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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, May, 1878, No. 7. + Scribner's Illustrated + +Author: Various + +Editor: Mary Mapes Dodge + +Release Date: July 1, 2005 [EBook #16173] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lynn Bornath and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image01" id="image01"><img src="images/image01.jpg" +width="500" height="393" alt="MANDY AND BUB BY THE NETS." +title="MANDY AND BUB BY THE NETS." /></a> +<p class="caption">MANDY AND BUB BY THE NETS.</p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h1>ST. NICHOLAS.</h1> + +<div class="vlouter"> +<div class="volumeline"> +<div class="volumeleft">VOL. V.</div> +<div class="volumeright">No. 7.</div> +<div class="center">MAY, 1878.</div> +<div class="spacer"><!-- empty for spacing purposes --></div> +</div> +</div> +<br /> + +<div class="center"> +<span class="small">[Copyright, 1878, by Scribner & Co.]</span> +</div> + +</div> + +<div id="toc"> +<br /><br /> + +<div>TABLE OF CONTENTS & ILLUSTRATIONS</div> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#image01">MANDY AND BUB BY THE NETS.</a> <i>(Illustration)</i></li> + <li><a href="#mandy">HOW MANDY WENT ROWING WITH THE "CAP'N."</a> By Mary Hallock Foote.</li> + <li><a href="#sillygoose">THE SILLY GOOSE.</a> <i>(An Old Story Re-told.)</i> By E.A. Smuller. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image02">"THE SCHOOL-MASTER OPENS WIDE HIS BOOK"</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#image03">"LADY-BIRD, FLY AWAY HOME!"</a> <i>(Illustration)</i></li> + <li><a href="#parisian">PARISIAN CHILDREN.</a> By Henry Bacon. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image04">FAMILY.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image05">THE ENEMY.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image06">THE VETERAN AND HIS CHARGE.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image07">EXTREMES MEET.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image08">THE STAFF OF LIFE.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image09">CHARITY-SCHOOL GIRLS.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#peterkins">THE PETERKINS ARE OBLIGED TO MOVE.</a> By Lucretia P. Hale.</li> + <li><a href="#image10">GET UP!</a> <i>(Illustration)</i></li> + <li><a href="#image11">GOT DOWN!</a> <i>(Illustration)</i></li> + <li><a href="#singawaybird">THE SING-AWAY BIRD.</a> By Lucy Larcom. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image12">SING-AWAY BIRD.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#oldsoup">OLD SOUP</a> By Mrs. E.W. Latimer. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image13">"BESIDE THE CHILDREN STOOD OLD SOUP WITH A LARGE BAMBOO ROD IN HIS TRUNK."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#fourhouses">FOUR LITTLE HOUSES, BLUE AND ROUND</a></li> + <li><a href="#lilacs">UNDER THE LILACS.</a> By Louisa M. Alcott. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image14">"THERE STOOD BAB WAITING FOR SANCHO TO LAP HIS FILL OUT OF THE OVERFLOWING TROUGH."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#image15">THE LITTLE ITALIAN FLOWER-MERCHANT.</a> <i>(Illustration)</i></li> + <li><a href="#fatherchirp">FATHER CHIRP.</a> By S.C. Stone. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image16">"THEN TRIED THEIR KNEES."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image17">"HIGH UPON THEIR TINY LEGS."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image18">"ALL THREE FELL TO SOBBING."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#money">WHERE MONEY IS MADE.</a> By M.W. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image19">THE MINT AT PHILADELPHIA.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image21">POURING THE MELTED GOLD INTO THE MOLDS.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image20">THE ROLLERS.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image22">THE CUTTING PRESS.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image23">"THE LONG STRIP FULL OF HOLES."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image24">THE COINING-PRESS.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#songofspring">A SONG OF SPRING.</a> By Caroline A. Mason.</li> + <li><a href="#samsbirthday">SAM'S BIRTHDAY.</a> By Irwin Russell. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image25">"THE BOYS TROTTED MERRILY AWAY TOGETHER."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#wait">WAIT</a> By Dora Read Goodale.</li> + <li><a href="#mayday">THE STORY OF MAY-DAY.</a> By Olive Thorne. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image26">AN OLD-TIME MAY-DAY IN "MERRIE ENGLAND."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#wildgeese">WILD GEESE.</a> By Celia Thaxter.</li> + <li><a href="#charcoal">THE CHARCOAL-BURNERS' FIRE; OR, EASTER EVE AMONG THE COSSACKS.</a> (<i>A Russian Legend.</i>) By David Ker. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image27">STEPKA CARRIES THE FIRE IN HIS CLOAK.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#ballooning">PARLOR BALLOONING.</a> By L. Hopkins. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image29">"PIECE OF PAPER, TORN FROM AN OLD NEWSPAPER."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image30">"THE BALLOON RISES."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image31">"THE BALLOON AS IT SAILS SLOWLY ABOUT."</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image32">"THE TOY BALLOON HOVERING OVER YOU."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#drifted">DRIFTED INTO PORT.</a> By Edwin Hodder. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image33">IN THE ICE.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#johnny">JOHNNY'S LOST BALL.</a> By Lloyd Wyman.</li> + <li><a href="#kingbread">THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD.</a> By J.L. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image35">THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#polly">DISCONTENTED POLLY.</a> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image36">"JUST OPEN YOUR EYES, AND SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#jackinthepulpit">JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.</a> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image38">FOOLS'-CAPS FOR CROWS.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#letterbox">THE LETTER-BOX.</a></li> + <li><a href="#riddlebox">THE RIDDLE-BOX.</a></li> + <li><a href="#answers">ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN APRIL NUMBER.</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div id="all"> +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="mandy" id="mandy">HOW MANDY WENT ROWING WITH THE "CAP'N."</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY MARY HALLOCK FOOTE.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>It was the month of May—the season of fresh shad and apple-blossoms on +the Hudson River. "Bub" and "Mandy" Lewis knew more about the shad than +they did about the apple-blossoms, for their father was a fisherman, +and they lived in a little house built on a steep bank between the road +above and the river below. Sometimes, on cool, damp spring evenings, +the scent of the orchards came down to them from the hills above, but +the smell of shad was much stronger and nearer.</p> + +<p>Just in front of the house was an old wharf, where fishing-boats were +moored, and nets spread for drying or mending. One morning, Bub and +Mandy were sitting on the log which guards the edge of the wharf, +watching their father and brother Jeff getting ready to spread the nets +for next night's "haul." Jeff was busy with the buoy lines and sinkers, +while the father bailed out the boat with an old tin pan. The children +were rather subdued—Bub wondering how long it would be before he could +"handle a boat" like Jeff and go out with his father? Mandy was +expecting every moment to hear her mother's voice calling from the +house. It was Monday morning, and Mandy knew her mother would soon be +starting for the Hillard's, where she "helped" on Mondays and +Saturdays.</p> + +<p>These were the longest days of the week to Mandy, for then she had baby +to tend all by herself and he was "such a bother!"</p> + +<p>Yes, there it was: "Mandy!—Mandy!—Mandy <i>Lewis!</i> don't you hear?" +Mandy kept her eyes gloomily fixed on the curve of her father's back, +as it bent and rose in the boat below, in time with the scra-a-a-pe, +swish, of the bailer.</p> + +<p>"What's the use makin' b'l'eve you don't hear?" said Bub. "You know +you've got to go!"</p> + +<p>"I just wish mother'd make <i>you</i> tend baby once, and see how you'd like +it!"—and Mandy rose with an impatient jerk of her bonnet-strings and +slowly climbed the steep path to the house. Her mother, standing in the +door-way with baby on one arm, shaded her eyes from the sun as she +watched the cloudy face under the pink bonnet. It was always cloudy on +Mondays and Saturdays.</p> + +<p>"Seems as if you didn't love your little brother, Mandy—such work as +you make of tendin' him! Just look how glad he is to see you," as baby +leaned forward and began pulling at the pink bonnet. "He's just had his +bread and milk, and if you set right there in the door, where he can +watch the chickens, I shouldn't wonder if he'd be real good for ever so +long. Father and Jeff wont be home to dinner, but there's plenty of +bread and butter and cold beans in the closet for you and Bub. You can +set the beans in the oven to warm, if you like—only be sure you put +'em on an old plate; and you can divide what's left of the ginger-bread +between you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mother! can't we eat it now?" said Bub, who had watched his father +and Jeff off in the boat, and, now returning to the house, didn't +quite know what to do next.</p> + +<p>"Why, it aint an hour sence breakfast! But you can do as you like; +only, if Mandy eats hers, baby'll want it, sure. Better wait till he's +asleep."</p> + +<p>"All right; Mandy can wait," said Bub, cheerfully, as his mother set +the plate of cake on the table before leaving the house.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bub, I'm awful hungry, too!" said Mandy. "You cut the cake in +halves,—mind you cut fair,—and hold my piece for me where baby can't +see it. Sit right here behind me."</p> + +<p>So Mandy on the door-step, and Bub on the floor, with his back against +the door, which he gently tilted as he munched his cake, were very +silent and comfortable for a minute or two.</p> + +<p>The hens crawed and cackled, with cozy, gossipy noises, in the sun +before the door; the baby blinked and cooed contentedly.</p> + +<p>"Ready for another bite?" said Bub, holding out Mandy's cake close to +her left ear.</p> + +<p>"In a min-ute," said Mandy, with her mouth full. "Bub Lewis, aint you +ashamed of yourself? You've been eatin' off my piece! I saw you just +now!"</p> + +<p>"Aint, either! You can see great things with the back of your head! +Here's your piece 'n' here's mine. Yours is ever so much bigger!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you've been gobbling yours's fast's you could, and I only had +two little bites off mine."</p> + +<p>"<i>Little</i> bites! I sh'd think so! Don't know what you call big ones, +then! So chuck full you couldn't speak half a minute ago. Here, hold +your own cake, and let baby grab it!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd rather give it <i>all</i> to him, than have you eat it up on the +sly!"</p> + +<p>Bub walked down toward the water without deigning a reply, but thought +of several things on his way which would have been more withering than +silence.</p> + +<p>Mandy did not enjoy the rest of her cake very much,—eating it +furtively, so baby should not want it, and dropping crumbs on his +little white head, which he kept twisting around, to see what she was +doing. She began to think that perhaps she had been rather hasty in +accusing Bub; but surely that was the right-hand piece, instead of the +left, he was biting from? Well, anyway, it didn't much matter now the +cake was all eaten. The old rooster had wandered round the corner of +the house, where he was presently heard calling to his favorite hen. +She ran, and all the others followed. Baby grew restless, and made +little impatient noises, and the sun was getting very hot and bright on +the door-step. What <i>was</i> Bub doing down there among the nets on the +drying-ground? He had been very still, with his head bent down and his +hands moving about for ever so long.</p> + +<p>Mandy felt that, after their late unpleasantness, it would be more +dignified to take no notice of Bub for a while; but curiosity, and +baby's restlessness, finally prevailed over pride, and rolling up her +troublesome little burden in an old red shawl, she trotted with him +down to the river.</p> + +<p>"Bub," she said, after standing by him some time in silence, watching +him driving a row of small sticks into the ground, "<i>was</i> it my piece +you was bitin' off?"</p> + +<p>"I told you 't wasn't. If you don't b'l'eve me, what's the use o' my +sayin' so again?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry, Bub. I just caught a sight of you as I turned my +head, an' I thought—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, never mind what you thought; we've heard enough 'bout that +cake! Shove your foot one side a little? I want to drive another spile +there. Them's the hitchin' spiles on the inside."</p> + +<p>"What you buildin'?" asked Mandy.</p> + +<p>"Can't you see for yourself? What's built on spiles, I'd like to know! +Meetinghouses, may be you think. This is Lewis's dock; all the day +boats and barges stop here!"</p> + +<p>"Where's the water?" asked Mandy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you wait till high tide, 'bout four o'clock this afternoon, 'n' +you'll see water enough!"</p> + +<p>Just then, a boy in a blue blouse, with a basket of fish over his +shoulder, came whistling along.</p> + +<p>"Perry! Perry Kent! Where you goin'?" Bub called.</p> + +<p>"Down to little cove, to clean fish."</p> + +<p>"Oh, can't I go along and help? I can scale a herrin' first-rate; +father said so."</p> + +<p>"Aint herrin'; they're shad; got to be cleaned very partic'lar, too. +But come along, if you want to."</p> + +<p>"Bub," said Mandy, in an eager whisper, "oh, Bub, wait for me! Baby's +fast asleep. I'll lay him right down here, in his shawl; the nets'll +keep the sun off, 'n' he'll be real cozy 'n' nice till we get back."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you take him up to the house?" said Perry, looking with some +interest at Mandy's bundle. "'Taint a very good place for him here. +You'll find us at the cove, all right."</p> + +<p>"He'll wake up sure, if I try to carry him up the hill. See how nice he +lays; and I'll hang the end of the shawl over this net-pole. I can see +it plain enough from the cove. If he wakes up, he'll be tumblin' round +and pull it off, so I'll know when to come back for him."</p> + +<p>"Well, it takes a girl for contrivance," Perry said; and it was +something in his manner rather than the words which made Mandy, as she +followed the two boys, vaguely feel she was disapproved of.</p> + +<p>The cove was a half-circle of pebble beach, washed by the ripples of a +slowly rising tide, with a wall of gray slate rock at the back. +Hemlock-trees leaned from the steep wooded cliff above, the shadows of +their boughs moving with the wind across the sunny face of the rock.</p> + +<p>It was very warm and still and bright. Mandy climbed to a perch high up +in the twisted roots of an old hemlock, who, having ventured too far +over the edge of the cliff, was clinging there, desperately driving his +tough toes into the crevices of the rock, and wildly waving his boughs +upward and backward as if imploring help from his comrades, safe in the +dark wood above.</p> + +<p>The river spread broad and bright below her. Mandy listened, in happy +silence, to all the mysterious rustlings and twitterings and cracklings +in the wood above, and the sounds, far and near, from the river below. +Now and then she looked to see if the shawl still fluttered from the +net-pole. She was glad she came, and it seemed but a very little while +before the fish were all cleaned, and the boys, sitting on a rock, +skipping pebbles, and watching for Perry Kent's father, who was coming +in his boat to take the fish up to the hotel.</p> + +<p>Perry's father was always called Cap'n Kent. He kept a kind of floating +restaurant. One end of his boat was boarded over into a closet, with +shelves filled with a supply of fresh fruit and berries in the season, +cider, cakes, pies, root-beer, lemons, crackers, etc. His customers +were chiefly the "hands" on board sloops becalmed opposite the landing, +or passing barges and canal-boats, slowly trailed in the wake of a +panting propeller, or escorted by dingy little "tugs," struggling along +like lively black beetles.</p> + +<p>The "Cap'n" was a very tall man, and his arms were so long that, as he +rowed, he sat quite upright, only stretching his arms back and forth, +scarcely bending his body at all. This gave great dignity to his +appearance in a boat. His feet were very long too, and when he walked +he lifted the whole foot at once, and put it down flat. Of course he +could not walk very fast; but so important a person as the "Cap'n" +could never be in a hurry.</p> + +<p>As he held his boat against a rock while Perry lifted in the basket of +fish, he saw the wistful faces of the children standing on the beach. +Now, the "Cap'n" considered himself a very good-natured man, and +good-natured men are always fond of children. So he called out in a +loud voice:</p> + +<p>"Whose little folks are you?"</p> + +<p>"Bub and Mandy Lewis," Mandy answered quickly.</p> + +<p>Bub nudged her with his elbow.</p> + +<p>"He spoke to <i>me</i>, Mandy!"</p> + +<p>"Want to take a little row up to the hotel? Let's see—your folks live +by the old fishin' dock, don't they? Wal, I can leave ye there comin' +back. You can tell your Pa that Cap'n Kent took ye out rowin'."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to go, if you please," said Bub, who was ready with an answer +this time; "but Mandy, she's got to tend to the baby."</p> + +<p>"The baby! What baby?" said the "Cap'n," while Mandy whispered, +crossly, "Bub, I think you're real mean!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, baby's fast asleep up on the dryin'-ground, where the nets +are! I could go as far as that, if you'd let me get out there,—if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, sir."</p> + +<p>"Course it would!" said Bub, emphatically.</p> + +<p>But the "Cap'n," who was not so good-natured that he liked to have +small boys answer for him, gravely considered the matter while he +settled his oars in the rowlocks.</p> + +<p>"Wal, it's some trouble, perhaps; but I don't mind puttin' myself out +once in a while for a nice little gal. Step lively now, young man! Come +along, sissy!"</p> + +<p>Mandy sat radiant in the little bow-seat, as the boat pushed off. A +great Albany "tow" was passing,—a whole fleet of barges and +canal-boats lashed together,—with calves and sheep bellowing and +bleating, cables creaking, clothes flapping on the lines; a big +steamboat, with a freight-barge under each wing, plowing the water on +ahead, and sending the waves chasing each other in shore.</p> + +<p>The little boat danced gayly on the "rollers." A fresh wind blew toward +them, and brought with it a shout of "Boat ahoy! Hello, Cap'n! Got any +good stuff aboard?"</p> + +<p>"Got some good <i>cider</i>," the "Cap'n" called in reply, with strong +emphasis on the last word.</p> + +<p>"Come alongside, then!"</p> + +<p>The "Cap'n" condescended to lean a little on his oars in pursuit of a +bargain, and sent the little boat spinning over the water toward one of +the barges in the rear part of the "tow."</p> + +<p>Some men in a row were lounging over the rail; one of them threw a +rope, which hissed and splashed close to the boat. Perry caught it, and +they were soon under the lee of the floating village.</p> + +<p>While the store was unlocked, and its wares handed out, Mandy noticed, +on the deck above, a woman washing a little boy three or four years +old. He stood in an old wooden pail, with a rope tied to the +handle,—his little white body, all naked and slippery, shining in the +sun. One could hardly help noticing him, he screamed so lustily as the +water was dashed over his head and shoulders.</p> + +<p>Mandy saw how his face showed red and flushed with crying, under the +dripping yellow locks.</p> + +<p>She thought uneasily of the baby, lying all alone on the old dock; +wondered if the sun had got round so as to shine in his face, and how +long the "Cap'n" would stand there, talking with those men. She was +happy again when the boat dropped behind and the "Cap'n" turned toward +the shore.</p> + +<p>"Perry," he said, "just look at my watch—there in my weskit-pocket on +the starn-seat. What time's it got to be?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty minutes to one," said Perry.</p> + +<p>"What time'd I say we'd have them shad up there? One o'clock? Wal, one +o'clock it'll be, then. Only we can't leave this little gal ashore till +we come back."</p> + +<p>"Oh, please——" Mandy began, in great dismay as she saw they were +passing the fishing-dock. "The baby! He's there all alone, and—oh, +Bub, the shawl's gone! I <i>must</i> go ashore, Cap'n Kent—please!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind, sissy; baby's all right. Bless my soul! who'd want to +carry off a baby? There aint no wild beasts roamin' round, and most of +us's got babies enough o' our own to hum, without borryin of the +neighbors. You'll find him there all safe enough when we get back. Them +shad, ye see, was promised at one o'clock up to the hotel. Cap'n Kent, +ye know, he never breaks his word."</p> + +<p>"But you said——?" Mandy began, in a distressed voice, when Bub +interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"You'd better keep quiet, Mandy. You would come, 'n' now I hope you'll +get enough of it!"</p> + +<p>That was a very long twenty minutes to Mandy, while they drew slowly +nearer and nearer to the steamboat-landing, and the little white and +brown houses of the fishermen, scattered along shore, one by one were +left behind.</p> + +<p>"Now, Perry," the "Cap'n" said, as he unshipped his oars, while the +children clambered out of the boat, "just look at that ere watch again. +See if the Cap'n aint as good as his word. Five minutes to one, eh? +Didn't I tell ye? Hello, sissy! Where's that gal goin' to now? What's +your hurry? I'll take ye back in half an hour."</p> + +<p>But Mandy was off, running like a young fox along the edge of the +wharf.</p> + +<p>"Cap'n," said Bub, "we're much obliged to you, sir, and I guess I'll go +on too. Mandy's awful scared about the baby, and ——"</p> + +<p>"Lord, what a fuss 'bout a baby!" the "Cap'n" broke in with his loud +voice, "Babies aint so easy got rid of. Wal, may be you'll go rowin' +with the Cap'n again, some day. Tell yer Ma I've got some first-class +lemons, if she wants to make pies for Sunday. Can't get no such lemons +at the store."</p> + +<p>But the "Cap'n's" last words were wasted, for Bub was already speeding +off after Mandy.</p> + +<p>When he reached the fishing-dock, there she sat, a dismal little heap, +on the ground between the net-poles. She had lost her bonnet; she had +fallen down and rubbed dust in her hair. Now she sat rocking herself to +and fro, and sobbing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bub! The baby!" was all she could say.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Mandy! Stop cryin' a minute, will you?" said Bub. "It's +after one o'clock; may be mother had only half a day at Hillard's, and +come home 'n' found the baby down here; she could see the shawl from +the house."</p> + +<p>Mandy jumped up, "Let's go see. Quick!" she cried. But the string of +one shoe was broken, and the shoe slipped at every step. She stooped to +fasten it. "Don't wait, Bub. Go on, please!" Then she felt so tired and +breathless with running and crying, that she dropped down on the ground +again to wait for Bub's return.</p> + +<p>She heard his feet running down the hill, and wondered if they brought +good news.</p> + +<p>No; the house was empty. No baby or mother there!</p> + +<p>"I must go to Hillard's," said Bub. "You'd better stay, Mandy; you look +'most beat out."</p> + +<p>His voice was very gentle, and Mandy could not bear it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bub! don't be good to me. I'm a horrid wicked girl! What will +mother say? How <i>can</i> I tell her?" Then she broke into sobs again.</p> + +<p>It was dreadful, sitting there alone, after Bub's footsteps died away +in the distance, thinking and wondering hopelessly about the baby. +Mandy remembered how his little head, heavy with sleep, had drooped +lower and lower, and tired her arms. How gladly would she feel that +ache if she could only hold the warm little body in her arms again!</p> + +<p>How still it was! She could hear the children at McNeal's, down the +road, laughing and calling after their father as he went away to his +work. There was fresh trouble in the thought of <i>her</i> father coming +home at night. Would it not be better that she should go away and hide +herself, where no reproachful eyes could reach her? Would they miss +her, and feel sorry for poor little Mandy? Would her mother go about +looking pale and quiet, thinking of her gently?</p> + +<p>Hark! What noise was that under the drooping curtain of nets? Now she +does not hear it; but presently it comes again—a soft, happy little +baby voice, cooing and talking to itself.</p> + +<p>With joyful haste, Mandy lifted the heavy festoon of nets, and crawled +under. There, in the warm, sunny gloom, lying all rosy and tumbled, +with his clothes around his neck, and the old red shawl hopelessly +tangled round the bare and active legs, lay baby, cramming his fists in +his mouth or tossing them about, while he talked stories to the gleams +of sunlight that flickered down through the meshes of the nets.</p> + +<p>How he had managed to roll so far, Mandy did not stop to wonder about. +She scooped him up into her arms, the bare legs kicking and struggling, +and crawled with him into the open air.</p> + +<p>There she sat, hugging him close, with her cheek resting on his head, +when the tired, anxious mother, hurrying on ahead of Bub, came running +down the hill.</p> + +<p>Many times after that, the baby was a "bother" to Mandy, but she was +never heard to call him so.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="sillygoose" id="sillygoose">THE SILLY GOOSE.</a></h2> + +<div class="center"><i>(An Old Story Re-told.)</i></div> + +<br /> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY E.A. SMULLER.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image02" id="image02"> +<img src="images/image02.jpg" width="399" height="273" +alt="THE SCHOOL-MASTER OPENS WIDE HIS BOOK" /></a> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>There's a queer old story which you shall hear.</div> + <div>It happened, once on a time, my dear,</div> + <div>That a goose went swimming on a pond,</div> + <div>A pleasure of which all geese are fond.</div> + <div>She sailed about, and to and fro,</div> + <div>The waves bent under her breast of snow,</div> + <div>And her red feet paddled about below,</div> + <div>But she wasn't a happy goose—oh no!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>It troubled her more than she could tell,</div> + <div>That in the town where she chanced to dwell,</div> + <div>The saying of "stupid as a goose,"</div> + <div>Was one that was very much in use.</div> + <div>For sneers and snubbing are hard to bear,</div> + <div>Be he man or beast I do not care,</div> + <div>Or pinioned fowl of the earth or air,</div> + <div>We're all of the same opinion there.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Now, as she pondered the matter o'er,</div> + <div>A fox came walking along the shore;</div> + <div>With a pleasant smile he bowed his head,</div> + <div>"Good-evening, Mrs. Goose!" he said.</div> + <div>"Good-evening, Mr. Fox!" quoth she,</div> + <div>Looking across at him tremblingly,</div> + <div>And, fearing he had not had his tea,</div> + <div>Pushed a trifle farther out to sea.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>She had little harm to fear from him;</div> + <div>For, with all his tricks, he could not swim,</div> + <div>And, indeed, his voice was sweet and kind.</div> + <div>"Dear Mrs. Goose, you've a troubled mind;</div> + <div>I only wish I could help you through,</div> + <div>There's nothing I would not gladly do</div> + <div>For such a beautiful bird as you."</div> + <div>Which sounded nice, and was really true.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"Well, then, Mr. Fox," the goose replied,</div> + <div>"It hurts my feelings, and wounds my pride,</div> + <div>That in these days my sisters and I,</div> + <div>Who saved old Rome by our warning cry,</div> + <div>Should be called the <i>silly geese</i>. Ah, me!</div> + <div>If I could learn something fine, you see,</div> + <div>Like writing, or reading the A, B, C,</div> + <div>What a happy, happy goose I'd be!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"Now, would you, indeed!" Renard replied</div> + <div>As the floating fowl he slyly eyed;</div> + <div>"I hardly know what 'tis best to say,</div> + <div>Let's think about it a moment, pray,</div> + <div>I may help you yet, my dear, who knows?"</div> + <div>So he struck a meditative pose,</div> + <div>And thoughtfully laid his small, red toes,</div> + <div>Up by the side of his pointed nose.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"Ah, yes!" he cried, "I have it at last:</div> + <div>Your troubles, dear Mrs. Goose, are past;</div> + <div>There is a school-master, wise and good,</div> + <div>I know where he lives in yonder wood,</div> + <div>To-morrow evening, you shall see</div> + <div>In yon broad meadow his school will be,</div> + <div>He'll bring you a book with the A, B, C,</div> + <div>And he'll give his little lesson free."</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>But now just listen, and you shall hear</div> + <div>About that fox; he went off, my dear,</div> + <div>And he bought a coat, and a beaver hat,</div> + <div>And a pair of specs, and a black cravat.</div> + <div>Next evening he came dressed up to charm,</div> + <div>With the little "Reader" under his arm,</div> + <div>Where the goose stood waiting without alarm,</div> + <div>For, indeed, she hadn't a thought of harm.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Had she looked at all, you would have thought</div> + <div>She need not have been so quickly caught,</div> + <div>For the long red bushy fox's tail,</div> + <div>Swept over the meadow like a trail.</div> + <div>But 'twas rather dark, for night was near,</div> + <div>And another thing, I greatly fear.</div> + <div>She felt too anxious to see quite clear;</div> + <div>She was simply <i>a goose of one idea</i>.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The school-master opens wide his book,</div> + <div>The goose makes a long, long neck, to look,</div> + <div>He opens his mouth, as if to cough,</div> + <div>When, snippety-snap! her head flies off.</div> + <div>Now, cackle loudly her sisters fond,</div> + <div>Who are watching proudly from the pond,</div> + <div>While off to the town that lies beyond,</div> + <div>The whole of the frightened flock abscond.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>That day, the geese made a solemn vow,</div> + <div>Which their faithful children keep till now,</div> + <div>That, never shall goose or gosling look</div> + <div>At any school-master or his book.</div> + <div>So, if ever you should chance to hear</div> + <div>Them talking of school, don't think it queer</div> + <div>If they say some hard things, or appear</div> + <div>To show a certain degree of fear;</div> + <div>It is always so with geese, my dear.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image03" id="image03"> +<img src="images/image03.png" width="339" height="399" +alt="LADY-BIRD, FLY AWAY HOME!" /></a> +<p class="caption">"LADY-BIRD, FLY AWAY HOME!"</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="parisian" id="parisian">PARISIAN CHILDREN.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY HENRY BACON.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<div class="imgleft"> +<a name="image04" id="image04"> +<img src="images/image04.png" width="200" height="303" alt="FAMILY" /></a> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">arisians adore the sunshine. On a sunny day the many squares and parks +are peopled by children dressed in gay costumes, always attended by +parents or nurses. The old gingerbread venders at the gates find a +ready sale for chunks of coarse bread (to be thrown to the sparrows and +swans), hoops, jump-ropes, and wooden shovels,—for the little ones are +allowed to dig in the public walks as if they were on private grounds +and heirs of the soil. Here the babies build their miniature forts, +while the sergents-de-ville (or policemen), who are old soldiers, look +kindly on, taking special care not to trample the fortifications as +they pass to and fro upon their rounds.</p> + +<p>Here future captains and admirals sail their miniature fleet, and are +as helplessly horror-stricken when the graceful swans sally out and +attack their little vessels, as when from Fortress Monroe the +spectators watched the "Merrimac" steam down upon the shipping in the +roads.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image05" id="image05"> +<img src="images/image05.png" width="400" height="282" alt="THE ENEMY." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE ENEMY.</p> +</div> + +<p>Here the veterans, returned again to childhood, bask in the sun, and, +watching the fort-building, forget their terrible campaigns amidst +snows and burning sands, delighting to turn an end of the jumping rope +or to trot a long-robed heiress on, perhaps, the only knee they have +left.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image06" id="image06"> +<img src="images/image06.png" width="400" height="391" +alt="THE VETERAN AND HIS CHARGE." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE VETERAN AND HIS CHARGE.</p> +</div> + +<p>Parisians are very fond of uniforms, and so begin to employ them in the +dress of citizens as soon as they make their entry into the world, even +before they are registered at the mayor's office; for the caps and +cradles of a boy (or <i>citoyen</i>) are decorated with blue ribbons, and +the girl (or <i>citoyenne</i>) with pink.