+Even Keziah finally admitted, in her own mind, that such a change in
+Dabney's appearance might have its advantages. But Samantha inwardly
+declared war.
+
+The young hero himself was hardly used to that second suit as yet, and
+felt anything but easy in it.
+
+"I wonder," he said to himself, "what Jenny Walters would think of me
+now? Wonder if she'd know me?"
+
+Not a doubt of it. But, after he had finished his breakfast and gone
+out, his mother remarked:
+
+"It's really all right, girls. I almost fear I've been neglecting
+Dabney. He isn't a little boy any more."
+
+"He isn't a man yet," exclaimed Samantha, "and he talks slang
+dreadfully."
+
+"But then he does grow so!" remarked Keziah.
+
+"Mother," said Pamela, "couldn't you get Dab to give Dick the slang,
+along with the old clothes?"
+
+"We'll see about it," replied Mrs. Kinzer.
+
+It was very plain that Dabney's mother had begun to take in a new idea
+about her son. It was not the least bit in the world unpleasant to
+find out that he was "growing in more ways than one," and it was quite
+likely that she had indeed kept him too long in roundabouts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Dick Lee had been more than half right about the village being a
+dangerous place for him with such an unusual amount of clothing over
+his ordinary uniform.
+
+The very dogs, every one of whom was an old acquaintance, barked at
+him on his way home that night; and, proud as were his ebony father
+and mother, they yielded to his earnest entreaties, first, that he
+might wear his present all the next day, and, second, that he might
+betake himself to the "bay," early in the morning, and so keep out of
+sight "till he got used to it."
+
+The fault with Dab Kinzer's old suit, after all, had lain mainly in
+its size rather than its materials, for Mrs. Kinzer was too good a
+manager to be really stingy.
+
+Dick succeeded in reaching the boat-landing without falling in with
+any one who seemed disposed to laugh at him; but there, right on the
+wharf, was a white boy of about his own age, and he felt a good deal
+like backing out.
+
+"Nebber seen him afore, either," said Dick to himself. "Den I guess I
+aint afeard ob him."
+
+The stranger was a somewhat short and thick-set but bright and
+active-looking boy, with a pair of very keen, greenish-gray eyes. But,
+after all, the first word he spoke to poor Dick was:
+
+"Hullo, clothes! where are you going with all that boy?"
+
+"I knowed it! I knowed it!" groaned Dick. But he answered, as sharply
+as he knew how: "I's goin' a-fishin'. Any ob youah business?"
+
+"Where'd you learn to fish?" the stranger asked. "Down South? Didn't
+know they had any there."
+
+"Nebbah was down Souf," was the surly reply.
+
+"Father run away, did he?"
+
+"He nebber was down dar, nudder."
+
+"Nor his father?"
+
+"'T aint no business o' your'n," said Dick; "but we's allers lived
+right heah on dis bay."
+
+"Guess not," replied the white boy, knowingly.
+
+But Dick was right, for his people had been slaves among the very
+earliest Dutch settlers, and had never "lived South" at all. He was
+now busily getting one of the boats ready to push off; but his white
+tormentor went at him again with--
+
+"Well, then, if you've lived here so long, you must know everybody."
+
+"Reckon I do."
+
+"Are there any nice fellows around here? Any like me?"
+
+"De nicest young genelman 'round dis bay," replied Dick, "is Mr. Dab
+Kinzer. But he aint like you. Not nuff to hurt 'im."
+
+"Dab Kinzer!" exclaimed the stranger. "Where did he get his name?"
+
+"In de bay, I spect," said Dick, as he shoved his boat off. "Caught
+'im wid a hook."
+
+"Anyhow," said the strange boy to himself, "that's probably the sort
+of fellow my father would wish me to associate with. Only it's likely
+he's very ignorant."
+
+And he walked away toward the village with the air of a man who had
+forgotten more than the rest of his race were ever likely to find out.
+
+At all events, Dick Lee had managed to say a good word for his
+benefactor, little as he could guess what might be the consequences.
+
+Meantime, Dab Kinzer, when he went out from breakfast, had strolled
+away to the north fence, for a good look at the house which was
+thenceforth to be the home of his favorite sister. He had seen it
+before, every day since he could remember; but it seemed to have a
+fresh and almost mournful interest for him just now.
+
+"Hullo!" he exclaimed, as he leaned against the fence. "Putting up
+ladders? Oh yes, I see! That's old Tommy McGrew, the house-painter.
+Well, Ham's house needs a new coat as badly as I did. Sure it'll fit,
+too. Only it aint used to it any more'n I am."
+
+"Dabney!"
+
+It was his mother's voice, and Dab felt like "minding" very promptly
+that morning.
+
+"Dabney, my boy, come here to the gate."
+
+"Ham's having his house painted," he remarked, as he joined his
+mother.
+
+"Is he?" she said. "We'll go and see about it."
+
+As they drew nearer, however, Dabney discovered that carpenters
+as well as painters were plying their trade in and about the old
+homestead. There were window-sashes piled here and blinds there, a new
+door or so ready for use, with bundles of shingles, and other signs of
+approaching "renovation."
+
+"Going to fix it all over," remarked Dab.
+
+"Yes," replied his mother; "it'll be as good as new. It was well
+built, and will bear mending."
+
+When they entered the house, it became more and more evident that the
+"shabby" days of the Morris mansion were numbered. There were men at
+work in almost every room.
+
+Ham's wedding trip would surely give plenty of time, at that rate, and
+his house would be "all ready for him" on his return.
+
+There was nothing wonderful to Dabney in the fact that his mother went
+about inspecting work and giving directions. He had never seen her do
+anything else, and he had the greatest confidence in her knowledge and
+ability.
+
+Dabney noticed, too, before they left the place, that all the
+customary farm-work was going ahead with even more regularity and
+energy than if the owner himself had been present.
+
+"Ham's farm'll look like ours, one of these days, at this rate," he
+said to his mother.
+
+"I mean it shall," she replied, somewhat sharply. "Now go and get out
+the ponies, and we'll do the rest of our errands."
+
+If they had only known it, at that very moment Ham and his blooming
+bride were setting out for a drive at the fashionable watering-place
+where they had made the first stop in their wedding tour.
+
+"Ham?" said Miranda, "it seems to me as if we were a thousand miles
+from home."
+
+"We shall be further before we get nearer," said Ham.
+
+"But I wonder what they are doing there,--mother and the girls and
+dear little Dabney?"
+
+"Little Dabney!" exclaimed Ham. "Why, Miranda, do you think Dab is a
+baby yet?"
+
+"No, not a baby. But------"
+
+"Well, he's a boy, that's a fact; but he'll be as tall as I am in
+three years."
+
+"Will he ever be fat?"
+
+"Not till after he gets his full length," said Ham. "We must have him
+at our house a good deal, and feed him up. I've taken a liking to
+Dab."
+
+"Feed him up!" said Miranda, with some indignation. "Do you think we
+starve him?"
+
+"No; but how many meals a day does he get?"
+
+"Three, of course, like the rest of us; and he never misses one of
+them."
+
+"I suppose not," said Ham, "I never miss a meal myself, if I can help
+it. But don't you think three meals a day is rather short allowance
+for a boy like Dab?"
+
+Miranda thought a moment, but then she answered, positively: "No, I
+don't. Not if he does as well at each one of them as Dab is sure to."
+
+"Well," said Ham, "that was in his old clothes, that were too tight
+for him. Now he's got a good loose fit, with plenty of room, you don't
+know how much more he may need. No, Miranda, I'm going to have an eye
+on Dabney."
+
+"You're a dear, good fellow, anyway," said Miranda, "and I hope
+mother'll have the house all ready for us when we get back."
+
+"She will," replied Ham. "I shall hardly be easy till I see what she
+has done with it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+"That's him!"
+
+Dab was standing by the ponies, in front of a store in the village.
+His mother was making some purchases in the store, and Dab was
+thinking how the Morris house would look when it was finished, and it
+was at him the old farmer was pointing in answer to a question which
+had just been asked.
+
+The questioner was the sharp-eyed boy who had bothered poor Dick Lee
+that morning.
+
+At that moment, however, a young lady--quite young--came tripping
+along the sidewalk, and was stopped by Dab Kinzer with:
+
+"There, Jenny Walters, I forgot my label!"
+
+"Why, Dabney, is that you? How you startled me! Forgot your label?"
+
+"Yes," said Dab; "I'm in another new suit to-day, and I want to have a
+label with my name on it. You'd have known me, then."
+
+"But I know you now," exclaimed Jenny. "Why, I saw you yesterday."
+
+"Yes, and I told you it was me. Can you read, Jenny?"
+
+"Why, what a question!"
+
+"Because, if you can't, it wont do me any good to wear a label."
+
+"Dabney Kinzer," exclaimed Jenny. "There's another thing you ought to
+get?"
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Some good manners," said the little lady, snappishly. "Think, of your
+stopping me in the street to tell me I can't read."
+
+"Then you mustn't forget me so quick," said Dab. "If you meet my old
+clothes anywhere you must call 'em Dick Lee. They've had a change of
+name."
+
+"So, he's in them, is he? I don't doubt they look better than they
+ever did before."
+
+And Jenny walked proudly away, leaving her old playmate feeling as
+if he had had a little the worst of it. That was often the way with
+people who stopped to talk with Jenny Walters, and she was not as much
+of a favorite as she otherwise might have been.
+
+Hardly had she disappeared before Dab was confronted by the strange
+boy.
+
+"Is your name Dabney Kinzer?" said he.
+
+"Yes, I believe so."
