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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:51:05 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:51:05 -0700 |
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diff --git a/17409-h/17409-h.htm b/17409-h/17409-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4076b9f --- /dev/null +++ b/17409-h/17409-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6360 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of "St. Nicholas, Vol. V., September, 1878, No. 11, edited by Mary Mapes Dodge. + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- /* old browser blockout*/ +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + +body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + +h1,h2,h3,h4 { text-align: center; } +h2,h3,h4 { font-weight: normal; } +h2 { margin-top: 3em; } + +a:link { text-decoration: none; } +a:visited { text-decoration: none; } +a:active { text-decoration: underline; } +a:link:hover { text-decoration: underline; } + +hr { width: 33%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + +hr.short { width: 20%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + +hr.tiny { width: 10%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + +img.border { border: 1px black solid; } +.imgleft { float: left; padding-right: 2em; } +.imgright { float: right; padding-left: 2em; } +.imgcenter { text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 0.5em; } + +#toc ul { font-size: 90%; } +#toc li { list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } +#toc ul.sub { font-size: 100%; } +#toc li.sub { margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1em; } +p.noindent { text-indent: 0em; } + +#puzzles p { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: justify; + text-indent: 0em; } +#puzzles div.center { margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 1em; } + +#puzzles h3 { font-weight:bold; } + +.poem { text-align: center; } +.poem .stanza { margin-left: 28%; margin-right: auto; text-align: left; } +.poem .stanza2 { margin-left: 35%; margin-right: auto; text-align: left; } +.stanza div { line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left; + margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; } +.stanza2 div { line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: left; + text-align: left; margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; } +.poem .stanzathanks { margin-right: auto; text-align: left; } +.stanzathanks div { line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0em; + text-align: left; margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -1em; } +.stanzathanks div.first { line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0em; + text-align: left; margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; } + +.poem .in1 {margin-left: 3em;} +.poem .in15 {margin-left: 3.5em;} +.poem .in2 {margin-left: 4em;} +.poem .in6 {margin-left: 8em;} +.poem p.right { text-align: right; } +.poem div.quote { text-indent: -2.4em; } + +.small { font-size: 90%; } +.center { text-align: center; } +.right { text-align: right; } +.caption { font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0; text-indent: 0em; + text-align: center; max-width: 500px; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } +.author { font-variant: small-caps; text-align:center; } +.sc { font-variant:small-caps; } + +.vlouter { width: 100%; border-top: 1px black solid; + border-bottom: 1px black solid; padding-top: 0.25em; + padding-bottom: 0.25em; } +.volumeline { width: 100%; border-top: 1px black solid; + border-bottom: 1px black solid; padding-top: 0.25em; + padding-bottom: 0.25em; } +.volumeleft { float:left; width:33%; text-align:left; } +.volumeright { float:right; text-align:right; width:33%; } +.spacer { clear: both; } + +table { text-align: center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } +td.right {text-align:right;} +td.center {text-align:center;} +td {text-align:left;} + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + /*old browser end */ --> + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, +Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Mary Mapes Dodge + +Release Date: December 28, 2005 [EBook #17409] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, LM Bornath, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image01" id="image01"><img src="images/image01.jpg" width="475" +height="500" alt="Shipwrecked" title="Shipwrecked" /></a> +<p class="caption">SHIPWRECKED. Drawn by J.W. Champney.</p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h1>ST. NICHOLAS.</h1> + +<div class="vlouter"> +<div class="volumeline"> +<div class="volumeleft">VOL. V.</div> +<div class="volumeright">No. 11.</div> +<div class="center">SEPTEMBER, 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">SHIPWRECKED.</a> (<i>Illustration</i>)</li> + <li><a href="#fernseed">FERN-SEED.</a> By Celia Thaxter.</li> + <li><a href="#mackerel">MACKEREL-FISHING.</a> By Robert Arnold. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image02">MACKEREL-BOATS.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#spring">SPRING AND SUMMER.</a> By Dora Read Goodale.</li> + <li><a href="#ranier">THE AX OF RANIER.</a> By Thomas Dunn English. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image03">FELLING THE TREES.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image04">THE COMBAT WITH SIR PAUL.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#scarecrow">THE PAINTER'S SCARE-CROW.</a> By C.P. Cranch. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image05">THE PAINTER'S SCARE-CROW.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#image06">BY THE SAD SEA WAVES.</a> (<i>Illustration</i>)</li> + <li><a href="#lilacs">UNDER THE LILACS.</a> By Louisa M. Alcott. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image07">THE BLUE-BEARD GROUP.</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image09">THE BROOK ABOVE THE MARSH.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#image10">SATURDAY AFTERNOON.</a> (<i>Illustration</i>)</li> + <li><a href="#bear">LITTLE BEAR.</a> By Samuel W. Duffield. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image11">LITTLE BEAR.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#george">MY ST. GEORGE.</a> By Alice Maude Eddy. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image12">ON THE ROCK.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#prison">BORN IN PRISON.</a> By Julia P. Ballard. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image13">THE PRISONERS.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#lilytoes">HOW LILY-TOES WAS CAUGHT IN A SHOWER.</a> By Emily H. Leland. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image14">LILY-TOES IN THE SHOWER.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#thanks">"THANKS TO YOU."</a> By Mary E. Bradley.</li> + <li><a href="#birds">HOW BIRDS FLY.