</p> + +<p>Every boys' or girls' school of any pretension has a distinctive mark +in the dress, and so has each employment or trade,—the butcher's boy, +always bareheaded, with a large basket and white apron; the grocer's +apprentice, with calico over-sleeves and blue apron; and the +pastry-cook's boy, dressed in white with white linen cap, who despises +and ridicules the well-blacked chimney-sweep, keeping the while at a +respectful distance. And we must not forget the beggars, with their +carefully studied costumes of rags, or the little Italians, born in +Paris, but wearing their so-called native costume, which has been cut +and made within the city walls.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image07" id="image07"> +<img src="images/image07.png" width="345" height="400" alt="EXTREMES MEET." /></a> +<p class="caption">EXTREMES MEET.</p> +</div> + +<p>The little ones of the outskirts of the city are generally independent +and self-reliant youngsters, and sometimes, before they are quite +steady on their feet, we meet them already doing the family errands, +trudging along, hugging a loaf of bread taller than themselves. But the +rosy plumpness of the fields is wanting; for children are like +chameleons, and partake of the color of the locality they inhabit, so +these poor little ones are toned down by the smoke and dust of the +workshops. Their play-ground is under the dusty, dingy trees of the +wide avenues; but they have the same games of romps their peasant +mothers brought from their country homes, and above the noise of the +passing vehicles we often hear their voices as they dance round in a +circle, and sing verses of some old provincial song.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image08" id="image08"> +<img src="images/image08.png" width="374" height="400" alt="THE STAFF OF LIFE." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE STAFF OF LIFE.</p> +</div> + +<p>The delightful hours spent in boyhood, going to and from school, are +unknown in the gay French capital to children of well-to-do parents. +Instead of starting early and lingering on the way, they watch from the +window until a black one-horse omnibus arrives, when a sub-master takes +charge of the pupil, and the omnibus goes from house to house, +collecting all the scholars, who are brought home in the same manner, +the sub-master sitting next the door, giving no chance to slip out to +ride on top, or to beg the driver to trust a fellow with the reins; and +as it is the custom to obey all in authority, the master is respected. +Girls are either sent to boarding-school or go to a day-school; in the +latter case, always accompanied by one of their parents or a trusty +servant. But the parents, if their means will not permit them to send +their boys to schools that support a one-horse omnibus, or if they have +not a servant to go with them, perform that task themselves. In the +schools for the poorer classes, when teaching is over, the children +file out, two by two, the older children being appointed monitors, and +the little processions disappear in different directions; the teachers +standing at the gate until they are lost from sight, for they have not +far to go, as there is a free school in each quarter.</p> + +<p>But I pity the charity-school girls. Although always neatly and cleanly +dressed, they are all alike, with white caps, and dresses which might +have been cut from the same piece. They file through the streets or +public gardens, under the charge of the "good sisters," and perhaps +they stop to play or rest sometimes, but I never saw them do so. +Perhaps there is no real reason to pity these charity-children, boys or +girls; but I remember my own free and happy school-days in America, and +so I pity them.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image09" id="image09"> +<img src="images/image09.png" width="399" height="315" alt="CHARITY-SCHOOL GIRLS." /></a> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="peterkins" id="peterkins">THE PETERKINS ARE OBLIGED TO MOVE.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY LUCRETIA P. HALE.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>Agamemnon had long felt it an impropriety to live in a house that was +called a "semi-detached" house, when there was no other "semi" to it. +It had always remained wholly detached as the owner had never built the +other half. Mrs. Peterkin felt this was not a sufficient reason for +undertaking the terrible process of a move to another house, when they +were fully satisfied with the one they were in.</p> + +<p>But a more powerful reason forced them to go. The track of a new +railroad had to be carried directly through the place, and a station +was to be built on that very spot.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peterkin so much dreaded moving that she questioned whether they +could not continue to live in the upper part of the house and give up +the lower part to the station. They could then dine at the restaurant, +and it would be very convenient about traveling, as there would be no +danger of missing the train, if one were sure of the direction.</p> + +<p>But when the track was actually laid by the side of the house, and the +steam-engine of the construction train puffed and screamed under the +dining-room windows, and the engineer calmly looked in to see what the +family had for dinner, she felt indeed that they must move.</p> + +<p>But where should they go? It was difficult to find a house that +satisfied the whole family. One was too far off, and looked into a +tan-pit, another was too much in the middle of the town, next door to +a machine shop. Elizabeth Eliza wanted a porch covered with vines, that +should face the sunset, while Mr. Peterkin thought it would not be +convenient to sit there looking toward the west in the late afternoon, +(which was his only leisure time) for the sun would shine in his face. +The little boys wanted a house with a great many doors, so that they +could go in and out often. But Mr. Peterkin did not like so much +slamming, and felt there was more danger of burglars with so many +doors. Agamemnon wanted an observatory, and Solomon John a shed for a +workshop. If he could have carpenters' tools and a work-bench, he could +build an observatory, if it were wanted.</p> + +<p>But it was necessary to decide upon something, for they must leave +their house directly. So they were obliged to take Mr. Finch's at the +Corners. It satisfied none of the family. The porch was a piazza, and +was opposite a barn. There were three other doors,—too many to please +Mr. Peterkin, and not enough for the little boys. There was no +observatory, and nothing to observe, if there were one, as the house +was too low, and some high trees shut out any view. Elizabeth Eliza had +hoped for a view, but Mr. Peterkin consoled her by deciding it was more +healthy to have to walk for a view, and Mrs. Peterkin agreed that they +might get tired of the same every day.</p> + +<p>And everybody was glad a selection was made, and the little boys +carried their India rubber boots the very first afternoon.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Eliza wanted to have some system in the moving, and spent the +evening in drawing up a plan. It would be easy to arrange everything +beforehand, so that there should not be the confusion that her mother +dreaded, and the discomfort they had in their last move. Mrs. Peterkin +shook her head, she did not think it possible to move with any comfort. +Agamemnon said a great deal could be done with a list and a programme.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Eliza declared if all were well arranged a programme would +make it perfectly easy. They were to have new parlor carpets, which +could be put down in the new house the first thing. Then the parlor +furniture could be moved in, and there would be two comfortable rooms, +in which Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin could sit, while the rest of the move +went on. Then the old parlor carpets could be taken up for the new +dining-room and the down-stairs bedroom, and the family could meanwhile +dine at the old house. Mr. Peterkin did not object to this, though the +distance was considerable, as he felt exercise would be good for them +all. Elizabeth Eliza's programme then arranged that the dining-room +furniture could be moved the third day, by which time one of the old +parlor carpets would be down in the new dining-room, and they could +still sleep in the old house. Thus there would always be a quiet, +comfortable place in one house or the other. Each night when Mr. +Peterkin came home, he would find some place for quiet thought and +rest, and each day there should be moved only the furniture needed for +a certain room. Great confusion would be avoided and nothing misplaced. +Elizabeth Eliza wrote these last words at the head of her +programme—"Misplace nothing." And Agamemnon made a copy of the +programme for each member of the family.</p> + +<p>The first thing to be done was to buy the parlor carpets. Elizabeth +Eliza had already looked at some in Boston, and the next morning she +went by an early train, with her father, Agamemnon, and Solomon John, +to decide upon them.</p> + +<p>They got home about eleven o'clock, and when they reached the house +were dismayed to find two furniture wagons, in front of the gate, +already partly filled! Mrs. Peterkin was walking in and out of the open +door, a large book in one hand, and a duster in the other, and she came +to meet them in an agony of anxiety. What should they do? The furniture +carts had appeared soon after the rest had left for Boston, and the men +had insisted upon beginning to move the things. In vain had she shown +Elizabeth Eliza's programme, in vain had she insisted they must take +only the parlor furniture. They had declared they must put the heavy +pieces in the bottom of the cart, and the lighter furniture on top. So +she had seen them go into every room in the house, and select one piece +of furniture after the other, without even looking at Elizabeth Eliza's +programme; she doubted if they could have read it, if they had looked +at it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peterkin had ordered the carters to come, but he had no idea they +would come so early, and supposed it would take them a long time to +fill the carts.</p> + +<p>But they had taken the dining-room sideboard first,—a heavy piece of +furniture,—and all its contents were now on the dining-room tables. +Then, indeed, they selected the parlor book-case, but had set every +book on the floor. The men had told Mrs. Peterkin they would put the +books in the bottom of the cart, very much in the order they were taken +from the shelves. But by this time Mrs. Peterkin was considering the +carters as natural enemies, and dared not trust them; besides, the +books ought all to be dusted. So she was now holding one of the volumes +of Agamemnon's Encyclopedia, with difficulty in one hand, while she was +dusting it with the other. Elizabeth Eliza was in dismay. At this +moment, four men were bringing down a large chest of drawers from her +father's room and they called to her to stand out of the way. The +parlors were a scene of confusion. In dusting the books, Mrs. Peterkin +neglected to restore them to the careful rows in which they were left +by the men, and they lay in hopeless masses in different parts of the +room. Elizabeth Eliza sunk in despair upon the end of a sofa.</p> + +<p>"It would have been better to buy the red and blue carpet," said +Solomon John.</p> + +<p>"Is not the carpet bought?" exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin. And then they were +obliged to confess they had been unable to decide upon one, and had +come back to consult Mrs. Peterkin.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" asked Mrs. Peterkin.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Eliza rose from the sofa and went to the door, saying, "I +shall be back in a moment."</p> + +<p>Agamemnon slowly passed round the room, collecting the scattered +volumes of his Encyclopedia. Mr. Peterkin offered a helping hand to a +man lifting a wardrobe.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Eliza soon returned. "I did not like to go and ask her. But I +felt that I must in such an emergency. I explained to her the whole +matter and she thinks we should take the carpet at Makillan's."</p> + +<p>"Makillan's" was a store in the village, and the carpet was the only +one all the family had liked without any doubt; but they had supposed +they might prefer one from Boston.</p> + +<p>The moment was a critical one. Solomon John was sent directly to +Makillan's to order the carpet to be put down that very day. But where +should they dine? where should they have their supper? where was Mr. +Peterkin's "quiet hour?" Elizabeth Eliza, was frantic—the dining-room +floor and table were covered with things.</p> + +<p>It was decided that Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin should dine at the +Bromwiches, who had been most neighborly in their offers, and the rest +should get something to eat at the baker's.</p> + +<p>Agamemnon and Elizabeth Eliza hastened away to be ready to receive the +carts at the other house, and direct the furniture as they could. After +all, there was something exhilarating in this opening of the new house, +and in deciding where things should go. Gayly Elizabeth Eliza stepped +down the front garden of the new home, and across the piazza, and to +the door. But it was locked, and she had no keys!</p> + +<p>"Agamemnon, did you bring the keys?" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>No, he had not seen them since the morning—when—ah—yes, the little +boys were allowed to go to the house for their India rubber boots, as +there was a threatening of rain. Perhaps they had left some door +unfastened—perhaps they had put the keys under the door-mat. No, each +door, each window was solidly closed, and there was no mat!</p> + +<p>"I shall have to go to the school to see if they took the keys with +them," said Agamemnon; "or else go home to see if they left them +there." The school was in a different direction from the house, and far +at the other end of the town for Mr. Peterkin had not yet changed the +boys' school, as he proposed to do, after their move.</p> + +<p>"That will be the only way," said Elizabeth Eliza; for it had been +arranged that the little boys should take their lunch to school and not +come home at noon.</p> + +<p>She sat down on the steps to wait, but only for a moment, for the carts +soon appeared turning the corner. What should be done with the +furniture? Of course, the carters must wait for the keys, as she should +need them to set the furniture up in the right places. But they could +not stop for this. They put it down upon the piazza, on the steps, in +the garden, and Elizabeth Eliza saw how incongruous it was! There was +something from every room in the house! even the large family chest, +which had proved too heavy for them to travel with, had come down from +the attic, and stood against the front door.</p> + +<p>And Solomon John appeared with the carpet woman, and a boy with a +wheelbarrow bringing the new carpet. And all stood and waited. Some +opposite neighbors appeared to offer advice, and look on, and Elizabeth +Eliza groaned inwardly that only the shabbiest of their furniture +appeared to be standing full in view.</p> + +<p>It seemed ages before Agamemnon returned, and no wonder; for he had +been to the house, then to the school, then back to the house, for one +of the little boys had left at home the keys, in the pocket of his +clothes. Meanwhile, the carpet woman had waited, and the boy with the +wheelbarrow had waited, and when they got in they found the parlor must +be swept and cleaned. So the carpet woman went off in dudgeon, for she +was sure there would not be time enough to do anything.</p> + +<p>And one of the carts came again, and in their hurry the men set the +furniture down anywhere. Elizabeth Eliza was hoping to make a little +place in the dining-room where they might have their supper and go home +to sleep. But she looked out, and there were the carters bringing the +bedsteads, and proceeding to carry them upstairs.</p> + +<p>In despair Elizabeth Eliza went back to the old house. If she had been +there she might have prevented this. She found Mrs. Peterkin in an +agony about the entry oil-cloth. It had been made in the house, and how +could it be taken out of the house? Agamemnon made measurements; it +certainly could not go out of the front door! He suggested it might be +left till the house was pulled down, when it could easily be moved out +of one side. But Elizabeth Eliza reminded him that the whole house was +to be moved without being taken apart. Perhaps it could be cut in +strips narrow enough to go out. One of the men loading the remaining +cart disposed of the question by coming in and rolling up the oil-cloth +and carrying it off on top of his wagon.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Eliza felt she must hurry back to the new house. But what +should they do?—no beds here, no carpets there! The dining-room table +and sideboard were at the other house, the plates and forks and spoons +here. In vain she looked at her programme. It was all reversed, +everything was misplaced. Mr. Peterkin would suppose they were to eat +there and sleep here, and what had become of the little boys?</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the man with the first cart had returned. They fell to +packing the dining-room china. They were up in the attic, they were +down in the cellar. Even one of them suggested to take the tacks out of +the parlor carpets, as they should want to take them next. Mrs. +Peterkin sunk upon a kitchen chair.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish we had decided to stay and be moved in the house!" she +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Solomon John urged his mother to go to the new house, for Mr. Peterkin +would be there for his "quiet hour." And when the carters at last +appeared carrying the parlor carpets on their shoulders she sighed and +said, "There is nothing left," and meekly consented to be led away.</p> + +<p>They reached the new house to find Mr. Peterkin sitting calmly in a +rocking-chair on the piazza, watching the oxen coming into the opposite +barn. He was waiting for the keys, which Solomon John had taken back +with him. The little boys were in a horse-chestnut tree, at the side of +the house.</p> + +<p>Agamemnon opened the door. The passages were crowded with furniture, +the floors were strewn with books, the bureau was upstairs that was to +stand in a lower bedroom, there was not a place to lay a table, there +was nothing to lay upon it; for the knives and plates and spoons had +not come, and although the tables were there, they were covered with +chairs and boxes.</p> + +<p>At this moment came a covered basket from the lady from Philadelphia. +It contained a choice supper, and forks and spoons, and at the same +moment appeared a pot of hot tea from an opposite neighbor. They placed +all this on the back of a book-case lying upset, and sat around it. +Solomon John came rushing from the gate:</p> + +<p>"The last load is coming. We are all moved!" he exclaimed, and the +little boys joined in a chorus, "We are moved, we are moved!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peterkin looked sadly round; the kitchen utensils were lying on +the parlor lounge, and an old family gun on Elizabeth Eliza's hat-box. +The parlor clock stood on a barrel; some coal-scuttles had been placed +on the parlor table, a bust of Washington stood in the door-way, and +the looking-glasses leaned against the pillars of the piazza. But they +were moved! Mrs. Peterkin felt indeed that they were very much moved.</p> + +<hr /> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image10" id="image10"> +<img src="images/image10.png" width="400" height="279" alt="GET UP!" /></a> +<p class="caption">GET UP!</p> +</div> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image11" id="image11"> +<img src="images/image11.png" width="400" height="360" alt="GOT DOWN!" /></a> +<p class="caption">GOT DOWN!</p> +</div> +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="singawaybird" id="singawaybird">THE SING-AWAY BIRD.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY LUCY LARCOM.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image12" id="image12"> +<img src="images/image12.jpg" width="272" height="399" alt="SING-AWAY BIRD." /></a> +<br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>O Say, have you heard of the sing-away bird,</div> + <div class="in1">That sings where the Runaway River</div> + <div>Runs down with its rills from the bald-headed hills</div> + <div class="in1">That stand in the sunshine and shiver?</div> + <div class="in3">"O sing! sing-away! sing-away!"</div> + <div class="in2">How the pines and the birches are stirred</div> + <div class="in2">By the trill of the sing-away bird!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And the bald-headed hills, with their rocks and their rills,</div> + <div class="in1">To the tune of his rapture are ringing.</div> + <div>And their faces grow young, all their gray mists among,</div> + <div class="in1">While the forests break forth into singing,</div> + <div class="in3">"O sing! sing-away! sing-away!"</div> + <div class="in2">And the river runs singing along;</div> + <div class="in2">And the flying winds catch up the song.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>It was nothing but—hush! a wild white-throated thrush,</div> + <div class="in1">That emptied his musical quiver</div> + <div>With a charm and a spell over valley and dell</div> + <div class="in1">On the banks of the Runaway River.</div> + <div class="in3">"O sing! sing-away! sing-away!"</div> + <div class="in2">Yet the song of the wild singer had</div> + <div class="in2">The sound of a soul that is glad.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And, beneath the glad sun, may a glad-hearted one</div> + <div class="in1">Set the world to the tune of his gladness.</div> + <div>The rivers shall sing it, the breezes shall wing it,</div> + <div class="in1">Till life shall forget its long sadness.</div> + <div class="in3">"O sing! sing-away! sing-away!"</div> + <div class="in2">Sing, spirit, who knowest joy's Giver,—</div> + <div class="in2">Sing on, by time's Runaway River!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="oldsoup" id="oldsoup">OLD SOUP</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY MRS. E.W. LATIMER.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>The following curious anecdote is from a book about elephants, written +by a French gentleman, named Jacolliot, and we will let the author tell +his own story:</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1876 I was living in the interior of Bengal, and I +went to spend Christmas with my friend, Major Daly. The major's +bungalow was on the banks of the Ganges near Cawnpore. He had lived +there a good many years, being chief of the quartermaster's department +at that station, and had a great many natives, elephants, +bullock-carts, and soldiers under his command.</p> + +<p>On the morning after my arrival, after a cup of early tea (often taken +before daylight in India), I sat smoking with my friend in the veranda +of his bungalow, looking out upon the windings of the sacred river. +And, directly, I asked the major about his children (a boy and a girl), +whom I had not yet seen, and begged to know when I should see them.</p> + +<p>"Soupramany has taken them out fishing," said their father.</p> + +<p>"Why, isn't Soupramany your great war-elephant?" I cried.</p> + +<p>"Exactly so. You cannot have forgotten Soupramany!"</p> + +<p>"Of course not. I was here, you know, when he had that fight with the +elephant who went mad while loading a transport with bags of rice down +yonder. I saw the mad elephant when he suddenly began to fling the rice +into the river. His 'mahout' tried to stop him, and he killed the +mahout. The native sailors ran away to hide themselves, and the mad +elephant, trumpeting, charged into this inclosure. Old Soupramany was +here, and so were Jim and Bessy. When he saw the mad animal, he threw +himself between him and the children. The little ones and their nurses +had just time to get into the house when the fight commenced."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the major. "Old Soup was a hundred years old. He had been +trained to war, and to fight with the rhinoceros, but he was too old to +hunt then."</p> + +<p>"And yet," said I, becoming animated by the recollections of that day, +"what a gallant fight it was! Do you remember how we all stood on this +porch and watched it, not daring to fire a shot lest we should hit Old +Soupramany? Do you remember too, his look when he drew off, after +fighting an hour and a half, leaving his adversary dying in the dust, +and walked straight to the 'corral,' shaking his great ears which had +been badly torn, with his head bruised, and a great piece broken from +one of his tusks?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said the major. "Well, since then, he is more devoted to +my dear little ones than ever. He takes them out whole days, and I am +perfectly content to have them under his charge. I don't like trusting +Christian children to the care of natives; but with Old Soup I know +they can come to no harm."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image13" id="image13"> +<img src="images/image13.jpg" width="297" height="400" alt="OLD SOUP WITH BAMBOO ROD." /></a> +<p class="caption">"BESIDE THE CHILDREN STOOD OLD SOUP<br /> +WITH A LARGE BAMBOO ROD IN HIS TRUNK."</p> +</div> + +<p>"What! you trust children under ten years of age to Soup, without any +other protection?"</p> + +<p>"I do," replied the major. "Come along with me, if you doubt, and we +will surprise them at their fishing."</p> + +<p>I followed Major Daly, and, after walking half a mile along the wooded +banks of the river, we came upon the little group. The two +children—Jim, the elder, being about ten—both sat still and silent, +for a wonder, each holding a rod, with line, cork, hook and bait, +anxiously watching the gay corks bobbing in the water. Beside them +stood Old Soup with an extremely large bamboo rod in his trunk, with +line, hook, bait, and cork, like the children's. I need not say I took +small notice of the children, but turned all my attention to their big +companion. I had not watched him long before he had a bite; for, as the +religion of the Hindoos forbids them to take life, the river swarms +with fishes.</p> + +<p>The old fellow did not stir; his little eyes watched his line eagerly; +he was no novice in "the gentle craft." He was waiting till it was time +to draw in his prize.</p> + +<p>At the end of his line, as he drew it up, was dangling one of those +golden tench so abundant in the Ganges.</p> + +<p>When Soupramany perceived what a fine fish he had caught, he uttered +one of those long, low gurgling notes of satisfaction by which an +elephant expresses joy; and he waited patiently, expecting Jim to take +his prize off the hook and put on some more bait for him. But Jim, the +little rascal, sometimes liked to plague Old Soup. He nodded at us, as +much as to say, "Look out, and you'll see fun, now!" Then he took off +the fish, which he threw into a water-jar placed there for the purpose, +and went back to his place without putting any bait on Old Soup's +hook. The intelligent animal did not attempt to throw his line into the +water. He tried to move Jim by low, pleading cries. It was curious to +see what tender tones he seemed to try to give his voice.</p> + +<p>Seeing that Jim paid no attention to his calls, but sat and laughed as +he handled his own line, Old Soup went up to him, and with his trunk +tried to turn his head in the direction of the bait-box. At last, when +he found that all he could do would not induce his willful friend to +help him, he turned round as if struck by a sudden thought, and, +snatching up in his trunk the box that held the bait, came and laid it +down at the major's feet; then picking up his rod, he held it out to +his master.</p> + +<p>"What do you want me to do with this, Old Soup?" said the major.</p> + +<p>The creature lifted one great foot after the other, and again began to +utter his plaintive cry. Out of mischief, I took Jimmy's part, and, +picking up the bait-box, pretended to run with it. The elephant was not +going to be teased by <i>me</i>. He dipped his trunk into the Ganges, and in +an instant squirted a stream of water over me with all the force and +precision of a fire-engine, to the immense amusement of the children.</p> + +<p>The major at once made Soup a sign to stop, and, to make my peace with +the fine old fellow, I baited his hook myself. Quivering with joy, as a +baby does when it gets hold at last of a plaything some one has taken +from it, Old Soupramany hardly paused to thank me by a soft note of joy +for baiting his line for him, before he went back to his place, and was +again watching his cork as it trembled in the ripples of the river.</p> + +<hr /> + +<a name="fourhouses" id="fourhouses"></a> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Four little houses, blue and round,</div> + <div>Hidden away from sight and sound.</div> + <div>What is in them? The leaves never tell,</div> + <div>But they know the secret very well.</div> + <div>The daisies know, and the clover knows;</div> + <div>So does the pretty, sweet wild rose.</div> + <div>Don't be impatient, only wait</div> + <div>Just outside, at the leafy gate;</div> + <div>Soon a fairy will open the door,</div> + <div>And let out birdies—one, two, three, four!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="lilacs" id="lilacs">UNDER THE LILACS.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>GOOD TIMES.</h3> + + +<p>Every one was very kind to Ben when his loss was known. The Squire +wrote to Mr. Smithers the boy had found friends and would stay where he +was. Mrs. Moss consoled him in her way, and the little girls did their +very best to "be good to poor Benny." But Miss Celia was his truest +comforter and completely won his heart, not only by the friendly words +she said and the pleasant things she did, but by the unspoken sympathy +which showed itself, just at the right minute, in a look, a touch, a +smile, more helpful than any amount of condolence. She called him "my +man," and Ben tried to be one, bearing his trouble so bravely that she +respected him, although he was only a little boy, because it promised +well for the future.</p> + +<p>Then she was so happy herself, it was impossible for those about her to +be sad, and Ben soon grew cheerful again in spite of the very tender +memory of his father laid quietly away in the safest corner of his +heart. He would have been a very unboyish boy if he had <i>not</i> been +happy, for the new place was such a pleasant one, he soon felt as if +for the first time he really had a home.</p> + +<p>No more grubbing now, but daily tasks which never grew tiresome, they +were so varied and so light. No more cross Pats to try his temper, but +the sweetest mistress that ever was, since praise was oftener on her +lips than blame, and gratitude made willing service a delight.</p> + +<p>At first it seemed as if there was going to be trouble between the two +boys, for Thorny was naturally masterful, and illness had left him weak +and nervous, so he was often both domineering and petulant. Ben had +been taught instant obedience to those older than himself, and if +Thorny had been a man Ben would have made no complaint; but it <i>was</i> +hard to be "ordered round" by a boy, and an unreasonable one into the +bargain.</p> + +<p>A word from Miss Celia blew away the threatening cloud, however, and +for her sake her brother promised to try to be patient; for her sake +Ben declared he never would "get mad" if Mr. Thorny did fidget, and +both very soon forgot all about master and man and lived together like +two friendly lads, taking each other's ups and downs good-naturedly, +and finding mutual pleasure and profit in the new companionship.</p> + +<p>The only point on which they never <i>could</i> agree was legs, and many a +hearty laugh did they give Miss Celia by their warm and serious +discussion of this vexed question. Thorny insisted that Ben was +bow-legged; Ben resented the epithet, and declared that the legs of all +good horsemen must have a slight curve, and any one who knew anything +about the matter would acknowledge both its necessity and its beauty. +Then Thorny would observe that it might be all very well in the saddle, +but it made a man waddle like a duck when afoot; whereat Ben would +retort that for his part he would rather waddle like a duck than tumble +about like a horse with the staggers. He had his opponent there, for +poor Thorny did look very like a weak-kneed colt when he tried to walk; +but he would never own it, and came down upon Ben with crushing +allusions to centaurs, or the Greeks and Romans, who were famous both +for their horsemanship and fine limbs. Ben could not answer that, +except by proudly referring to the chariot-races copied from the +ancients in which <i>he</i> had borne a part, which was more than <i>some +folks</i> with long legs could say. Gentlemen never did that sort of +thing, nor did they twit their best friends with their misfortunes, +Thorny would remark, casting a pensive glance at his thin hands, +longing the while to give Ben a good shaking. This hint would remind +the other of his young master's late sufferings and all he owed his +dear mistress, and he usually ended the controversy by turning a few +lively somersaults as a vent for his swelling wrath, and come up with +his temper all right again. Or, if Thorny happened to be in the wheeled +chair, he would trot him round the garden at a pace which nearly took +his breath away, thereby proving that if "bow-legs" were not beautiful +to some benighted being, they <i>were</i> "good to go."</p> + +<p>Thorny liked that, and would drop the subject for the time by politely +introducing some more agreeable topic; so the impending quarrel would +end in a laugh over some boyish joke, and the word "legs" be avoided by +mutual consent till accident brought it up again.