+
+"Well, I'm Mr. Ford Foster, of New York."
+
+"Come over here to buy goods?" suggested Dab. "Or to get something to
+eat?"
+
+Ford Foster was apparently of about Dab's age, but a full head less in
+height, so that there was more point in the question than there seemed
+to be, but he treated it as not worthy of notice, and asked: "Do you
+know of a house to let anywhere about here?"
+
+"House to let?" suddenly exclaimed the voice of Mrs. Kinzer, behind
+him, much to Dab's surprise. "Are you asking about a house? Whom for?"
+
+If Ford Foster had been ready to "chaff" Dick Lee, or even Dab Kinzer,
+he knew enough to speak respectfully to the portly and business-like
+lady now before him.
+
+[Illustration: "IS YOUR NAME DABNEY KINZER?"]
+
+"Yes, madam," he said, with a ceremonious bow. "I wish to report to my
+father that I've found an acceptable house in this vicinity."
+
+"You do!"
+
+Mrs. Kinzer was reading the young gentleman through and through as she
+spoke, but she followed her exclamation with a dozen questions, and
+then wound up with:
+
+"Go right home, then, and tell your father the only good house to let
+in this neighborhood will be ready for him next week, and he'd better
+see me at once. Get into the buggy, Dabney."
+
+"A very remarkable woman!" muttered Ford Foster to himself as they
+drove away. "I must make some more inquiries."
+
+"Mother," said Dabney, "you wouldn't let 'em have Ham's house?"
+
+"No, indeed; but I don't mean to have our own stand empty." And, with
+that, a great deal of light began to break in on Dabney's mind.
+
+"That's it, is it?" he said to himself, as he touched up the ponies.
+"Well, there'll be room enough for all of us there, and no mistake.
+But what'll Ham say?"
+
+It was not till late the next day, however, that Ford Foster completed
+his inquiries. He took the afternoon train for the city, satisfied
+that, much as he knew before he came, he had actually learned a good
+deal more which was valuable.
+
+He was almost the only person in the car. Trains going toward the city
+were apt to be thinly peopled at that time of day, but the empty cars
+had to be taken along all the same, for the benefit of the crowds who
+would be coming out, later in the afternoon and in the evening. The
+railway company would have made more money with full loads both ways,
+but it was well they did not have one on that precise train. Ford had
+turned over the seat in front of him, and stretched himself out with
+his feet on it. It was almost like lying down for a boy of his length,
+but it was the very best position he could have taken if he had known
+what was coming.
+
+Known what was coming?
+
+Yes, there was a pig coming.
+
+That was all, but it was quite enough, considering what that pig was
+about to do. He was going where he chose, just then, and he chose not
+to turn out for the railway train.
+
+"What a whistle!" Ford Foster had just exclaimed. "It sounds more like
+the squeal of an iron pig than anything else. I----"
+
+But at that instant there came a great jolt and a shock, and Ford
+found himself suddenly tumbled, all in a heap, on the seat where his
+feet had been. Then came bounce after bounce and the sound of breaking
+glass, and then a crash.
+
+"Off the track!" shouted Ford, as he sprang to his feet. "I wouldn't
+have missed it for anything, but I do hope nobody's killed."
+
+In the tremendous excitement of the moment he could hardly have told
+how he got out of that car, but it did not seem ten seconds till
+he was standing beside the conductor and engineer, looking at the
+battered engine as it lay on its side in a deep ditch. The baggage
+car, just behind it, was broken all to pieces, but the passenger cars
+did not seem to have suffered very much, and nobody was badly hurt, as
+the engineer and fireman had jumped off in time.
+
+"This train'll never get in on time," said Ford to the conductor, a
+little later. "How'll I get to the city?"
+
+"Well," replied the railway man, who was not in the best of humors, "I
+don't suppose the city could do without you overnight. The junction
+with the main road is only two miles ahead, and if you're a good
+walker you may catch a train there."
+
+Some of the other passengers, none of whom were very much hurt, had
+made the same discovery, and in a few minutes more there was a long,
+straggling procession of uncomfortable people marching by the side
+of the railway track, under the hot sun, The conductor was right,
+however, and nearly all of them managed to make the two miles to the
+junction in time.
+
+Mr. Ford Foster was among the very first to arrive, and he was likely
+to reach home in very fair season in spite of the pig.
+
+As for his danger, he had hardly thought of that, and he would not
+have missed so important an adventure for anything he could think of,
+just then.
+
+It was to a great, pompous, stylish, crowded, "up-town
+boarding-house," that Ford's return was to take him. There was no
+wonder at all that wise people should wish to get out of such a place
+in such hot weather. Still, it was the sort of a home Ford Foster had
+been best acquainted with all his life, and it was partly owing to
+that that he had become so prematurely "knowing."
+
+He knew too much, in fact, and was only too well aware of it. He had
+filled his head with an unlimited stock of boarding-house information,
+as well as with a firm persuasion that there was little more to be
+had,--unless, indeed, it might be scraps of such outside, knowledge as
+he had now been picking up over on Long Island.
+
+In one of the great "parlor chambers" of the boarding-house, at about
+eight o'clock that evening, a middle-aged gentleman and lady, with a
+fair, sweet-faced girl of about nineteen, were sitting near an open
+window, very much as if they were waiting for somebody.
+
+Such a kindly, motherly lady! She was one of those whom no one can
+help liking, after seeing her smile once, or hearing her speak.
+Whatever may have been his faults or short-comings, Ford Foster could
+not have put in words what he thought about his mother. And yet he
+had no difficulty in expressing his respect for his father, or his
+unbounded admiration for his pretty sister Annie.
+
+"Oh, husband!" exclaimed Mrs. Foster, "are you sure none of them were
+injured?"
+
+"So the telegraphic report said. Not a bone broken of anybody but the
+pig that got in the way."
+
+"But how I wish he would come!" groaned Annie. "Have you any idea,
+papa, how he can get home?"
+
+"Not clearly," said her father, "but you can trust Ford not to miss
+any opportunity. He's just the boy to look out for himself in an
+emergency."
+
+Ford Foster's father took very strongly after the son in whose ability
+he expressed so much confidence. He had just such a square, active,
+bustling sort of body, several sizes larger, with just such keen,
+penetrating, greenish-gray eyes. Anybody would have picked him out, at
+a glance, for a lawyer, and a good one.
+
+That was exactly what he was, and if any one had become acquainted
+with either son or father, there would have been no difficulty
+afterward in identifying the other.
+
+It required a good deal more than the telegraphic report of the
+accident or even her husband's assurances, to relieve the motherly
+anxiety of good Mrs. Foster, or even to drive away the shadows from
+the face of Annie.
+
+No doubt if Ford himself had known the state of affairs, they would
+have been relieved earlier; for even while they were talking about him
+he was already in the house. It had not so much as occurred to him
+that his mother would hear of the accident to the pig and the railway
+train until he himself should tell her, and so, he had made sure of
+his supper down-stairs, before reporting himself. He might not have
+done it, perhaps, but he had come in through the lower way, by the
+area door, and that of the dining-room had stood temptingly wide open
+with some very eatable things ready on the table.
+
+That had been too much for Ford, after his car-ride and his smash-up
+and his long walk. But now, at last, up he came, brimful of new and
+wonderful experiences, to be more than a little astonished by the
+manner and enthusiasm of his welcome.
+
+"Why, mother!" he exclaimed, when he got a chance for a word, "you and
+Annie couldn't have said much more if I'd been the pig himself."
+
+"The pig?" said Annie.
+
+"Yes, the pig that stopped us. He and the engine wont go home to their
+families to-night."
+
+"Don't make fun of it, Ford," said his mother, gently; "it's too
+serious a matter."
+
+Just then his father broke in, almost impatiently, with, "Well, Ford,
+my boy, have you done your errand, or shall I have to see about it
+myself? You've been gone two days."
+
+"Thirty-seven hours and a half, father," replied Ford, taking out his
+watch. "I've kept an exact account of my expenses. We've saved the
+cost of advertising."
+
+"And spent it on railroading," said his father, with a laugh.
+
+"But, Ford," asked Annie, "did you find a house?--a good one?"
+
+"Yes," added Mrs. Foster, "now I'm sure you're safe, I do want to hear
+about the house."
+
+"It's all right, mother," said Ford, confidently. "The very house you
+told me to hunt for. Neither too large nor too small, and it's in
+apple-pie order."
+
+There were plenty of questions to answer now, but Ford was every way
+equal to the occasion. His report, in fact, compelled his father to
+look at him with an expression of face which very clearly meant, "That
+boy resembles me. I was just like him at his age. He'll be just like
+me at mine."
+
+There was really very good reason to approve of the manner in which
+the young gentleman had performed his errand in the country, and
+Mr. Foster promptly decided to go over, in a day or two, and settle
+matters with Mrs Kinzer.
+
+(_To be continued_.)
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAKING READY FOR A CRUISE.]
+
+
+
+HOW WILLY WOLLY WENT A-FISHING.
+
+BY S.C. STONE.
+
+
+  One day, on going fishing
+    Was Willy Wolly bent;
+  And, as it chanced a holiday,
+    Why, Willy Wolly went.
+
+[Illustration: Willy Wolly going fishing.]
+
+ Now, Willy Wolly planned, you see,
+    To catch a speckled trout;
+  But caught a very different fish
+    From what he had laid out!
+
+  In view of all the fishes,--
+    Who much enjoyed the joke,
+  With many a joyous wriggle
+  And finny punch and poke,--
+
+  Young Willy Wolly, leaping
+    A fence with dire design,
+  Had carelessly left swinging
+    His fishing-hook and line.