</a> By Prof. W.K. Brooks. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image16"></a>BIRD</li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image17">THE EAGLE (BIRD OF PREY).</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image18">PENGUINS (SWIMMERS AND DIVERS).</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image19">QUAIL (SCRATCHERS).</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image21">MODEL OF BIRD'S WING</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image20">A SKILLFUL FLYER.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#nancy">NANCY CHIME.</a> By S. Smith. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image22">NANCY CHIME</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#caught">HOW HE CAUGHT HIM.</a> (<i>Illustrated story</i>)</li> + <li><a href="#teaparty">WHO PUT OUT THE TEA-PARTY?</a> By Ellen Frances Terry. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image24">THE TEA-PARTY.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#fox">THE FOX, THE MONKEY, AND THE PIG.</a> By Howard Pyle. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image25">THE FOX, THE MONKEY, AND THE PIG</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#dab">DAB KINZER: A STORY OF A GROWING BOY.</a> By William O. Stoddard. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustrations:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image26">THE FIRE</a></li> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image27">"I HASN'T SAID HE MIGHT GO."</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#turkeys">THE FOX AND THE TURKEYS; OR, CHARLEY AND THE OLD FOLKS.</a> By Susan Coolidge. + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image28">THE FOX AND THE TURKEYS</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#image29">OUT FISHING.</a> (<i>Illustration</i>)</li> + <li><a href="#hiddy">HIDDY-DIDDY!</a> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image30">HIDDY-DIDDY</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#squirrels">THE SQUIRRELS AND THE CHESTNUT-BURR.</a> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><i>Illustration:</i> + <ul class="sub"> + <li class="sub"><a href="#image31">THE SQUIRRELS AND THE CHESTNUT-BURR</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="#image33">A WATER-SPOUT.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li><a href="#letterbox">THE LETTER-BOX.</a></li> + <li><a href="#riddle">THE RIDDLE-BOX.</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div id="all"> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="fernseed" id="fernseed">FERN-SEED.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Celia Thaxter.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>She filled her shoes with fern-seed,</div> + <div class="in1">This foolish little Nell,</div> + <div>And in the summer sunshine</div> + <div class="in1">Went dancing down the dell.</div> + <div>For whoso treads on fern-seed,—</div> + <div class="in1">So fairy stories tell,—</div> + <div>Becomes invisible at once,</div> + <div class="in1">So potent is its spell.</div> + <div>A frog mused by the brook-side:</div> + <div class="in1">"Can you see me!" she cried;</div> + <div>He leaped across the water,</div> + <div class="in1">A flying leap and wide.</div> + <div>"Oh, that's because I asked him!</div> + <div class="in1">I must not speak," she thought,</div> + <div>And skipping o'er the meadow</div> + <div class="in1">The shady wood she sought.</div> + <div>The squirrel chattered on the bough,</div> + <div class="in1">Nor noticed her at all,</div> + <div>The birds sang high, the birds sang low,</div> + <div class="in1">With many a cry and call.</div> + <div>The rabbit nibbled in the grass,</div> + <div class="in1">The snake basked in the sun,</div> + <div>The butterflies, like floating flowers,</div> + <div class="in1">Wavered and gleamed and shone.</div> + <div>The spider in his hammock swung,</div> + <div class="in1">The gay grasshoppers danced;</div> + <div>And now and then a cricket sung,</div> + <div class="in1">And shining beetles glanced.</div> + <div>'Twas all because the pretty child</div> + <div class="in1">So softly, softly trod,—</div> + <div>You could not hear a foot-fall</div> + <div class="in1">Upon the yielding sod.</div> + <div>But she was filled with such delight—</div> + <div class="in1">This foolish little Nell!</div> + <div>And with her fern-seed laden shoes,</div> + <div class="in1">Danced back across the dell.</div> + <div>"I'll find my mother now," she thought,</div> + <div class="in1">"What fun 't will be to call</div> + <div>'Mamma! mamma!' while she can see</div> + <div class="in1">No little girl at all!"</div> + <div>She peeped in through the window,</div> + <div class="in1">Mamma sat in a dream:</div> + <div>About the quiet, sun-steeped house</div> + <div class="in1">All things asleep did seem.</div> + <div>She stept across the threshold;</div> + <div class="in1">So lightly had she crept,</div> + <div>The dog upon the mat lay still,</div> + <div class="in1">And still the kitty slept.</div> + <div>Patient beside her mother's knee</div> + <div class="in1">To try her wondrous spell</div> + <div>Waiting she stood, till all at once,</div> + <div class="in1">Waking, mamma cried "Nell!</div> + <div>Where have you been? Why do you gaze</div> + <div class="in1">At me with such strange eyes?"</div> + <div>"But can you see me, mother dear?"</div> + <div class="in1">Poor Nelly faltering cries.</div> + <div>"See you? Why not, my little girl?</div> + <div class="in1">Why should mamma be blind?"</div> + <div>And little Nell unties her shoes,</div> + <div class="in1">With fairy fern-seed lined,</div> + <div>And tosses up into the air</div> + <div class="in1">A little powdery cloud,</div> + <div>And frowns upon it as it falls,</div> + <div class="in1">And murmurs half aloud,</div> + <div>"It wasn't true, a word of it,</div> + <div class="in1">About the magic spell!</div> + <div>I never will believe again</div> + <div class="in1">What fairy stories tell!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="mackerel" id="mackerel">MACKEREL-FISHING.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Robert Arnold.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>When I was a boy, I lived on the rugged coast of New England. The sea +abounded in cod, hake, mackerel, and many other kinds of fish. The +mackerel came in "schools" in late summer, and sometimes were very +plentiful. One day, my uncle James determined to go after some of these +fish, with his son George, and invited me to go with them. We were to +start before day-break the next morning. I went to bed that night with +an impatient heart, and it was a long time before I could go to sleep. +After I did get asleep, I dreamed of the whale that swallowed Jonah, +and all kinds of fishes, big and little. I was awakened by somebody +calling, in a very loud voice, "Robert! Robert!" I jumped out of bed, +with my eyes not more than half opened, and fell over the chair on +which I had put my clothes. This made me open my eyes, and I soon +realized that the voice proceeded from my cousin George, who had come +to arouse me for the fishing-voyage.