</p> + +<p>The spirit of rivalry is hidden in the best of us, and is a helpful and +inspiring power if we know how to use it. Miss Celia knew this, and +tried to make the lads help one another by means of it,—not in +boastful or ungenerous comparison of each other's gifts, but by +interchanging them, giving and taking freely, kindly, and being glad to +love what was admirable wherever they found it. Thorny admired Ben's +strength, activity, and independence; Ben envied Thorny's learning, +good manners, and comfortable surroundings; and, when a wise word had +set the matter rightly before them, both enjoyed the feeling that there +was a certain equality between them, since money could not buy health; +and practical knowledge was as useful as any that can be found in +books. So they interchanged their small experiences, accomplishments, +and pleasures, and both were the better, as well as the happier, for +it, because in this way only can we truly love our neighbor as ourself +and get the real sweetness out of life.</p> + +<p>There was no end to the new and pleasant things Ben had to do, from +keeping paths and flower-beds neat, feeding the pets, and running +errands, to waiting on Thorny and being right-hand man to Miss Celia. +He had a little room in the old house, newly papered with hunting +scenes, which he was never tired of admiring. In the closet hung +several out-grown suits of Thorny's, made over for his valet, and, what +Ben valued infinitely more, a pair of boots, well blacked and ready for +grand occasions when he rode abroad, with one old spur, found in the +attic, brightened up and merely worn for show, since nothing would have +induced him to prick beloved Lita with it.</p> + +<p>Many pictures, cut from illustrated papers, of races, animals and +birds, were stuck round the room, giving it rather the air of a circus +and menagerie. This, however, made it only the more home-like to its +present owner, who felt exceedingly rich and respectable as he surveyed +his premises; almost like a retired showman who still fondly remembers +past successes, though now happy in the more private walks of life.</p> + +<p>In one drawer of the quaint little bureau which he used, were kept the +relics of his father; very few and poor, and of no interest to any one +but himself,—only the letter telling of his death, a worn-out +watch-chain, and a photograph of Señor José Montebello, with his +youthful son standing on his head, both airily attired, and both +smiling with the calmly superior expression which gentlemen of their +profession usually wear in public. Ben's other treasures had been +stolen with his bundle; but these he cherished and often looked at when +he went to bed, wondering what heaven was like, since it was lovelier +than California, and usually fell asleep with a dreamy impression that +it must be something like America when Columbus found it,—"a pleasant +land, where were gay flowers and tall trees, with leaves and fruit such +as they had never seen before." And through this happy hunting-ground +"father" was forever riding on a beautiful white horse with wings, like +the one of which Miss Celia had a picture.</p> + +<p>Nice times Ben had in his little room poring over his books, for he +soon had several of his own; but his favorites were Hammerton's +"Animals" and "Our Dumb Friends," both full of interesting pictures and +anecdotes such as boys love. Still nicer times working about the house, +helping get things in order; and best of all were the daily drives with +Miss Celia and Thorny, when weather permitted, or solitary rides to +town through the heaviest rain, for certain letters <i>must</i> go and come, +no matter how the elements raged. The neighbors soon got used to the +"antics of that boy," but Ben knew that he was an object of interest as +he careered down the main street in a way that made old ladies cry out +and brought people flying to the window, sure that some one was being +run away with. Lita enjoyed the fun as much as he, and apparently did +her best to send him heels over head, having rapidly learned to +understand the signs he gave her by the touch of hand and foot, or the +tones of his voice.</p> + +<p>These performances caused the boys to regard Ben Brown with intense +admiration, the girls with timid awe, all but Bab, who burned to +imitate him, and tried her best whenever she got a chance, much to the +anguish and dismay of poor Jack, for that long-suffering animal was the +only steed she was allowed to ride. Fortunately, neither she nor Betty +had much time for play just now, as school was about to close for the +long vacation, and all the little people were busy finishing up, that +they might go to play with free minds. So the "lilac-parties," as they +called them, were deferred till later, and the lads amused themselves +in their own way, with Miss Celia to suggest and advise.</p> + +<p>It took Thorny a long time to arrange his possessions, for he could +only direct while Ben unpacked, wondering and admiring as he worked, +because he had never seen so many boyish treasures before. The little +printing-press was his especial delight, and leaving everything else in +confusion, Thorny taught him its use and planned a newspaper on the +spot, with Ben for printer, himself for editor, and "Sister" for chief +contributor, while Bab should be carrier and Betty office-boy. Next +came a postage-stamp book, and a rainy day was happily spent in pasting +a new collection where each particular one belonged, with copious +explanations from Thorny as they went along. Ben did not feel any great +interest in this amusement after one trial of it, but when a book +containing patterns of the flags of all nations turned up, he was +seized with a desire to copy them <i>all</i>, so that the house could be +fitly decorated on gala occasions. Finding that it amused her brother, +Miss Celia generously opened her piece-drawer and rag-bag, and as the +mania grew till her resources were exhausted, she bought bits of gay +cambric and many-colored papers, and startled the storekeeper by +purchasing several bottles of mucilage at once. Bab and Betty were +invited to sew the bright strips or stars, and pricked their little +fingers assiduously, finding this sort of needle-work much more +attractive than piecing bed-quilts.</p> + +<p>Such a snipping and pasting, planning and stitching as went on in the +big back room, which was given up to them, and such a noble array of +banners and pennons as soon decorated its walls, would have caused the +dullest eye to brighten with amusement, if not with admiration. Of +course, the Stars and Stripes hung highest, with the English lion +ramping on the royal standard close by; then followed a regular +picture-gallery, for there was the white elephant of Siam, the splendid +peacock of Burmah, the double-headed Russian eagle and black dragon of +China, the winged lion of Venice, and the prancing pair on the red, +white and blue flag of Holland. The keys and miter of the Papal States +were a hard job, but up they went at last, with the yellow crescent of +Turkey on one side and the red full moon of Japan on the other; the +pretty blue and white flag of Greece hung below and the cross of free +Switzerland above. If materials had held out, the flags of all the +United States would have followed; but paste and patience were +exhausted, so the busy workers rested awhile before they "flung their +banner to the breeze," as the newspapers have it.</p> + +<p>A spell of ship building and rigging followed the flag fit; for Thorny, +feeling too old now for such toys, made over his whole fleet to "the +children," condescending, however, to superintend a thorough repairing +of the same before he disposed of all but the big man-of-war, which +continued to ornament his own room, with all sail set and a little red +officer perpetually waving his sword on the quarter-deck.</p> + +<p>These gifts led to out-of-door water-works, for the brook had to be +dammed up, that a shallow ocean might be made, where Ben's piratical +"Red Rover," with the black flag, might chase and capture Bab's smart +frigate, "Queen," while the "Bounding Betsey," laden with lumber, +safely sailed from Kennebunkport to Massachusetts Bay. Thorny, from his +chair, was chief-engineer, and directed his gang of one how to dig the +basin, throw up the embankment, and finally let in the water till the +mimic ocean was full; then regulate the little water-gate, lest it +should overflow and wreck the pretty squadron of ships, boats, canoes, +and rafts, which soon rode at anchor there.</p> + +<p>Digging and paddling in mud and water proved such a delightful pastime +that the boys kept it up, till a series of water-wheels, little mills +and cataracts made the once quiet brook look as if a manufacturing +town was about to spring up where hitherto minnows had played in peace +and the retiring frog had chanted his serenade unmolested.</p> + +<p>Miss Celia liked all this, for anything which would keep Thorny happy +out-of-doors in the sweet June weather found favor in her eyes, and +when the novelty had worn off from home affairs, she planned a series +of exploring expeditions which filled their boyish souls with delight. +As none of them knew much about the place, it really was quite exciting +to start off on a bright morning with a roll of wraps and cushions, +lunch, books, and drawing materials packed into the phaeton, and drive +at random about the shady roads and lanes, pausing when and where they +liked. Wonderful discoveries were made, pretty places were named, plans +were drawn, and all sorts of merry adventures befell the pilgrims.</p> + +<p>Each day they camped in a new spot, and while Lita nibbled the fresh +grass at her ease, Miss Celia sketched under the big umbrella, Thorny +read or lounged or slept on his rubber blanket, and Ben made himself +generally useful. Unloading, filling the artist's water-bottle, piling +the invalid's cushions, setting out the lunch, running to and fro for a +flower or a butterfly, climbing a tree to report the view, reading, +chatting, or frolicking with Sancho,—any sort of duty was in Ben's +line, and he did them all well, for an out-of-door life was natural to +him and he liked it.</p> + +<p>"Ben, I want an amanuensis," said Thorny, dropping book and pencil one +day, after a brief interval of silence, broken only by the whisper of +the young leaves overhead and the soft babble of the brook close by.</p> + +<p>"A what?" asked Ben, pushing back his hat with such an air of amazement +that Thorny rather loftily inquired:</p> + +<p>"Don't you know what an amanuensis is?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no; not unless it's some relation to an anaconda. Shouldn't +think you'd want one of them, anyway."</p> + +<p>Thorny rolled over with a hoot of derision, and his sister, who sat +close by, sketching an old gate, looked up to see what was going on.</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't laugh at a feller. <i>You</i> didn't know what a wombat +was when I asked you, and <i>I</i> didn't roar," said Ben, giving his hat a +slap, as nothing else was handy.</p> + +<p>"The idea of wanting an anaconda tickled me so, I couldn't help it. I +dare say you'd have got me one if I <i>had</i> asked for it, you are such an +obliging chap."</p> + +<p>"Of course I would if I could. Shouldn't be surprised if you did some +day, you want such funny things," answered Ben, appeased by the +compliment.</p> + +<p>"I'll try the amanuensis first. It's only some one to write for me; I +get so tired doing it without a table. You write well enough, and it +will be good for you to know something about botany. I intend to teach +you, Ben," said Thorny, as if conferring a great favor.</p> + +<p>"It looks pretty hard," muttered Ben, with a doleful glance at the book +laid open upon a strew of torn leaves and flowers.</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't; it's regularly jolly, and you'd be no end of a help if +you only knew a little. Now suppose I say, 'Bring me a "ranunculus +bulbosus,"' how would you know what I wanted?" demanded Thorny, waving +his microscope with a learned air.</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't."</p> + +<p>"There are quantities of them all round us, and I want to analyze one. +See if you can't guess."</p> + +<p>Ben stared vaguely from earth to sky, and was about to give it up, when +a buttercup fell at his feet, and he caught sight of Miss Celia smiling +at him from behind her brother, who did not see the flower.</p> + +<p>"S'pose you mean this? <i>I</i> don't call 'em rhinocerus bulburses, so I +wasn't sure." And taking the hint as quickly as it was given, Ben +presented the buttercup as if he knew all about it.</p> + +<p>"You guessed that remarkably well. Now bring me a 'leontodon +taraxacum,'" said Thorny, charmed with the quickness of his pupil and +glad to display his learning.</p> + +<p>Again Ben gazed, but the field was full of early flowers, and if a long +pencil had not pointed to a dandelion close by he would have been lost.</p> + +<p>"Here you are, sir," he answered with a chuckle, and Thorny took his +turn at being astonished now.</p> + +<p>"How the dickens did you know that?"</p> + +<p>"Try it again, and may be you'll find out," laughed Ben.</p> + +<p>Diving hap-hazard into his book, Thorny demanded a "trifolium +pratense."</p> + +<p>The clever pencil pointed, and Ben brought a red clover, mightily +enjoying the joke, and thinking that <i>this</i> kind of botany wasn't bad +fun.</p> + +<p>"Look here, no fooling!" and Thorny sat up to investigate the matter, +so quickly that his sister had not time to sober down. "Ah, I've caught +you! Not fair to tell, Celia. Now, Ben, you've <i>got</i> to learn all about +this buttercup, to pay for cheating."</p> + +<p>"Werry good, sir; bring on your rhinoceriouses," answered Ben, who +couldn't help imitating his old friend the clown when he felt +particularly jolly.</p> + +<p>"Sit there and write what I tell you," ordered Thorny, with all the +severity of a strict schoolmaster.</p> + +<p>Perching himself on the mossy stump, Ben obediently floundered through +the following analysis, with constant help in the spelling and much +private wonder what would come of it:</p> + +<p>"Phænogamous. Exogenous. Angiosperm. Polypetalous. Stamens, more than +ten. Stamens on the receptacle. Pistils, more than one and separate. +Leaves without stipules. Crowfoot family. Genus ranunculus. Botanical +name, Ranunculus bulbosus."</p> + +<p>"Jerusalem, what a flower! Pistols and crows' feet, and Polly put the +kettles on, and Angy sperms and all the rest of 'em! If that's your +botany I wont take any more, thank you," said Ben, as he paused as hot +and red as if he had been running a race.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will; you'll learn that all by heart, and then I shall give +you a dandelion to do. You'll like that, because it means <i>dent de +lion</i> or lion's teeth, and I'll show them to you through my glass. +You've no idea how interesting it is, and what heaps of pretty things +you'll see," answered Thorny, who had already discovered how charming +the study was, and had found great satisfaction in it since he had been +forbidden more active pleasures.</p> + +<p>"What's the good of it, any way?" asked Ben, who would rather have been +set to mowing the big field than to the task before him.</p> + +<p>"It tells all about it in my book here—'Gray's Botany for Young +People.' But I can tell you what use it is to <i>us</i>," continued Thorny, +crossing his legs in the air and preparing to argue the matter, +comfortably lying flat on his back. "<i>We</i> are a Scientific Exploration +Society, and we must keep an account of all the plants, animals, +minerals and so on, as we come across them. Then suppose we get lost +and have to hunt for food, how are we to know what is safe and what +isn't? Come, now, do you know the difference between a toad-stool and a +mushroom?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll teach you some day. There is sweet flag and poisonous flag, +and all sorts of berries and things, and you'd better look out when you +are in the woods or you'll touch ivy and dogwood, and have a horrid +time if you don't know your botany."</p> + +<p>"Thorny learned much of his by sad experience and you will be wise to +take his advice," said Miss Celia, recalling her brother's various +mishaps before the new fancy came on.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I have a time of it, though, when I had to go round for a week +with plantain leaves and cream stuck all over my face! Just picked some +pretty red dogwood, Ben, and then I was a regular guy, with a face like +a lobster and my eyes swelled out of sight. Come along and learn right +away, and never get into scrapes like most fellows."</p> + +<p>Impressed by this warning, and attracted by Thorny's enthusiasm, Ben +cast himself down upon the blanket, and for an hour the two heads +bobbed to and fro from microscope to book, the teacher airing his small +knowledge, the pupil more and more interested in the new and curious +things he saw or heard,—though it must be confessed that Ben +infinitely preferred to watch ants and bugs, queer little worms and +gauzy-winged flies, rather than "putter" over plants with long names. +He did not dare to say so, however, but when Thorny asked him if it +wasn't capital fun, he dodged cleverly by proposing to hunt up the +flowers for his master to study, offering to learn about the dangerous +ones, but pleading want of time to investigate this pleasing science +very deeply.</p> + +<p>As Thorny had talked himself hoarse, he was very ready to dismiss his +class of one to fish the milk-bottle out of the brook, and recess was +prolonged till next day. But both boys found a new pleasure in the +pretty pastime they made of it, for active Ben ranged the woods and +fields with a tin box slung over his shoulder, and feeble Thorny had a +little room fitted up for his own use where he pressed flowers in +newspaper books, dried herbs on the walls, had bottles and cups, pans +and platters for his treasures, and made as much litter as he liked.</p> + +<p>Presently, Ben brought such lively accounts of the green nooks where +jacks-in-the-pulpit preached their little sermons, brooks beside which +grew blue violets and lovely ferns, rocks round which danced the +columbines like rosy elves, or the trees where birds built, squirrels +chattered and woodchucks burrowed, that Thorny was seized with a desire +to go and see these beauties for himself. So Jack was saddled and went, +plodding, scrambling and wandering into all manner of pleasant places, +always bringing home a stronger, browner rider than he carried away.</p> + +<p>This delighted Miss Celia, and she gladly saw them ramble off together, +leaving her time to stitch happily at certain dainty bits of sewing, +write voluminous letters, or dream over others quite as long, swinging +in her hammock under the lilacs.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<h3>SOMEBODY RUNS AWAY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="in5">"School is done,</div> + <div class="in5">Now we'll have fun,"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">sung Bab and Betty, slamming down their books as if they never meant to +take them up again, when they came home on the last day of June.</p> + +<p>Tired teacher had dismissed them for eight whole weeks and gone away to +rest; the little school-house was shut up, lessons were over, spirits +rising fast, and vacation had begun. The quiet town seemed suddenly +inundated with children all in such a rampant state that busy mothers +wondered how they ever should be able to keep their frisky darlings out +of mischief; thrifty fathers planned how they could bribe the idle +hands to pick berries or rake hay; and the old folks, while wishing the +young folks well, secretly blessed the man who invented schools.</p> + +<p>The girls immediately began to talk about picnics, and have them, too; +for little hats sprung up in the fields like a new sort of +mushroom,—every hill-side bloomed with gay gowns, looking as if the +flowers had gone out for a walk, and the woods were full of featherless +birds chirping away as blithely as the thrushes, robins, and wrens.</p> + +<p>The boys took to base-ball like ducks to water, and the common was the +scene of tremendous battles waged with much tumult but little +bloodshed. To the uninitiated it appeared as if these young men had +lost their wits; for no matter how warm it was, there they were, +tearing about in the maddest manner, jackets off, sleeves rolled up, +queer caps flung on anyway, all batting shabby leather balls and +catching the same as if their lives depended on it. Every one talking +in his gruffest tone, bawling at the top of his voice, squabbling over +every point of the game, and seeming to enjoy himself immensely in +spite of the heat, dust, uproar, and imminent danger of getting eyes or +teeth knocked out.</p> + +<p>Thorny was an excellent player, but not being strong enough to show his +prowess, he made Ben his proxy, and, sitting on the fence, acted as +umpire to his heart's content. Ben was a promising pupil and made rapid +progress, for eye, foot, and hand had been so well trained that they +did him good service now, and Brown was considered a first-rate +"catcher."</p> + +<p>Sancho distinguished himself by his skill in hunting up stray balls, +and guarding jackets when not needed, with the air of one of the Old +Guard on duty at the tomb of Napoleon. Bab also longed to join in the +fun, which suited her better than "stupid picnics" or "fussing over +dolls;" but her heroes would not have her at any price, and she was +obliged to content herself with sitting by Thorny, and watching with +breathless interest the varying fortunes of "our side."</p> + +<p>A grand match was planned for the Fourth of July; but when the club +met, things were found to be unpropitious. Thorny had gone out of town +with his sister to pass the day, two of the best players did not +appear, and the others were somewhat exhausted by the festivities, +which began at sunrise for them. So they lay about on the grass in the +shade of the big elm, languidly discussing their various wrongs and +disappointments.</p> + +<p>"It's the meanest Fourth I ever saw. Can't have no crackers, because +somebody's horse got scared last year," growled Sam Kitteridge, +bitterly resenting the stern edict which forbade free-born citizens to +burn as much gunpowder as they liked on that glorious day.</p> + +<p>"Last year Jimmy got his arm blown off when they fired the old cannon. +Didn't we have a lively time going for the doctors and getting him +home?" asked another boy, looking as if he felt defrauded of the most +interesting part of the anniversary, because no accident had occurred.</p> + +<p>"Ain't going to be fire-works either, unless somebody's barn burns up. +Don't I just wish there would," gloomily responded another youth who +had so rashly indulged in pyrotechnics on a former occasion that a +neighbor's cow had been roasted whole.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't give two cents for such a slow old place as this. Why, last +Fourth at this time, I was rumbling through Boston streets up top of +our big car, all in my best toggery. Hot as pepper, but good fun +looking in at the upper windows and hearing the women scream when the +old thing waggled round and I made believe I was going to tumble off," +said Ben, leaning on his bat with the air of a man who had seen the +world and felt some natural regret at descending from so lofty a +sphere.</p> + +<p>"Catch me cutting away if I had such a chance as that!" answered Sam, +trying to balance <i>his</i> bat on his chin and getting a smart rap across +the nose as he failed to perform the feat.</p> + +<p>"Much you know about it, old chap. It's hard work, I can tell you, and +that wouldn't suit such a lazy bones. Then you are too big to begin, +though you might do for a fat boy if Smithers wanted one," said Ben, +surveying the stout youth with calm contempt.</p> + +<p>"Let's go in swimming, not loaf round here, if we can't play," proposed +a red and shiny boy, panting for a game of leap-frog in Sandy pond.</p> + +<p>"May as well; don't see much else to do," sighed Sam, rising like a +young elephant.</p> + +<p>The others were about to follow, when a shrill "Hi, hi, boys, hold on!" +made them turn about to behold Billy Barton tearing down the street +like a runaway colt, waving a long strip of paper as he ran.</p> + +<p>"Now, then, what's the matter?" demanded Ben, as the other came up +grinning and puffing, but full of great news.</p> + +<p>"Look here, read it! I'm going; come along, the whole of you," panted +Billy, putting the paper into Sam's hand, and surveying the crowd with +a face as beaming as a full moon.</p> + +<p>"Look out for the big show," read Sam. "Van Amburgh & Co.'s New Great +Golden Menagerie, Circus and Colosseum, will exhibit at Berryville, +July 4th, at 1 and 7 precisely. Admission 50 cents, children +half-price. Don't forget day and date. H. Frost, Manager."</p> + +<p>While Sam read, the other boys had been gloating over the enticing +pictures which covered the bill. There was the golden car, filled with +noble beings in helmets, all playing on immense trumpets; the +twenty-four prancing steeds with manes, tails, and feathered heads +tossing in the breeze; the clowns, the tumblers, the strong men, and +the riders flying about in the air as if the laws of gravitation no +longer existed. But, best of all, was the grand conglomeration of +animals where the giraffe appears to stand on the elephant's back, the +zebra to be jumping over the seal, the hippopotamus to be lunching off +a couple of crocodiles, and lions and tigers to be raining down in all +directions with their mouths wide open and their tails as stiff as that +of the famous Northumberland House lion.</p> + +<p>"Cricky! wouldn't I like to see that," said little Cyrus Fay, devoutly +hoping that the cage, in which this pleasing spectacle took place, was +a very strong one.</p> + +<p>"You never would, it's only a picture! That, now, is something like," +and Ben, who had pricked up his ears at the word "circus," laid his +finger on a smaller cut of a man hanging by the back of his neck with a +child in each hand, two men suspended from his feet, and the third +swinging forward to alight on his head.</p> + +<p>"I'm going," said Sam, with calm decision, for this superb array of +unknown pleasures fired his soul and made him forget his weight.</p> + +<p>"How will you fix it?" asked Ben, fingering the bill with a nervous +thrill all through his wiry limbs, just as he used to feel it when his +father caught him up to dash into the ring.</p> + +<p>"Foot it with Billy. It's only four miles, and we've got lots of time, +so we can take it easy. Mother wont care, if I send word by Cy," +answered Sam, producing half a dollar, as if such magnificent sums were +no strangers to his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Brown; you'll be a first-rate fellow to show us round, as you +know all the dodges," said Billy, anxious to get his money's worth.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," began Ben, longing to go, but afraid Mrs. Moss +would say "No!" if he asked leave.</p> + +<p>"He's afraid," sneered the red-faced boy, who felt bitterly toward all +mankind at that instant, because he knew there was no hope of <i>his</i> +going.</p> + +<p>"Say that again, and I'll knock your head off," and Ben faced round +with a gesture which caused the other to skip out of reach +precipitately.</p> + +<p>"Hasn't got any money, more likely," observed a shabby youth, whose +pockets never had anything in them but a pair of dirty hands.</p> + +<p>Ben calmly produced a dollar bill and waved it defiantly before this +doubter, observing with dignity:</p> + +<p>"I've got money enough to treat the whole crowd, if I choose to, which +I <i>don't</i>."</p> + +<p>"Then come along and have a jolly time with Sam and me. We can buy some +dinner and get a ride home, as like as not," said the amiable Billy, +with a slap on the shoulder, and a cordial grin which made it +impossible for Ben to resist.</p> + +<p>"What are you stopping for?" demanded Sam, ready to be off, that they +might "take it easy."</p> + +<p>"Don't know what to do with Sancho. He'll get lost or stolen if I take +him, and it's too far to carry him home if you are in a hurry," began +Ben, persuading himself that this was the true reason for his delay.</p> + +<p>"Let Cy take him back. He'll do it for a cent; wont you, Cy?" proposed +Billy, smoothing away all objections, for he liked Ben, and saw that he +wanted to go.</p> + +<p>"No, I wont; I <i>don't</i> like him. He winks at me, and growls when I +touch him," muttered naughty Cy, remembering how much reason poor Sanch +had to distrust his tormentor.</p> + +<p>"There's Bab; she'll do it. Come here, sissy; Ben wants you," called +Sam, beckoning to a small figure just perching on the fence.</p> + +<p>Down it jumped and came fluttering up, much elated at being summoned by +the captain of the sacred nine.</p> + +<p>"I want you to take Sanch home, and tell your mother I'm going to walk, +and may be wont be back till sundown. Miss Celia said I might do what I +pleased, all day. You remember, now."</p> + +<p>Ben spoke without looking up, and affected to be very busy buckling a +strap into Sanch's collar, for the two were so seldom parted that the +dog always rebelled. It was a mistake on Ben's part, for while his eyes +were on his work, Bab's were devouring the bill, which Sam still held, +and her suspicions were aroused by the boys' faces.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going? Ma will want to know," she said, as curious as a +magpie all at once.</p> + +<p>"Never you mind; girls can't know everything. You just catch hold of +this and run along home. Lock Sanch up for an hour, and tell your +mother I'm all right," answered Ben, bound to assert his manly +supremacy before his mates.</p> + +<p>"He's going to the circus," whispered Fay, hoping to make mischief.</p> + +<p>"Circus! Oh, Ben, <i>do</i> take me!" cried Bab, falling into a state of +great excitement at the mere thought of such delight.</p> + +<p>"You couldn't walk four miles," began Ben.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I could, as easy as not."</p> + +<p>"You haven't got any money."</p> + +<p>"You have; I saw you showing your dollar, and you could pay for me, +and Ma would pay it back."</p> + +<p>"Can't wait for you to get ready."</p> + +<p>"I'll go as I am. I don't care if it is my old hat," and Bab jerked it +on to her head.</p> + +<p>"Your mother wouldn't like it."</p> + +<p>"She wont like your going, either."</p> + +<p>"She isn't my missis now. Miss Celia wouldn't care, and I'm going, +anyway."</p> + +<p>"Do, do take me, Ben! I'll be just as good as ever was, and I'll take +care of Sanch all the way," pleaded Bab, clasping her hands and looking +round for some sign of relenting in the faces of the boys.</p> + +<p>"Don't you bother; we don't want any girls tagging after us," said Sam, +walking off to escape the annoyance.</p> + +<p>"I'll bring you a roll of chickerberry lozengers, if you wont tease," +whispered kind-hearted Billy, with a consoling pat on the crown of the +shabby straw hat.</p> + +<p>"When the circus comes here you shall go, certain sure, and Betty too," +said Ben, feeling mean while he proposed what he knew was a hollow +mockery.</p> + +<p>"They never do come to such little towns; you said so, and I think you +are very cross, and I wont take care of Sanch, so, now!" cried Bab +getting into a passion, yet ready to cry, she was so disappointed.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it wouldn't do ——" hinted Billy, with a look from Ben to +the little girl, who stood winking hard to keep the tears back.</p> + +<p>"Of course it wouldn't. I'd like to see <i>her</i> walking eight miles. I +don't mind paying for her; it's getting her there and back. Girls are +such a bother when you want to knock round. No, Bab, you <i>can't</i> go. +Travel right home and don't make a fuss. Come along, boys; it's most +eleven, and we don't want to walk fast."</p> + +<p>Ben spoke very decidedly, and, taking Billy's arm, away they went, +leaving poor Bab and Sanch to watch them out of sight, one sobbing, the +other whining dismally.</p> + +<p>Somehow those two figures seemed to go before Ben all along the +pleasant road, and half spoilt his fun, for though he laughed and +talked, cut canes, and seemed as merry as a grig, he could not help +feeling that he ought to have asked leave to go, and been kinder to +Bab.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Mrs. Moss would have planned somehow so we could <i>all</i> go, if +I'd told her. I'd like to show her round, and she's been real good to +me. No use now. I'll take the girls a lot of candy and make it all +right."</p> + +<p>He tried to settle it in that way and trudged gayly on, hoping Sancho +wouldn't feel hurt at being left, wondering if any of "Smither's lot" +would be round, and planning to do the honors handsomely to the boys.</p> + +<p>It was very warm, and just outside of the town they passed by a wayside +watering-trough to wash their dusty faces and cool off before plunging +into the excitements of the afternoon. As they stood refreshing +themselves, a baker's cart came jingling by, and Sam proposed a hasty +lunch while they rested. A supply of gingerbread was soon bought, and, +climbing the green bank above, they lay on the grass under a wild +cherry-tree, munching luxuriously while they feasted their eyes at the +same time on the splendors awaiting them, for the great tent, with all +its flags flying, was visible from the hill.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image14" id="image14"> +<img src="images/image14.jpg" width="400" height="254" alt="BAB WAITING FOR SANCHO" /></a> +<p class="caption">"THERE STOOD BAB WAITING FOR SANCHO TO LAP HIS FILL<br /> +OUT OF THE OVERFLOWING TROUGH."</p> +</div> + +<p>"We'll cut across those fields,—it's shorter than going by the +road,—and then we can look round outside till it's time to go in. I +want to have a good go at everything, especially the lions," said Sam, +beginning on his last cookie.</p> + +<p>"I heard 'em roar just now;" and Billy stood up to gaze with big eyes +at the flapping canvas which hid the king of beasts from his longing +sight.</p> + +<p>"That was a cow mooing. Don't you be a donkey, Bill. When you hear a +real roar, you'll shake in your boots," said Ben, holding up his +handkerchief to dry after it had done double duty as towel and napkin.</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd hurry up, Sam. Folks are going in now. I see 'em;" and +Billy pranced with impatience for this was his first circus, and he +firmly believed that he was going to behold all that the pictures +promised.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute while I get one more drink. Buns are dry fodder," +said Sam, rolling over to the edge of the bank and preparing to descend +with as little trouble as possible.