+
+[Illustration: Willy Wolly caught himself.]
+
+  How Willy Wolly did it,
+    He really could not tell,
+  But instantly he had his fish
+    Exceeding fast and well!
+
+  He hooked the struggling monster
+    Securely in the sleeve;
+  And, all at once, he found it time
+    His pleasant sport to leave;--
+
+  'T was not a very gamy fish
+    For one so large and strong,
+  That Willy Wolly, blubbering,
+    Helped carefully along.
+
+  The giggling fishes crowded to
+    The river bank to look,
+  As Willy Wolly, captive, led
+    Himself with line and hook!
+
+[Illustration: Mother unhooks Willy Wolly.]
+
+  When Willy Wolly went, you see,
+    To catch a speckled trout,
+  Why, Willy Wolly caught _himself!_
+    And so the joke is out.
+
+  His mother saved that barbed hook,
+    And sternly bid him now
+  No more to dare a-fishing go,
+    Until he has learned how!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CRUMBS FROM OLDER READING.
+
+BY JULIA E. SARGENT.
+
+
+III.--THOMAS CARLYLE.
+
+
+"Shakespeare says we are creatures that look
+before and after. The more surprising, then, that
+we do not look around a little, and see what is
+passing under our very eyes."
+
+So writes Thomas Carlyle.
+
+Although he politely says "we," when speaking
+of people in general, that part of the "we" known
+as Thomas Carlyle certainly keeps his eyes wide
+open. So wide, indeed, that much that is disagreeable
+comes under his notice, as always will
+be the case with those who choose to see everything.
+
+I once watched the round, red sun as it crimsoned
+the sparkling waters in which it seemed
+already sinking. When, at last, I turned my
+dazzled eyes away, all over lake and sky I saw
+dancing black suns. Perhaps it is through dwelling
+long on one idea that Carlyle sees only spots
+of blackness on what others call clear sky. The
+great want of that foggy, smoky city where he lives
+is pure, health-giving light, and this we also miss
+in his writings, which, like London, have not
+enough sunshine.
+
+But, whatever people may say, when Carlyle
+speaks the world is quite ready to listen.
+
+Who is Thomas Carlyle?
+
+He is a Scotchman, a philosopher, an essayist,
+an historian, a biographer, and an octogenarian.
+
+What has he done to be so famous?
+
+He has written twenty books. But you might
+live to be an octogenarian yourself without meeting
+twenty persons who would have read them all. It
+would not be a hard matter, though, to find those
+who have read one of his books twenty times;
+perhaps this very green-covered book with "Sartor
+Resartus" on the back.
+
+What does it mean, and what is it all about?
+
+It means "The Tailor Re-tailored," and Carlyle
+says it is a book about clothes. But you need not
+look for fashion-plates; there are none there. You
+will hear nothing about new costumes; for this
+book is full of Carryle's own thoughts, clothed in
+such words that you will surely enjoy the book.
+
+Hear how he tells us that nothing that we do is
+really "of no matter," as we so often think:
+
+"I say, there is not a red Indian hunting by
+Lake Winnepeg can quarrel with his squaw but the
+whole world must smart for it: will not the price
+of beaver rise?"
+
+You think it would not make much difference if
+the price of beaver should rise? Let us look at
+the matter. First, Mr. B. Woods, the trader, must
+pay a larger price for his beaver, and therefore
+must sell for more to the firm of Bylow & Selhi.
+These shrewd gentlemen do not intend to lose on
+their purchase, so they pay a less sum to Mr.
+Maycup, the manufacturer. This reduction in his
+income causes Mr. Maycup to curtail family expenses.
+So his subscription to ST. NICHOLAS is
+discontinued, and the youthful Maycups are overwhelmed
+with grief, because of that unfortunate
+quarrel which raised the price of beaver.
+
+But why should the price change because of that?
+
+Really, Mr. Carlyle should answer you. Perhaps
+the Indian in his quarrel forgets to set his traps, or
+the whole neighborhood may become so interested
+in the little affair that beavers are forgotten.
+
+"Were it not miraculous could I stretch forth
+my hand and clutch the sun? Yet thou seest me
+daily stretch forth my hand and clutch many a
+thing and swing it hither and thither. Art thou a
+grown baby, then, to fancy that the miracle lies in
+miles of distance, or in pounds avoirdupois of
+weight; and not to see that the true miracle lies
+in this, that I can stretch forth my hand at all?"
+
+What is it that Carlyle thinks so wonderful?
+See how quietly my hand rests on this table. Why
+should it move any more than the table on which
+it rests? Is not Carlyle right when he calls every
+movement of my hand a wonder? You never
+thought of it before? That is as Carlyle says:
+"We do not look around a little and see what is
+passing under our very eyes."
+
+It was this great old man whose hand brushed
+the clinging mud from a crust of bread, and placed
+it on the curbstone, for some dog or pigeon, saying,
+"My mother taught me never to waste anything."
+
+Here is a word for those who are always planning
+what great things they will do--who think so much
+_about_ doing that no time is left _for_ the doing:
+
+"The end of man is an action, and not a
+thought, though it were the noblest."
+
+Now, for our final crumb, comes a well-clothed
+thought that I like better than quarreling Indians
+or familiar wonders. It is the reason why selfish
+people are never really happy. Carlyle thinks they
+have only themselves to blame, for he says:
+
+"Always there is a black spot in our sunshine;
+it is even, as I said, _the shadow of ourselves_."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT."]
+
+
+JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.
+
+
+Hurrah for June!--bright, rosy June! "Joy
+rises in me like a summer's morn!" as one of
+those pleasant people, the poets, has said.
+
+Let everybody be glad! But most of all, you,
+my youngsters! The month properly belongs to
+you. Don't I know? Wasn't it set apart by
+Romulus, ages and ages ago, especially for the
+young people, or "Juniores," as they then were
+called? And hasn't their name stuck to it ever
+since? Yes, indeed! So, be as merry as you can,
+my chicks; but, with all your fun and frolic, be
+thankful, and make June weather all about you.
+June time--any time--is full of joy when hearts,
+brimming over with thankfulness, carry cheer to
+other hearts, making
+
+  "A noise like of a hidden brook
+     In the leafy month of June,
+  That to the sleeping woods all night
+     Singeth a quiet tune,"--
+
+like the little stream that bubbles by the foot of our meadow.
+
+Now to business. First comes a letter about
+
+    A ROPE OF EGGS.
+
+    Brooklyn, N.Y.
+
+    My Dear Jack-in-the-Pulpit: I know about a rope of eggs, and I
+    will tell you. It is in Japan. The eggs are plaited and twisted
+    into ropes made from straw, and so it is safe and easy to handle
+    them. Just think how queer it would seem to buy eggs by the yard!
+
+    AMY M.
+
+
+CONVERSATION BY FISTICUFFS.
+
+After being flurried by clouds of paragrams about sphygmographs,
+and phonographs, and pneumatic telegraphs, and scores of other
+extraordinary scientific ways of communication, I'm not in the least
+surprised to learn that ants converse by one tapping another's head.
+
+I'm told that an Englishman named Jesse once put a small caterpillar
+near an ants' nest, and watched. Soon an ant seized it; but the
+caterpillar was too heavy to be moved by one ant alone, so away he ran
+until he met another ant. They stopped for a few moments, during which
+each tapped the other's head with his feelers in a very lively manner.
+Then they both hurried off to the caterpillar, and together dragged it
+home.
+
+
+    A HORSE THAT LOVED TEA.
+
+    Roxbury, Mass.
+
+    Dear Jack-in-the-Pulpit: This is a true story of Mary's horse. He
+    was just as black as a coal all over, except a pretty white star
+    on his forehead.
+
+    Once in two or three weeks Mary had him take tea with her and her
+    little brother and sisters. She went to the stable where he lived
+    with Kate and Nell, two pretty twin ponies, and said to him:
+
+    "Come, Jack! Don't you want some, tea?"
+
+    At that, he came right up to her, and found out the buttons on
+    her dress, and tried to pull them off, and then untied her apron
+    strings.
+
+    "Now, Jack," Mary said, "tea is all ready. Come along!"--and he
+    followed her along the walk to the back door and up the three
+    steps into the house.
+
+    What a clatter his iron shoes made along the entry to the
+    dining-room!
+
+    Harry and Annie and Fanny rushed out, crying:
+
+    "Oh, mamma! Here's Jack coming to tea!"
+
+    Then mamma filled a large bowl with tea, put in plenty of milk and
+    three or four pieces of white sugar (for Jack had a sweet tooth),
+    and cut a slice of bread into pieces, and put them on a plate,
+    with a doughnut or piece of gingerbread. And Mary said:
+
+    "Now, Jack, come up to the table!"
+
+    You see, he was too big to sit in a chair; but he came close up to
+    the table and stood there, and drank his tea without slopping any
+    over, and ate up his bread and cake. And when he had done, what
+    do you think he did? Why, he went up to the piano that stood in a
+    corner of the room and smelled the keys, and looked round at Mary.
+    That was to ask her to play him a tune before he went home.
+
+    Then she said, "Oh, you dear Jack! I know what you want!" And she
+    sat down and played some merry tune, while he pricked up his ears
+    and put his nose down close to her fingers, he was so pleased.
+    Then he rubbed her shoulder with his nose, and Mary played another
+    tune for him.
+
+    "Now, Jack," mamma said, "you've had a nice time; but you must
+    go back to your stable. Kate and Nell will miss you if you stay
+    longer."
+
+    Then Mary opened the dining-room door, and Jack followed her down
+    the long entry and out to the stable, just like a dog.--Yours
+    truly,
+
+    B.P.