</p> + +<p>I dressed as quickly as possible, and went downstairs. All was quiet in +the house except the old clock ticking in the kitchen. I went +out-of-doors and found the stars still shining. It was half-past three +o'clock in the morning. There was no sign of daylight, and even the +cocks had not begun to crow. In the darkness I espied George, who said, +"Come, it is time to start. Father is waiting for you."</p> + +<p>We walked across the fields to my uncle's house. Taking each a basket +and knife, we began our journey, and soon entered the pine-woods. As we +walked along in the darkness, we could scarcely see each other or the +path. The wind was sighing mournfully among the tree-tops, and, as we +gazed upward, we could see the stars twinkling in the clear sky.</p> + +<p>We soon emerged from the forest, and came to a sandy plain. Before us +was the ocean, just discernible. There were two or three lights, +belonging to vessels that were anchored near the shore. We could see +the waves and hear their murmur, as they broke gently upon the shore. A +soft breeze was blowing from the west, and the sea was almost as smooth +as a pond.</p> + +<p>When we reached the beach, we found that it was low water. The boat was +at high-water mark. What should we do? We did as the fishermen in that +region always do in the same circumstances—took two rollers, perhaps +six inches in diameter, lifted the bow of the boat, put one of the +rollers under it, and the other upon the sand about eight feet in front +of it. We then pushed the boat until it reached the second roller, and +rolled it upon that until the other was left behind. Then the first was +put in front of the boat, and so we kept on until our craft reached the +water. Uncle James and George took the oars, and I sat in the stern, +with the tiller in my hand, to steer.</p> + +<p>We got out over the breakers without difficulty, and rowed toward the +fishing-ground. It is queer that fishermen call the place where they +fish, "the ground," but that is only one of the many queer things that +they do. By this time, daylight had come. The eastern sky was gorgeous +with purple and red, and hues that no mortal can describe. Soon a red +arc appeared, and then the whole glorious sun, looking more grand and +beautiful than can be thought of by one who has never seen the sun rise +over the sea.</p> + +<p>"How glorious!" I exclaimed, impulsively.</p> + +<p>"Yes; it is a first-rate morning for fishing," said my uncle, whose +mind was evidently upon business, and not upon the beauties of nature.</p> + +<p>After rowing about three miles, we stopped, and prepared for fishing. +Each of us had two lines, about twenty feet long. The hooks were about +as big as large trout-hooks. Pewter had been run around the upper part +of them, so that "sinkers" were not required. The pewter answered a +double purpose; it did duty as a sinker, and, being bright, attracted +the notice of the fish. Uncle James had brought with him some clams, +which we cut from their shells and put on the hooks. We threw in our +lines and waited for a bite. We did not wait long, for, in less than a +minute, George cried out, in the most excited manner, "There's a fish +on my hook!"</p> + +<p>"Pull, then!" shouted his father.</p> + +<p>He was too agitated to pull at first, but, at length, managed to haul +in his line, and, behold, a slender fish, about eight inches long, +showing all the colors of the rainbow, as he held it up in the morning +sun! It was our first mackerel. While admiring George's prize, I +suddenly became aware of a lively tug at one of my own lines. I pulled +it in, and found that I had caught a fish just like the other, only a +little larger. No sooner had I taken it from the hook than my other +line was violently jerked. I hauled it in hurriedly, and on the end of +it was—not a mackerel, but a small, brown fish, with a big head and an +enormous mouth. I was about to take it from the hook when my uncle +called, "Look out!" He seized it, and showed me the long, needle-like +projections on its back, with which, but for his interference, my hand +might have been badly wounded. This unwelcome visitor was a sculpin. +Sculpins are very numerous in this region.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image02" id="image02"><img src="images/image02.jpg" width="500" +height="388" alt="MACKEREL-BOATS" title="MACKEREL-BOATS" /></a> +<p class="caption">MACKEREL-BOATS.</p> +</div> + +<p>Uncle James explained how I happened to catch one of them. They swim at +a much greater depth than mackerel usually do, and, while I was busy +with one line, the other had sunk some twelve or fifteen feet down +where the sculpins dwelt.</p> + +<p>When mackerel are inclined to take the bait, they are usually close to +the surface of the water. They began now to bite with the greatest +eagerness, and gave us all the work that we could do. As soon as I had +taken a fish from one line, the other demanded my attention. I did not +have to <i>wait</i> for a bite. Indeed, as soon as the hook was thrown into +the water, several mackerel would dart for it. As George said, they +were very anxious to be caught. This was very different from my +previous experience in fishing for trout in the little brooks near my +home. I used to fish all day and not get more than two or three trout, +and often I would not get one. Those that I did catch were not more +than four or five inches long. I guess some of my boy readers have had +the same experience.</p> + +<p>The only drawback was baiting the hook whenever a fish was taken from +it. Uncle James soon remedied this difficulty. He cut from the under +side of a dead mackerel six thin pieces, about half an inch in +diameter, and gave each of us two. We put them on our hooks, and they +served for bait a long time. When they were gone, we put on more of the +same kind. Mackerel will bite at any very small object, almost, that +they can see, and sometimes fishermen fasten a small silver coin to +their hooks, which will do duty as bait for days. They wish to catch as +many fish as they possibly can, while they are biting, for mackerel are +very notional. Sometimes they will bite so fast as to tire their +captors, and, ten minutes after, not one can be felt or seen. Usually, +they can be caught best in the morning and toward evening. I suppose +they have but two meals a day, breakfast and supper, going without +their dinner. In this respect, they resemble trout and many other kinds +of fish.