</p> + +<p>He nearly went down head first, however, for, as he looked before he +leaped, he beheld a sight which caused him to stare with all his might +for an instant, then turn and beckon, saying in an eager whisper: "Look +here, boys—quick!"</p> + +<p>Ben and Billy peered over, and both suppressed an astonished "Hullo!" +for there stood Bab waiting for Sancho to lap his fill out of the +overflowing trough.</p> + +<p>Such a shabby, tired-looking couple as they were! Bab with a face as +red as a lobster and streaked with tears, shoes white with dust, +play-frock torn at the gathers, something bundled up in her apron, and +one shoe down at the heel as if it hurt her. Sancho lapped eagerly, +with his eyes shut; all his ruffles were gray with dust, and his tail +hung wearily down, the tassel at half-mast, as if in mourning for the +master whom he had come to find. Bab still held the strap, intent on +keeping her charge safe though she lost herself; but her courage seemed +to be giving out, as she looked anxiously up and down the road, seeing +no sign of the three familiar figures she had been following as +steadily as a little Indian on the war-trail.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sanch, what <i>shall</i> I do if they don't come along? We must have +gone by them somewhere, for I don't see any one that way, and there +isn't any other road to the circus, seems to me."</p> + +<p>Bab spoke as if the dog could understand and answer, and Sancho looked +as if he did both, for he stopped drinking, pricked up his ears, and, +fixing his sharp eyes on the grass above him, gave a suspicious bark.</p> + +<p>"It's only squirrels; don't mind, but come along and be good, for I'm +so tired I don't know what to do!" sighed Bab, trying to pull him after +her as she trudged on, bound to see the outside of that wonderful tent, +even if she never got in.</p> + +<p>But Sancho had heard a soft chirrup, and with a sudden bound twitched +the strap away, sprang up the bank, and landed directly on Ben's back +as he lay peeping over. A peal of laughter greeted him, and having got +the better of his master in more ways than one, he made the most of the +advantage by playfully worrying him as he kept him down, licking his +face in spite of his struggles, burrowing in his neck with a ticklish +nose, snapping at his buttons, and yelping joyfully, as if it was the +best joke in the world to play hide-and-seek for four long miles.</p> + +<p>Before Ben could quiet him, Bab came climbing up the bank with such a +funny mixture of fear, fatigue, determination, and relief in her dirty +little face that the boys could not look awful if they tried.</p> + +<p>"How dared you come after us, miss?" demanded Sam, as she looked calmly +about her and took a seat before she was asked.</p> + +<p>"Sanch <i>would</i> come after Ben; I couldn't make him go home, so I had to +hold on till he was safe here, else he'd be lost, and then Ben would +feel bad."</p> + +<p>The cleverness of that excuse tickled the boys immensely, and Sam tried +again, while Ben was getting the dog down and sitting on him.</p> + +<p>"Now you expect to go to the circus, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Course I do. Ben said he didn't mind paying if I could get there +without bothering him, and I have, and I'll go home alone. I aint +afraid. Sanch will take care of me, if you wont," answered Bab, +stoutly.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose your mother will say to you?" asked Ben, feeling +much reproached by her last words.</p> + +<p>"I guess she'll say you led me into mischief," and the sharp child +nodded as if she defied him to deny the truth of that.</p> + +<p>"You'll catch it when you get home, Ben, so you'd better have a good +time while you can," advised Sam, thinking Bab great fun, since none of +the blame of her pranks would fall on him.</p> + +<p>"What would you have done if you <i>hadn't</i> found us?" asked Billy, +forgetting his impatience in his admiration for this plucky young lady.</p> + +<p>"I'd have gone on and seen the circus, and then I'd have gone home +again and told Betty all about it," was the prompt answer.</p> + +<p>"But you haven't any money."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'd ask somebody to pay for me. I'm so little, it wouldn't be +much."</p> + +<p>"Nobody would do it, so you'd have to stay outside, you see."</p> + +<p>"No, I wouldn't. I thought of that and planned how I'd fix it if I +didn't find Ben. I'd make Sanch do his tricks and get a quarter that +way, so now," answered Bab, undaunted by any obstacle.</p> + +<p>"I do believe she would! You are a smart child, Bab, and if I had +enough I'd take you in myself," said Billy, heartily; for, having +sisters of his own, he kept a soft place in his heart for girls, +especially enterprising ones.</p> + +<p>"I'll take care of her. It was very naughty to come, Bab, but so long +as you did, you needn't worry about anything. I'll see to you, and you +shall have a real good time," said Ben, accepting his responsibilities +without a murmur, and bound to do the handsome thing by his persistent +friend.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would," and Bab folded her arms as if she had nothing +further to do but enjoy herself.</p> + +<p>"Are you hungry?" asked Billy, fishing out several fragments of +gingerbread.</p> + +<p>"Starving!" and Bab ate them with such a relish that Sam added a small +contribution, and Ben caught some water for her in his hand where the +little spring bubbled up beside a stone.</p> + +<p>"Now, you go and wash your face and spat down your hair, and put your +hat on straight, and then we'll go," commanded Ben, giving Sanch a roll +on the grass to clean him.</p> + +<p>Bab scrubbed her face till it shone, and pulling down her apron to wipe +it, scattered a load of treasures collected in her walk. Some of the +dead flowers, bits of moss and green twigs fell near Ben, and one +attracted his attention,—a spray of broad, smooth leaves, with a bunch +of whitish berries on it.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get that?" he asked, poking it with his foot.</p> + +<p>"In a swampy place, coming along. Sanch saw something down there, and I +went with him 'cause I thought may be it was a musk-rat and you'd like +one if we could get him."</p> + +<p>"Was it?" asked the boys all at once and with intense interest.</p> + +<p>"No, only a snake, and I don't care for snakes. I picked some of that, +it was so green and pretty. Thorny likes queer leaves and berries, you +know," answered Bab, "spatting" down her rough locks.</p> + +<p>"Well, he wont like that, nor you either; it's poisonous, and I +shouldn't wonder if you'd got poisoned, Bab. Don't touch it; +swamp-sumach is horrid stuff, Miss Celia said so," and Ben looked +anxiously at Bab, who felt her chubby face all over and examined her +dingy hands with a solemn air, asking eagerly:</p> + +<p>"Will it break out on me 'fore I get to the circus?"</p> + +<p>"Not for a day or so, I guess; but it's bad when it does come."</p> + +<p>"I don't care, if I see the animals first. Come quick and never mind +the old weeds and things," said Bab, much relieved, for present bliss +was all she had room for now in her happy little heart.</p> + +<div class="center"><i>(To be continued.)</i></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image15" id="image15"> +<img src="images/image15.png" width="341" height="400" +alt="LITTLE ITALIAN FLOWER-MERCHANT." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE LITTLE ITALIAN FLOWER-MERCHANT.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="fatherchirp" id="fatherchirp">FATHER CHIRP.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY S.C. STONE.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Three little chirping crickets</div> + <div>Came, one night, to our door;</div> + <div class="in3">Tried all their keys,</div> + <div class="in3">Then tried their knees.</div> + <div>Till they could try no more.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image16" id="image16"> +<img src="images/image16.png" width="400" height="205" alt="THEN TRIED THEIR KNEES." /></a> +<p class="caption">"THEN TRIED THEIR KNEES."</p> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The biggest of the crickets</div> + <div>Scratched hard his shiny head;</div> + <div class="in3">And what to do,</div> + <div class="in3">And what to do,</div> + <div>He didn't know, he said.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The door, it would not open</div> + <div>To comers so belated;</div> + <div class="in3">Nobody heard,</div> + <div class="in3">Nobody stirred,</div> + <div>As still the crickets waited.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And then, as on a sudden,</div> + <div>By some new impulse bent,</div> + <div class="in3">Their voices three</div> + <div class="in3">'Rose shrill and free,</div> + <div>To give their feelings vent!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Then high upon their tiny legs</div> + <div>They stretched, to peep and peer;</div> + <div class="in3">While right behind</div> + <div class="in3">The window-blind</div> + <div>I crouched, to see and hear.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image17" id="image17"> +<img src="images/image17.png" width="257" height="200" alt="HIGH UPON THEIR TINY LEGS." /></a> +<p class="caption">"HIGH UPON THEIR TINY LEGS."</p> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Louder the crickets chirped and chirped,</div> + <div>And, as I heard it then,</div> + <div class="in3">The tale they sung</div> + <div class="in3">In crickets' tongue</div> + <div>I render with my pen.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The tallest one was Father Chirp;</div> + <div>Here was his early home;</div> + <div class="in3">Here lived his mother</div> + <div class="in3">And dearest brother,</div> + <div>And hither had he come;</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And with him brought his two brave sons,</div> + <div>Both skipping at his side,</div> + <div class="in3">To show to her,</div> + <div class="in3">Their grandmother,</div> + <div>With true paternal pride.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"There used to be," sang Father Chirp,</div> + <div>"A little child about;</div> + <div class="in3">And that door there</div> + <div class="in3">Was free as air</div> + <div>For going in or out.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"But days have passed since I lived here,—</div> + <div>It's like the folks are dead!</div> + <div class="in3">My children, oh!</div> + <div class="in3">My children, oh!</div> + <div>I'm going to weep," he said.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And then into his handkerchief</div> + <div>His little head went bobbing,</div> + <div class="in3">And his two heirs</div> + <div class="in3">They pulled out theirs,</div> + <div>And all three fell to sobbing.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image18" id="image18"> +<img src="images/image18.png" width="400" height="153" alt="ALL THREE FELL TO SOBBING." /></a> +<p class="caption">"ALL THREE FELL TO SOBBING."</p> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>I lost no time in opening wide</div> + <div>The door that had been fast;</div> + <div class="in3">And I could see</div> + <div class="in3">Those crickets three</div> + <div>Like dusky ghosts flit past.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And when I, listening, heard a chirp,</div> + <div>Another, and another,</div> + <div class="in3">I knew as well</div> + <div class="in3">As words could tell</div> + <div>They'd found the old grandmother!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="money" id="money">WHERE MONEY IS MADE.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY M.W.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>"Ho!" I hear some New York boys say; "no need to tell us that. +Everybody knows that New York is the place to make money. Look at the +men in Wall street."</p> + +<p>Indeed! And what will you say if I tell you that there is not a dollar +of money made in New York; nor in Chicago, neither; though I know my +young friends who live there are eager to speak up and claim the honor. +There are but three cities in all the Union where money is actually +made; that is, where metals are coined. The principal mint of the +United States is in Philadelphia. Here are made all the copper and +nickel coins—one, two and five cent pieces—and a large part of the +gold and silver coins used in the country. There are also branch mints +at San Francisco and Carson City. And at these places gold and silver +coins of every value are coined in great quantities.</p> + +<p>Those of you who have been in Philadelphia will remember, on the north +side of Chestnut street, near Broad, a Grecian building of white +marble, somewhat gray from age, with a tall chimney rising from the +center, and the United States flag flying from the roof. This is the +mint. Let us climb the long flight of steps and enter the building. On +the door is a placard: "Visitors admitted from 9 to 12." The door opens +into a circular entrance hall, with seats around the wall. In a moment +a polite usher, who has grown gray in the service of the institution, +comes to show us all that visitors are allowed to see. He leads us +through a hall into an open court-yard in the middle of the building. +On the left is the weighing-room; and if you owned a gold mine, like +the boy I read of in a late number of <span class="small">ST. NICHOLAS</span>, it is to this room +you would bring your gold to be weighed, so that you might know how +much money the mint must pay you for it. All the gold and silver +received in the mint is weighed in this room. Sometimes the gold is +brought in the form of fine dust; sometimes in the shape of grains from +the size of a pin's head to that of a pea; sometimes in plates and +bars, and sometimes it is old jewelry and table service. Visitors are +not allowed to enter the weighing-room; but, by looking through the +window you can see the scales, large and small, which are balanced with +wonderful delicacy, and the vault on the other side, where the treasure +is kept.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image19" id="image19"> +<img src="images/image19.jpg" width="313" height="400" alt="THE MINT AT PHILADELPHIA." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE MINT AT PHILADELPHIA.</p> +</div> + +<p>"When the gold has been weighed," says our guide, "it is locked up in +iron boxes, and carried to the melting-room, where it is melted and +poured into molds."</p> + +<p>A small piece is then cut off, and its fineness ascertained by a long +and delicate process called assaying. This decides the value of the +lot. The depositor is then paid, and the metal is handed over to the +melter and refiner, to be entirely freed from its impurities and made +fit for coinage.</p> + +<p>And a hard time it has of it, to be sure. Nothing but pure gold and +silver could ever stand such treatment. It is melted again, dissolved +in nitric acid, squeezed under immense pressure, baked in a hot cellar, +and finally carried to this dingy-looking room, at the left of the +court-yard, where we have stood all this time. The metal is perfectly +pure now, but before the final melting one-tenth of its weight in +copper is added to it, to make it hard enough to bear the rough usage +which it will meet with in traveling about the world.</p> + +<p>The room would be dark but for the fiery glow of the furnaces which +line one end of the place. On these are a number of small pots, filled +with red-hot liquid metal; and while we look, a workman lifts one after +another, with a pair of long tongs, and pours the glowing gold in +streams into narrow iron molds.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image21" id="image21"> +<img src="images/image21.jpg" width="290" height="400" +alt="POURING THE MELTED GOLD INTO THE MOLDS." /></a> +<p class="caption">POURING THE MELTED GOLD INTO THE MOLDS.</p> +</div> + +<p>"This piece of gold," says the usher, taking up one of the yellow bars +from a cold mold, "is called an ingot, and is worth about 1,200 +dollars."</p> + +<p>One of the party asks why one end of the ingot is shaped like a wedge.</p> + +<p>"That it may enter easily between the rollers," is the reply. "You will +see the rollers when we go upstairs."</p> + +<p>The guide calls our attention to the curious false floor, made of iron +in a honey-comb pattern, and divided into small sections so that it can +be readily taken up to save the dust. He tells us that the sweepings of +these rooms have sometimes proved to be worth fifty thousand dollars in +a single year. The particles which adhere to the workmen's clothing are +also carefully saved, and there is an arrangement in the chimney for +arresting any light-minded atoms that may try to pass off in the smoke.</p> + +<p>We would gladly remain longer, peering in at the glowing fires and the +swarthy figures of the workmen, but our guide is already half-way +across the court, and we reluctantly follow, stepping aside to make +room for a workman with his burden of silver bars, which he is carrying +to the next process.</p> + +<p>This takes place in the rolling-room, where the short, thick ingots are +pressed between two steel rollers, again and again, till they are +rolled down into long thin ribbons of metal about the thickness of a +coin.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image20" id="image20"> +<img src="images/image20.jpg" width="398" height="400" alt="THE ROLLERS." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE ROLLERS.</p> +</div> + +<p>The next step in the work is to draw the metal ribbons through a +"draw-plate," to bring them down to an exactly uniform thickness. This +pulling through a narrow slit in a steel plate hardens the metal, and +again and again it has to be put in the fire and brought to a light red +to make it soft and pliable. This drawing and annealing brings each +band of metal to just the right thickness and condition, and we may go +on and see the cutting-presses that stamp out the round pieces of metal +called "planchets." A workman takes a ribbon of gold and inserts the +end in the immense jaws of the press, and they bite, bite and bite, and +the round bits of gold drop in a shower into a box below.</p> + +<p>"This press," says the usher, "is cutting double-eagles; and in the +single moment, by the watch, that we have been looking at it, it has +cut forty-five hundred dollars' worth. The same number of cuts would +make only two dollars and twenty cents if made in copper."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image22" id="image22"> +<img src="images/image22.jpg" width="400" height="393" alt="THE CUTTING PRESS." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE CUTTING PRESS.</p> +</div> + +<p>The machine goes on hastily biting out the round planchets to the end +of the ribbon, and then the guide holds up the long strip full of +holes, much as you have seen the dough after the cook has cut out her +ginger-snaps. These perforated bars go back to the furnace to be melted +over.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image23" id="image23"> +<img src="images/image23.jpg" width="400" height="77" alt="THE LONG STRIP FULL OF HOLES." /></a> +<p class="caption">"THE LONG STRIP FULL OF HOLES."</p> +</div> + +<p>"The planchets," says the guide, "after being annealed in those +furnaces which you see at the rear of the room, are taken upstairs and +most carefully weighed."</p> + +<p>None but women are employed in the weighing-room, and so delicate are +the scales that they will move with the weight of a hair. If a planchet +is found too light, it is thrown aside to be remelted; if only slightly +over the proper weight, a tiny particle is filed off from the edge; but +if the weight is much in excess, it is to go back to the furnace. +Nothing but perfection passes here, you see.</p> + +<p>Now, one final washing in acid, then in water, and these much-enduring +bits of metal are admitted to the coining-room, there to receive the +stamp which testifies to their worth.</p> + +<p>In the coining-room the planchets are first given to the +milling-machine. They are laid down flat between two steel rings, and +as the rings move one draws nearer to the other, and the planchets are +squeezed and crowded on every side, and finding no escape they turn up +about the edges and come out at the end of the sorry little journey +with a rim raised around the edges. Beyond the milling-machines stand +the ten coining-presses. These presses are attended by women. Watch +this one near us. At her right hand is a box containing silver +planchets, which are to be coined into fifty-cent pieces. On that round +"die," which you see in the center of the machine, are engraved the +letters and figures which are to appear on the back of the half-dollar. +Directly above the die, on the end of a rod, which works up and down +with the most exquisite accuracy, is the sunken impression of the face.</p> + +<p>The woman gathers up a handful of the planchets and drops them one at a +time into a brass tube, which they just fit. They slip down in the +tube, and as the lowest planchet slides from under the tube, two small +steel arms spring out and grasp it and lay it on the die. At the same +instant, the upper die descends with a quick thump, and the silver +counter, stamped in a twinkling on both sides, falls into a box below. +In an instant, another takes its place, and thus they go on dropping +under the swiftly moving rod, and turning into coins in a flash.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image24" id="image24"> +<img src="images/image24.jpg" width="360" height="400" alt="THE COINING-PRESS." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE COINING-PRESS.</p> +</div> + +<p>Take up one of the coins and study it carefully. Every mark, letter, +number and bit of decoration is deeply cut in the metal. Even the +"reeding," or roughened edge, is stamped sharply, and we can tell just +what the coin is by feeling of it with the finger, even in the dark. +This last step finishes the work. The money is made, coined and ready +for exchange in the shop and market. Sometimes you may have noticed +that coins, like the nickel five-cent and the silver twenty-cent piece, +have smooth edges. In these coins the reeding is omitted. The dies in +the presses have only the letters and figures of the face and back of +the coin, and when the planchet is caught between them the metal is +squeezed up against the smooth sides of the die, and none of the little +reeding marks on the edge are formed.</p> + +<p>"And now," says our kind conductor, "you have seen all the process of +making money. This next room is the cabinet, and here you can remain as +long as you please."</p> + +<p>But I have not time to tell you half the curious and instructive things +you may see in this apartment. There are coins of all nations and ages. +Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, bearing effigies of forgotten kings and +emperors; curious oblong coins, of very fine workmanship, from China +and Japan, and others of a square shape with a hole in the middle, that +they may be strung on a string, instead of putting them into a purse. +Smallest of all, so small that you might overlook it, if your attention +was not especially drawn to it, is the "widow's mite." Perhaps——who +knows?—this may be the very coin which, dropped into the +trumpet-shaped mouth of the treasury, called forth the commendation of +the Savior upon the poor giver.</p> + +<p>In other cases are the coins of England, France, Germany and other +modern nations; some more beautiful than our own, others far inferior +to them in design and workmanship. The cases around the wall are filled +with beautiful minerals, and, in particular, many fine specimens of +gold in its native state.</p> + +<p>For so long a time have we been using paper money in this country that +it seemed almost useless to have mints to make coins, when ordinary +people never saw any of them, excepting those made of copper or nickel.</p> + +<p>But our merchants, and others dealing with foreign countries, needed +gold, for our paper money could not be sent to Europe, or anywhere out +of the United States, to pay for goods; and so gold eagles and +double-eagles and half-eagles and quarter-eagles and gold dollars were +coined to be sent away, or to be used here to pay duties on imports. +Silver coins also were made, to be used in foreign countries, and among +these was the trade-dollar, which many of you may have seen.</p> + +<p>When silver small-change lately came into use again, there were many +boys and girls who had never seen a quarter or a half dollar. When they +spoke of fifty or twenty-five cents, they meant a piece of paper +currency, printed like a bank-note, of no value in itself, but only a +promise to pay.</p> + +<p>But, since Congress has decided that we are to have not only silver +small-change, but also silver dollars, and now that these have became +again a part of the legal currency of the country; all three of our +mints have gone to work and are coining dollars as fast as they can, +for millions of them will be required, if we are all to use them.</p> + +<p>I hope that you and I, dear reader, may be able to get as many of these +new dollars as we actually shall need, though perhaps none of us may +ever have as many of them, or of any other kind of money, as we think +we should like to have.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="songofspring" id="songofspring">A SONG OF SPRING.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY CAROLINE A. MASON.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>O the sweet spring days when the grasses grow.</div> + <div class="in3">And the violets blow,</div> + <div>And the lads and the lassies a-maying go!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the mosses cling in their velvet sheen,</div> + <div class="in3">Like a fringe of green,</div> + <div>To the rocks that o'er the deep pools lean;</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the brooks wake up with a merry leap</div> + <div class="in3">From their winter sleep,</div> + <div>And the frogs in the meadows begin to peep;</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the robin sings, thro' the long bright hours,</div> + <div class="in3">Of his southern bowers,</div> + <div>With a dream in his heart of the coming flowers;</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the earth is full of delicious smells</div> + <div class="in3">From the ferny dells,</div> + <div>And the scent of the breeze quite plainly tells</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>He has been with the apple-blooms! They fly</div> + <div class="in3">From his kisses sly</div> + <div>Like feathery snow-flakes scurrying by!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>O the saucy pranks of the madcap breeze</div> + <div class="in3">In the blossoming trees!</div> + <div>O the sounds that thrill, and the sights that please,</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And the nameless joys that the May days bring</div> + <div class="in3">On their glad, glad wing!</div> + <div>O the dear delights of the sweet, sweet spring!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="samsbirthday" id="samsbirthday">SAM'S BIRTHDAY.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY IRWIN RUSSELL.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>On the nineteenth day of last month, Sam could and would have +testified, from information and belief, that he was "eight yeahs ol', +gwine on nine;" but on the morning of the twentieth, that interesting +infant of color was informed by his mother, as soon as he awoke, that +he was "nine yeahs ol', gwine on ten." When Aunt Phillis imparted this +surprising intelligence to her son, he was greatly amazed and +confounded; and he immediately began to speculate as to what +extraordinary combination of circumstances could have so suddenly +wrought this remarkable change.</p> + +<p>"Hoo-<i>ee</i>!" he cried, "whut a pow'ful while I mus' ha' slep'! Or else I +grows wuss an' dat ar Jonus's gourd you tol' me 'bout, whut wuz only a +<i>teenchy</i> leetle simblin at night, and got big as de hen-house afore +mornin'—early sun-up. Hm! hey! look heah, mammy, is I skipped any +Christmusses?"</p> + +<p>"No, chile," replied his mother; "you aint skipped nuffin. Dis is yo' +buff-day: de 'fects ob which is, dat it's des so many yeahs sence you +wuz fust borned. I don't know how 't 'll be, Sam,—folks is sim'lar to +de cocoa-grass, whut grows up mighty peart, tell 'long come somebody +wid a hoe to slosh it down,—but ef you libs long enough, an' nuffin +happens, you'll keep on habbin a buff-day ebry yeah wunst a yeah till +you dies. An' ebry time you has one, son, you'll be one yeah older."</p> + +<p>"Fine way to git gray-headed," said Sam.</p> + +<p>At this moment a mighty crash resounded from the kitchen, down-stairs, +and Aunt Phillis descended the steps with great precipitation. Then Sam +heard her shouting, angrily:</p> + +<p>"You, Bose! Oh, you <i>bettah</i> git, you mean ole no-'count rascal! I do +'<i>spise</i> a houn'-dog!"</p> + +<p>Sam went on with his toilet, musing, the while, upon the probability of +his ever getting to be as old as Uncle "Afrikin Tommy," who was the +patriarch of the plantation, and popularly supposed to be "cluss onto" +two hundred years of age; and who was wont to aver that when <i>he</i> +arrived in that part of the country, when he was a boy, the squirrels +all had two tails apiece, and the Mississippi River was such a small +stream that people bridged it, on occasion, with a fence-rail. Thus +meditating upon the glorious possibilities of his future, Sam got ready +for breakfast, and went down. It was not until he had absorbed an +enormous quantity of fried pickled-pork and hot corn-cakes, and finally +with reluctance ceased to eat, that his mother told him what had caused +the noise a little while before,—how old Bose, the fox-hound, had with +felonious intent come into the kitchen, and surreptitiously "supped up" +the chicken-soup that had been prepared for Sam's birthday breakfast; +and further, how the said delinquent had added insult to injury, by +contemptuously smashing the bowl that he had emptied.</p> + +<p>"I alluz did 'low," exclaimed Sam, in justifiable wrath, "as dat 'ar +ole houn' Bose wuz de triflin'est meanest dog in de whole State ob +Claiborne County!"</p> + +<p>Sam, however, was too true a philosopher to cry long over spilt +milk—or soup. He reflected that the breakfast he had just taken would +prevent his eating any soup, even if he had it. "I isn't injy-rubber," +said he to himself, with which beautiful and happy thought his frown +was superseded by a smile, the smile developed into his normal grin, +and he began to chant an appropriate stanza from one of his favorite +lyrics:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"O-o-o-old Uncle John!</div> + <div>A-a-a-aunt Sally Goodin!</div> + <div class="quote">When you got enough corn-bread</div> + <div>It's des as good as puddin'."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The excellent Aunt Phillis was much affected by this saint-like +conduct on the part of her son. She sighed; fearing that the boy was +too good to live.</p> + +<p>"Nemmind, Sam," said she; "you needn't tote no wood to-day, or fetch no +water, or do nuffin. Go down to de quarters, an' git Pumble to play wid +you."</p> + +<p>Pumble was a boy who in age and tastes corresponded closely with Sam, +as he did in complexion. His real name, at full length, was +Pumblechook,—he having been so christened at the instance of Mahs'r +George, in honor of the immortal corn-and-seedsman. Off went Sam in +search of this boy; and he found him at the back of the maternal +mansion splitting up pine-knots for kindlings. Sam approached him with +a very slow, dignified step, and a look of commiseration.</p> + +<p>"Hey, nigger!" said Sam, "dat's all you fit for, is to work. Why don't +you be a gemman like me, whut aint a-gwine to do a lick o' work dis +whole day?"</p> + +<p>"Done runned away, is you?" answered Pumble. "Well, I'll come 'round +dis ebenin, when de ole ooman gibs you a dose ob hickory-tea."</p> + +<p>"Dat'll do, boy;" said Sam. "Let you know dis is my buff-day, an' <i>I</i> +wont work for <i>no</i>body, on <i>my</i> buff-day. Go ax yo' mammy kin you come +up an' play wid me; tell her <i>my</i> mammy sont word for you to come."</p> + +<p>Pumble dropped the hatchet, stared ecstatically, and ran in to obtain +the desired permission. It was granted. Then this dialogue occurred:</p> + +<p>"Be a good chile!"</p> + +<p>"Yes'm."</p> + +<p>"Don't forgit yo' manners!"</p> + +<p>"Nome."</p> + +<p>"'Member you's <i>my</i> son!"</p> + +<p>"Yes'm."</p> + +<p>"Don't you git into no mischuf!"</p> + +<p>"Nome."</p> + +<p>"Ef you dose, I'll w'ar you out, sah! Now, go 'long!"</p> + +<p>The boys trotted merrily away together. But they had not gone fifty +rods before they heard Pumble's mother calling him. They stopped to +listen.</p> + +<p>"<i>Take—keer—ob yo'—clo'es!</i>" she shouted, and then went back into +her house.</p> + +<p>Under a great pecan-tree, on the lawn before the "big house," Sam and +Pumble sat down to consider and consult, or, as they expressed it, "to +study up whut us gwine to do."</p> + +<p>"Shill I tell a story?" asked Pumble.</p> + +<p>"Does you know a good one?" inquired Sam.</p> + +<p>"Dis story's gwine to be a new one," said Pumble "beakase I'll make it +up as I go 'long."</p> + +<p>"Tell ahead," said Sam.</p> + +<p>"Wunst apon a time—" began Pumble.</p> + +<p>"What time?" interrupted Sam.</p> + +<p>"Shut up! Wunst upon a time. Dey wuz a man. An' dis heah man lighted up +he pipe, an' started out on de big road. An' he went walkin' along. +Right stret along. An' walkin' along, an' walkin' along, <i>an'</i> walkin' +along. An' <i>walkin'</i> along. An' walkin' along, an' walkin' along—"</p> + +<p>"Dat man wuz gwine all de way, wuzn't he?" interjected the listener.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image25" id="image25"> +<img src="images/image25.jpg" width="400" height="315" +alt="THE BOYS TROTTED MERRILY AWAY TOGETHER." /></a> +<p class="caption">"THE BOYS TROTTED MERRILY AWAY TOGETHER."</p> +</div> + +<p>"He hadn't got <i>no</i> way, hardly, yit," said Pumble, "but he kep' +a-walkin' along. An' walkin' along, an' walkin' along, an' walkin' +along, an' walkin' along, an' walkin' along, an' walkin' along, an' +walkin' along, an' walkin' along—."</p> + +<p>"Stop dat walkin' now," said Sam, "and tell whut he done when he <i>got +froo</i> walkin'."</p> + +<p>"He come to de place he wuz a-gwine to," said Pumble.