+
+
+TONGUES WHICH CARRY TEETH.
+
+You've heard of folks with biting tongues, I dare say, and very
+disagreeable they are, no doubt, though, of course, they do not
+actually bite with their tongues. However, there really is an
+unpleasant fellow whose tongue carries twenty-six thousand eight
+hundred teeth! A capital one for biting, you'd suppose. He is nothing
+but a slug, though, and his army of teeth only scrape, not bite, I'm
+told. Then, too, there is a sort of cousin of his, a periwinkle, who
+has a long ribbon-like tongue, armed with six hundred crosswise rows
+of hooks, about seven in a row.
+
+You can make sure of these surprising facts, my dears, with the aid of
+patience and a microscope.
+
+
+DIZZY DISTANCES.
+
+The other day, one of the school-children said to a chum, "The Little
+Schoolma'am told us this morning that some parts of the ocean are more
+than four miles deep!"
+
+That's easy to say, thought I, but try to think it, my dear! Fix on
+a place four miles away from you, and then imagine every bit of that
+distance stretching down under you, instead of straight before you.
+Perhaps in this way you may gain an idea of the depth of the ocean;
+but just consider the height of the air--which, I'm told, is a sort
+of envelope about the earth--more than nine times the depth of the
+ocean! Yet, what a wee bit of a way toward the moon would those
+thirty-six miles take us! And from the earth to the moon is only a
+very little step on the long way to the sun.
+
+Oh dear! Let's stop and take a breath! Why did I begin talking of such
+dizzy distances?
+
+
+LAND THAT INCREASES IN HEIGHT.
+
+Here is a letter in answer to the Little School-ma'am's question which
+I passed over to you in April, and it raises such startling ideas,
+that, may be, you'd do well to look farther into the matter:
+
+    DEAR JACK: We suppose that the Little Schoolma'am and her writers
+    on Greenland will concede its accidental discovery by Gunnbjorn,
+    as narrated by Cyrus Martin, Jr., in his "Vikings in America" [ST.
+    NICHOLAS, Vol. III., page 586]. We have always thought Iceland
+    appropriately named, and Greenland the reverse.
+
+    And now about that question of temperature. If portions of
+    Greenland are colder than formerly, may it not be because less
+    heat comes through its crust from subterranean fires, as well
+    as because the surface is constantly gaining in height, as some
+    report?--Very truly yours,
+
+    NED AND WILL WHITFORD.
+
+
+THE ANGERED GOOSE.
+
+The picture of which you here have an engraving formed at first a kind
+of panel of a wall, and occupied a space beneath one of the cartoons
+of Raphael, the great Italian painter, whose grand picture of "The
+Transfiguration" is thought to be his chief work. This panel-picture,
+also, was painted by Raphael, as some say, though others think it may
+be the work of one of his pupils.
+
+[Illustration: THE ANGERED GOOSE.]
+
+A curious thing about the picture is this: the goose is so excited,
+and scolding its tortoise so angrily for going slowly, that it has
+forgotten its own wings, when, if it would only use them, it could fly
+to its journey's end long before the tortoise could crawl there. Now,
+there are other two-legged geese who let themselves get angered and
+excited easily, and so lose many chances of serving others and helping
+themselves. Perhaps you may know some of them.
+
+That is what the Deacon says; but, for my part, I never knew a goose
+that _hadn't_ two legs.
+
+
+A CITY UNDER THE WATER.
+
+In past ages, as the Deacon once told some of his older boys in my
+hearing, the people of some parts of Europe used to live above the
+surfaces of lakes, in huts built on spiles driven into the water.
+
+Well, now I hear that some one has found, under the water of Lake
+Geneva, a whole town, with about two hundred stone houses, a large
+public square, and a high tower; and, from the looks of the town, the
+shape of the houses, and the way the stones are cut, some say that the
+place must have been built more than two thousand years ago!
+
+Now, I can understand how men were able to live in the way the Deacon
+described, but it strikes me that this other story has something in it
+that's harder to swallow than water.
+
+Who ever heard of men living in cities under the water, as if they
+were fishes?
+
+
+REFLECTION.
+
+    The Red School-house.
+
+    My Dear Jack-in-the-Pulpit: Many thanks for putting into your
+    April sermon the picture and letter which I sent to you. Now, I
+    must let you know about the explanations that some of your bright
+    chicks have given.
+
+    Arnold Guyot Cameron, S.E.S., O.C. Turner, Louise G. Hinsdale, and
+    the partners E.K.S. and M.G.V. guessed the right word, which is
+    "Reflection"; and, of course, it needed some "reflection" to find
+    it out. The lady in the picture is absorbed in "reflection" upon
+    something she has been reading in her book; but, besides this,
+    the water is represented as sending back a "reflection" of nearly
+    every other object in the picture.
+
+    Several others of your youngsters wrote, but they were not so
+    fortunate in their attempts. "Mignon" suggests the word "Heads,"
+    for the reason that the guessing has given employment to many
+    heads. John F. Wyatt thinks that "Beautiful" is the word. Alfred
+    Whitman, C.H. Payne, and Nellie Emerson, though writing from three
+    places far apart, agree in giving the word "Reverie" as their
+    notion of the right one. George A. Mitchell thinks it is "Study";
+    Arthur W. James guesses "Meditation"; and Hallie quietly hints
+    "Calm." "P.," however, believes that the word is "Misrepresented,"
+    which he inclines to write, "Miss represented." But Nathalie
+    B. Conkling puts forward the exclamation "Alas!" as the proper
+    solution, spelling it "A lass."
+
+    Now, puns are not always good wit, and these two are not puns of
+    the best kind; but they, as well as the other guesses, show that
+    your chicks have lively minds, able to see a thing from more than
+    one point of view, even although their conjectures do not hit the
+    very center of the mark in every instance. I am much obliged
+    to them all for their letters, and to you, dear Jack, for your
+    kindness.--Sincerely your friend,
+
+    THE LITTLE SCHOOLMA'AM.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"FIDDLE-DIDDLE-DEE!"
+
+
+Little Davie ran through the garden,--a great slice of bread and
+butter in one hand, and his spelling-book in the other. He was going
+to study his lesson for to-morrow.
+
+You could not imagine a prettier spot than Davie's "study," as he
+called it. It was under a great oak-tree, that stood at the edge of a
+small wood. The little boy sat down on one of the roots and opened his
+book.
+
+[Illustration: The Little Brown Wren.]
+
+"But first," thought he, "I'll finish my bread and butter."
+
+So he let his book drop, and, as he ate, he began to sing a little
+song with which his mother sometimes put the baby to sleep. This is
+the way the song began:
+
+  "I bought a bird, and my bird pleased me;
+  I tied my bird behind a tree;
+  Bird said----"
+
+"Fiddle-diddle-dee!" sang something, or somebody, behind the oak.
+Davie looked a little frightened, for that was just what he was about
+to sing in his song. But he jumped up and ran around to the other side
+of the tree. And there was a little brown wren, and it had a little
+golden thread around its neck, and the thread was tied to a root of
+the big tree.
+
+"Hello!" said Davie, "was that you?"
+
+Now, of course Davie had not expected the wren to answer him. But the
+bird turned her head on one side, and, looking up at Davie, said:
+
+[Illustration: The Little Bantam Hen.]
+
+"Yes, of course it was me! Who else did you suppose it could be?"
+
+"Oh yes!" said Davie, very much astonished. "Oh yes, of course! But I
+thought you only did it in the song!"
+
+"Well," said the wren, "were not you singing the song, and am not I in
+the song, and what else could I do?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," said Davie.
+
+"Well, go, then," said the wren, "and don't bother me."
+
+Davie felt very queer. He stopped a moment, but soon thought that he
+must do as he was bid, and he began to sing again:
+
+  "I bought a hen, and my hen pleased me;
+  I tied my hen behind a tree;
+  Hen said----"
+
+"Shinny-shack! shinny-shack!" interrupted another voice, so loudly
+that Davie's heart gave a great thump, as he turned around. There,
+behind the wren, stood a little Bantam hen, and around her neck was a
+little golden cord that fastened her to the wren's leg.
+
+[Illustration: The Speckled Guinea-Hen.]
+
+"I suppose that was you?" said Davie.
+
+"Yes, indeed," replied the hen. "I know when my time comes in, in a
+song. But it was provoking for you to call me away from my chicks."
+
+"I?" cried Davie. "I didn't call you!"
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said the Bantam. "It wasn't you, then, who were singing
+'Tied my hen,' just now! Oh no, not you!"
+
+"I'm sorry," said Davie. "I didn't mean to."
+
+"Well, go on, then," said the little hen, "and don't bother."
+
+Davie was so full of wonder that he did not know what to think of it
+all. He went back to his seat, and sang again:
+
+  "I had a guinea, and my guinea pleased me;
+  I tied my guinea behind a tree----"
+
+[Illustration: The Duck.]
+
+But here he stopped, with his mouth wide open; for up a tiny brown
+path that led into the wood, came a little red man about a foot
+high, dressed in green, and leading by a long yellow string a plump,
+speckled guinea-hen! The little old man came whistling along until he
+reached the Bantam, when he fastened the yellow string to her leg, and
+went back again down the path, and disappeared among the trees.
+
+Davie looked and wondered. Presently, the guinea stretched out her
+neck and called to him in a funny voice:
+
+"Why in the world don't you go on? Do you think I want to wait all day
+for my turn to come?"
+
+Davie began to sing again: "Guinea said----"
+
+"Pot-rack! pot-rack!" instantly squeaked the speckled guinea-hen.