</p> + +<p>They are caught in great numbers off the coast of Maine and +Massachusetts in the months of August and September. Hundreds of +schooners, large and small, and thousands of men and boys are employed +in the business. Standing upon the shore, near Portland, and looking +out upon the Atlantic, on a bright summer's day, you can sometimes see +more white, glistening sails of "mackerel-catchers" than you can count. +At the wharves of every little village on the sea-shore, or on a river +near the shore, boats and fishermen abound. Of late years, immense nets +or "seines" have been used, and often, by means of them, enormous +quantities of fish have been secured in one haul. The season is short, +but most of the fishermen, before the mackerel come and after they go, +engage in fishing for cod and hake, which are plentiful also. +Mackerel-catching has its joys, but it also has its sorrows and +uncertainties. One vessel may have excellent luck while another may be +very unfortunate. In short, those engaged in the pursuit of mackerel +have to content themselves with "fishermen's luck."</p> + +<p>While we were busily fishing, George called my attention to a dark fin, +projecting a few inches above the water, and gradually approaching the +boat with a peculiar wavy motion. Just before reaching us it sank out +of sight. I cast an inquiring glance at my cousin, who said, in a low +tone of voice, "A shark!" A feeling of wonder and dread came over me, +and doubtless showed itself in my face, for my uncle said, in an +assuring voice, "He will not harm us."</p> + +<p>The mackerel stopped biting all at once. Our fishing was over. It was +now about ten o'clock, and the sun had become warm. Half a mile from us +was a small island, with a plenty of grass and a few trees, but no +houses. Uncle James proposed that we should row to it, which we gladly +did. Its shores were steep and rocky, and we found much difficulty in +landing; but at last we got ashore and pulled the boat up after us. +Among the rocks we found a quantity of drift-wood; we gathered some, +and built a fire. Uncle James produced some bread and crackers from his +basket, and, after roasting some of the nice, fat mackerel on sharp +sticks before the fire, we sat down to what seemed to us a delicious +breakfast. We were in excellent spirits, and George and I cracked jokes +and laughed to our hearts' content. After our hunger had been +satisfied, we wandered over the island, which we christened Mackerel +Island, and, sitting upon a high cliff, watched the seals as they +bobbed their heads out of the water, and turned their intelligent, +dog-like faces, with visible curiosity, toward us. They did not seem to +be at all afraid, for they swam close to the rock upon which we sat. We +whistled, and they were evidently attracted by the sound. These seals +are numerous in some of the bays on the New England coast. Most of them +are small, but occasionally one is seen of considerable size. Their fur +is coarse and of little value, but they are sought after by fishermen +for the sake of their oil, which commands a ready sale for a good +price. After we had got fully rested, we launched our boat, rowed +homeward, and soon landed upon the beach.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="spring" id="spring">SPRING AND SUMMER.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Dora Read Goodale.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>In Spring we note the breaking</div> + <div class="in1">Of every baby bud;</div> + <div>In Spring we note the waking</div> + <div class="in1">Of wild flowers of the wood;</div> + <div>In Summer's fuller power,</div> + <div class="in1">In Summer's deeper soul,</div> + <div>We watch no single flower,—</div> + <div class="in1">We see, we breathe the whole.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="ranier" id="ranier">THE AX OF RANIER.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Thomas Dunn English.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>Once upon a time, there lived on the borders of a forest an old woman +named Jehanne, who had an only son, a youth of twenty-one years, who +was called Ranier. Where the two had originally come from no one knew; +but they had lived in their little hut for many years. Ranier was a +wood-cutter, and depended on his daily labor for the support of himself +and mother, while the latter eked out their scanty means by spinning. +The son, although poor, was not without learning, for an old monk in a +neighboring convent had taught him to read and write, and had given him +instructions in arithmetic. Ranier was handsome, active and strong, and +very much attached to his mother, to whom he paid all the honor and +obedience due from a son to a parent.</p> + +<p>One morning in spring, Ranier went to his work in the forest with his +ax on his shoulder, whistling one of the simple airs of the country as +he pursued his way. Striding along beneath the branches of the great +oaks and chestnuts, he began to reflect upon the hard fate which seemed +to doom him to toil and wretchedness, and, thus thinking, whistled no +longer. Presently he sat down upon a moss-covered rock, and laying his +ax by his side, let his thoughts shape themselves into words.</p> + +<p>"This is a sad life of mine," said Ranier. "I might better it, perhaps, +were I to enlist in the army of the king, where I should at least have +food and clothing; but I cannot leave my mother, of whom I am the sole +stay and support. Must I always live thus,—a poor wood-chopper, +earning one day the bread I eat the next, and no more?"</p> + +<p>Ranier suddenly felt that some one was near him, and, on looking up, +sprang to his feet and removed his cap. Before him stood a beautiful +lady, clad in a robe of green satin, with a mantle of crimson velvet on +her shoulders, and bearing in her hand a white wand.</p> + +<p>"Ranier!" said the unknown, "I am the fairy, Rougevert. I know your +history, and have heard your complaint. What gift shall I bestow on +you?"</p> + +<p>"Beautiful fairy," replied the young man, "I scarcely know what to ask. +But I bethink me that my ax is nearly worn out, and I have no money +with which to buy another."</p> + +<p>The fairy smiled, for she knew that the answer of Ranier came from his +embarrassment; and, going to a tree hard by, she tapped on the bark +with her wand. Thereupon the tree opened, and she took from a recess in +its center, a keen-edged ax with an ashen handle.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Rougevert, "is the most excellent ax in the world. With +this you can achieve what no wood-chopper has ever done yet. You have +only to whisper to yourself what you wish done, and then speak to it +properly, and the ax will at once perform all you require, without +taxing your strength, and with marvelous quickness."</p> + +<p>The fairy then taught him the words he should use, and, promising to +farther befriend him as he had need, vanished.