</p> + +<p>"Did he, sho' enough?" exclaimed Sam. "I wuz kinder skeered he wudn't +nebber git dar at all. Whut did he don nex'?"</p> + +<p>"De nex' t'ing he done," said Pumble, impressively, "wuz to turn right +'round an' go back whar he come from. An' dat's all!"</p> + +<p>As was his invariable custom when deeply impressed Sam began to sing, +Pumble joining in:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Jay-bird a-settin</div> + <div class="in1">On a swingin' limb,</div> + <div>He wink at Stephen,</div> + <div class="in1">Stephen wink at him;</div> + <div>Stephen pint de gun,</div> + <div class="in1">Pull on de trigger,</div> + <div>Off go de load—</div> + <div class="in1">An' down come de nigger!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Greatly refreshed and invigorated by the chanting of this touching +ballad, Sam and Pumble returned to the consideration of their day's +programme. A great many amusements were proposed, discussed, and +rejected in their respective turns. Almost any one of them would have +been held entirely satisfactory on any ordinary occasion, but Sam +thought none of them good enough for his birthday. He required +something extraordinary.</p> + +<p>"Kaint you think up nuffin else?" he asked his friend, after a long +pause.</p> + +<p>"I done thinked plumb to de back o' my head a'ready," replied Pumble.</p> + +<p>"Den I tell you what," said Sam; "I heared my pappy say dis: when a +pusson want to think <i>rale strong</i>, he mus' lay down on de flat ob his +back and shet his eyes; an' den, putty soon, he kin think anything he +wants to. Let's try it."</p> + +<p>This plan was immediately experimented on. Pumble instantly succeeded +in thinking; but he only thought that he wished he could have a +"buff-day" of his own. Very soon afterward, he ceased to think at all. +As for Sam, <i>his</i> thoughts were for some time very ordinary—of too +commonplace a nature to be here recorded; but they gradually assumed +such an odd and remarkable shape that they may fairly be described as a +vision. It seemed to Sam that the whole country around, as far as one +could see, was transformed into one great field, in a perfect state of +cultivation. But the growing "crop" was not one of cotton, or corn, or +cow-peas, or sorghum, or anything else that he had ever before seen in +such a place. Coming up out of the ground were long rows of very +singular bushes, whereof the stalks were sticks of candy, and the +leaves were blackberry pies, and over the whole field was falling a +drenching rain of molasses. Sam, however, was most astonished at the +curious fruit that the bushes bore. The twigs of some of them supported +jew's-harps and tin trumpets; others bent beneath a wealth of +fire-crackers and Roman candles; others, again, were weighted with his +favorite sardines; and so on in endless variety. It is not at all +surprising that the idea occurred to him that this crop ought to be +"picked." He found himself becoming highly indignant at the negligence +of the planter—whoever he might be—in leaving all these good things +to spoil on the bushes; and he burned with a desire to have them +properly gathered, and to assist in that work himself. Accordingly, he +was just about to reach for a pie and a jew's-harp, by way of +beginning, when he found that this was made impossible, by the fact of +himself having been suddenly and incomprehensibly changed to a huge +water-melon. Over him grew one of the largest bushes, from whose +branches depended seven roasted 'possums. It was some consolation to +look at them, and imagine how good they would taste if he only <i>could</i> +taste them. Presently a little gingerbread bird flew down and began to +peck at him, and say, "Git up, Sam! You Sam! Sam!"</p> + +<p>He woke up, and found that the wonderful field had vanished, and that +he was lying under the old pecan-tree instead of the 'possum-bush; and +there was his mother shouting in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Sam! don't you heah me, you lazy—<i>S-a-m! Git</i> up dis minnit an' go to +de well for a bucket ob water, sah, foah I <i>whoop</i> you!"</p> + +<p>Pumble sat up and stared.</p> + +<p>"Why, mammy," said Sam, "you tol' me I needn't do no work, kase it's my +buff-day."</p> + +<p>"I's ben countin' it up ag'in," said Aunt Phillis, "an' foun' out where +I made a mis-figger, de fust time, and tallied wrong altogedder. +'Cordin' to de <i>c'rect</i> calkilation, yo' buff-day was one day <i>las' +month.</i> WALK arter dat water!"</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="wait" id="wait">WAIT</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY DORA READ GOODALE.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the icy snow is deep,</div> + <div class="in1">Covering the frozen land,</div> + <div>Do the little flowerets peep</div> + <div class="in1">To be crushed by Winter's hand?</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>No, they wait for brighter days,</div> + <div class="in1">Wait for bees and butterflies;</div> + <div>Then their dainty heads they raise</div> + <div class="in1">To the sunny, sunny skies.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>When the cruel north winds sigh,</div> + <div class="in1">When 'tis cold with wind and rain,</div> + <div>Do the birdies homeward fly</div> + <div class="in1">Only to go back again?</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>No, they wait for spring to come,</div> + <div class="in1">Wait for gladsome sun and showers;</div> + <div>Then they seek their northern home,</div> + <div class="in1">Seek its leafy, fragrant bowers.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Trustful as the birds and flowers,</div> + <div class="in1">Tho' our spring of joy be late,</div> + <div>Tho' we long for brighter hours,</div> + <div class="in1">We must ever learn to wait.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="mayday" id="mayday">THE STORY OF MAY-DAY.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY OLIVE THORNE.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>Alas, children! the world is growing old. Not that dear old Mother +Earth begins to show her six thousand (more or less) years, by stiff +joints and clumsy movements, by clinging to her winter's rest and her +warm coverlet of snow, forgetting to push up the blue-eyed violets in +the spring, or neglecting to unpack the fresh green robes of the trees. +No, indeed! The blessed mother spins around the sun as gayly as she did +in her first year. She rises from her winter sleep fresh and young as +ever. Every new violet is as exquisitely tinted, as sweetly scented, as +its predecessors of a thousand years ago. Each new maple-leaf opens as +delicate and lovely as the first one that ever came out of its tightly +packed bud in the spring. Mother Nature never grows old.</p> + +<p>But the human race changes in the same way that each one of us does. +The race had its childhood when men and women played the games that are +now left to you youngsters. We can even see the change in our own day. +Some of us—who are not grandmothers, either—can remember when youth +of fourteen and fifteen played many games which, nowadays, an +unfortunate damsel of six years—ruffled, embroidered, and white +gowned, with delicate shoes, and hips in the vice-like grasp of a +modern sash—feels are altogether too young for her. I dare say I shall +live to see the once-beloved dolls abandoned to babies; and I fear the +next generation will find a Latin grammar in the cradle instead of a +rattle-box, and baby cutting his teeth scientifically, with a surgical +instrument, instead of on a rubber ring.</p> + +<p>Well, well! What <i>do</i> you suppose our great-grandchildren will do?</p> + +<p>We must not let these old-fashioned customs be forgotten, and I want to +tell you the story of May-day. A curious tale is told of the beginning +of the May-day celebration, which is of more venerable age than perhaps +you know. You shall hear it, and then you can believe as much as you +choose, as all the rest of the world takes the liberty of doing; for +although the grave old Roman writers put it in their books for truth, +it is very much doubted by our modern wiseheads, because it is so +unreasonable, and so inelegant (as our dainty critic says). As though +the world was always reasonable, forsooth! or undoubted historical +facts did not sometimes lack the important quality of elegance!</p> + +<p>However it may be, here is the story: Many hundred years ago,—about +two hundred before Christ, in fact,—there lived in Rome a beautiful +woman named Flora. Had she lived in these luxurious days, she would +have enjoyed another name or two; but in those simple times she was +plain Flora.</p> + +<p>Being human, this lady had a great dread of being forgotten when she +had left the world. So she devised a plan to keep her memory green. She +made a will giving her large fortune to the city of Rome, on condition +that a festival in her memory should be celebrated every year.</p> + +<p>When the will came before the grave and reverend Roman senators, it +caused serious talk. To decline so rich a gift was not to be thought +of; yet to accept the condition they did not like, for it was a bold +request in Madam Flora, who had, to say the least, done nothing worthy +of celebrating. At last, according to the old story-tellers, a way out +of the difficulty was found, as there generally is; and the city +fathers decided to accept the terms, and make Flora worthy of the honor +by placing her among their minor deities, of which there were no less +than thirty thousand. She took her place as Goddess of Flowers, with a +celebration about the first of May, to be called Floralia, after her.</p> + +<p>This little story may be a fable; but now I shall tell you some facts. +When the Romans came to Britain to live, many hundred years ago, they +brought, of course, their own customs and festivals, among which was +this one in memory of Flora. The heathen—our ancestors, you +know—adopted them with delight, being in the childhood of their race. +They became very popular; and when, some years later, a good priest, +Gregory, came (from Rome also) to convert the natives, he wisely took +advantage of their fondness for festivals, and not trying to suppress +them, he simply altered them from heathen feasts to Christian games, by +substituting the names of saints and martyrs for heathen gods and +goddesses. Thus the Floralia became May-day celebration, and lost none +of its popularity by the change. On the contrary, it was carried on all +over England for ages, till its origin would have been lost but for a +few pains-taking old writers, who "made notes" of everything.</p> + +<p>The Floralia we care nothing for, but the May-day games have lasted +nearly to our day, and some relics of it still survive in our young +country. When you crown a May queen, or go with a May party, you are +simply following a custom that the Romans began, and that our remote +ancestors in England carried to such lengths, that not only ordinary +people, but lords and ladies, and even king and queen, laid aside their +state and went "a-Maying" early in the morning, to wash their faces in +May dew, and bring home fresh boughs and flowers to deck the May-pole, +which reared its flowery crown in every village.</p> + +<p>Great were the doings around the May-pole, for which the tallest and +straightest of trees was selected. It was drawn to its place by as many +as thirty or forty yoke of oxen, their horns decorated with flowers, +followed by all the lads and lassies of the village. The pole was wound +or painted with gay colors, and trimmed with garlands, bright +handkerchiefs, and ribbon streamers, from top to bottom.</p> + +<p>With great ceremonies, and shouts of joy, it was lifted to its place by +ropes and pulleys, and set up firmly in the ground; and then the people +joined hands and danced around it. The whole day was given up to +merriment, every one dressed in holiday clothes, doors and windows were +adorned with green boughs and flowers, the bells rang, processions of +people in grotesque dresses were arranged, and the famous Morris +dancers performed.</p> + +<p>In this dance the people assumed certain characters. There was always +Robin Hood, the great hero of the rustics; Maid Marian, the queen, with +gilt crown on her head; Friar Tuck; a fool, with his fool's-cap and +bells; and, above all, the hobby-horse. This animal was made of +pasteboard, painted a sort of pink color, and propelled by a man +inside, who made him perform various tricks not common to horses, such +as threading a needle and holding a ladle in his mouth for pennies.</p> + +<p>The various characters labored to support their parts. The friar gave +solemn advice, the queen imitated lady-like manners, the fool joked and +made fun, and the horse pranced in true horsey style.</p> + +<p>This Morris dance is supposed to have been brought in early times from +Spain, where the Moors danced it, and where it still survives as the +"fandango."</p> + +<p>All this May-day merriment came to an end when our grim Puritan fathers +had power in England. Dancing around the May-pole looked to them like +heathen adoration of an idol. Parliament made a law against it, and all +the May-poles in the island were laid in the dust. The common people +had their turn, when, a few years later, under a new king, the +prohibitory law was repealed and a new May-pole, the highest ever in +England (one hundred and thirty-four feet), was set up in the Strand, +London, with great pomp. But the English people were fast outgrowing +the sport, and the customs have been dying out ever since. Now, a very +few May-poles in obscure villages are all that can be found.</p> + +<p>Though May-pole and Morris dancing were the most common, there were +other curious customs in different parts of the kingdom. In one place, +the Mayers went out very early to the woods, and gathering green +boughs, decorated every door with one. A house containing a sweetheart +had a branch of birch, the door of a scold was disgraced with alder, +and a slatternly person had the mortification to find a branch of a +nut-tree at hers, while the young people who overslept found their +doors closed by a nail over the latch.</p> + +<p>In other places, wreaths were made on hoops, with a gayly dressed doll +in the middle of each, and carried about by girls, the little owners +singing a ballad which had been sung since the time of Queen Bess,—and +expecting a shower of pennies, of course.</p> + +<p>In Dublin, the youths decorated a bush, four or five feet high, with +candles, which they lighted and danced around till burnt out. They then +lighted a huge bonfire, threw the bush on it, and continued their dance +around that. In other parts of Ireland, the boys had a mischievous +habit of running through the streets with bundles of nettles, with +which they struck the face and hands of every one they met. The sting +of nettle, perhaps you know, is a very uncomfortable pain. The same +people are very superstitious, and they believed that the power of the +Evil Eye was greater on the first of May than at any other time; and +they insured a good supply of milk for the year by putting a green +bough against the house, which is certainly an easy way. In old times, +the Druids drove all the cattle through the fire, to keep them from +diseases, and this custom still survives in parts of Ireland, where +many a peasant who owns a cow and a bit of straw is careful to do the +same.</p> + +<p>In the Scottish Highlands, in the eighteenth century, the boys had a +curious custom. They would go to the moors outside of the town, make a +round table in the sod, by cutting a trench around it, deep enough for +them to sit down to their grassy table. On this table they would kindle +a fire and cook a custard of eggs and milk, and knead a cake of +oat-meal, which was toasted by the fire. After eating the custard, the +cake was cut into as many parts as there were boys; one piece was made +black with coal, and then all put into a cap. Each boy was in turn +blindfolded, and made to take a piece, and the one who selected the +black one was to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favor they wished to ask +for their harvest. The victim in that day had only to leap through the +fire; but there is little doubt that the whole thing was a survival +from the days when human beings were really sacrificed.</p> + +<p>In the island of Lewis, in the west of Scotland, there prevails a +custom of sending a man very early on May-day to cross a certain river, +believing that if a woman crossed it first the salmon would not come +into the stream for a year.</p> + +<p>May-day festivals were not confined to the British islands. They were +found, with variations suited to the different races, all over Europe. +In France, the day was consecrated to the Virgin, and young girls +celebrated it by dressing the prettiest one in white, crowning, and +decorating her with flowers, and throning her under a canopy of flowers +and greens, built beside the road. There she sat in state, while her +attendants begged of passers-by, for the "Lady of the May," money, +which was used in a feast later in the day.</p> + +<p>In Toulouse, there was an ancient custom of giving a prize of a golden +violet for the best poem. This custom held its place for more than four +centuries. May-poles also flourished in France, and had gilt pendants.</p> + +<p>The Dutch May-pole was still different, being surrounded by trees stuck +into flower-pots, and ornamented with gay-colored flags, and hoops with +garlands and gilt balls hanging. Another sort had wooden dolls made to +represent the figures of peasants, nailed against the pole by their +hands and knees, as though climbing it. There were also figures of +birds and people. In some parts of Germany it was the firm belief of +the common people that certain ill-disposed beings met on a high +mountain on May-day to dance and feast, with no good intentions to +their human neighbors. Accordingly on the day before, every family was +careful to have a thorn of a certain kind, which was stuck into the +door as a protection.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image26" id="image26"> +<img src="images/image26.jpg" width="359" height="400" +alt="AN OLD-TIME MAY-DAY IN MERRIE ENGLAND." /></a> +<p class="caption">AN OLD-TIME MAY-DAY IN "MERRIE ENGLAND."</p> +</div> + +<p>The Scandinavians, whose first of May is not very balmy, had of old a +curious fight between Summer and Winter. Winter—or the man +representing him—was dressed in skins, armed with fire-forks, and +threw snow-balls and pieces of ice. Summer was dressed in green leaves +and summer dress. They had a mock fight which was called "Driving away +Winter and welcoming Summer," and in the Isle of Man, where Norwegians +had rule for many years, this custom lingered until very lately.</p> + +<p>But, as the years went on, these merry games died out, and a few years +ago May-day was in London simply the festival of chimney-sweeps and +milk-maids, certainly a falling off from the times of King Henry VIII. +The only traces of the old custom of going a-Maying were the garlands +of the milk-maids and the Jack-in-the-green of the sweeps. The garland +(so called) was made of silver plate, borrowed for the day, and +fastened upon a sort of pyramid. Accompanying this droll garland were +the maids themselves in gay dress, with ribbons and flowers, and +attended by musicians who played for them to dance in the street. +Sometimes a cow was dressed in festive array, with bouquets and ribbons +on her horns, neck and tail, and over her back a net, stuck full of +flowers. Thus highly ornamented, the meek creature was led through the +streets.</p> + +<p>The sweeps brought out the Jack-in-the-green, which was a tall cone +made of green boughs, decorated with flowers, gay streamers and a +flag, and carried by a man inside. Each of these structures was +followed by a band of sweeps who assumed certain characters, the +fashion of which had been handed down from the palmy times of May-day.</p> + +<p>There were always a lord and lady who wore ridiculous imitations of +fashionable dress, and made ludicrous attempts to imitate elegant +manners. Mad Moll and her husband were another pair who flourished in +tawdry, gay-colored rags, and tatters, he brandishing a sweep's broom +and she a ladle. Jim Crow and a fancifully bedizened ballet-dancer in +white muslin, often swelled the ranks, and the rest of the party rigged +out in a profusion of gilt paper, flowers, tinsel and gewgaws, their +faces and legs colored with brick-dust, made up a comical crowd. But +even these mild remains of the great festival are almost entirely +banished to the rural districts, and are almost extinct there.</p> + +<p>Poor Flora! (if there ever was such a person) she has her wish (if that +wish ever existed save in the imagination of the Romans); she is not +forgotten; her story survives in musty books, though her personality be +questioned; various marble statues bear her pretty name, and, after +running this declining scale through the ages, she and her May-day are +softened by time to a fragrant memory.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="wildgeese" id="wildgeese">WILD GEESE.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY CELIA THAXTER.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The wind blows, the sun shines, the birds sing loud,</div> + <div>The blue, blue sky is flecked with fleecy dappled cloud,</div> + <div>Over earth's rejoicing fields the children dance and sing,</div> + <div>And the frogs pipe in chorus, "It is spring! it is spring!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The grass comes, the flower laughs where lately lay the snow,</div> + <div>O'er the breezy hill-top hoarsely calls the crow,</div> + <div>By the flowing river the alder catkins swing,</div> + <div>And the sweet song-sparrow cries, "Spring! it is spring!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Hark, what a clamor goes winging through the sky!</div> + <div>Look, children! Listen to the sound so wild and high!</div> + <div>Like a peal of broken bells,—kling, klang, kling,—</div> + <div>Far and high the wild geese cry, "Spring! it is spring!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Bear the winter off with you, O wild geese dear!</div> + <div>Carry all the cold away, far away from here;</div> + <div>Chase the snow into the north, O strong of heart and wing,</div> + <div>While we share the robin's rapture, crying, "Spring! it is spring!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="charcoal" id="charcoal">THE CHARCOAL-BURNERS' FIRE;<br /> OR, +EASTER EVE AMONG THE COSSACKS.</a></h2> + +<div class="center">(<i>A Russian Legend.</i>)</div> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY DAVID KER.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>"If you want me to tell you any wonderful stories, Barin, such as +<i>you've</i> been telling us," says Ostap Mordenko, shaking his bushy +yellow beard, as he finished his cup of tea, "you're just looking for +corn upon a rock, as the saying is; for <i>I</i> never had an adventure +since the day I was born, except that time when I slipped through a +hole in the ice, last winter. But, perhaps, it will do as well if I +tell you an old tale that I've heard many a time from my grandfather, +that's dead (may the kingdom of heaven be his!), and which will show +you how there may be hope for a man, even when everything seems to be +at the very worst.</p> + +<p>"Many, many years ago, there lived in a village on the Don River, a +poor man. When I say he was poor, I don't mean that he had a few holes +in his coat at times, or that he had to go without a dinner every now +and then, for that's what we've all had to do in our time; but it +fairly seemed as if poverty were his brother, and had come to stay with +him for good and all. Many a cold day his stove was unlighted, because +he couldn't afford to buy wood; and he lived on black bread and cold +water from the New Year to the Nativity—it was no good talking to +<i>him</i> about cabbage soup, or salted cucumber, or tea with lemon in +it.<span class="fnref"><a name="fnrefA" id="fnrefA" href="#fnA">[A]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now, if he had only had himself to be troubled about, it wouldn't have +mattered a kopeck,<span class="fnref"><a name="fnrefB" id="fnrefB" href="#fnB">[B]</a></span> +for a <i>man</i> can always make shift for himself. +But, you see, this man had been married once upon a time, and, although +his wife was gone, his three children were left, and he had <i>them</i> to +care for as well as himself. And, what was worse, instead of being +boys, who might have gone out and earned something for themselves, they +were all girls, who could do nothing but stay at home and cry for food, +and many a time it went to his heart so that he stopped his ears, and +ran out of the house that he mightn't hear them.</p> + +<p>"However, as the saying is, 'Bear up, Cossack, and thou'll be Maman +(chief) some day;' so he struggled on somehow or other, till at last it +came to Easter Eve. And then all the village was up like a fair, some +lighting candles before the pictures of the saints; some baking cakes +and pies, and all sorts of good things; others running about in their +best clothes, greeting their friends and relations; and, as soon as it +came to midnight, such a kissing and embracing, such a shaking of hands +and exchanging of good wishes, as I daresay you've seen many a time in +our villages; and nothing to be heard all over the place but 'Christ is +risen!' 'He is risen indeed!'<span class="fnref"><a name="fnrefC" id="fnrefC" href="#fnC">[C]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But, as you may think, our poor Stepka (Stephen) had neither new +clothes nor rejoicings in <i>his</i> hut—nor lighted candles either, for +that matter. The good old priest had left him a few tapers as he +passed, for <i>he</i> was always a kind man to the poor; but he had quote +forgotten that the poor fellow would have nothing to kindle them with, +and so, though the candles were in their places, all ready for +lighting, there was not a glimmer of light to be seen! And that +troubled poor Stepka more than all his other griefs, for he was a true +Russian, and thought it a sore thing that he could not even do honor to +the day on which our Lord had arisen from the dead. Besides, he had +hoped that the sight of the pretty light would amuse his children, and +make them forget their hunger a little; and at the thought of their +disappointment his heart was very sore.</p> + +<p>"However, as the proverb says, 'Sitting still won't make one's corn +grow.' So he got up and went out to beg a light from some of his +neighbors. But the people of the village (it's a pity to have to say +it), were a hard-hearted, cross-grained set, who had not a morsel of +compassion for a man in trouble; for they forgot that the tears of the +poor are God's thunder-bolts, and that every one of them will burn into +a man's soul at last, as good father Arkadi used to tell us. So, when +poor Stepka came up to one door after another, saying humbly, 'Give me +a light for my Easter candles, good neighbors, for the love of Heaven,' +some mocked at him, and others bade him begone, and others asked why he +didn't take better care of his own concerns, instead of coming +bothering <i>them</i>; and one or two laughed, and told him there was a fine +bright moon overhead, and all he had to do was to reach up a good long +stick and get as much light as he wanted. So, you see, the poor fellow +didn't get much by <i>that</i> move; and what with the disappointment, and +what with grief at finding himself so shabbily treated by his own +neighbors, just because he happened to be poor, he was ready to go out +of his wits outright.</p> + +<p>"Just then he happened to look down into the plain (for the village +stood on the slope of a hill), and behold! there were ever so many +lights twinkling all over it, as if a regiment were encamped there; and +Stepka thought that this must be a gang of charcoal-burners halting for +the night, as they often did in passing to and fro. So, then the +thought struck him, "Why shouldn't I go and beg a light from <i>them</i>; +they can't well be harder upon me than my own neighbors have been. I'll +try, at any rate!"</p> + +<p>"And off he set, down the hill, right toward the encampment.</p> + +<p>"The nearer he came to it, the brighter the fires seemed to burn; and +the sight of the cheery light, and all the people coming and going +around it, all so busy and happy, made him feel comforted without +knowing why. He went right up to the nearest fire, and took off his +cap.</p> + +<p>"'Christ is risen!' said he.</p> + +<p>"'He is risen indeed!' answered one of the black men, in such a clear, +sweet voice, that it sounded to Stepka just like his mother singing him +to sleep when he was a child.</p> + +<p>"'Give me a light for my Easter candles, good people, I pray you.'</p> + +<p>"'You are heartily welcome,' said the other, pointing to the glowing +fire; 'but how are you going to carry it home?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, dear me!' cried poor Stepka, striking his forehead, 'I never +thought about that!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, that shows that you were very much in earnest, my friend,' said +the other, laughing; 'but never mind; I think we can manage it for you. +Lay down your coat.'</p> + +<p>Stepka pulled off his old patched coat and laid it on the ground, +wondering what was to come next; but what was his amazement when the +man coolly threw two great shovelfuls of blazing wood into the coat, as +coolly as if it were a charcoal bucket!</p> + +<p>"'Hallo! hallo!' cried Stepka, seizing his arm, 'what on earth are you +about, burning my coat that way?'</p> + +<p>"'Your coat will be none the worse, brother,' said the charcoal-burner, +with a curious smile. 'Look and see!'</p> + +<p>"And, sure enough, the fire lay quietly in the hollow of the coat, and +never singed a thread of it! Stepka was so startled, that for a moment +he thought he had to do, not with charcoal-burners, but with something +worse; but, remembering how they had greeted him in the Holy Name, he +became easy again.</p> + +<p>"'Good luck to you, my lad,' said the strange man, as the Cossack took +up his load. 'You'll get it home all right, never fear.'</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image27" id="image27"> +<img src="images/image27.jpg" width="345" height="400" +alt="STEPKA CARRIES THE FIRE IN HIS CLOAK." /></a> +<p class="caption">STEPKA CARRIES THE FIRE IN HIS CLOAK.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Away went Stepka like one in a dream, and never stopped till he got to +his own house. He lighted all his candles, and then awoke his children +(who had cried themselves to sleep) that they might enjoy the bonny +light; and, when they saw it they clapped their hands and shouted for +joy.</p> + +<p>"Just then Stepka happened to look toward his coat, which he had laid +down on the table, with the burning wood still in it, and started as if +he had been stung. It was choke-full of <i>gold</i>—good, solid +ducats<span class="fnref"><a name="fnrefD" id="fnrefD" href="#fnD">[D]</a></span> +as ever were coined, more than he could have counted in a whole hour. +Then he knew that his strange companions were no charcoal-burners, but +God's own angels sent to help him in his need; and he kneeled down and +gave thanks to God for his mercy.</p> + +<p>"Now, just at that moment one of the neighbors happened to be passing, +and, hearing the children hurrahing and clapping their hands, he peeped +through the window, wondering what <i>they</i> could find to be merry about. +But, when he saw the heap of gold on the table, everything else went +clean out of his head, and he opened the door and burst in, like a wolf +flying from the dogs.</p> + +<p>"'I say,' cried he, without even stopping to give Stepka the greeting +of the day, 'where did you get this fine legacy from? It makes one's +eyes blink to look at it!'</p> + +<p>"Now, Stepka was a good-hearted fellow, as I've said, and he never +thought of remembering how badly this very man had treated him an hour +or two before, but just told him the whole story right out, exactly as +I tell it you now. The other hardly waited to hear the end of it, but +set off full speed to find these wonderful charcoal-burners and try if +<i>he</i> couldn't get some gold out of them, too. And, as there had been +more than a few listeners at the door while the tale was being told, it +ended with the whole village running like mad in the same direction.</p> + +<p>"When they got to the burners' camp, the charcoal men looked at them +rather queerly, as well they might, to see such a procession come to +ask for a light all at once. However, they said nothing, but signed to +them to lay their coats on the ground, and served out two shovelfuls of +burning wood to each; and away went the roguish villagers, chuckling at +the thought of getting rich so easily, and thinking what they would do +with their money.</p> + +<p>"But they had hardly gone a quarter of the way home, when the foremost +suddenly gave a terrible howl and let fall his load; and in another +moment all the rest joined in, till there was a chorus that you might +have heard a mile off. And they had good reason; for, although the fire +had lain in Stepka's coat, it wouldn't lie in theirs—it had burned +right through, and their holiday clothes were spoiled, and their hands +famously blistered, and all that was left of their riches was a smoke +and smell like the burning of fifty tar-barrels. And when they turned +to abuse the charcoal-burners, the charcoal-burners were gone; fires, +camp and men had all vanished like a dream!</p> + +<p>"But as for Stepka, <i>his</i> gold stuck by him, and he used it well. And +always, on the day of his visit to the charcoal-burners, he gave a good +dinner to as many poor folk as he could get together, saying that he +must be good to others, even as God had been good to <i>him</i>. And that's +the end of my story."</p> + +<div class="fn"> +<span class="fnnum"><a name="fnA" id="fnA" href="#fnrefA">[A]</a></span> +The three great dainties of the Russian peasant. +<br /><br /> +<span class="fnnum"><a name="fnB" id="fnB" href="#fnrefB">[B]</a></span> +One third of a penny; one hundred kopecks equal one rouble. +<br /><br /> +<span class="fnnum"><a name="fnC" id="fnC" href="#fnrefC">[C]</a></span> +The Easter greeting, and reply. +<br /><br /> +<span class="fnnum"><a name="fnD" id="fnD" href="#fnrefD">[D]</a></span> +The Russian word is "tchervontzi"—gold pieces worth five +dollars each. +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="ballooning" id="ballooning">PARLOR BALLOONING.