+
+Davie jumped up. He was fairly frightened now. But his courage soon
+came back. "I'm not afraid," he said to himself; "I'll see what the
+end of this song will be!"--and he began to sing again:
+
+  "I bought a duck, and my duck pleased me;
+  I tied my duck behind a tree;
+  Duck said----"
+
+"Quack! quack!" came from around the oak. But Davie went on:
+
+[Illustration: The Dog.]
+
+  "I bought a dog, and the dog pleased me;
+  I tied my dog behind a tree;
+  Dog said----"
+
+"Bow-wow!" said a little curly dog, as Davie came around the spreading
+roots of the tree. There stood a little short-legged duck tied to the
+guinea's leg, and to the duck's leg was fastened the wisest-looking
+Scotch terrier, with spectacles on his nose and a walking-cane in his
+paw.
+
+The whole group looked up at Davie, who now felt perfectly confident
+He sat down on a stone close by, and continued his song:
+
+  "I had a horse, and my horse pleased me;
+  I tied my horse behind a tree."
+
+Davie stopped and looked down the little brown path. Then he clapped
+his hands in great delight; for there came the little old man
+leading by a golden bridle a snow-white pony, no bigger than Davie's
+Newfoundland dog.
+
+"Sure enough, it is a boy!" said the pony, as the old man tied his
+bridle to the dog's hind leg, and then hurried away. "I thought so!
+Boys are always bothering people."
+
+[Illustration: The Horse.]
+
+"Who are you, and where did you all come from?" asked delighted Davie.
+
+"Why," said the pony, "we belong to the court of Her Majesty the Queen
+of the Fairies. But, of course, when the song in which any of the
+court voices are wanted, is sung, they all have to go."
+
+"I'm sure I'm very sorry," said Davie. "But why haven't I ever seen
+you all before?"
+
+"Because," said the pony, "you have never sung the song down here
+before." And then he added: "Don't you think, now that we are all
+here, you'd better sing the song right end first, and be done with
+it?"
+
+"Oh, certainly!" cried Davie, "certainly!" beginning to sing.
+
+If you could but have heard that song! As Davie sang, each fowl or
+animal took up its part, and sang it, with its own peculiar tone and
+manner, until they all joined in.
+
+  "I had a horse, and my horse pleased me;
+  I tied my horse behind a tree.
+  Horse said, 'Neigh! neigh!'
+  Dog said, 'Bow-wow!'
+  Duck said, 'Quack! quack!'
+  Guinea said, 'Pot-rack! pot-rack!'
+  Hen said, 'Shinny-shack! shinny-shack!'
+  Bird said, 'Fiddle-diddle-dee!'"
+
+Davie was overjoyed. He thought he would sing it all over again. But
+just then he was sure that his mother called him.
+
+[Illustration: All in Procession.]
+
+"Wait a minute!" he said to his companions. "Wait a minute! I'm coming
+back! Oh, it's just like a fairy-tale!" he cried to himself, as he
+bounded up the garden-walk. "I wonder what mother'll think?"
+
+But his mother said she had not called him, and so he ran back as fast
+as his legs would carry him.
+
+But they were all gone. His speller lay on the ground, open at the
+page of his lesson; a crumb or two of bread was scattered about; but
+not a sign of the white pony and the rest of the singers.
+
+"Well," said Davie, as he picked up his book, "I guess I wont sing it
+again, for I bothered them so. But I wish they had stayed a little
+longer."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LETTER-BOX.
+
+A BRAVE GIRL.
+
+
+One summer day, in Union square, New York City, a beautiful deed was
+done, which our frontispiece tells so well as almost to leave no need
+of words. A poor blind man started to cross the street just as a car
+was rapidly approaching. He heard it coming, and, growing confused,
+stood still--his poor, blind face turned helplessly, pathetically
+up, as if imploring aid. Men looked on heedlessly, regardless of his
+danger, or the voiceless appeal in his sightless eyes.
+
+Suddenly, from among the passers-by, a young girl sprang to his side,
+between him and the great horses which were so near they almost
+touched her, laid her dainty hand on his, and led him safely over the
+street, and with gentle words that brought a smile to his withered old
+face, set him safely on his way.
+
+It was a brave, kindly act, and one may be sure it was neither the
+first nor the last, of the brave girl who did it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If Charles Dudley Warner had never been a boy, it would have been
+impossible for him to write the very interesting little volume he
+calls "Being a Boy," for it is evident that he knows well, from
+experience, all that he writes about. It may be that many of our
+young readers have seen this book, for it has already reached several
+editions; but if there are any of them who have not read it, and who
+take an interest in the life of boys who are born, and brought up, and
+have fun, and drive oxen, and go fishing, and turn grindstones, and
+eat pumpkin-pie, and catch wood-chucks, all on a New England farm,
+they would do well to get the book and read it.
+
+If any of those who read it are boys on a farm in New England, they
+will see themselves, as if they looked in a mirror; and if any of them
+are city boys or girls, or live in the South or West, or anywhere in
+the world but in New England, they will see what sort of times some of
+the smartest and brightest men in our country had, before they grew up
+to be governors, book-writers, and other folks of importance.
+
+There is a particular reason why readers of ST. NICHOLAS should see
+this book, for in it they will meet with some old friends.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Williamsburgh, L.I.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I read in the May "Letter-Box" your answer to
+Stella G. about long and short words. It reminded me of what I read
+once about Count Von Moltke, the great German general. The writer
+described him as "the wonderful silent man who knows how to hold his
+tongue in eight different languages."--Yours truly,
+
+Willie, M.D.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Santa Fe, N.M.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: The donkeys here are called "burros." They are very
+tame, and do not get frightened at anything. A few days ago, the boys
+in our school tied a bunch of fire crackers to the tail of one, and
+fired them off. We all thought he would be very frightened at the
+noise, but he just walked off and began eating grass. My brother Barry
+had one of these little burros, when we were in Texas, and every
+evening he would go to a lady's house for something to eat, although
+he had more than he could eat at home; and if she did not come to the
+window soon, he would bray as loudly as he could, and she would have
+to come out and give him something, even if it was only a lump of
+sugur. Good-bye,--From, your affectionate friend,
+
+Bessie Hatch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Coldwater, N.Y.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Having read in the March number an account of the
+"Great Eastern," I thought perhaps your readers would like to hear
+something of the history of her captain, which I read a short time
+ago.
+
+When he was a little boy, he went to sea. As he left home, his mother
+said: "Wherever you are, Jamie, whether on sea or land, remember
+to acknowledge your God. Promise me that you will kneel down every
+morning and night and say your prayers, no matter whether the sailors
+laugh at you or not."
+
+Jamie gave his promise, and soon he was on shipboard, bound for India.
+They had a good captain; and, as several of the sailors were religious
+men, no one laughed at the boy when he knelt down to pray.
+
+On the return voyage, however, some of the former sailors having run
+away, their places were filled by others, and one of these proved to
+be a very bad fellow. When he saw little Jamie kneeling down, this
+wicked sailor went up to him, and, giving him a sound box on the ear,
+said, "None of that here, sir!"
+
+Another seaman, who saw this, although he himself swore sometimes, was
+indignant that the child should be so cruelly treated. He told the man
+to come up on deck and he would give him a thrashing. The challenge
+was accepted, and the well-deserved beating was duly bestowed. Both
+then returned to the cabin, and the swearing man said, "Now, Jamie,
+say your prayers, and if he dares to touch you, I will give him
+another dressing."
+
+The next night, Jamie was tempted to say his prayers in his hammock.
+The moment that the friendly sailor saw Jamie get into his hammock
+without first saying his prayers, he hurried to the spot and, dragging
+him out, said, "Kneel down at once, sir! Do you think I am going to
+fight for you, and you not say your prayers, you young rascal?" During
+the whole voyage back to London this same sailor watched over the
+boy as if he were his father, and every night saw that he said his
+prayers.
+
+Jamie soon began to be industrious, and during his spare hours studied
+his books; he learned all about ropes and rigging, and became familiar
+with latitude and longitude. Some years after, he became captain
+of the "Great Eastern." On returning to England after a successful
+voyage, Queen Victoria bestowed upon him the honor of knighthood, and
+the world now knows him as Sir James Anderson.
+
+MABEL R.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+B.P.R.--Perhaps the little book called "Album Leaves," by Mr. George
+Houghton, published by Estes & Lauriat, will help you to some verses
+suitable to be writen (sic) in autograph albums.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Mobile, Ala.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: The "that" question in your recent numbers brings
+to mind some "thats" I had when I went to school long years ago, and
+which some of your young grammarians may never have seen. I would like
+to have them, especially C.P.S., of Chicago, parse them.
+
+E.S.F.
+
+  Now that is a word which may often be joined,
+  For that that may be doubled is clear to the mind,
+  And that that that is right, is as plain to the view
+  As that that that that we use is rightly used too;
+  And that that that that that line has in it, is right,
+  And accords with good grammar, is plain in our sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I want to tell you about my aunt Hattie. She is
+only nine years older than I am, being twenty-one, and seems more like
+a sister than an aunt. When she was about fifteen she was thrown from
+her pony and hurt her spine, so that she hasn't taken a step since.
+
+But in spite of her great suffering she is the brightest, happiest
+one in the house, brimful and running over with fun and spirits.
+Papa calls her our sunbeam, and no one can grumble when they see how
+patiently and cheerfully she bears her pain. Her bright face and merry
+laugh will cure the worst case of "blues." She wants me to tell you
+how much she enjoys ST. NICHOLAS. It is a great comfort to her, and
+helps to pass away many an hour of pain and loneliness when I am at
+school and mamma is busy. She says she doesn't know what she could do
+without it.