</p> + +<p>Ranier took the ax, and went at once to the place where he intended to +labor for the day. He was not sure that the ax would do what the giver +had promised, but thought it proper to try its powers. "For," he said +to himself, "the ranger has given me a hundred trees to fell, for each +of which I am to receive a silver groat. To cut these in the usual way +would take many days. I will wish the ax to fell and trim them +speedily, so,"—he continued aloud, as he had been taught by the +fairy,—"Ax! ax! chop! chop! and work for my profit!"</p> + +<p>Thereupon the ax suddenly leapt from his hands, and began to chop with +great skill and swiftness. Having soon cut down, trimmed and rolled a +hundred trees together, it returned, and placed itself in the hands of +Ranier.</p> + +<p>The wood-chopper was very much delighted with all this, and sat there +pleasantly reflecting upon his good fortune in possessing so useful a +servant, when the ranger of the forest came along. The latter, who was +a great lord, was much surprised when he saw the trees lying there.</p> + +<p>"How is this?" asked the ranger, whose name was Woodmount. "At this +time yesterday these trees were standing. How did you contrive to fell +them so soon?"</p> + +<p>"I had assistance, my lord," replied Ranier; but he said nothing about +the magic ax.</p> + +<p>Lord Woodmount hereupon entered into conversation with Ranier, and +finding him to be intelligent and prompt in his replies, was much +pleased with him. At last he said:</p> + +<p>"We have had much difficulty in getting ready the timber for the king's +new palace, in consequence of the scarcity of wood-cutters, and the +slowness with which they work. There are over twenty thousand trees yet +to be cut and hewn, and for every tree fully finished the king allows a +noble of fifty groats, although he allows but a groat for the felling +alone. It is necessary that they should be all ready within a month, +though I fear that is impossible. As you seem to be able to get a +number of laborers together, I will allot you a thousand trees, if you +choose, should you undertake to have them all ready to be hauled away +for the builders' use, within a month's time."</p> + +<p>"My lord," answered Ranier, "I will undertake to have the whole twenty +thousand ready before the time set."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you say?" inquired the ranger, astonished at the bold +proposal.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly, my lord," was the reply. "Let me undertake the work on +condition that you will cause the forest to be guarded, and no one to +enter save they have my written permission. Before the end of the month +the trees will be ready."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image03" id="image03"><img src="images/image03.png" width="501" +height="270" alt="FELLING THE TREES" title="FELLING THE TREES" /></a> +<p class="caption">FELLING THE TREES.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Well," said Lord Woodmount, "it is a risk for me to run; but from what +you have done already, it is possible you may obtain enough woodmen to +complete your task. Yet, beware! If you succeed, I will not only give +you twenty thousand nobles of gold, but also appoint you—if you can +write, as you have told me—the deputy-ranger here; and for every day +less than a month in which you finish your contract I will add a +hundred nobles; but, if you fail, I will have you hanged on a tree. +When will you begin?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning," replied Ranier.</p> + +<p>The next morning, before daylight, Ranier took his way to the forest, +leaving all his money save three groats with his mother, and, after +telling her that he might not return for a day or so, passed the guard +that he found already set, and plunged into the wood. When he came to a +place where the trees were thickest and loftiest, he whispered to +himself what he had to do, and said to the ax: "Ax! ax! chop! chop! and +work for my profit." The ax at once went to work with great +earnestness, and by night-fall over ten thousand trees were felled, +hewn, and thrown into piles. Then Ranier, who had not ceased before to +watch the work, ate some of the provisions which he had brought with +him, and throwing himself under a great tree, whose spreading boughs +shaded him from the moonlight, drew his scanty mantle around him, and +slept soundly till sunrise.</p> + +<p>The next morning Ranier arose, and looked with delight at the work +already done; then, speaking again to the ax, it began chopping away as +before.</p> + +<p>Now, it chanced that morning that the chief ranger had started to see +how the work was being done, and, on reaching the forest, asked the +guards if many wood-cutters had entered. They all replied that only one +had made his appearance, but he must be working vigorously, since all +that morning, and the whole day before, the wood had resounded with the +blows of axes. The Lord Woodmount thereupon rode on in great anger, for +he thought that Ranier had mocked him. But presently he came to great +piles of hewn timber which astonished him much; and then he heard the +axes' sound, which astonished him more, for it seemed as though twenty +wood-choppers were engaged at once, so great was the din. When he came +to where the ax was at work, he thought he saw—and this was through +the magic power of the fairy—thousands of wood-cutters, all arrayed in +green hose and red jerkins, some felling the trees, some hewing them +into square timber, and others arranging the hewn logs into piles of a +hundred each, while Ranier stood looking on. He was so angry at the +guards for having misinformed him, that he at once rode back and rated +them soundly on their supposed untruth. But as they persisted in the +story that but one man had passed, he grew angrier than ever. While he +was still rating them, Ranier came up.</p> + +<p>"Well, my lord," said the latter, "if you will go or send to examine, +you will find that twenty thousand trees are already cut, squared, and +made ready to be hauled to the king's palace-ground."</p> + +<p>The ranger at once rode back into the forest, and, having counted the +number of piles, was much pleased, and ordered Ranier to come that day +week when the timber would be inspected, and if it were all properly +done he would receive the twenty thousand nobles agreed upon.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, my lord," suggested Ranier, "but the work has been done in +two days instead of thirty; and twenty-eight days off at a hundred +nobles per day makes twenty-two thousand eight hundred nobles as my +due."</p> + +<p>"True," replied the ranger; "and if you want money now—"</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" interrupted Ranier, "I have three groats in my purse, and ten +more at home, which will be quite sufficient for my needs."</p> + +<p>At this the ranger laughed outright, and then rode away.