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY L. HOPKINS.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<div class="imgleft"> +<a name="image28" id="image28"> +<img src="images/image28.png" width="100" height="117" alt="LETTER T." /></a> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">here goes the toy balloon man!</p> + +<p>Here, take this ten-cent piece; run after him as hard as ever you can, +and bring me one of those over-grown ripe-cherry-looking things, and I +will show you a few queer tricks the toy balloon can do, which, I'll +venture to say, the inventor of toy balloons himself never thought of.</p> + +<div class="imgright"> +<a name="image29" id="image29"> +<img src="images/image29.png" width="200" height="152" alt="PIECE OF PAPER, +TORN FROM AN OLD NEWSPAPER." /></a> +</div> + +<p>Ah! I see you have picked out a fine plump one. Now for a bit of +paper—any kind will do. This, torn from an old newspaper at random, +will serve the purpose admirably.</p> + +<p>Now, I crumple it up at one corner, and tie it to Mr. Balloon's half +yard or so of tail, and turn him loose in the room. He rises slowly for +a little, and then as slowly settles down to the floor. That won't do. +I want to see him exactly balanced between floor and ceiling; so, of +course, the paper must be of exactly the same weight as the balloon +itself. We soon can accomplish that. See! I tear off a bit more. Top +heavy yet? He rises higher this time, and settles down more slowly to +the floor. Tear again. Whew! I took off too much that time. He rises to +the ceiling, bumping his head against it a few times, and finally +remains there in a sullen manner as if determined he will have no more +of our nonsense.</p> + +<div class="imgleft"> +<a name="image30" id="image30"> +<img src="images/image30.png" width="74" height="300" alt="THE +BALLOON RISES." /></a> +</div> + +<p>I recapture him, and this time I add to the weight of his tail, by +dividing in two the last bit which I tore off, and twisting it around +the string.</p> + +<p>Now, then, sir, you may go! See! he rises slowly, slowly, until about +midway between floor and ceiling, where he stops and turns slowly +about, as if making up his mind what to do next.</p> + +<p>Presto! a current of air strikes him, and he begins dodging about in a +frantic manner, as if to escape from some invisible enemy. Presently he +becomes calmer, and proceeds to explore every nook and corner of the +room; now going up close to the clock on the mantel, as if to ascertain +the time of day; now taking a look at himself in the mirror; then, +turning suddenly away (as if in confusion to find you have caught him +at it), he moves toward the window, and pretends to be interested in +what is going on outside; but, a draught of air coming briskly in, he +hastens away as fast as ever he can, as if in fear of taking cold. +Skimming along close to the floor, he reaches the opposite side of the +room, and, slowly rising again, peers into the canary's cage. The +occupant resents the liberty with erect feathers, and our balloon +quickly descends, and takes refuge under the piano. Recovering his +presence of mind, presently he peeps cautiously out, and begins to +ascend again. Here he comes toward us—slowly, majestically! Strike at +him with a fan, and lo! he retreats in great disorder to a remote +corner of the room, dodging about in most eccentric fashion, when, +recovering his self-possession after a time, he goes about examining +the pictures on the wall with the air of a critic. You lie down on +your back, on the comfortable sofa in the corner, watching the balloon +as it sails slowly about, and wondering what it will do next, +until—until you fall asleep!</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image31" id="image31"> +<img src="images/image31.png" width="200" height="177" alt="THE BALLOON +AS IT SAILS SLOWLY ABOUT." /></a> +</div> + +<p>You are awakened by something tickling your nose; and, looking up, you +suddenly discover the toy balloon hovering over you, with its tail in +your face, and apparently enjoying your surprise.</p> + +<p>All this, and much more indeed, will a toy balloon do, if treated in +the manner I have described.</p> + +<p>Begin with a piece of paper rather heavier than the balloon, and tear +off bit by bit until the two exactly balance.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image32" id="image32"> +<img src="images/image32.png" width="217" height="400" +alt="THE TOY BALLOON HOVERING OVER YOU." /></a> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="drifted" id="drifted">DRIFTED INTO PORT.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY EDWIN HODDER.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>AMONG THE FISHER FOLKS.</h3> + + +<p>We cannot follow the holiday party through all their pleasant +wanderings, nor tell of the impressions made upon them by the scenes, +celebrated in history and romance, through which they traveled.</p> + +<p>Their drives in the midday heat, their strolls in the cool evening, +their resting hours as they talked over the events of the day, all were +harmonious and gladsome.</p> + +<p>If there was one part of the trip which gave them greater pleasure than +the rest, it was their visit to the Shetland Isles.</p> + +<p>There was an indescribable pleasure to our young folks in wandering +under cliffs gaunt and bare, and hearing the stories of Vikings, who +fought and fell,—or fought and conquered in these isles.</p> + +<p>Sometimes in their wanderings they would come upon a "fairy-ring," and +as they listened to the strange stories told by the islanders, they +seemed to be really in some bewitched and spell-bound place. Or, +perhaps a "kern," standing solitary upon some hill-top, would call +forth a whole series of Danish and Norwegian legends, which would give +them food for reflection for days.</p> + +<p>Many a pleasant adventure they had as they rode together on their +sure-footed little "shelties," or climbed the crags and rocks to look +down upon the isles, "like so many stars reflected from the sky." And +many a pleasant talk they had with the hospitable inhabitants, who +rehearsed to them some of the dangers which assail the dwellers in +those solitary little islands. The narrow belts of sea, which divide +their ocean-girded homes, have constantly to be ferried across, and +many a boat which has gone out manned with a gallant crew has never +returned or sent a waif to tell its story.</p> + +<p>It was partly to acquire a knowledge of the Shetland character, and to +see some phases of its home-life, that our friends, when they came at +last to one little village by the sea, where they had only intended to +make a flying visit, determined to halt there for a few days. It was a +charming spot; on the one side of the village there were to be seen +some of the finest specimens of the savage grandeur of cliff and crag, +and on the other the smiling, genial face of cultivation and quiet +beauty.</p> + +<p>On the morning our friends arrived at the village they found three +fishermen at work beside their cottage door, on the margin of the sea. +They were brothers—Ole, Maurice, and Eric Hughson; all young men, +handsome, strong and intelligent. Howard and Martin made friends with +them at once, and as the morning was calm and bright, entered into +arrangements with them for their best boat to be launched, so that our +friends might have a long sail, to visit some of the caverns abounding +on the coast, and to see the homes of the wild sea-birds, and the +haunts of the fowlers.</p> + +<p>When the hamper of provisions was safely on board, and the party for +the picnic had followed it, of course the sea air and the fine scenery +set every tongue loose, so that the solitary places rang again with the +merry laughter and the voice of song. And then, when the first +irrepressible pleasure had spent itself a little, the young folks +gathered round the three brothers, and listened with attentive interest +to the yarns they were spinning to Mr. Morton about some of the places +they were passing; for every spot in the Shetlands has its own story.</p> + +<p>Madeleine noticed that beneath the mirth and apparent gayety of the +men, there seemed to be an under-current of deep feeling, probably born +of sorrow, and she determined, if possible, to find her way to the +hearts of the fine manly fellows, in whom she began to be interested.</p> + +<p>It was not long before an opportunity occurred. The boat was steered +round a huge bluff, and before our friends were aware where they were +going, they found themselves in a vast cavern. There was something +awful in the half-darkness into which they passed, and the dreary +stillness, only broken by the splashing of the water against the sides +of the cave, enhanced the feeling. As the boat rested in the midst of +the cavern, they looked up, and saw as it were, stars shining through +the massive roof; they looked around, and the huge rocks seemed like +burnished metal. It was a curious sight, and the sounds were equally +curious for every word they spoke came back again to the speaker, with +a ghostly hollowness.</p> + +<p>Madeleine, with Howard and Martin, sang a song together, which sounded +splendidly within this vaulted cave, with all its wild re-echoings. +When it ended, the boat glided slowly out of the cavern, and although +they had enjoyed the somber magnificence they had left, they were all +glad to be in the fresh air and cheerful sunshine again.</p> + +<p>Madeleine watched her opportunity, and when she saw Eric alone in the +fore part of the boat, she quietly disengaged herself from the rest of +the party, and, sitting down beside him, said: "Eric, I believe you +have seen some great sorrow, though you are so young."</p> + +<p>"I was only twenty-two last birthday, Miss, but I have had sorrow +enough."</p> + +<p>"Would it pain you to tell me your story?" she said.</p> + +<p>"No, Miss, it may do me good to tell it. It is a short and sad one. Two +years ago my two brothers, Robbie and Gideon, both younger than I am, +went away from here on a whaling expedition. There was a fine crew of +fifty, half of them Shetlanders and the rest English. There were one or +two gentlemen's sons amongst the crew, and as nice a set of fellows +altogether as a seaman could wish. They set sail in good spirits, and +it was from the headland yonder that we heard their cheers, as they +sailed out on their whaling expedition. From that day to this no word +has come of them, and we fear that all are lost. It has been a heavy +blow to us. When they went away it seemed as if the light had gone out +of the old home, for they were young and merry and clever. The long +waiting to hear from them has been as bad as the fear that they have +perished."</p> + +<p>"God comfort you, Eric," said Madeleine, tenderly, as she wiped away +her tears. "God comfort you. No words of mine can help to heal this +wound."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Miss," said Eric. "I see you feel for us, and that +helps—better than words, sometimes."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h3>IN THE STORM.</h3> + + +<p>The next morning, as Howard and Martin were coming up from the beach, +where they had been taking a swim, they saw Maurice and Eric standing +on the edge of a cliff looking out seaward, and they had not walked far +before Eric came hastily toward them.</p> + +<p>"You've never seen a Shetland storm, young gentlemen," he said, "but +you may see one to-day and to-morrow, too, for I doubt if you will get +away from here as soon as you expected. I see the ladies coming out; it +might be well to go and tell them."</p> + +<p>"Come along, Madeleine! Hurry, Ethel!" cried Martin; "you will soon see +the sight we have longed for—a storm at sea. Eric says there is one +brewing."</p> + +<p>The ladies looked incredulous, and Mr. Morton put on his double +eye-glasses, and looked around with the air of one who more than half +suspects he is being taken in.</p> + +<p>It was a still, lovely summer morning. The sea was as calm as a village +brook; the waves lazily played upon the shore, and the breeze scarcely +stirred the little flag which Eric had mounted on his boat in honor of +the visitors.</p> + +<p>Presently, however, the dark clouds came up in rapid procession; the +surf began to sigh and moan; the sea-fowls caught the sound, and cried +as they only cry when the ocean is angry. The boats lying out hoisted +sail and scudded away for the nearest haven of shelter. Then a white +line of light rose up sharply against the black bank of clouds, and the +still sea became covered with white-crested waves. The quiet shore rang +again with the booming of waters, as they leapt against the rocks and +broke in foaming spray.</p> + +<p>It was a grand sight. The whole aspect of sea and sky and land had +changed.</p> + +<p>Ole, Maurice and Eric had withdrawn from the party of visitors and were +standing on an eminence, talking earnestly, and looking out to sea with +such evident anxiety, that Howard and Martin clambered up to them to +hear what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, you see that ship out there, we can't make her out," said +Maurice. "We've watched her for an hour, and she hasn't shifted an inch +of sail."</p> + +<p>"I don't see her at all," said Howard. "Do you, Martin?"</p> + +<p>No, Martin could not, because he had not that wonderfully acute sight +which the discipline of constant experience gives to seamen.</p> + +<p>However, with the aid of a glass he saw her clearly, and was seaman +enough to know that she was playing a dangerous game in carrying so +much canvas in such a gale.</p> + +<p>"And what's the strangest part of all is, that she's making straight +for rocks, if she keeps the same course," said Ole.</p> + +<p>"Can't you make out who or what she is?" asked Howard.</p> + +<p>"I should say by her build she was a whaler," answered Maurice, taking +up the glass again and having a long look. Then he hastily passed it to +Ole and Ole to Eric.</p> + +<p>"There's no time to be lost," said Ole, "the storm will be too heavy in +another hour for us to put off. She's in danger, there's no mistake, +and we must get to her. It seems to me there can't be any crew on +board, or if there is, they must be mad. It's the strangest thing I +ever saw."</p> + +<p>In a few moments all was excitement; the news spread through the +village like wild-fire; every cottage was astir; old and young came out +to see and hear and speculate; while half a dozen stalwart fellows, +including the three brothers, made ready for the start. Howard and +Martin were among the first to volunteer to accompany them, but the +fishermen would not hear of it. There was no time to discuss the +matter; all was hurry and bustle.</p> + +<p>See! the crew is ready; all hands are wanted for the launch. It is no +easy matter; the waves are beating in on the shore, and threaten to +swamp the boat almost before she starts on her perilous errand. Hurrah! +she rides! Ole is at the helm; a manly cheer comes to the now silent +watchers on the shore, and the little craft plunges through the waters, +now rising on a crested wave, now sinking into the valley of waters, +but speeding her devious way toward the mysterious ship.</p> + +<p>Madeleine clings to the arm of Howard, pale with the excitement. Ethel +has hardly dared to speak, and Martin has not found it in his heart to +break the intense silence of those anxious moments as they watch the +departure.</p> + +<p>But see! a group has gathered on the spot where Ole, Maurice and Eric +had stood. It is the favorite lookout. The glass is there, and an old +man has taken it in his steady hand, and is reporting the news by +little jerks of speech to the anxious throng around him. It is Ole +Hughson, the father of the three brothers.</p> + +<p>"Can make out one man on board. He sees them. They've tacked again. It +aint so bad as it looked. Sea's quieter there. Hulloa! there goes a +sail to ribbons. They are tacking again. She has slackened sail. Good! +good!"</p> + +<p>But other eyes can now make out the scene, for the ship draws nearer, +and the eyes that have gazed so long seem to have gained strength to +see further.</p> + +<p>The Shetland boat nears the ship; it is near enough for the crew to +catch the cry that comes from the solitary man upon the deck.</p> + +<p>See! the little boat tacks again, and is now close in the wake of the +ship. Good heavens! in that sea, with those waves running, will they +dare to attempt to board her?</p> + +<p>Yes, a rope has been thrown to them. Thank God, it is caught! But the +little boat has sunk! No, she has but gone down in the great valley of +waters, and is riding safe and sound. Look! some one from the Shetland +boat has caught hold of the rudder-chains. He climbs the dangerous way. +He is on board. It is Eric—the brave, dauntless Eric. Another and +another follow, and all reach the ship in safety.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the brave Shetlanders mounted the deck than they were at +work with a desperate will. A glance sufficed to show them that the +management of the vessel depended upon them; and in a moment they were +masters of the situation. Ole established himself at the wheel, and +thundered forth his orders.</p> + +<p>As if by magic, the course of the vessel was altered; dangling spars +were cut away and thrown adrift, sail was taken in, and our friends on +the shore could see that they were endeavoring to bring the ship to +haven in the bay.</p> + +<p>No time was to be lost with those who would witness the arrival and +disembarkation; for, although it would have been a comparatively short +distance if there had been a sea-coast and a calm sea, the haven was +cut off from the village by rugged rocks and headlands, which +necessitated a journey of some miles.</p> + +<p>Howard and Martin, as soon as they saw that the ship was in the hands +of the fishermen, rushed off at the top of their speed to get ready the +first shelties they could lay their hands on, knowing, that in such a +time of excitement, everybody in the place being related, directly or +indirectly, to the six men who were on board, it was vain to put much +trust in the help of others.</p> + +<p>That morning marked an epoch in the life of Mrs. Morton. She had always +been too languid to encounter any excitement of any sort, but she had +watched the events of this day with an interest which was as new to +herself as it was to all who knew her. And when the young folks +declared that they must see the end of the matter, come what might, +nothing could dissuade her, despite the fatigue, from making one of the +party.</p> + +<p>There was a tedious delay in getting the ponies together and saddling +them for the journey. Those who had gone off on foot, and were +accustomed to fatigues, had gained a long march on the visitors, and +Howard had agreed with Martin that it would save time in the end if +they only took four ponies, for the ladies and Mr. Morton, and went +themselves on foot.</p> + +<p>At last all was ready, and the start was made with the best speed +possible in the circumstances. But they labored under one or two great +disadvantages; the first was that they did not know the quickest route, +and the next was that they could not see the vessel, having to make an +inland journey to reach the haven.</p> + +<p>When at last they came to the edge of a cliff, which they rightly +judged must overlook their destination, a scene broke upon their view +which staggered them.</p> + +<p>The ship was at anchor; many people were upon the shore, and in little +knots they were kneeling round the bodies of men stretched upon the +strand, while boats were passing to and fro, freighted, as it would +seem, with the dying and the dead.</p> + +<p>"This is no scene for you, my dears," said Mr. Morton, as he saw the +pallor on the faces of those around him, "we must return at once."</p> + +<p>"Return?" cried Madeleine, "when perhaps the dead can be ministered +to, and the dying cheered. Oh! no, no!"</p> + +<p>It was useless to resist such an appeal, nor was it necessary, for, as +she spoke, a woman, running, drew near to them.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, what does it mean?" cried Howard to her.</p> + +<p>"Near twenty men on board, dead and dying. The ship is half full of +water, and is sinking."</p> + +<p>They urged their way along, passing groups in attendance on the +prostrate ones upon the shore. Howard and Martin led; the others +followed. The whole party gathered about a boat that had just come in, +and from which Eric was trying to lift the apparently lifeless body of +a young man.</p> + +<p>All at once, Mrs. Morton threw up her arms, uttered a piercing cry, and +fell forward to the ground. Then, in quick succession, horror, surprise +and joy filled the hearts of the little group, as they, too, recognized +in Eric's burden the form and features of Digby Morton!</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XL.</h3> + +<h3>A STRANGE STORY.</h3> + + +<p>The wind is hushed now. The sea beats no longer with rude shocks +against the echoing cliffs. The sea-birds have gone to their nests, and +the moon, bright and beautiful, is flooding ocean and land with its +calm, clear light.</p> + +<p>Howard and Martin walk together along the grassy way between their +cottage and the sea.</p> + +<p>They look anxiously, from time to time, along the road, for they are +expecting the arrival of the doctor, and they make a start together as +they see a form in the distance. But it is not the doctor; it is Eric.</p> + +<p>"Well, Eric, what news? How are your patients to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Going on well, thank God!" he answered. "Gideon is sitting up in bed, +and has been talking a bit, but not much, for the doctor says it would +be the worst thing he could do. And Robbie is picking up strength, but +it's slowly—slowly, poor Robbie!"</p> + +<p>"We must hope and pray, and use the best means we can. God helps those +who help themselves," said Howard.</p> + +<p>"But He helps those most who cannot help themselves, it seems to me," +said Martin, "when I think of all that has happened during the past few +days."</p> + +<p>"It really does seems so, sir," said Eric; "and to think that Mr. +Digby, that you all thought was dead and gone years ago, should have +sailed in that same ship along with my two brothers whom we had given +up as lost, and that all should come back again together, and their +ship drift into the very port they started from! I feel as if I +couldn't believe it; I'm sure I shouldn't if I read it in a book."</p> + +<p>"It is strange, very strange; yet there are stranger things happening +around us every day, Eric, than any man could invent. But, tell me, has +Gideon yet spoken of Mr. Digby in his talk?"</p> + +<p>"Bless you, sir, he's talked of nothing else! From what I can make out, +Mr. Digby has been the life and soul of the party, and that everybody +loved him you may guess from the fact that almost the first question of +every one that has come to, has been about him. But I beg pardon for +not asking before, sir; how is Mr. Digby, to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Better, we hope. Certainly better than he was yesterday. He has not as +yet shown any gleam of consciousness, but he has been able to take +plenty of nourishment, and it is upon this that we ground a good hope. +But see, yonder comes the doctor, and I hope he will report favorably +of all." Never could a medical man have shown a greater interest in a +patient than Dr. Henderson did in Digby. He had heard portions of his +strange story from others of his patients who had been saved from the +ill-fated ship, and the loving solicitude of all had drawn from him an +answering tenderness.</p> + +<p>"I shall stay with him to-night," said he, "if you will allow me, for I +anticipate a change in him soon, and I am extremely anxious that at +first he should receive enough information to satisfy him, and at the +same time that he should have no clue as to where he is or by whom he +is surrounded. After his intense excitement and the almost superhuman +fatigue he has undergone,—for it was he who was the last to give up, +and then not until the Hughsons were safe aboard the ship,—the least +shock might prove fatal. So, you go away and leave me with him. But +stay," added the doctor to Mr. Morton, who had now joined them; "just +now one of the men gave me this book—a Bible—which he found on the +ship; and as it bears the name of Howard Pemberton in the fly-leaf, I +brought it with me, and with especial interest, for, inclosed in the +cover, is a packet addressed to you, Mr. Morton."</p> + +<p>Mr. Morton took the book with trembling hands, and when he had reached +his own room he sat alone and read with deep emotion the strange story +of his son's life. It ran as follows:</p> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Baffin's Bay.</p> + + <p>I know not into whose hands this paper will fall, but it is my + earnest, perhaps dying entreaty that it may be placed in the hands + of my parents, my sister, Dr. Brier, or Howard Pemberton, all of + whose addresses will be found elsewhere.</p> + + <p>I write this letter to the man whose name I bear and whom I have + most deeply wronged.</p> + + <p>Much sorrow, and anxiety, my dear father, must have resulted from + my cruel conduct, and I would confess, without a wish to conceal + one single fact, the sins which wrought such mischief and have + brought such strange punishments. I can only do so by telling the + story of how one sin led to another, until all culminated in that + fearful fraud, the pretense of death.</p> + + <p>For the first year that I was at Blackrock school I strove with all + my strength to do and be what Dr. Brier and his kind, good wife + would wish. Their influence over me was kind and gentle and good. I + can never repay the debt of gratitude I owe them. But by degrees I + grew to hate the restraints of school, and I was drifting, + drifting, I knew not whither.</p> + + <p>My best friends at school were Howard Pemberton and Martin + Venables. I loved them at the first with all the enthusiasm a boy + feels when he thinks he has found his ideal friends. They supplied + to me the lack of brothers; they were true, manly, high-minded + friends. But as soon as I began to drift away from the good I had + ceased to strive after, I loosened my hold on them.</p> + + <p>It was about a year before I left Blackrock school when my aversion + to study and to all restraint became almost uncontrollable. During + my holidays I once fell in with a young man, James Williams, who + led a wild, reckless life. He had run away from home, had crossed + the seas, and had raised money in various ways, which enabled him + to indulge freely his wild fancies. His yarns about the sea, and + the adventures he had met and dangers encountered, fired me with a + mania to follow a similar career. The constant reading by stealth + of pernicious books, of which smugglers and pirates were the + heroes, stimulated the desire, and undermined the principle in + which I had been educated; until, at length, when you informed me + that I was to study under Mr. Vickers for the law, I determined to + run away from school and seek my living by adventure. James + Williams fostered the resolve, and often urged me to it; but my + great difficulty was how to obtain money. By an accidental + circumstance, Howard Pemberton became aware of my passion for the + sea, and he upbraided me about it, kindly and honestly, but I could + not brook it; my old friendship with him ceased, and I grew to hate + him.</p> + + <p>About this time, the reception was given at Dr. Brier's of which + you have heard. But you have not heard, and never can know, what + that evening was to me. Satan seemed to have entered into me as he + did into Judas.</p> + + <p>I took the miniature and snuff-box from the cabinet in which they + were placed by Mrs. Brier, and resolved to cast the suspicion of + the theft upon Howard.</p> + + <p>That night I placed the miniature in the hands of Williams, who + gave me twenty pounds for it, and the snuff-box I placed in the + ticking of Howard's bed.</p> + + <p>Need I tell you all the catalogue of wrong? You can almost guess + the rest. Williams procured for me a suit of clothes which would + disguise me, and these were placed ready for me by arrangement with + him. The early morning was very cold, and as I intended to travel + far I thought I would take my great coat. In the hurry and + excitement of the moment, I mistook Howard's for mine.</p> + + <p>I left my clothes upon the river bank, and that afternoon I set + sail for America.</p> + + <p>In America I spent a few months, the remembrance of which I would + gladly blot from my memory. Money came to me fast from gambling, + and as quickly went. All the time I was restless, fearful, ill at + ease and sick at heart. I had never heard one single word of how my + disappearance might have afflicted those I left behind. I knew not + whether you really thought me dead, or whether my secret had oozed + out. At length I determined, with tears of penitence, to return, to + confess all, to purchase back the miniature from Williams with + money I had won. And, with this resolve, I started back to England. + On arriving, I took up a newspaper, and you may judge the terror I + felt as I read the account of Williams's awful death with the + miniature upon him. It staggered me, but it did not melt my heart. + I interpreted it that my plans were frustrated, as I found that Dr. + Brier had obtained possession of the miniature. I dared not remain + in the country, for fear of discovery and of identification with + the crime of Williams; but I could not tear myself away until I had + once more visited the neighborhood of the dear old school-house.</p> + + <p>I cannot think without emotion of that moonlight night when I lay + down beside the marble pillar which tender hearts had caused to be + placed there, "In loving memory of D.M." Oh, my father, how true it + is that "the way of transgressors is hard!" I thought my heart + would break as I lay there on the cold earth and wept the bitterest + tears I ever shed.</p> + + <p>If I could but have caught sight of Dr. Brier, or felt the + motherly touch of Mrs. Brier's hand upon my shoulder,—if I could + but have heard the ring of Howard's or Martin's voice in the + play-ground, I felt as if the evil within me would have taken + flight and I should have risen up a regenerated man.</p> + + <p>But I was alone. Dead! dead! And I went away with my heart cold and + sad, and my future all dark and purposeless.</p> + + <p>A twelvemonth ago I fell in with some Shetlanders who were about to + start on a whaling cruise, and, as the expedition promised plenty + of adventure and excitement, I joined them.</p> + + <p>Three months after we left Shetland, we were fast in the ice. For + nine months and more we have been almost starving, and have had to + endure bodily suffering in other respects of a most severe kind.</p> + + <p>I have written the foregoing part of my story at intervals, and I + would now bring it to a conclusion, for the ice is breaking up, and + we have before us our last chance.</p> + + <p>Literature has been very scarce on board, and I had only brought + one book with me. It was Howard Pemberton's Bible. I found it in + the coat I had taken accidentally on the morning I left Blackrock + school, and I never parted with it, hoping I might be able to + restore it some day, for I found it was a sacred relic given to him + by his father, and bearing in its cover his portrait and a copy of + the dying words he spoke to Howard.</p> + + <p>That book became my friend, and it led me to recognize a friend in + its Divine author. I had striven in vain to save myself from + myself. This book pointed me the way. I should never have read it, + however if it had not been for the kind sympathy of our captain. A + nobler man, or a truer Christian, I never met.</p> + + <p>But our captain died, and my strength gradually failed from + privation. I cannot tell you here all that happened, but I must + refer you to a diary which I have daily kept posted, and that will + explain more fully what I am unable to write now.</p> + + <p>We are free from the ice at last, and are drifting we know not + whither! My strength is well-nigh gone. Not a man on board can move + a hand to touch a sail. Perhaps these will be the last words I + shall ever write.</p> + + <p>I crave from you, my dear father, and from all whom I have wronged, + forgiveness for the sorrow, distress, and injury I have wrought. + Return the Bible, please, if it ever comes into your possession, to + Howard, and tell him how I thank God for its blessed teachings.</p> + + <p>Land is in sight; we fancy it must be the Orkneys. A storm is + gathering. Nine men lie dead upon the deck. There appears to be + certain death for us all.</p></blockquote> + +<p>As Mr. Morton finished reading the letter, he paced the room to and +fro, while the hot tears fell freely down his face; and his heart was +full of thanksgiving and praise as he cried, "This, my son, was dead +and is alive again; he was lost and is found."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image33" id="image33"> +<img src="images/image33.jpg" width="401" height="291" alt="IN THE ICE." /></a> +<p class="caption">IN THE ICE.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>A FAREWELL.</h3> + + +<p>It was a fortnight before Digby was well enough to leave his room, and +then he had to be carried in the strong arms of Howard and Martin. So +weak—so utterly weak was he—that the strong man had become as a +little babe, and Dr. Henderson sometimes feared that he would never +know health again.</p> + +<p>But he was bright and cheerful and happy. The joy he experienced in +finding so many dear ones around him, the relief in having unburdened +his mind, and being assured of a full and complete forgiveness; the +feeling of gratitude for the glad changes which had come to his father +and mother, and for his own happy deliverance from death, made him +think and talk so cheerily, that Ethel's heart rejoiced as she found in +the long-lost one more than her old ideal Digby.</p> + +<p>Howard and Martin had exceeded the time of their leave from business +duties, but, in the circumstances of the case, they had been allowed +longer furlough, and were now waiting for the time when Digby would be +well enough to travel, so that they might superintend his journey home.</p> + +<p>And the last day of the Shetland visit came. It was with a feeling of +sadness that our friends went round on the afternoon of that day to +call upon the cottagers and leave their little presents and say +farewell.