+
+Auntie says you must make allowance for what I say of her as I am a
+partial judge; but she _is_ the dearest, best auntie in the world, and
+I'm not the only one who thinks so. Everybody loves her, and I shall
+be satisfied if I ever learn to be half as good and patient and
+unselfish as she is. I don't see how she can be so good and patient
+and happy when she has to lie still year after year and suffer so
+much, I should get cross and fret about it, for I can't bear to be
+sick a day. But she never thinks of her own troubles, but is so afraid
+she will make us care or trouble. When the pain is very bad she likes
+to hear music or poetry. It soothes her better than anything else.
+Whittier's poem on "Patience," is a favorite with her, and so is Mrs.
+Browning's "Sleep."--Ever your true friend,
+
+ALLIE BERTRAM.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Salem, Mass.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I want to tell you about my little turtle. I got
+him up in the country last summer, and have had him about six months.
+I keep him in a bowl of water, with a shell in it. In summer I feed
+him with flies, and in winter I give him pieces of cooked meat about
+the size of a fly. My turtle's shell is nearly round, and he is small
+enough to be put in a tumbler, and then he can turn round as he likes.
+I named him "Two-forty" (a funny name), because, when you put him
+down, he stands still, looks around a minute, and then starts off on a
+run,--Your friend and reader,
+
+JOHNNY P. WILLIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Camp Grant, Arizona.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Your coming every month fills us with delight. We
+cannot wait to read you separately, so mamma reads you aloud after the
+lamps are lighted, the first evening you are here. Papa lays aside his
+pen to listen, just like any boy, and so we all enjoy your pages at
+once. I have one little sister, but no brother. We live in camp, in
+far-away Arizona; and, although the "buck-board" brings the mail in
+every other day, it takes a long while for a letter to come from the
+East.
+
+There is a pet deer here. He comes out to "guard mounting" on the
+parade-ground, and trots after the band when the guard passes in
+review. Every one is kind to him; even the dogs know they must not
+chase him.--Your true friend,
+
+MOLLIE GORDON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  New Brunswick, N.J.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I would like to tell you of the nice times that the
+country children have, although they have no parks. In summer they can
+go on picnics, and they have a nice garden to play in. And most of the
+children have little gardens of their own to plant things in,--one for
+flowers and the other for vegetables. Then, in the winter-time, they
+can go coasting, sliding and skating; then, last but not least,
+sleigh-riding on the lovely, pure white snow.
+
+I, for one, would not be a city child. If I lived in the city, I
+could not have my old pet hen. Good-by, dear ST. NICHOLAS.--From your
+friend--
+
+MATHILDE WEYER.
+
+P.S.--I have a cat by the name of Pussy Hiawatha.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Covington, Ohio.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Would you like to know how I came to get you? I
+worked for you. My brother made a bank for me out of a cigar-box, and
+said if I put ten cents into it every week, I could begin taking you
+in November. That was in March. Sometimes, I could not get the ten
+cents, but I made it up the next week, and more, too, if I could; and
+before July, I had more than enough to pay for you. After that, I
+saved nearly enough to buy me a suit of clothes. I am working for you
+for another year. My age is twelve.--From your constant reader,
+
+W.H. PERRY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following is sent to us from Josie C.H., aged eleven years, as her
+own composition:
+
+SOME THINGS WHICH WE EXPECT IN YEARS TO COME.
+
+Some boys, when they go to school, expect to learn. When they are a
+little older, they expect to go to college; and then, to learn trades
+and professions, and to become men. The farmer, when he plants his
+seed in the spring, expects a harvest. The merchant, when he buys his
+goods, expects to sell them at a profit. The student expects to become
+a lawyer, minister, etc. All boys expect to become men. We often
+expect things that never happen, but what we expect we cannot always
+get; yet we can try for them, which is a good rule to go by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF "MARY'S LITTLE LAMB."
+
+  Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I want to tell you what I read lately in a
+newspaper about Mary and her lamb. Mary herself is now a delightful
+old lady of threescore and ten, and this is her story:
+
+"I was nine years old, and we lived on a farm. I used to go out to the
+barn every morning with father, to see the cows and sheep. One cold
+day, we found that during the night twin lambs had been born. You know
+that sheep will often disown one of twins, and this morning one poor
+little lamb was pushed out of the pen into the yard. It was almost
+starved, and almost frozen, and father told me I might have it if I
+could keep it alive. So I took it into the house, wrapped it in a
+blanket, and fed it on peppermint and milk all day. When night came, I
+could not bear to leave it, for fear it would die. So mother made me
+up a little bed on the settle, and I nursed the poor little thing all
+night, feeding it with a spoon, and by morning it could stand. After
+this, we brought it up by hand, until it learned to love me very much,
+and would stay with me wherever I went, unless it was tied. I used,
+before going to school in the morning, to see that the lamb was all
+right, and securely fastened for the day.
+
+"Well, one morning, when my brother Nat and I were all ready, the lamb
+could not be found, and, supposing that it had gone out to pasture
+with the cows, we started on. I used to be very fond of singing, and
+the lamb would follow the sound of my voice. This morning, after we
+had gone some distance, I began to sing, and the lamb hearing me,
+followed, and overtook us before we got to school. As it happened, we
+were early; so I went in very quietly, and took the lamb into my seat,
+where it went to sleep, and I covered it up with my shawl. When
+the teacher and the rest of the scholars came, they did not notice
+anything amiss, and all was quiet until my spelling-class was called.
+Hardly had I taken my place when the patter of little hoofs was heard
+coming down the aisle, and the lamb stood beside me ready for its
+word. Of course, the children all laughed, and the teacher laughed
+too, and the poor creature had to be turned out-of-doors. But it kept
+coming back, and at last had to be tied in the wood-shed until school
+was out. Now, that day, there was a young man in the school, John
+Roulston by name, who had come as a spectator. He was a Boston boy and
+son of a riding-school master, and was fitting for Harvard College. He
+was very much pleased over what he saw in our school, and a few days
+after gave us the first three verses of the song. How or when it got
+into print, I don't know.
+
+"I took great care of my pet, and would curl its long wool over a
+stick, Finally, it was killed by an angry cow. I have a pair of little
+stockings, knitted of yarn spun from the lamb's wool, the heels
+of which have been raveled out and given away piecemeal as
+mementoes."--Yours truly,
+
+J.M.D.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Bolinas, Cal.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Were the "Arabian Nights" written by an Englishman
+or translated from the Arabic? In either case can you tell us the name
+of the author?--Yours sincerely,
+
+ESTHER R. DE PERSE AND JIMMIE MOORE.
+
+
+The "Arabian Nights" were collected and translated into English by
+Edward William Lane, an Englishman; but no one ever has found out
+where or by whom the tales were first told. On page 42 of ST. NICHOLAS
+for November, 1874 (the first number), is an article on the subject by
+Mr. Donald G. Mitchell, which you would do well to read.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Geneva, Switzerland.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Perhaps some of your American readers have visited
+this far-away city, and even attended school here. Pupils come here
+for schooling from all parts of the world,--from America, Cuba,
+England, Germany, Russia, Greece, and even from Egypt. But many of the
+ST. NICHOLAS children never have been here; so I will tell them about
+the country and the people.
+
+In the first place, Switzerland is a republic, with president and
+vice-president, as in the United States, but chosen every year.
+Switzerland is made up of twenty-two cantons, or states, each of which
+has two representatives; and, besides these, there are 128 members of
+the National Assembly, and seven members of the Federal Council, each
+of which last is chosen once in three years. The country is only
+one-third as large as the State of New York, being 200 miles long and
+156 broad; and two-thirds of it is composed of lofty mountains or deep
+ravines. The people are apparently such lovers of law and order as to
+need no rulers at all. I think there must be propriety in the air they
+breathe. They have honest faces, and honesty beams out of their clear
+blue eyes. The school-boy even, instead of stopping to throw stones or
+climb fences or wrestle with another boy, walks along to school, at
+eight o'clock in the morning, with his square hair-covered satchel on
+his back, as orderly as if he were the teacher setting an example to
+his pupils. The laborers, in blouse-frocks of blue or gray homespun,
+make no noise, no confusion. All is done quietly, orderly and
+correctly; each one knows his duty and does it.
+
+Although Berne is the capital, Geneva is the largest city; and I think
+if you could see it as it is, with grand snow-capped mountains at both
+sides, the clear blue lake,--not always blue, for sometimes it is
+green, and then the blue Rhone can be distinctly seen flowing through
+it,--the pretty green parks and gardens, clean streets, and oddly
+dressed people, you would think, as I do, that it is a very nice place
+to be in.
+
+There are several little steamers which ply on the lake, and
+numberless little sail and row boats, and beautiful white swans, with
+tiny olive-colored cygnets, swimming and diving for food. On the
+banks of the rapid river, which leaves the lake at the city, are the
+wash-houses--a great curiosity. But my letter is getting too long, so
+I must stop.--Yours truly,
+
+S.H. REDFIELD.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Easton, Pa.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I send you an acrostic which I have made, and I
+hope you will print it.--Yours truly,
+
+B.
+
+  ACROSTIC.
+
+  My first has a heart that has ne'er throbbed with pity;
+  My next has strong arms, but ne'er strikes for the right;
+  My third has a head, but is not wise or witty;
+  My fourth, a neat foot, but in country or city
+  Is never seen walking, by day or by night;
+  My fifth, with a mouth that is surely capacious
+  Enough for a lion, is never voracious.