</p> + +<p>At the end of a week, Ranier sought the ranger's castle, and there +received not only an order on the king's treasurer for the money, but +also the patent of deputy-ranger of the king's forest, and the +allotment of a handsome house in which to live. Thither Ranier brought +his mother, and as he was now rich, he bought him fine clothing, and +hired him servants, and lived in grand style, performing all the duties +of his office as though he had been used to it all his life. People +noticed, however, that the new deputy-ranger never went out without his +ax, which occasioned some gossip at first; but some one having +suggested that he did so to show that he was not ashamed of his former +condition, folk were satisfied,—though the truth was that he carried +the ax for service only.</p> + +<p>Now it happened that Ranier was walking alone one evening in the forest +to observe whether any one was trying to kill the king's deer, and +while there, he heard the clash of swords. On going to the spot whence +the noise came, he saw a cavalier richly clad, with his back to a +tree, defending himself as he best might, from a half dozen men in +armor, each with his visor down. Ranier had no sword, for, not being a +knight, it was forbidden him to bear such a weapon; but he bethought +him of his ax, and hoped it might serve the men as it had the trees. So +he wished these cowardly assailants killed, and when he uttered the +prescribed words, the ax fell upon the villains, and so hacked and +hewed them that they were at once destroyed. But it seemed to the +knight thus rescued that it was the arm of Ranier that guided the ax, +for such was the magic of the fairy.</p> + +<p>So soon as the assailants had been slain, the ax came back into +Ranier's hand, and Ranier went to the knight, who was faint with his +wounds, and offered to lead him to his house. And when he examined him +fully, he bent on his knee, for he discovered that it was the king, +Dagobert, whom he had seen once before when the latter was hunting in +the forest.</p> + +<p>The king said: "This is the deputy-ranger, Master Ranier. Is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sire!" replied Ranier.</p> + +<p>The king laid the blade of his sword on Ranier's shoulder, and said:</p> + +<p>"I dub thee knight. Rise up, Sir Ranier! Be trusty, true and loyal."</p> + +<p>Sir Ranier arose a knight, and with the king examined the faces of the +would-be assassins, who were found to be great lords of the country, +and among them was Lord Woodmount.</p> + +<p>"Sir Ranier," said the king, "have these wretches removed and buried. +The office of chief ranger is thine."</p> + +<p>Sir Ranier, while the king was partaking of refreshments at Ranier's +house, sent trusty servants to bury the slain. After this, King +Dagobert returned to his palace, whence he sent the new knight his own +sword, a baldrick and spurs of gold, a collar studded with jewels, the +patent of chief ranger of the forest, and a letter inviting him to +visit the court.</p> + +<p>Now, when Sir Ranier went to court, the ladies there, seeing that he +was young and handsome, treated him with great favor; and even the +king's daughter, the Princess Isauré, smiled sweetly on him, which, +when divers great lords saw, they were very angry, and plotted to +injure the new-comer; for they thought him of base blood, and were much +chagrined that he should have been made a knight, and be thus welcomed +by the princess and the ladies of the court; and they hated him more as +the favorite of the king. So they conferred together how to punish him +for his good fortune, and at length formed a plan which they thought +would serve their ends.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that King Dagobert was at that time engaged in a +war with King Crimball, who reigned over an adjoining kingdom, and that +the armies of the two kings now lay within thirty miles of the forest, +and were about to give each other battle. As Sir Ranier, it was +supposed, had never been bred to feats of arms, they thought if they +could get him in the field, he would so disgrace himself as to lose the +favor of the king and the court dames, or be certainly slain. For these +lords knew nothing of the adventure of the king in the forest,—all +those in the conspiracy having been slain,—and thought that Ranier had +either rendered some trifling service to the king, or in some way had +pleased the sovereign's fancy. So when the king and some of the great +lords of the court were engaged in talking of the battle that was soon +to be fought, one of the conspirators, named Dyvorer, approached them, +and said:</p> + +<p>"Why not send Sir Ranier there, sire; for he is, no doubt, a brave and +accomplished knight, and would render great service?"</p> + +<p>The king was angry at this, for he knew that Ranier had not been bred +to arms, and readily penetrated the purpose that prompted the +suggestion. Before he could answer, however, Sir Ranier, who had heard +the words of Dyvorer, spoke up and said:</p> + +<p>"I pray you, sire, to let me go; for, though I may not depend much upon +my lance and sword, I have an ax that never fails me."</p> + +<p>Then the king remembered of the marvelous feats which he had seen +Ranier perform in his behalf, and he replied:</p> + +<p>"You shall go, Sir Ranier; and as the Lord Dyvorer has made a +suggestion of such profit, he shall have the high honor of attending as +one of the knights in your train, where he will, doubtless, support you +well."</p> + +<p>At this, the rest laughed, and Dyvorer was much troubled, for he was a +great coward. But he dared not refuse obedience.</p> + +<p>The next morning, Sir Ranier departed along with the king for the field +of battle, bearing his ax with him; and, when they arrived, they found +both sides drawn up in battle order, and waiting the signal to begin. +Before they fell to, a champion of the enemy, a knight of fortune from +Bohemia, named Sir Paul, who was over seven feet in height, and a very +formidable soldier, who fought as well with his left hand as with his +right, rode forward between the two armies, and defied any knight in +King Dagobert's train to single combat.</p> + +<p>Then said Dyvorer: "No doubt, here is a good opportunity for Sir Ranier +to show his prowess."</p> + +<p>"Be sure that it is!" exclaimed Sir Ranier; and he rode forward to +engage Sir Paul.</p> + +<p>When the Bohemian knight saw only a stripling, armed with a woodman's +ax, he laughed. "Is this girl their champion, then?" he asked. "Say thy +prayers, young sir, for thou art not long for this world, I promise +thee."</p> + +<p>But Ranier whispered to himself, "I want me this braggart hewn to +pieces, and then the rest beaten;" and added, aloud: "Ax! ax! chop! +chop! and work for my profit!" Whereupon the ax leapt forward, and +dealt such a blow upon Sir Paul that it pierced through his helmet, and +clave him to the saddle. Then it went chopping among the enemy with +such force that it cut them down by hundreds; and King Dagobert with +his army falling upon them, won a great victory.