</p> + +<p>Not the least memorable event of the visit, was the gathering of the +villagers in the large room of the cottage, where our friends had taken +up their abode. It was the last night in Shetland, and it had been +Digby's earnest wish that, if he could bear it, the Hughsons and their +friends, and as many as were saved from the death-stricken ship, should +meet together to say farewell. Early in the evening, the villagers, in +their best Sunday clothes, began to assemble, and, before very long, +the room and the passage-way and the stair-way were crowded.</p> + +<p>Dr. Henderson was there, too, and he reminded the folks present that +time was flying, and that the strength of his patients must not be +taxed too far. Then Mr. Morton rose. His face was very pale, and at +first his voice was tremulous.</p> + +<p>"Good people all," he said, "a kind Providence brought me and mine to +this friendly island, and here we have seen and heard strange and happy +things. Curious circumstances have brought us all together; and, in +greater or less degree, we have been dependent upon one another; we +have shared suspense, joy and anxiety together; and we have received +mercies from the Great Father of us all more than we can trust our lips +to tell. You, my good sir," pointing to old Mr. Hughson, "have received +from the jaws of death two of your sons. Heaven bless them! You," +pointing to a woman, "once more rest in the love of a husband; you, my +little ones, are rejoicing in a father's return; and I—I have received +safe and sound, my only son, whom I had long mourned as dead. Let us +thank God, all of us."</p> + +<p>A fervent amen was uttered as if by one voice.</p> + +<p>After this, with chat and with song, time stole away, and the happy +meeting would have been continued for an indefinite time, if Dr. +Henderson had not announced it as his opinion that it would be neither +wise nor kind to prolong it. And so with benedictions upon one another +the company separated, and the next morning our friends left the +island.</p> + +<p>And now my story is done. I need only tell you that, after a long +time, Digby regained his strength; that he never studied law with Mr. +Vickers; but, having been started in business by his father, became a +successful merchant, with ships of his own, on which several of the +Hughson brothers found happy and profitable positions. Howard and +Martin grew to be prosperous men, and Madeleine and Ethel not only +rejoiced, but shared in their prosperity; for, of course, these two +young men could find no better wives than these two young women. But I +could not even begin to tell you of the happiness and thankfulness that +filled the heart of every person in this story, when thought arose of +that vessel which was so mercifully drifted into port.</p> + +<div class="center">THE END.</div> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image34" id="image34"> +<img src="images/image34.png" width="401" height="103" alt="DECORATIVE ELEMENT." /></a> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="johnny" id="johnny">JOHNNY'S LOST BALL.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY LLOYD WYMAN.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>Johnny had a silver dollar.</p> + +<p>Johnny also had a good friend in the schoolmaster who, in various ways, +had so interested the boy in natural philosophy that he desired of all +things to possess a book on the subject, that he might study for +himself.</p> + +<p>Therefore, on the very first spare afternoon Johnny had, he rolled up +his silver dollar in many folds of paper, tucked it snugly away in a +lonesome corner of an old castaway pocket-book, and started for the +village book-store; but, when he found the many nicely bound volumes +too dear for his pocket, he choked, and nearly cried for +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" said the book-seller, as he slipped his lead-pencil behind +his ear, and stepped briskly to a little shelf of rusty-looking books.</p> + +<p>"Here are some second-hand copies of Comstock, Parker and Steele, any +of which you can have for seventy-five cents,—have your pick for six +shillings. Comstock and Parker are in the best repair, and are finer +print; but for <i>me</i>, give me Steele! In buying second-hand books, +always choose the banged-up fellows. Comstock and Parker tell +everything that everybody knows or guesses. Steele biles his'n down. +But do just as you've a mind to: it wont make a bit o' difference to me +one way or the other."</p> + +<p>Johnny took Steele, handed over his dollar, and received twenty-five +cents in change.</p> + +<p>Before the money was fairly stowed away in his wallet his eye fell upon +a beautiful rubber ball, painted in various brilliant colors, which lay +in the show case. The book-seller tossed it upon the clean-swept floor, +and up it bounded to the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"The last of the lot," said he; "filled with air; that's why it bounces +so; been selling at thirty cents; will close this out at twenty-five; +every boy ought to have one; children cry for 'em; just the thing for +'hand-ball,'—what d' y' say?"</p> + +<p>"I'll take it," said Johnny; and he took his book and ball and hurried +home, "dead broke" financially, but happy, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>Being open-hearted, he told his folks about his purchase, and they were +inclined to find fault with him, though I do not know why. He seemed +never to tire of his book and ball, but would change from one to the +other, and for some days was as happy as a king is supposed to be.</p> + +<p>Then came his bad luck.</p> + +<p>He was tossing his ball upon the roof of the house, and catching it as +it came down; but by and by it did not come down—it bounded into the +tin eave-trough and rolled slowly along till it came to the big pipe +that led to the cistern, and into this it dropped, and went whirring +down, and stopped somewhere with a faint plash.</p> + +<p>For once in his life, Johnny felt as if the world had slipped from +under him.</p> + +<p>For a few minutes he was bewildered; then came the joyful assurance +that his Steele would help him out of his trouble, and if Steele +couldn't, there was the schoolmaster.</p> + +<p>The first thing he did was to lift the cover off the cistern, though +he knew well enough the ball was in the pipe, as he well remembered +that it ran nearly to the bottom of the cistern and then made a sharp +bend upward, "so that the water mightn't wear the cement," the mason +told him.</p> + +<p>He found the water quite low, but not low enough to show the mouth of +the pipe. Of course, there was no ball in sight. He closed the cistern +with a groan, and got out his new book on natural philosophy. First he +glanced at optics; but that did not help him to see his way; then at +hydrostatics and hydraulics.</p> + +<p>It was of no use; nothing seemed to hit the case. Then he gave it up, +put his book away, and went to consult the school-master. Johnny found +him among his books, and told him all about it.</p> + +<p>"Have you tried to fish it out with a hook and line?"</p> + +<p>Johnny's face brightened. "No, sir, I never thought of that."</p> + +<p>"All right; you couldn't do it. Besides, if you could, it wouldn't be +scientific," said the school-master. "Now, go home, take a ten-foot +pole, and measure the distance from the eaves to the water in the +cistern, then find the diameter of the pipe, and on my way to school +to-morrow morning I will tell you the three things necessary for +recovering your ball."</p> + +<p>Johnny fairly flew home, got a pole, measured the distance from eaves +to water and found it to be twelve feet; measured the pipe and found it +to be two inches and one-half. Then he put away the pole, did his +chores, ate a hearty supper, and went to bed.</p> + +<p>He was up bright and early next morning, and got quickly through his +chores, so that when the school-master stopped, on his way to school, +he was ready to see about the ball.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Johnny! Glad to see you on hand. How long's the pipe?"</p> + +<p>"Twelve feet, sir."</p> + +<p>"Diameter?"</p> + +<p>"Two inches and a half, sir."</p> + +<p>"Ah! 2-1/2 square multiplied by .0034, and that product by twelve feet, +which is—"</p> + +<p>"144 inches," Johnny quickly suggested.</p> + +<p>"Will give the contents of the pipe in gallons," added the +schoolmaster. "You're quick at figures, tell me the answer."</p> + +<p>Johnny groped among the odds and ends of his jacket pocket for a +minute, and then fished out a stubby lead-pencil, much chewed at one +end, and picking up a piece of smooth board, ciphered away swiftly and +carefully a few moments.</p> + +<p>"3.06 is what I make it, sir."</p> + +<p>"Very well; we'll call that right; that would be a little over a +pailful—say a pailful and a half. Now get a ladder to go up to the +roof with."</p> + +<p>Johnny brought one in a jiffy.</p> + +<p>"All right. Now, the three things necessary to get back your ball are, +a pailful and a half of water, a plug, and pluck."</p> + +<p>Johnny looked as if he didn't quite understand.</p> + +<p>"What sort of a plug, sir?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, this will do," answered the school-master, picking up a pine stick +and beginning to whittle away vigorously. The plug was soon made. The +school-master lifted the plank cover from the cistern put the ladder +down, and said to Johnny: "Have you any pluck?"</p> + +<p>"Lots of it," Johnny told him.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, take this plug and stick it into the mouth of the pipe, +<i>snug</i>."</p> + +<p>Johnny took the plug, went down the ladder into the cistern till he +reached the water, and then began feeling around for the pipe. By and +by he found it, and, inserting the plug in the opening, pushed it down +and screwed it firmly in place.</p> + +<p>"All right!" he called out, and presently he came up the ladder.</p> + +<p>"Now let's have the water—in two pails," the schoolmaster said, and he +saw by Johnny's face that he at last understood how the ball was to be +got out. Johnny ran to the barn, and soon came back with two pails of +water and a funnel.</p> + +<p>"But what's the funnel for?" asked the schoolmaster as he drew the +ladder from the cistern and leaned it against the eaves.</p> + +<p>"To pour the water into the pipe," answered Johnny, in a tone that +showed that he thought he had, for once, caught the school-master +napping.</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed! so you always put the funnel in when it rains?"</p> + +<p>Johnny blushed, and did not attempt any answer.</p> + +<p>"Now mount the ladder, and I'll hand you the water," said the +school-master.</p> + +<p>Johnny ran up the ladder, and, when the school-master handed him the +pails, he said nothing about the funnel, but boldly dashed the water +upon the roof. When the flood began pouring into the cave-trough and +gurgling down the pipe, Johnny fixed his eyes upon the hole through +which his ball had taken its unlucky leap, and stared with anxious +expectation. The gurgle in the pipe crept steadily upward, the tone all +the while growing higher and clearer, till whish! came a dash of water +over the trough, nearly drenching the schoolmaster while the ball +bounded airily upon the eaves for an instant, before Johnny caught it +and cried out:</p> + +<p>"Here she is!"</p> + +<p>"Put things in shape, Johnny; I must hurry to the school-house," said +the school-master, going.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image35" id="image35"> +<img src="images/image35.jpg" width="274" height="400" +alt="THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD." /></a> +<p class="caption">THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD.</p> +</div> + +<h2><a name="kingbread" id="kingbread">THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="center">BY J.L.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<br /> + +<p>"When you want a thing done well, do it yourself," is an old saying, +and a very good one; but it is not always possible or desirable to +carry out this advice. Therefore it is sometimes better to adopt an +amendment to this proverb, and make it read thus: "When you want a +thing done well, do it yourself, or see it done."</p> + +<p>So thought Louis IX. of France, sometimes called St. Louis, because he +was considered to be rather better than most people.</p> + +<p>Among his good qualities was kindness to the poor. He would go about, +very plainly dressed, and attended by two or three courtiers, and visit +poor people in their houses. He took an interest in their personal +affairs, and when they were very needy, he would order bread and other +food to be supplied to them. Of course, this made him a great favorite +with the poorer classes of his subjects, and they were glad not only to +receive his bounty, but also to talk with him and tell him about their +many troubles.</p> + +<p>One day, when he was making one of his customary rounds, an old woman, +leaning on a cane, and holding a loaf of bread in her hand, came out of +a door in a wall which led into a collection of wretched dwellings.</p> + +<p>As this old woman stood awaiting his approach, the king could not help +feeling a little surprised. He did not often feel surprised at anything +he saw among these poor people. He had just been talking to a group of +strong, hearty fellows, who preferred sitting lazily about wherever +they could find a shelter from the rain and sun, and trusting in chance +charity for food and lodging, to working for an honest living; but he +was not surprised at them. Such men have always existed, and probably +always will exist.</p> + +<p>He had seen all sorts of strange things among his poor people. He had +seen some who seemed to prefer to be poor; he had seen others who had +been rich, but who appeared to be happier now than when they had plenty +of money,—and perhaps plenty of anxiety with it; he had seen others +who were poor and did not know it; but this was the first time that he +had ever seen any one of them offer him bread or anything else to eat. +No wonder he was surprised when this old woman held out to him the loaf +of bread!</p> + +<p>She did not wait for him to ask her what she meant, but immediately +commenced to explain. She told him that she and her sick old husband +were among those to whom he had ordered food to be furnished, but that +for some time all that his agents had given them was bread such as the +loaf in her hand; bread so hard that it was almost impossible for old +people to eat it, and yet they must eat it or starve.</p> + +<p>The king listened with attention to her story, and then he took the +loaf in his hands, and broke off a small piece of it.</p> + +<p>"It is rather hard bread," he said, thoughtfully, while his attendants +bent over to look at it, as if it were a matter of the greatest +interest to them, although it is probable that they did not care a snap +of their fingers whether or not the old woman ever had any bread.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the king, "it <i>is</i> hard bread." And then he stood thinking +about it. The old woman thought he was thinking of the trouble she and +her husband had in eating it, but she was very much mistaken.</p> + +<p>He was thinking that he had ordered that these people be well fed; that +he had supplied the money to buy them good and nourishing food. Now, if +his poor pensioners received nothing but dry bread, and very stale, +hard bread at that, while he paid for good food for them, somebody must +be making money out of him, to whom he had no idea of being charitable +in this way.</p> + +<p>Therefore he thought that if he wanted a thing well done, he must do it +himself, or see it done. In this case he determined to see it done.</p> + +<p>He went into the old woman's house, and he talked to her sick husband +and herself, and examined into their condition. The old people thought +he was very good to say so much about their hard fare, and so he was; +but if they could have heard what he said afterward to his dishonest +agents, when he went home to his palace, they might have been surprised +to know what an important thing a piece of hard bread may sometimes +become.</p> + +<p>And they might have thought, too, that it was a good thing for them, as +well as for other poor people, that their bread had been so <i>very</i> hard +that they were forced to complain of it to the king.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="polly" id="polly">DISCONTENTED POLLY.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<br /> + +<p>Polly ought to have been a very happy little girl, but she was not, +because she hadn't a doll. She had everything else: a beautiful +kitchen, a stove with everything to use on it, some pretty china +dishes, a table to put them on, and a neat little wicker chair to match +the table.</p> + +<p>Only a little while ago she had three lovely dolls; but there was +another D to Polly's name—Destructive Polly; and now there was not a +bit of a dolly left, and mamma had determined to let her wait till she +wanted one so very much that when it did come she would be sure to take +care of it. But Aunt Alice said, one day, "That child shall have a doll +to-morrow." And sure enough! the next morning, in the little wicker +chair, Polly found the most beautiful doll she had ever seen.</p> + +<p>It had fluffy, golden hair, and bright blue eyes, and a dress just like +Polly's best one with puffed sleeves. It could say "papa" and "mamma" +quite plainly, and could move its eyes.</p> + +<p>Of course, the first thing to be done was to find a name for the new +treasure, and that made Polly discontented again. She wanted to call it +after herself, but she said, "Polly is such an every-day name, it would +never do; my doll must have a 'company' name." So she called her doll +"Rosalinda."</p> + +<p>The next day, mamma said there might be a party in honor of the new +doll; so Polly carried Rosalinda into the play-room, put her in the +little chair, and began to get ready for the party. Rosalinda looked as +though she would like to help; so Polly filled one of her prettiest +cups with milk, and put it in the dolly's lap, while she went out for +three lumps of sugar.</p> + +<p>Just then a dreadful thing happened. Puss, who had been hidden under a +chair, came out, jumped to Rosalinda's lap, and began to drink the milk +as fast as he could. Before it was half gone he heard Polly coming, so +he jumped down again in a hurry, and out of the window. But one hind +paw caught the cup by the handle, spilled the milk on dolly's dress, +dashed the cup to the floor, and broke it all to bits!</p> + +<p>When Polly came in and saw this, what do you think she did? She just +looked at Rosalinda a moment, then she took her out of the chair and +shook her—shook her so hard, and sat her down again with such a bounce +that the pretty blue eyes shut up tight, and wouldn't come open.</p> + +<p>Polly didn't mind that at first. She said, "Yes! you'd better shut +your eyes, you naughty thing! Don't tell me it was 'a accidence.' You +did it yourself, I know, and I don't love you one bit. You don't look +fit to be seen, and the party will be here before I'm ready. Oh, dear! +just open your eyes, and see what you've done."</p> + +<p>But poor Rosalinda's eyes wouldn't open, and the more Polly shook her, +the tighter shut they stayed, till she ran, crying, to mamma, to ask +for help. Mamma had seen it all; so now she took Polly and Rosalinda +both on her lap, and gave what Polly called "a little preach."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image36" id="image36"> +<img src="images/image36.jpg" width="373" height="400" +alt="JUST OPEN YOUR EYES, AND SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE." /></a> +<p class="caption">"JUST OPEN YOUR EYES, AND SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE."</p> +</div> + +<p>It did her good, real good, and at last she said: "Dear mamma, if +Rosalinda will only open her eyes once more and look at me, I believe I +will never be so naughty again."</p> + +<p>So mamma found a way to open the pretty blue eyes, and Polly kissed +them both, and then kissed mamma for helping her.</p> + +<p>By the time the party came, everything was ready. Polly was very good, +and let the girls play with her beautiful Rosalinda the whole time. I +do not know how long the good will last. I hope till every one forgets +to call her Discontented Polly, and learns to call her Darling Polly +instead.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="center"> +<a name="image37" id="image37"><img src="images/image37.png" +width="340" height="400" alt="JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT" /></a> +</div> + +<h2 style="margin-top:-1.5em; padding-left:2em;"><a +name="jackinthepulpit" id="jackinthepulpit">JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<br /> + + +<p>Well, my dears, spring is here at last, and it is very pleasant to see +the buds and flowers again. I begin to hear the voices of the children +more often, too; and now and then I catch a glimpse of bright faces and +new dresses.</p> + +<p>By the way, talking of dresses puts me in mind of a paragram that came +the other day, about</p> + +<br /><br /> + +<h3>TRIMMINGS FOR COWS.</h3> + +<p>Something quite new to you, I dare say, for which of you ever heard of +trimming cows with their own horns and ears? How should you like to see +a cow with her ears—poor thing!—cut to the shape of a leaf with +notched edges, and horns trained in some queer shape, twisted into +curls, or divided into four, with two meeting overhead, and two turned +down toward the ground? It would be a dreadful sight to me, I am sure; +but the Africans admire such things. They consider this trimming of +cows a sort of fine art. You don't see how they manage the horns? Well, +they begin when the horns are young; divide each into two, or more, and +gradually train them, while growing, in any way they choose. Of course +it must hurt the poor cows, and take a great deal of time; but the +people who train cows' horns have not very tender feelings, and they +are richer in spare time than in anything else. Besides, they do not +have to trim their own clothes much—they're savages.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>FEET AND WINGS.</h3> + +<p>I have been told that flies have suckers on their feet, and climb up +window-panes by using them, much as boys lift smooth stones with a +piece of soaked leather and a string. Is this so, little folks?</p> + +<p>By the way, while you are thinking of flies, I once heard some +schoolma'ams (I'm sure our <i>little</i> one was not among them) disputing +about the number of wings that a house-fly ought to have. And they +said, though it's hard to believe, that over the door of the Masonic +Temple at Boston there are bees, cut in the stone, each with only wings +enough for a fly!</p> + +<p>Perhaps the sculptor had been reading Virgil before carving those bees, +for, as I've heard, that ancient poet in one of his writings made a +mistake as to the number of a bee's wings.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>CETUS, NOT CYGNUS.</h3> + +<p>One of my sharp eyed chicks, S.E.S., of Canandaigua, sends word that +the star Mira, of which I told you last month, is in the star-group +Cetus (the Whale), not in Cygnus (the Swan). S.E.S. is right, I find, +and I'm much obliged to her.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>PRSVRYPRFCTMN VRKPTHSPRCPTSTN.</h3> + +<p>Deacon Green says that these letters were found on a wall in a church +in Wales, painted, like a text, above an inscription of the ten +commandments.</p> + +<p>Some of you may have seen it before, he thinks; but, if not, it will be +good fun for you to find out what it means. He adds that there is but +one letter of the alphabet wanting, to make sense; this is used over +and over, and, if you put it into the right places, the text will turn +into a rhymed couplet.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>A REMEDY FOR HARD TIMES.</h3> + +<p>I have a message from a bird on the Sea Islands off the coast of South +Carolina.</p> + +<p>"Here," says my friend, "I lately found a remedy for hard times. +Looking for food one day, I came close to the home of a silk-spider who +was about to make a new web. Now, what do you think I saw him doing? +Why, he was eating up the old web, so as to turn it into thread again, +and use it a second time! Another curious thing that I found out about +this economical old fellow is that, although he has a great many eyes, +he can see only just well enough to tell light from darkness."</p> + +<p>Now, what in the world can be the use of that spider's eyes, I'd like +to know, if he can't see the things around him?</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>A QUEER CHURN.</h3> + + <blockquote><p class="right">New Haven, Conn.</p> + + <p>Dear Jack: Last year in April you gave us a picture of a very small + doll-churn that a little girl had made, and I thought it was very + 'cute. But I read the other day of another churn quite as odd. It + is simply the skin of a goat, hung by a rope from the roof. It is + used in Persia, and, when they want to churn, they fill the + goat-skin with milk, and swing it forward and backward until the + butter comes. The children do the swinging, and I think it must be + better fun than turning a crank or working a plunger.—Yours + affectionately,</p> + <p class="right"><span class="small">O.T.</span></p></blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>CATS IN SPAIN.</h3> + +<p>Cats have a nice time in Spain, I hear. No dismal moonlight prowlings +over fences and back sheds for them! They have the roofs of the whole +country for their walks, and need never touch the ground unless they +choose. I'll tell you why. Grain is stored in the attics of Spain, +because they are too hot for anything else. But rats and mice delight +in attics, as well as in grain. So each owner cuts a small door from +the roof, big enough for puss, and any homeless cat is welcome to her +warm home, in return for which she keeps away rats. In a sudden rain +it must be funny to see dozens of cats scampering over the roofs to +their homes among the grain-bags.</p> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>"SINCERE" STATUES.</h3> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Cambridge, Mass.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR LITTLE SCHOOLMA'AM</span>: + In <span class="small">ST. NICHOLAS</span> for December, 1877, + Jack-in-the-Pulpit says that "sincere" is made of the words + <i>sine-cera</i>, meaning "honey without wax." I have been told that it + refers also to the Greeks, who, when they found a crack in a + statue, would sometimes fill the flaw with wax; and that hence a + "sincere" statue, one "without wax," would have no flaw, but be a + true and honest statue.</p> + + <p>I have not been able to find any authority for this, otherwise I + should have written sooner.—Yours sincerely,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">F.B.J.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>FOOLS'-CAPS FOR CROWS.</h3> + +<p>My acquaintances the crows are very fond of corn, and have a way of +picking it out of the ground with their bills just after it has been +planted. So the farmers try all sorts of plans to keep them away. One +of these plans is shown in the picture.</p> + +<p>Paper cones are set point downward in the ground, and baited with a few +corn kernels; then some bird-lime is smeared around the insides. When a +crow reaches down for the corn, the paper cone sticks to him, looking +rather like a fool's-cap, and he does not get rid of it in a hurry. I'm +told that it takes only a few of these cones to keep off a whole flock +of crows. They are afraid of making themselves ridiculous, I suppose.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image38" id="image38"> +<img src="images/image38.jpg" width="400" height="361" alt="FOOLS'-CAPS FOR CROWS." /></a> +<p class="caption">FOOLS'-CAPS FOR CROWS.</p> +</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.</h3> + +<p>Now then, my dears, here's a capital chance to show your knowledge of +history. Who can answer this question?</p> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Boston, Mass.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR JACK</span>: + Will you please ask some of your chicks to tell me when + the ancients left off, and the moderns began?—and you will greatly + oblige.</p> + + <p class="right">F.</p></blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>LUMBER AND TIMBER, AGAIN.</h3> + +<p>The Little Schoolma'am says that "timber" generally means "felled +trees," but is used sometimes to describe trees that are yet standing +and growing; "lumber" means timber that has been made ready for use, by +sawing, splitting, and so forth.</p> + +<p>E.M. Ferguson, J. Harry Townsend, Lillie Stone, J. Dutton Steele, Jr., +and N.Y.Z. all sent correct answers; but Virginia Waldo, G.V.D.F., and +"Max" were only almost right in their replies.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="letterbox" id="letterbox">THE LETTER-BOX.</a></h2> +<hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p>The answers to Mr. Cranch's poetical charades, published on page 406 of +the April number, are as follows: I., Carpet, car-pet. II., Bargain, +bar-gain. III., Pic-nic, pick-Nick. IV., Nightmare, night-mare.</p> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p>A large number of correspondents kindly point out that the poem +entitled "The Nightingale's Mistake," printed in the March +"Letter-Box," is also called "The Singing-Lesson," and was written by +Jean Ingelow.</p> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Clayton, Iowa.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + I thought I would write to you to tell you about + our little town of Clayton. It is a beautiful little place, of + about three hundred and eighty inhabitants, situated on the + Mississippi River. There are two large flouring-mills, two + saw-mills, and a large hoop factory here, where all kinds of straps + and hoops are manufactured by machinery. First, the poles are sawed + into certain lengths; then they are taken to the splitters, to be + split. They are then taken to the planers. After going through this + process, they are bunched into bunches of fifty each. Then they are + ready for shipment. They are made of hickory, white oak, and birch.</p> + + <p>It is very pleasant to take a boat-ride on a summer eve, with the + banks on either side of you covered with long green grass, and + flowers of nearly all descriptions bending down into the water, + while in the woods all kinds of birds are cluttering and + chattering, and the ducks are quacking around you, all of which + makes it very pleasant.—Your constant reader,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">H.R.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Baltimore, Md.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + I would like to know why it is that the wife of + General George Washington is called Lady Washington? I do not think + that we have ever had any lords or ladies in our country; so if you + know the reason why, I would like to know.</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">E.M.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>Can any of our boys and girls answer this question?</p> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Somerville, N.J.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + As I wish to contribute a little to the + "Letter-Box," I will send you a little poem written by my sister + Allie when she was nine years old.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="in3">OUR BABY.</div> + <br /> + <div>Little Bertha is my sister,</div> + <div class="in1">And she is two years old,—</div> + <div>A cunning little darling,</div> + <div class="in1">Whom I love to hold.</div> + </div> + <br /> + <div class="stanza"> + <div>You ask her whom she loves best,</div> + <div class="in1">And she'll say "Papa Lou."</div> + <div>You ask her whom she loves next,</div> + <div class="in1">And p'r'aps she will say "You."</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>You ask her what her name is,</div> + <div class="in1">And she'll say "Bertie Lou."</div> + <div>But then, she's sometimes naughty,</div> + <div class="in1">And sometimes so are you.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Little Bertha is my sister,</div> + <div class="in1">And she's as cunning as she can be;</div> + <div>With a dimple in each cheek,</div> + <div class="in1">And a dimple in each knee.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And I guess most people love her,</div> + <div class="in1">For she's as cunning as she can be;</div> + <div>But then, sometimes she is naughty,</div> + <div class="in1">And that's the way with you and me.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>My darling little sister</div> + <div class="in1">Always sleeps at night with me;</div> + <div>And, as I said before,</div> + <div class="in1">She's as cunning as she can be.</div> +</div> +<br /> + </div> + <p class="right"><span class="small">A.C.H.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Roseville, N.J.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + We thought perhaps you would like to hear about + our pet sparrow "Bob." We have had him since last July, and he is + just as cunning as he can be. He was so young at first, he could + not fly, and slept in a little box, with a piece of flannel over + him; but now he roosts on a nail in the sitting-room bay-window. We + do not keep him in a cage, but he goes all over the house, and does + just as he pleases. He has had plenty of chances to fly out, but + seems to be happy and contented, and makes himself perfectly at + home. When we are eating, he helps himself to anything he wants, + and is not a bit bashful. He loves honey, and will eat all he + wants, and then wipe his bill on any one's dress or on the + table-cloth. He will jump on papa's whiskers, and pull mamma's + hair-pins out of her hair, steal her needle, and do many other + mischievous things. He has chosen one of the gas-globes for a + nesting-place, and carries bits of cloth, strings, or any such + thing that he can find, and puts them there. He tries to sing, and + has learned several of the canary's notes. We catch him sometimes, + and put him under a hat, to tease him. He then gets angry, pecks + the hat, and scolds at the top of his voice. We have a rabbit and a + guinea-pig, too; but if they come into the room where Bob is, he + will fly at them and peck them till they run out. Every one who + sees him thinks he is a wonderful bird, and we should feel very + sorry if anything should happen to him.