+  Guess from these five initials my whole, if you can;
+  'Tis a path ever used, yet untrodden by man.
+
+_Ans._ Orbit. Oak, Reel, Barrel, Iambic, Tunnel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CITY CHILDREN'S COUNTRY REST.
+
+  Brooklyn, E.D.
+
+DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Here is news to do your heart good. Last summer, a
+Brooklyn lady, who herself has been bed-ridden and in pain for many
+years, felt very sorry for the children of the tenement houses, who
+are unable to get relief or a chance to enjoy the fresh air and bright
+sunlight of the country. She longed to help them, and said so to
+Mr. P., a clergyman in northern Pennsylvania. He spoke of it to his
+congregation, and asked them if they would invite some of the poor
+city children to visit their farm-houses and cottages for a week or
+so; and they gladly said they would, and told him he might bring along
+as many as he could get to come. This generous reply he told to the
+lady, and she let others know, and the result was that, although late
+in the season, more than sixty children from the poorest neighborhoods
+of Brooklyn--pale, deformed, city-worn, and ill-fed--spent a happy
+fortnight in the country.
+
+The children were ferreted out, and their parents persuaded. They were
+then taken to the railroad depot, and there given in charge of Mr. P.,
+who went with them, and sorted them among his people; and, when the
+time was up, brought them back, and turned them over to us at the
+depot. Then we took them to their homes. The total expense of carrying
+all the children there and back in three lots was about $180, and more
+money could have been had if it had been wanted. In fact, the minute
+the subject was broached every hearer wanted to help. The railroad
+company charged only half fares, and the employes got to know Mr. P.
+and his batches of children, and did all they could to make things
+easy and cheerful for them.
+
+I can fancy how glad you would have been, dear old ST. NICHOLAS, to
+see the happy, hearty, bright-eyed boys and girls that came home in
+place of the pale-faced, dead-and-alive children that left two weeks
+before! They talked of nothing but the good times they had had. One
+little fellow, thinking to surprise us, said, "I seen a cow!" All of
+them fared well, and particularly enjoyed the "good country milk."
+When they came back, many wore better clothes than they had gone
+in, and all were laden with good things for the home folks. One boy
+carried under each arm a "live" chicken,--special gifts for his
+mother!
+
+Now, if some of your readers in the country follow the example of
+these Pennsylvania people, they will know what it is to be downright
+happy; for every person who has had anything to do with this
+enterprise feels happy about it, and longs to do it again, and more
+besides.--Yours truly,
+
+C.B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO MR. CRANCH'S POETICAL CHARADES, published on page 406
+of the April number, were received, before April 18, from Neils E.
+Hansen, C.W.W., Arnold Guyot Cameron, Helen and Frank Diller, "Sadie,"
+"Marshall," Emma Lathers, Arthur W. James, Louise G. Hinsdale, Ada C.
+Okell, E.K.S. and M.G.V., "Sunnyside Seminary," "Persephone," M.W.C.,
+Genevieve Allis and Kittie Brewster, Florence Stryker, "Cosey Club,"
+Mary and Willie Johnson, and Jeanie A. Christie.
+
+ERRATUM.--The answer to No. 23 in "Presidential Discoveries" is "More"
+(Sir Thomas), not "William Henry," as given in the May number.
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES in the April number were received, before April
+18, from R.H. Marr, Grace Sumner, "Prebo," Marion Abbot, Maxwell W.
+Turner, Willie W. Cooper, "Cosey Club," Samuel J. Holmes, "Three
+Sisters," Charles G. Todd, W.M., M.E. Adams, Mamie G.A., W. Thomas,
+Jeanie A. Christie, T. Bowdoin, Robert M. Webb, Allie Bertram, Willie
+Wilkins, Maggie Simon, Kitty P. Norton, M.W. Collet, Jay Benton,
+"Kaween," Morris M. Turk, Leonie Giraud, Catherine Cook, Willie B.
+Dess, Willie Cline, Frances M. Griffitts, Nellie J. Towle, "Isola,"
+Mary C. Warren, Florence I. Turrill, Charles Fritts, "Angeline," Sam
+Cruse, John V.L. Pierson, "Ollie;" Tillie Powles and May Roys; Tyler
+Redfield, Grace A. Jarvis, Bennie Swift; Sarah Duffield and "No Name"
+and Constance F. Grand-Pierre; "Romeo and Juliet," "Jupiter," O.C.
+Turner, Jessie D. Worstell, Melly Woodward, R. Townsend McKeever,
+Eleanor N. Hughes, Ben Merrill; Annie and Lucy Wollaston; William
+Eichelberger and John Cress; "Clover-leaf and Pussy-willow," Alice
+Getty, Herbert D. Utley; Bertha and Carl Heferstein and Estella
+Lohmeyer; C. Speiden and M.F. Speiden; Angeline O., May Filton,
+"Winnie," Maggie J. Gemmill, Jennie McClure, "X.Y.Z.," Neils E.
+Hansen, Clara B. Dunster, Bessie L. Barnes, Willie B. McLean, Bessie
+T., Lauretta V. Whyte, Hattie M. Heath; Charles W. Hutchins and Abbie
+F. Hutchins; Belle Murray, Harry A. Garfield; Helen and Frank Diller;
+Gertrude A. Pocock, Helena W. Chamberlain, "Al Kihall," Wm. F. Tort,
+"Lizzie and Anna," Kittie Tuers, Taylor Goshorn, Emma Lathers,
+"Marshall," Arthur W. James, Otto A. Dreier, "O.K.," Ada B. Raymond,
+"Seymour-Ct.," "Three Cousins," "Hallie," Alice Lanigan, Alfred
+Whitman, "Golden Eagle;" E.K.S. and M.G.V.; H.B. Ayers, Fred
+Chittenden; William McKinley Cobb and Howell Cobb, Jr.; Katie Hackett
+and Helen Titus; "35 E. 38th St.," W.D. Utley, Mary Lewis Darlington,
+Louisa L. Richards, James Barton Longacre, Nellie Emerson, Chas.
+B. Ebert, Jennie A. Carr, W.H. Wetmore, Mattie Olmsted; Arthur W.
+Hodgman, E.H. Hoeber, A.H. Peirce; Kittie Brewster and Genevieve
+Allis; Fannie B. Bates, Louise Egleston, Florence Stryker, Hattie
+H. Doyle, Mattie Doyle, Mabel Chester, Alice N. Dunn. A.R., Mary F.
+Johnson, M. Alice Chase, Alice Anderson, Bessie T. Hosmer, "Heath Hill
+Club," Anna E, Mathewson, I. Sturges, Addie B. Tiemann, Harriet A.
+Clark, Clarence H. Young, B.P. Emery, Victor C. Sanborn, "Persephone,"
+Eddie Vultee; "M.," Staten Island; Fred M. Pease, Cyrus C. Clarke,
+Geo. J. Fiske; and George H. Nisbett, of London, England.
+
+Correct solutions of all the puzzles were received from Arnold Guyot
+Cameron, "Bessie and her Cousin," Louise G. Hinsdale, Lucy C. Johnson;
+and L.M. and Eddie Waldo.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RIDDLE-BOX.
+
+=EASY BEHEADINGS.=
+
+
+The whole, most animals possess; behead it, and transpose, and there
+will appear an emblem of grief; behead again, and see what all men
+have; behead and curtail, and find an article. J.F.S.
+
+
+=ACCIDENTAL HIDINGS.=
+
+Find concealed in the following quotations three names for
+
+    METRICAL COMPOSITIONS.
+
+  "As hope and fear alternate chase
+  Our course through life's uncertain race."--_Scott_.
+
+  "Trained to the chase, his eagle eye
+  The ptarmigan in snow could spy."--_Scott_.
+
+            "Well-dressed, well-bred,
+  Well-equipaged, is ticket good enough."--_Cowper_.
+
+Find concealed in the following quotations three names for
+
+PORTIONS OF TIME.
+
+  "From better habitations spurned,
+  Reluctant dost thou rove."--_Goldsmith_.
+
+  "As ever ye heard the greenwood dell
+  On morn of June one warbled swell."--_Queen's Wake_.
+
+  "Each spire, each tower and cliff sublime,
+  Was hooded in the wreathy rime."--_Hogg_.
+
+
+=MELANGE.=
+
+1. Behead a plant, and leave a friend. 2. Curtail the plant, and give
+a pungent spice. 3. Syncopate the plant, and find an envelope. 4.
+Behead the spice, and leave affection. 5. Syncopate and transpose the
+friend, and find learning. 6. Behead the envelope, and leave above.
+7. Syncopate and transpose the envelope, and give the inner part. 8.
+Transpose above, and find to ramble. 9. Syncopate to ramble, and leave
+a wild animal. ISOLA.
+
+
+  =EASY CLASSICAL ACROSTIC.=
+
+  My first is in deaf, but not in hear;
+  My second in doe, and also in deer;
+  My third is in May, but not in June;
+  My fourth is in song, but not in tune;
+  My fifth is in house, and also in shed;
+  My sixth is in cot, but not in bed;
+  My seventh is in chair, but not in stool;
+  My eighth is in lake, but not in pool;
+  My ninth is in pencil, and also in ink;
+  My tenth is in blue, but not in pink;
+  My eleventh is in dish, but not in pan;
+  My whole was a Greek and a well-spoken man.
+  ANNAN.
+
+
+=ENIGMA.=
+
+I am a common adage frequently used by good housewives, and am
+composed of twenty-two letters.