</p> + +<p>Now the magic of the ax followed it here as before, and every looker-on +believed he saw Sir Ranier slaying his hundreds. So it chanced when the +battle was over, and those were recalled who pursued the enemy, that a +group of knights, and the great lords of the court who were gathered +around the king, and were discussing the events of the day, agreed as +one man, that there never had been a warrior as potent as Sir Ranier +since the days of Roland, and that he deserved to be made a great lord. +And the king thought so, too. So he created him a baron on the field, +and ordered his patent of nobility to be made out on their return, and +gave him castles and land; and, furthermore, told him he would grant +him any favor more he chose to ask, though it were half the kingdom.</p> + +<p>When Dyvorer and others heard this, they were more envious than ever, +and concerted together a plan for the ruin of Lord Treefell, for such +was Sir Ranier's new title. After many things had been proposed and +rejected, Dyvorer said: "The Princess Isauré loves this stripling, as I +have been told by my sister, the Lady Zanthe, who attends on her +highness. I think he has dared to raise his hopes to her. I will +persuade him to demand her hand as the favor the king has promised. +Ranier does not know our ancient law, and, while he will fail in his +suit, the king will be so offended at his presumption that he will +speedily dismiss him from the court."</p> + +<p>This plan was greatly approved. Dyvorer sought out Ranier, to whom he +professed great friendship, with many regrets for all he might have +said or done in the past calculated to give annoyance. As Dyvorer was a +great dissembler, and Ranier was frank and unsuspicious, they became +very intimate. At length, one day when they were together, Dyvorer +said:</p> + +<p>"Have you ever solicited the king for the favor he promised?"</p> + +<p>And Ranier answered, "No!"</p> + +<p>"Then," said Dyvorer, "it is a pity that you do not love the Princess +Isauré."</p> + +<p>"Why?" inquired Ranier.</p> + +<p>"Because," replied Dyvorer, "the princess not only favors you, but, I +think, from what my sister Zanthe has said, that the king has taken +this mode of giving her to you at her instance."</p> + +<p>Ranier knew that the Lady Zanthe was the favorite maiden of the +princess, and, as we are easily persuaded in the way our inclinations +run, he took heart and determined to act upon Dyvorer's counsel.</p> + +<p>About a week afterward, as the king was walking in the court-yard of +his palace, as he did at times, he met with Ranier.</p> + +<p>"You have never asked of me the favor I promised, good baron," said +King Dagobert.</p> + +<p>"It is true, your majesty," said Ranier; "but it was because I feared +to ask what I most desired."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image04" id="image04"><img src="images/image04.png" width="500" +height="293" alt="THE COMBAT WITH SIR PAUL" title="THE COMBAT WITH SIR +PAUL" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE COMBAT WITH SIR PAUL.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Speak," said the king, "and fear not."</p> + +<p>Therefore Ranier preferred his request for the hand of the princess.</p> + +<p>"Baron," replied the king, frowning, "some crafty enemy has prompted +you to this. The daughter of a king should only wed with the son of a +king. Nevertheless, there is an ancient law, never fulfilled, since the +conditions are impossible, which says that any one of noble birth, who +has saved the king's life, vanquished the king's enemies in battle, and +built a castle forty cubits high in a single night, may wed the king's +daughter. Though you have saved my life and vanquished my enemies, yet +you are not of noble birth, nor, were you so, could you build such a +castle in such a space of time."</p> + +<p>"I am of noble blood, nevertheless," said Ranier, proudly, "although I +have been a wood-chopper. My father, who died in banishment, was the +Duke of Manylands, falsely accused of having conspired against the late +king, your august father; and I can produce the record of my birth. Our +line is as noble as any in your realm, sire, and nobler than most."</p> + +<p>"If that be true, and I doubt it not," answered King Dagobert, "the law +holds good for you. But you must first build a palace where we stand, +and that in a single night. So your suit is hopeless."</p> + +<p>The king turned and entered the palace, leaving Ranier in deep sorrow, +for he thought the condition impossible. As he stood thus, the fairy, +Rougevert, appeared.</p> + +<p>"Be not downcast," she said; "but build that castle to-night."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" cried Ranier, "it cannot be done."</p> + +<p>"Look at your ax," returned the fairy. "Do you not see that the back of +the blade is shaped like a hammer?"</p> + +<p>So she taught Ranier what words to use, and vanished.</p> + +<p>When the sun was down, Ranier came to the court-yard, and raising his +ax with the blade upward, he said aloud: "Ax! ax! hammer! hammer! and +build for my profit!" The ax at once leapt forward with the hammer +part downward, and began cracking the solid rock on which the +court-yard lay, and shaping it into oblong blocks, and heaping them one +on the other. So much noise was made thereby that the warders first, +and then the whole court, came out to ascertain the cause. Even the +king himself was drawn to the spot. And it seemed to them, all through +the magic of the fairy, that there were hundreds on hundreds of workmen +in green cloth hose and red leather jerkins, some engaged in quarrying +and shaping, and others in laying the blocks, and others in keying +arches, and adjusting doors and windows, and making oriels and towers +and turrets. And still as they looked, the building arose foot by foot, +and before dawn a great stone castle, with its towers and battlements, +its portcullis, and its great gate, forty cubits high, stood in the +court-yard.</p> + +<p>When King Dagobert saw this, he embraced Ranier, continued to him the +title of his father, whose ducal estates he restored to the son, and +sending for the Princess Isauré, who appeared radiant with joy and +beauty, he betrothed the young couple in the presence of the court.</p> + +<p>So Ranier and Isauré were married, and lived long and happily; and, on +the death of Dagobert, Ranier reigned. As for the ax, that is lost, +somehow, and although I have made diligent inquiry, I have never been +able to find where it is. Some people think the fairy took it after +King Ranier died, and hid it again in a tree; and I recommend all +wood-choppers to look at the heart of every tree they fell, for this +wonderful ax. They cannot mistake it, since the word "Boldness" is cut +on the blade, and the word "Energy" is printed, in letters of gold, on +the handle.