—Yours truly,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">ELLA AND EDWIN H.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + I have a little sister named Pet, because we + love her so. A few days ago our papa had a narrow escape from being + burned, and Pet asked me if I thanked God for taking care of him. I + said, "Yes." "And did God say, 'You're welcome'?" asked Pet.</p> + + <p>Now, don't you think that was a funny idea?—Your affectionate + reader,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">R.L.P.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p><span class="small">GULLIVER'S TRAVELS AND THE MOONS OF MARS</span>.—A correspondent writes that +in Gulliver's "Voyage to Laputa," an imaginary flying island, Dean +Swift, the author, describes some over-wise philosophers, and, among +other things, says:</p> + + <blockquote><p>"They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, + which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the + center of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and + the outer-most, five; the former revolves in the space of ten + hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares + of their periodical times are very nearly in proportion with the + cubes of their distance from the center of Mars."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Now, these two satellites were not discovered really until August 16th, +1877, but Dean Swift's book appeared it 1726, more than one hundred and +fifty years before! But, although the Dean's guesswork is not exactly +correct, he comes very near the truth when he states the time taken by +each moon in going around the primary. This you will see by comparing +his words with the following letter, which we have received from +Professor Asaph Hall, the actual discoverer of the moons:</p> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.,<br /> + March 4th, 1878. </p> + + <p><span class="small">EDITOR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + The periods (of revolution) of the satellites + of Mars are as follows,—Deimus being the outer satellite, and + Phobus the inner one:</p> + + <table summary="Periods of the satellites."> + <tr><td>Period of Deimus,</td><td>30 hours,</td><td>18 minutes,</td><td> 0 seconds.</td></tr> + <tr><td>Period of Phobus,</td><td> 7 hours,</td><td>39 minutes,</td><td>16 seconds.</td></tr> + </table> + + <p>These values are very nearly correct, and will be changed in the + final calculation only a few seconds, if at all.—Yours truly,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">A. HALL.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p>The following are extracts from the letters of a young girl now +traveling in Europe:</p> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Berlin, 1877.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + We were in the Auer Cathedral, Munich, looking + down the long nave, when troops of little children, boys and girls, + each with a little knapsack strapped between the shoulders, leaving + the hands and arms free for play, came hastening in by twos and + threes, till the whole church seemed full. They all knelt down, + whispered a few words of prayer, and remained for a brief space, + silent and motionless, bowed down in devotion; then they quietly + arose and went out. I shall not soon forget Auer Cathedral with its + little worshipers.</p> + + <p>We have been settled at Berlin for a month. Being the residence of + the Emperor and Court, it is very gay with balls, theaters, etc., + and the streets are bright and lively with fine uniforms, prancing + horses, and carriages full of richly dressed ladies, their escorts + riding on horseback at the side. It presents a lively contrast with + Munich in these respects, but, as to sunlight, it is a gloomy + place. Thus far we have had only four pleasant days, and on those + the sun set between three and four in the afternoon. Some days we + thought it did not rise at all! We realize now, for the first time, + how far north Germany is.</p> + + <p>We improved one of our pleasant days by a trip to Potsdam, where is + the summer palace of the kings of Prussia. Here are the rooms of + Frederick the Great, just as he arranged them. His library is + chiefly of French books, and fills the shelves, which are + everywhere, from floor to ceiling—upon the doors, even, so that, + when they are shut, one feels imprisoned in books!</p> + + <p>At the opposite end of the palace are the rooms once occupied by + Voltaire. The walls are covered with painted wood carvings of cats, + dogs, parrots, and peacocks, which Frederick caused to be placed + there after his quarrel with Voltaire, to express his opinion of + the Frenchman's traits of character.</p> + + <p>Directly under the walls of the palace stands an idle windmill, now + owned by the Emperor. The noise of this windmill used to annoy the + queen, so Frederick sent for the miller and said to him:</p> + + <p>"We two cannot live so near each other. One of us must buy the + property of the other. Now, will you buy my palace?"</p> + + <p>"But my leige, I have not the money," replied the miller.</p> + + <p>"Then I must buy your mill," said the king.</p> + + <p>"You also have not money enough; I will not sell," was the miller's + reply.</p> + + <p>When the king hinted his power to take possession by force, the + sturdy miller said he could and would sue the king.</p> + + <p>"Well," said the monarch, "since you have so high an opinion of the + justice to be found in my courts of law, I will not molest you."</p> + + <p>So the windmill continued to creak and whirr in the ears of the + royal family for a long time.</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">ADA.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p><span class="small">HERBERT J</span>.—In answer to your request, +we give a copy of the poem entitled "The Little Boy who Went Out to Swim," +published first in <span class="small">ST. NICHOLAS</span> for September, +1874. Several of our readers have asked to see +the poem printed, without its pictures, in the "Letter-Box," as the +interweaving of the illustrations with the text, as they first +appeared, hindered the meaning and beauty of the verses from being +fully understood.</p> +<br /><br /> +<h4>THE LITTLE BOY WHO WENT OUT TO SWIM.</h4> + +<h4>BY HENRY HOWLAND.</h4> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>A little boy went out to swim,</div> + <div class="in1">One pleasant day in June,</div> + <div>And the fish all came to talk to him,</div> + <div class="in1">That summer afternoon.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"Come down, dear little boy," they said,</div> + <div class="in1">"And let us show to you</div> + <div>The homes of fish, merman and maid.</div> + <div class="in1">Under the waters blue.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"We'll show you where the naiads sleep,</div> + <div class="in1">And where the tritons dwell;</div> + <div>The treasures of the unknown deep,</div> + <div class="in1">The coral and the shell.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>"The siren's song shall charm your ears,</div> + <div class="in1">And lull you into rest;</div> + <div>No monster shall arouse your fears,</div> + <div class="in1">Or agitate your breast."</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The little boy was glad to go;</div> + <div class="in1">And all the company</div> + <div>Of fish escorted him below,—</div> + <div class="in1">A pageant brave to see!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The pilot-fish swam on ahead,</div> + <div class="in1">The shark was at his heels;</div> + <div>The dolphin a procession led</div> + <div class="in1">Of porpoise, whale, and eels.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The trout, all brave in red and gold,</div> + <div class="in1">Many a caper cut;</div> + <div>And after them came crowds untold</div> + <div class="in1">Of cod and halibut.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The blue-fish with the black-fish swam;</div> + <div class="in1">Who knows the joy each felt?</div> + <div>The perch was escort to the clam,</div> + <div class="in1">The oyster to the smelt.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The muscalonge, from northern lake,</div> + <div class="in1">That leaps the harbor bar,</div> + <div>Swam closely in the sturgeon's wake,</div> + <div class="in1">Famous for caviar!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The haddock floated side by side</div> + <div class="in1">With carp from foreign shore,</div> + <div>And with them, through the seething tide,</div> + <div class="in1">Went scollops by the score.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The sword-fish, like a soldier brave,</div> + <div class="in1">His saber flashing bare,</div> + <div>Went o'er the swelling ocean wave,</div> + <div class="in1">With bold and martial air.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The jelly-fish went trembling down;</div> + <div class="in1">The star-fish mildly beamed;</div> + <div>And through the waves, like diamonds thrown,</div> + <div class="in1">The sun-fish glanced and gleamed.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The sea-bass, black-bass, pike and dace</div> + <div class="in1">Went dashing on like mad;</div> + <div>The sheep's-head, with his lamb-like face,</div> + <div class="in1">Swam by the graceful shad.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The pickerel leaped and danced along;</div> + <div class="in1">The frog-fish puffed and blew;</div> + <div>The herring in a countless throng</div> + <div class="in1">Swam by, a merry crew.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The turtles sailed a Dutch-built fleet,</div> + <div class="in1">On port and starboard tack,</div> + <div>While through their ranks, with caution meet,</div> + <div class="in1">Darted the stickleback.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The shrimp and lobster clawed along</div> + <div class="in1">With others of their kin,</div> + <div>And in their company a throng</div> + <div class="in1">Of lively terrapin.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The bull-pouts, dressed in black and drab,</div> + <div class="in1">With horns and visage grim,</div> + <div>Preceded the meandering crab;</div> + <div class="in1">The mackerel followed him.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Sea-spiders, in their coats of mail;</div> + <div class="in1">Shiners, with silver vest;</div> + <div>White-fish and weak-fish at their tail,</div> + <div class="in1">Swam on with all the rest.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The royal turbot, true and tried,</div> + <div class="in1">Subject of England's queen,</div> + <div>Sailed on in regal pump and pride,</div> + <div class="in1">With whitebait and sardine.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>The knightly salmon, king of fish,</div> + <div class="in1">Without reproach or fear,</div> + <div>The noblest fish a man could wish,</div> + <div class="in1">Came bringing up the rear.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>And thus they reached the mermaid's cave.</div> + <div class="in1">Who, with a heart-felt joy,</div> + <div>To her bright home beneath the wave,</div> + <div class="in1">Welcomed the little boy!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p>Here is a letter which we print just as it was written by the little +one who sent it to us:</p> + + <blockquote><p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span> + I send you a little story to put in the letter Box.</p> + + <p>Once there was a little Boy His Name was Harry He lived with His + Mother in a humble little Cottage) His Mothers Name was Mrs Jones + she was a Widow) she and Harry lived all alone) one day Harry came + Home from school and faced the Doctor at the Door young man said + the Dr to the Boy your Mother is very sick) she was doing what you + ought to of done for her) what is that sir said Harry choping Wood + Bringing in Coal and all such work as that) she straned her self + and is very ill) poor Harry hung down His head for His Mother had + asked Him to chop the wood this Morning when He was mending his + Ball) He said I will be there in a moment Mother) and like all Boy + He forgot) oh how poor Harry felt When He thought of this) but + Harry took good care of His Mother ever after) a Friend of Harries + got Him a good Situation and Made a man of Him and He allways did + what His Mother asked Him) ever after Harry said to the Dr one day) + Dr I can take care of Mother now and I allways will</p> + + <p>So we hope Harry will take care of His Widow Mother, all the) rest + of His days)</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">M.J.W.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<p>Here is a nice letter that a little girl wrote to her mother nearly +thirty-three years ago. The little girl was away from her town home on +a visit to the country for the sake of her health; and all that she +wrote in the letter was true.</p> + + <blockquote><p class="right">Mr. McDonald's, October 1st, 1845.</p> + + <p><span class="small">MY DEAR MOTHER</span>: + I wish my arms were long enough to reach two miles, + I want to give you a good hug, I am so glad you let me come out + here. I was a little bit afraid last night, the horse was so high, + and it was so dark. I never rode on a horse in the dark before, you + know. It was so dark in the woods I could not see anything, but my + eyes would stay so wide open they hurt me. I held as tight to Mr. + George as I could; I felt as though some big thing was just going + to snatch me off the horse, all the time; my fingers felt like they + were full of pins when I let go. Everything does taste so good out + here, and the air is so clean. I stretched out my arms to it this + morning, it felt so good. We have a play-house on the rocks; it has + two fire-places. They are made out of flat stones, and inside of + the big stones we set up two smaller stones, and lay a flat one + across, and there we do our cooking. We are going to have a party + to-night, and have been busy all day getting ready. All the good + things are cooked, waiting till night, when Mac will be home. We + have three splendid baked apples, and three eggs roasted in the + ashes, but we have only two pies. We could only find two + blacking-box lids, and as these are our pie-pans, we have only two + pies. We washed and scoured the black all off, and they looked as + nice as Sophia's tins, which she will never let us touch at home. + Our biscuits are not as nice quite as hers, it was so hard to make + them round, and our range don't bake on both sides, so we had to + turn them over to get both sides cooked. Our things all look very + good, and I am real hungry for them, but you know it would not do + to eat the party before Mac comes. We have made wreaths of + maple-leaves, to wear on our heads to-night, one for Mac, too. We + thought it would do for a boy to wear a wreath as long as there are + so few of us, and the leaves are so pretty; and as it is my + birthday, I have some leaves basted all around my blue dress, and + it looks lovely.</p> + + <p>I must stop now. Give my love to all. Take good care of Fideli, and + kiss all around for your loving daughter,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">JULIA.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Clifton, Iroquois County, Ill.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + We want to tell the little boys and girls that + read <span class="small">ST. NICHOLAS</span>, how a greedy rooster got caught in a trap. We + set the trap to catch rabbits, but didn't get any; so the corn was + left, and the chickens were all walking around, and saw it, and + tried to get in to eat it; but the selfish old rooster drove them + all away, and crowded in himself, and began to eat the corn, when + down came the trap, and he was fast, but all the others were + free.—Yours truly,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">ARTHUR AND BROWNIE S.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">South Boston, Mass.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + I read the "Letter-Box" every month with much + interest, and have often seen puzzles and "such things" in it, so I + send you one, and hope that somebody will find it out:</p> + + <p>There was somebody born in England, on the 16th of July, 1723. He + was the son of a clergyman, and his father was rather strict with + him. He made a drawing of his father's school with so much accuracy + of outline, and in such correct perspective, that the grave + clergyman could no longer maintain his severity. He saw that his + son would be a painter, and resolved to aid him. An anecdote + related of the artist runs thus: One day, a man called to see some + of his pictures, and asked him what he mixed his colors with. The + painter answered, "With brains, sir—with brains!"—Yours,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">FRANK R.M.</span></p></blockquote> + + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + + <blockquote><p class="right">Columbia, S.C.</p> + + <p><span class="small">DEAR ST. NICHOLAS</span>: + Our schoolma'am told us the other day that it is + generally best to use short words instead of long words in writing + or speaking, and she gave us a verse to copy as a specimen. She + said that it was written by a man who was perfect master of seven + languages, knew six others very well, was at home with another + eight, and read with a lexicon four more,—in all twenty-five + different languages; and although he could use tremendously long + words when he chose, yet he made a point of using short ones, even + though they were old and odd and not in common use. I send you a + copy of the verse, and I think he might have done much better if he + had used longer and more forcible words.—Yours truly,</p> + + <p class="right"><span class="small">STELLA G.</span></p> + </blockquote> + <div class="poem" style="margin-left:-10%;"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div>"Think not that strength lies in the big round word,</div> + <div class="in1">Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak.</div> + <div>To whom can this be true that once has heard</div> + <div class="in1">The cry for help, the tongue that all men speak</div> + <div>When want or woe or fear is in the throat,</div> + <div class="in1">So that each word gasped forth is like a shriek</div> + <div>Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange wild note</div> + <div class="in1">Sung by some foe or fiend. There is a strength</div> + <div>Which dies if stretched too far or spun too fine,</div> + <div class="in1">Which has more height than depth, more breadth than length.</div> + <div>Let but this force of thought and speech be mine,</div> + <div class="in1">And he that will may take the sleek fat phrase,</div> + <div>Which glows and burns not, though it gleam and shine—</div> + <div class="in1">Light but not heat—a flash, but not a blaze!"</div> + </div></div> + +<p>Long words are not always the most "forcible," Stella,—nor, on the +other hand, are they always to be avoided. Sometimes the best word for +expressing our meaning may be long to spell, but easy to understand; +and, again, a word may be short and yet fail to tell exactly what we +wish to say. The verse you copy is not a convincing example of the +power of short words, although it shows that much may be done with +them. Frequently a word is chosen for its rhythmic quality—the +pleasantness and ease with which its sound fits in with the +context—rather than because it is long or short. Mr. Longfellow's +poem, "The Three Kings" published in the last Christmas number of <span class="small">ST. +NICHOLAS</span>, is an example of a fine poem in simple and rhythmical +language, the study of which will improve your style of writing more +than any number of rules that we might give you.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div> + +<div id="puzzles"> + +<h2><a name="riddlebox" id="riddlebox">THE RIDDLE-BOX.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /><br /> + + +<div class="center"><b>HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.</b></div> + +<p>The central letters, read downward, name a fashionable and beautiful +pet.</p> + +<p>1. A large reptile. 2. Idolizing. 3. A foe. 4. To stain. 5. A consonant. +6. A dandy. 7. To baffle. 8. Good news. 9. Capable of being made better.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">G.H.W.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>BLANK APOCOPES.</b></div> + +<p>In each of the following sentences, the second blank is to be filled +with the first syllable of the word used in the first blank.</p> + +<p>1. From some —— we made a portion of our ——. 2. The —— was +extinguished when we made a —— for the door. 3. On the second shelf +of the —— you will find some ——. 4. It was of a bright —— color, +the —— that he had.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">C.D.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>EASY BEHEADINGS.</b></div> + +<p>1. Behead to strike, and leave what all must do. 2. Behead what +children like, and leave a man's nickname. 3. Behead two pronouns, and +leave two other pronouns. 4. Behead an article of furniture, and leave +capable. 5. Behead a color, and leave a writing material. 6. Behead +something belonging to flowers, and leave a coin. 7. Behead a part of +the head, and leave what comes from the clouds. 8. Behead another +color, and leave a kind of stove. 9. Behead a sport, and leave a girl's +name. 10. Behead a part of a ship, and leave a tree. 11. Behead a kind +of bird, and leave disturbance. 12. Behead an article of food, and +leave a kind of tree. 13. Behead a table utensil, and leave a bird. 14. +Behead to frighten, and leave anxiety. 15. Behead a toilet article, and +leave to crowd.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">A.D.L. AND S.W.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>EASY TRIPLE ACROSTIC.</b></div> + +<p>The primals, read downward, name a bird; the centrals, an animal; +the finals, an insect.</p> + +<p>1. Disentangling. 2. Echo. 3. A city in a Western State. 4. Can't +be worse.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">ESOR.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>FRAME PUZZLE.</b></div> + +<pre class="center"> + * * + * * +* * * * * * * * + * * + * * +* * * * * * * * + * * + * * +</pre> + + +<p>Make the frame of four words of eight letters each, so that the letter +A shall come at each of the four corners where the words intersect. The +words mean: Sweet-smelling, to make a scale, a fillet, an ecclesiastic.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">BESSIE AND HER COUSIN.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>HIDDEN FRENCH SENTENCE.</b></div> + +<p>Find in the following sentence the French words with which the Emperor +Alexander of Russia once described St. Petersburg:</p> + +<p>Give him a good anvil, let him deal sound blows on the irons for the +pier, repeated and strong, and the work will last.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">B.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PROVERB PUZZLE.</b></div> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<img src="images/image39.png" width="389" height="400" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p>The answer is a proverb of eight words. Each numeral beneath the +pictures represents a letter in that word of the proverb which is +indicated by that numeral—5 showing that the letter it designates +belongs to the fifth word of the proverb, 3 to the third word, and so +on.</p> + +<p>Find a word that describes each picture and contains as many letters as +there are numerals beneath the picture itself. This is the first +process. Then put down, some distance apart, the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, +6, 7, 8, to correspond with the words of the proverb. Group beneath +figure 6 all the letters designated by the numeral 6 in the numbering +beneath the pictures. You will thus have in a group all the letters +contained by the sixth word of the proverb, and you will then have only +to transpose those letters in order to form the word itself. Follow the +same process of grouping and transposition in forming each of the +remaining words of the proverb. Of course, the transposition need not +be begun until all the letters have been set apart in their proper +groups.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">S.R.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>THREE EASY SQUARE-WORDS.</b></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Three easy square-words."> +<tr><td align="right" style="width:40%;">I.—</td><td align="left">1. A bard of fame.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">2. From mines I came.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">3. A fish's name.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II.—</td><td align="left">1. The mountain's fringe.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">2. I make slaves cringe.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">3. A ruddy tinge.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III.—</td><td align="left">1. What bad men hate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">2. I blanch the pate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">3. To join or mate.</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">N. AND VIOLET.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>EASY ENIGMA.</b></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>My first is in dark, but not in light;</div> + <div class="in1">My second in girl, but not in boy;</div> + <div>My third is in peace, but not in fight;</div> + <div class="in1">My fourth in mourning, not in joy;</div> + <div>My fifth is in flowers, but not in weeds;</div> + <div class="in1">My sixth in kind, but not in cruel;</div> + <div>My seventh is in drives, and also in leads;</div> + <div class="in1">And my whole is a beautiful jewel.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">N.K.K.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>REVERSIBLE DOUBLE DIAMOND AND CONCEALED WORD-SQUARE.</b></div> + +<pre class="center"> + - + - E - + - E - E - + - E - + - +</pre> + + +<p>Fill the vacant places with letters to form a reversible double diamond +which shall inclose a reversible word-square.—Centrals: Perpendicular, +to make merry; horizontal, a mechanical power. Word-square: 1, a +number; 2, part of the day; 3, to knit.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">H.H.D.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>EASY SYNCOPATIONS.</b></div> + +<p>1. Syncopate a composite metal, and leave a fish. 2. Syncopate an +article of food, and leave an ornament. 3. Syncopate a map, and +leave a vehicle. 4. Syncopate a pungent spice, and leave a small bay. +5. Syncopate a wading bird, and leave a reed. 6. Syncopate a short, +ludicrous play, and leave a part of the body. 7. Syncopate another part +of the body, and leave a wild animal. 8. Syncopate a domestic animal, +and leave articles of clothing. 9. Syncopate a small animal, and leave +to ponder. 10. Syncopate a flower, and leave a domestic animal.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">ISOLA.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>PICTORIAL TRANSPOSITION PUZZLES.</b></div> + +<p>To solve these five puzzles: Find for each picture a word, or words, +that will correctly describe it, and then transpose the letters of the +descriptive word or words so as to form another word, which will answer +to the definition given below the picture.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">B.</span></div> + +<table summary="Pictorial transposition puzzle."> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="4"><img src="images/image40-1.png" width="400" height="147" alt="" /></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="4" align="center">1. Gives right 10.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +<tr> +<td align="center"><img src="images/image40-2.png" width="59" height="86" alt="" /></td> +<td align="center"><img src="images/image40-3.png" width="136" height="83" alt="" /></td> +<td align="center"><img src="images/image40-4.png" width="122" height="58" alt="" /></td> +<td align="center"><img src="images/image40-5.png" width="73" height="84" alt="" /></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="center">2. A prince of Hindustan.</td> +<td align="center">3. A token of victory.</td> +<td align="center">4. A sylvan deity.</td> +<td align="center">5. A creator.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +</table> + +<br /> +<div class="center"><b>EASY SQUARE-WORD.</b></div> + +<p>1. Soothing ointment. 2. A bitter-tasting plant. 3. Knowledge gained +from reading or study. 4. Mild of temper.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">K.</span></div> + + +<div class="center"><b>EASY DIAMOND.</b></div> + +<p>1. A consonant. 2. A lively animal. 3. To moisten or irrigate. +4. A jewel. 5. A consonant.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">ISOLA.</span></div> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="answers" id="answers">ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN APRIL NUMBER.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<br /> + +<p><span class="small">NUMERICAL ENIGMA</span>.—Victor +Emanuel. 1. Rome; 2. Turin; 3. Venice; +4. Milan.</p> + +<p><span class="small">EASY DIAMOND PUZZLE</span>.—G, bEt, GeNoa, tOe, A.</p> + +<p><span class="small">WORD SYNCOPATIONS</span>.—1. Parsonage—arson, +page. 2. Noticeable—ice, +notable. 3. Bewilder—wild, beer. 4. Devotee—vote, Dee. +5. Decanter—cant, deer.</p> + +<p><span class="small">ANAGRAMS</span>.—1. Annoyance. 2. Combinations. +3. Conversion. 4. Dangerous. +5. Ceremonial. 6. Madrigal. 7. Unalterable. 8. Disengage.</p> + +<p><span class="small">DROP-LETTER PUZZLE</span>.—"He doth much who +doth well what he hath to do."</p> + +<p><span class="small">EASY RHOMBOID PUZZLE</span>.—</p> +<pre class="center"> + C A R E + N E A T + D R O P + L E A P</pre> + +<p><span class="small">PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PUZZLE</span>.—Frigates. +Feast, stag, gate, seat, rats, +air, fist, tars, safe, stage.</p> + +<p><span class="small">SEXTUPLE WORD-CROSS</span>.—Full perpendicular: +Bobolink. Full horizontal: +Bayonet. Top limb: Bob. Bottom limb: Link. Left arm: Bay. Right arm: +Net.</p> + +<p><span class="small">PRESIDENTIAL DISCOVERIES</span>.—1. Ant. +2. Washing. 3. Martin, tailor +(Taylor). 4. Ruth. 5. Birch (<i>Barch</i>ard). 6. Abraham, Zachary. +7. John, James, Andrew, Thomas. 8. Tin. 9. Lard, ham. 10. Mil. 11. Ton. +12. Frank. 13. Andre. 14. Rank. 15. Pier. 16. Aft. 17. Ford, dams. +18. Roe. 19. Ayes. 20. Franklin. 21. Ulysses. 22. Ash. 23. William Henry. +24. Grant. 25. Mi, la, re. 26. I Am. 27. Jam. 28. Hen. 29. Ada. 30. More. +31. Son.</p> + +<p><span class="small">EASY DOUBLE ACROSTIC</span>.—America, England. +1. AgreeablE. 2. Main. 3. EgG. +4. RaiL. 5. IdeA. 6, ClaN. 7. AmuseD.</p> + +<p><span class="small">NUMERICAL PUZZLE</span>—Madagascar. Dam, sag, car.</p> + +<pre class="center"> + S C + D A M + R G +</pre> + +<p><span class="small">A PROVERB AMONG PROVERBS</span>.—"Love can +neither be bought nor sold; its +only price is love."</p> + +<p><span class="small">A MEDLEY</span>.—-Scrape, crape, rape, ape. +Capers, cape, cap. Pacers, pace, +ace. Casper, asp.</p> + +<p><span class="small">HALF WORD-SQUARE</span>.—</p> + +<pre class="center"> + S E N A T O R + E X O G E N + N O V E L + A G E S + T E L + O R + R +</pre> + +<br /><br /> +<p>Answers to puzzles in the March number were received, before March 18, +from R.T. McKeever, Eddie Vultee, Charles M. Jones, George J. Fiske, +Esther L. Fiske, "Guesser," Milly and Maude Adams, Jay B. Benton, Chas. +G. Todd, M.A. Newlands, "Mione and White Fawn," Leonie Giraud; +Unsigned, Philadelphia; Fred M. Pease, Katie Burnett, Mary C. Warren, +Jennie Dillingham and Frances V. Lord, M.W. Collet, Catherine Cowl, +Allie Bertram, Julia F. Allen, T.J. De la Hunt, G.L., Carrie Speiden +and Mary F. Speiden, "Bessie and her Cousin," Nettie I.G., Xerxes J. +Booren, "Nettie 722," "Queen Bess," E.C. Moss, Nellie Baker, A.L.S. and +L.R.P., Otto Dreier, "Prebo," "Prebo's Ma," Mary Belle Giddings, Nellie +Kellogg, Lillie Stone, Grace C. Raymond, J. Harty Townsend, C. Lothrop, +Robin Nelson, Ben Merrill, Bessie Cary, Edith Claypole Ewing, Nellie +Wooster, Rufus Clark, Nellie C. Graham, Harriet H. Doyle, Bertie E. +Bailey, May Odell, "Thorndale," Louie G. Hinsdale and Arnold Guyot +Cameron, Robert P. Christian, Belle W. Brown, Dellie Wilmarth, Emily +Morison, Frank Bowman, Fred Worthington, Walter Stockdale, Carroll B. +Carr, Eddie F. Worcester, Charley W. Sprague, Nellie Emerson; "Winnie," +Brookline; Josie Morris Brown, Mary W. Ovington, Allie Armstrong, +Sidney S. Conger, Nellie J. Hutchings, S.N. Knapp, F. Armington, Austin +D. Mabie, Carrie and Sharlie King, Willie B. Deas, Bessie B. Whiting, +Nettie A. Ives, Richard Emmins, A. Gunther, H.B. Ayers, Frances Hunter, +Alice B. Moore, Percy Crenshaw, "Robin Redbreast," John V.L. Pierson, +Mattie S.J. Swallow, Gertrude V. Sharp, Harriet Etting, Mary H. +Stickney, Maggie J. Gemmill, Georgie B., B. McVay Allison, Jennie +Beach; Nellie T. Dozier and Julia T. Gardiner; Everett B. Clark, R.H. +Marr, Jr., Jennie O. Smith, Lillie Singich, Georgine C. Schnitzspahn, +F.D., Anna E. Mathewson, Edward C. Niles, R.W. Abert, Mollie W. Morris, +Sam V. Gilbert, Mary H. Bradley, William H. Atkinson, Alice N. Dunn, +Philip Cary, Fred Whittlesey, Bessie L. Barnes, "Nightingale," Grant +Squires, E.C., L.C.L.; Unsigned, Seymour, Conn.; Lafla Whitaker, Edna +C. Lewis, Jennie R. McClure, "Eagle;" Sadie Duffield and Constance +Grand-Pierre; Barton Longacre, Eva Doeblin, Belle M. Grier, +"Minnehaha," Emmie O. Johnson, "Sister Lizzie," Harry Haskell, Addison +F. Hunis; Kittie Hamilton Chapman and Carrie R. Heller; and Elmer +Dwiggins. Gladys H. Wilkinson and John P. Brewin, both of England, also +sent answers.</p> + +<p>Correct answers to all puzzles were received From "King Wompster."</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and +Girls, Vol. 5, May, 1878, No. 7., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 16173-h.htm or 16173-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/1/7/16173/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lynn Bornath 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. 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