+
+My 9 15 3 8 16 22 is pertaining to the place of birth. My 10 20 19 14
+are things used to cook with. My 6 1 5 is a domestic animal. My 11 21
+is a preposition. My 18 17 13 12 is to appear. My 7 4 2 is a pronoun.
+BESSIE.
+
+=ANAGRAMS.=
+
+Each anagram is formed from a single word, and a clue to the meaning
+of that word is given after its anagram.
+
+1. A dry shop; rambling composition. 2. I clean rum; belonging to
+number. 3. Poet in dread; the act of making inroads. 4. Oxen are set;
+clears from blame. 5. Gin danger; displacing.
+
+CYRIL DEANE.
+
+
+=PICTORIAL PUZZLE.=
+
+[Illustration: What animal, besides the dog and cat is to be found in
+the above picture?]
+
+
+=EASY DIAMOND PUZZLE.=
+
+1, A vowel. 2. A fairy. 3. Change. 4. Not many. 5. A consonant.
+
+WILLIE F.
+
+
+=CHARADE.=
+
+I.
+
+My first, a god once worshiped, now fills a lowly place, Though
+sometimes raised to favor by the wayward human race.
+
+II.
+
+My second, a bold captain, leads a goodly company, Whose numbers march
+in columns, like knights of chivalry. They serve us at our bidding,
+yet we are in their power, And the weapons that they carry may wound
+us in an hour. It grandly leads the ages, as their cycles onward roll,
+But stoops to lend its presence to my shadowy, fearful whole. It lives
+in ancient romance, it floats upon the air, And flower-deck'd May
+without it would not be half so fair.
+
+III.
+
+My third holds humble office, a servant at your will, But an
+instrument of torture if 'tis not used with skill. Beauty before her
+mirror studies its use with care, And deigns, perchance, to choose it
+an ornament to wear.
+
+IV.
+
+Consider, all ye people, what my strange whole may be; 'Tis gloomy,
+dark and awful, and full of mystery. Ponder the tales of ages, of
+human sin and woe, Turn to historic pages, if you its name would know.
+E'en kings their heads have rested, a-weary of the crown, Upon its
+curious couches, though not of silk or down. The stately seven-hilled
+city may boast her ancient birth, But this was old and hoary ere she
+had place on earth. Some tremble when they see it; some its secrets
+would explore, And, peering through its shadows, they seek its mystic
+lore.
+
+A.M.W.
+
+
+=NUMERICAL PUZZLE.=
+
+A boy named 1 2 3 4   5 6 7 8 9 10  thought it singular he should become
+such a monster as a 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 by dropping the first letter of
+his surname.
+
+C.D.
+
+
+=FOUR-LETTER SQUARE-WORD.=
+
+The base is a title. Fill the blanks in the following sentence
+with words which can be arranged in order, as they come, to form a
+word-square:
+
+The (1)---- made an (2)---- of his minstrel, and yet he himself could
+not tell one (3)---- from another, or distinguish a dirge from a
+(4)----.
+
+B.
+
+
+=EASY CROSS-WORD ENIGMA.=
+
+  1. In road, but not in street;
+  2. In hunger, not in eat;
+  3. In inn, but not in tavern;
+  4. In grot, but not in cavern.
+
+The whole is the name of one of the United States.
+
+R.L. M'D.
+
+
+=METAGRAM.=
+
+Whole, (1) I am to beat; change my head, and I become, in succession,
+(2) stouter, (3) final, (4) substance, (5) to sprinkle, (6) to rend,
+and (7) a terrier of a much prized kind.
+
+A.C. CRETT.
+
+
+=EASY ACROSTIC.=
+
+  My first is in can, but not in may;
+  My second in opera, not in play;
+  My third is in shine, but not in bright;
+  My fourth is in string, but not in kite;
+  My fifth is in tea, but not in coffee;
+  My sixth in candy, also in taffy;
+  My seventh is in rain, but not in hail;
+  My eighth is in bucket, but not in pail;
+  My ninth is in ice, but not in snow;
+  My tenth is in run, but not in go;
+  My eleventh is in hop, but not in run;
+  My twelfth in powder, but not in gun;
+  My thirteenth is in bell, but not in ring;
+  My fourteenth is in scream, but not in sing.
+  My whole is a noted city of Europe.
+
+  GOLD ELSIE.
+
+
+=BLANK WORD-SYNCOPATIONS.=
+
+Fill the first blank, in each sentence, with a certain word; the
+second, with a word taken out of the word chosen for the first blank;
+and the third with the letters of that word which remain after filling
+the second blank.
+
+    1. On the ---- we first played ----, and then we all began to
+    ----. 2. While ---- on the wharf, we saw a vessel come into ----,
+    which made us ---- again. 3. The game of ---- I will ---- you
+    play, if you will show me the ---- to the fair.
+
+    CYRIL DEANE.
+
+
+=CHARADE.=
+
+  My first embodies all despair;
+  My second fain my first would flee,
+  Yet, flying to my whole, full oft
+  Flies but to life-long misery.
+  Still Holy Writ doth plainly show;
+  My whole, though causing, cureth woe.
+
+M. O'B D.
+
+
+=TRANSPOSITIONS OF PROPER NAMES.=
+
+  1. At ----, Fla., may be obtained ---- ---- for washing purposes.
+  2. Are not the public ---- small in the State of ----?
+  3. In ---- you may not see ---- ---- ----, though you certainly
+  will see many in Pennsylvania.
+  4. Amid the mountains of ---- there is doubtless many a ---- ----.
+  5. Having occasion to visit the city of ----, to my surprise I ----
+  ---- except a few worn-out ---- ----.
+  6. If you wish to find or to ---- ---- -trees, you need not go to----.
+  7. When in ---- City I saw an old ---- ----, which was quite a relic.
+  8. In the city of ---- the cooks surely know how to ---- ----.
+  9. ----, my brother, ---- the falsehood by giving it a flat ----.
+  10. My aunt ---- planted a rose-bush ---- ---- ---- allotted to
+  fruit trees.
+
+  W.
+
+
+=SQUARE-WORD.=
+
+1. Sour fruit. 2. Imaginary. 3. To immerse. 4. A large bird. 5.
+Unconscious rest.
+
+B.
+
+
+=ADDITIONS.=
+
+1. Add some liquor to a spirit, and make to fix on a stake. 2. Add
+something belonging to animals to the animals themselves, and make a
+lantern. 3. Add sharp to a girl's name, and make a kind of cloth. 4.
+Add an era to a vegetable, and make a boy-servant. 5. Add a boy's name
+to a cave, and make a foreign country. 6. Add anger to a serpent, and
+make to long after.
+
+CYRIL DEANE.
+
+
+=LABYRINTH.=
+
+[Illustration: Trace a way to the center of this labyrinth without
+crossing a line.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN MAY NUMBER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.--Centrals: Greyhound. Across: Alligator. 2.
+Adoring. 3. Enemy. 4. Dye. 5. H. 6. Pop. 7. Elude. 8. Evangel. 9.
+Amendable.
+
+BLANK APOCOPES.--1. Rafters, raft. 2. Rushlight, rush. 3. Larder,
+lard. 4. Scarlet, scar.
+
+  FRAME PUZZLE.--
+
+            F              G
+            R              R
+        H E A    D     B   A N D
+
+            G              D
+
+            R              U
+
+        C H A    P     L   A I N
+            N              T
+            T              E
+
+
+EASY BEHEADINGS.--1. Beat, eat. 2. Candy, Andy. 3. She, he; your,
+our. 4. Table, able. 5. Pink, ink. 6. Scent, cent. 7. Brain, rain. 8.
+Orange, range. 9. Skate, Kate. 10. Helm, elm. 11. Crow, row. 12. Hash,
+ash. 13. Bowl, owl. 14. Scare, care. 15. Brush, rush.
+
+EASY TRIPLE ACROSTIC.--Primals, Crow; centrals, Bear; finals, Gnat, 1.
+ComBinG. 2. ReverbEratioN. 3. OmAhA. 4. WoRsT.
+
+HIDDEN FRENCH SENTENCE.--Ma ville de pierre,--"My city of stone,"
+or "My city of Peter;" _i.e._. St. "Peter's-burg." ["Pierre" means
+"Peter" as well as "stone."]
+
+PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PROVERB .--"It is good to be merry and wise."
+
+THREE EASY SQUARE-WORDS.--
+
+     I.--P O E          II.--F I R          III.--L A W
+         O R E               I R E                A G E
+         E E L               R E D                W E D
+
+
+EASY ENIGMA.--Diamond.
+
+REVERSIBLE DOUBLE DIAMOND AND CONCEALED WORD-SQUARE. Perpendiculars,
+Revel; horizontals, Lever. Word-square: 1. Ten. 2. Eve. 3. Net.
+
+EASY SYNCOPATIONS.--1. Brass, bass. 2. Bread, bead. 3. Chart, cart. 4.
+Clove, cove. 5. Crane, cane. 6. Farce, face. 7. Heart, hart. 8. Horse,
+hose. 9. Mouse, muse. 10. Peony, pony.
+
+PICTORIAL TRANSPOSTION PUZZLES.--1. Entitles (ten tiles). Raja (ajar).
+3. Palm (lamp). 4. Satyr (trays). 5. Causer (saucer).
+
+EASY SQUARE-WORD.--1. Balm. 2. Aloe. 3. Lore. 4. Meek.
+
+EASY DIAMOND.--1. W. 2. Nag. 3. Water. 4. Gem. 5. R.
+
+[For the names of those who sent answers to puzzles in the April
+number, see the "Letter-Box," page 574.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and
+Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16123.txt or 16123.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/1/2/16123/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.