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="scarecrow" id="scarecrow">THE PAINTER'S SCARE-CROW.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By C.P. Cranch.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>Miss Arabella Vandyke Brown</div> + <div>Had a small studio in the town,</div> + <div>Where, all the winter, blithe and gay,</div> + <div>She drew and painted day by day.</div> + <div>She envied not the rich. Her art</div> + <div>And work made sunshine in her heart.</div> + <div>Upon her canvas, many a scene</div> + <div>Of summers past, in golden green</div> + <div>Was wrought again. The snow and rain</div> + <div>Pelted upon her window-pane;</div> + <div>But she within her cozy room</div> + <div>With joyous toil dispelled the gloom;</div> + <div>And, sometimes, in an undertone,</div> + <div>Sang to herself there, all alone.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>But, when the spring and summer came,</div> + <div>Her studio grew so dull and tame</div> + <div>She sought the rural solitudes</div> + <div>Of winding streams and shady woods;</div> + <div>For painters' works contract a taint</div> + <div>Unless from Nature's self they paint.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>So out Miss Arabella went,</div> + <div>To sketch from Nature fully bent.</div> + <div>It was a lovely summer's day;</div> + <div>A lovely scene before her lay;</div> + <div>Her folding-stool and box she took,</div> + <div>And, seated in a quiet nook,</div> + <div>Her white umbrella o'er her head</div> + <div>(Like a tall giant mushroom spread),</div> + <div>Began to paint; when, lo! a noise</div> + <div>She heard. A troop of idle boys</div> + <div>Came flocking round her, rough and rude.</div> + <div>Some o'er her shoulders leaned; some stood</div> + <div>In front of her, and cried: "Paint <i>me</i>!—</div> + <div><i>My</i> picter I should like to see."</div> + <div>Some laughed, some shouted. "What a set!"</div> + <div>Said Arabella, in a pet:</div> + <div>"And no policeman within hail</div> + <div>To send these ruffian imps to jail."</div> + <div>In fine, she could not work, so went</div> + <div>Straight homeward in great discontent.</div> + <div>She had no brother to defend her,</div> + <div>Nor country cousin to attend her.</div> +</div> +<br /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image05" id="image05"><img src="images/image05.png" width="500" +height="374" alt="THE PAINTER" title="THE PAINTER" /></a> +</div> + +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>A plan occurred to her next day</div> + <div>To keep these idle scamps away.</div> + <div>An easel by her side she placed,</div> + <div>And over it she threw in haste</div> + <div>A hat and cloak:—and there it stood</div> + <div>In bold and threatening attitude.</div> + <div>The rabble at a distance spied</div> + <div>The scare-crow standing by her side;</div> + <div>And, thinking 't was the town-police,</div> + <div>They left Miss A.V. Brown in peace.</div> +</div> +<br /> + + +<div class="stanza2"> + <div class="in2">MORAL.</div> + <div>Sometimes, an innocent pretense</div> + <div>Is the best means of self-defense,</div> + <div>And if a scare-crow keeps the peace,</div> + <div>What need to summon the police?</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image06" id="image06"><img src="images/image06.png" width="500" +height="498" alt="BY THE SAD SEA WAVES" title="BY THE SAD SEA WAVES" /></a> +<p class="caption">BY THE SAD SEA WAVES.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="lilacs" id="lilacs">UNDER THE LILACS.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Louisa M. Alcott.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<h4>CUPID'S LAST APPEARANCE.</h4> + +<p>A picnic supper on the grass followed the games, and then, as twilight +began to fall, the young people were marshaled to the coach-house, now +transformed into a rustic theater. One big door was open, and seats, +arranged lengthwise, faced the red table-cloths which formed the +curtain. A row of lamps made very good foot-lights, and an invisible +band performed a Wagner-like overture on combs, tin trumpets, drums, +and pipes, with an accompaniment of suppressed laughter.</p> + +<p>Many of the children had never seen anything like it, and sat staring +about them in mute admiration and expectancy; but the older ones +criticised freely, and indulged in wild speculations as to the meaning +of various convulsions of nature going on behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>While Teacher was dressing the actresses for the tragedy, Miss Celia +and Thorny, who were old hands at this sort of amusement, gave a +"Potato" pantomime as a side show.</p> + +<p>Across an empty stall a green cloth was fastened, so high that the +heads of the operators were not seen. A little curtain flew up, +disclosing the front of a Chinese pagoda painted on pasteboard, with a +door and window which opened quite naturally. This stood on one side, +several green trees with paper lanterns hanging from the boughs were on +the other side, and the words "Tea Garden," printed over the top, +showed the nature of this charming spot.</p> + +<p>Few of the children had ever seen the immortal Punch and Judy, so this +was a most agreeable novelty, and before they could make out what it +meant, a voice began to sing, so distinctly that every word was heard:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"In China there lived a little man,</div> + <div>His name was Chingery Wangery Chan."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Here the hero "took the stage" with great dignity, clad in a loose +yellow jacket over a blue skirt, which concealed the hand that made his +body. A pointed hat adorned his head, and on removing this to bow he +disclosed a bald pate with a black queue in the middle, and a Chinese +face nicely painted on the potato, the lower part of which was hollowed +out to fit Thorny's first finger, while his thumb and second finger +were in the sleeves of the yellow jacket, making a lively pair of arms. +While he saluted, the song went on:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"His legs were short, his feet were small,</div> + <div>And this little man could not walk at all."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Which assertion was proved to be false by the agility with which the +"little man" danced a jig in time to the rollicking chorus:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Chingery changery ri co day,</div> + <div>Ekel tekel happy man;</div> + <div>Uron odesko canty oh, oh,</div> + <div>Gallopy wallopy China go."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>At the close of the dance and chorus, Chan retired into the tea garden, +and drank so many cups of the national beverage, with such comic +gestures, that the spectators were almost sorry when the opening of the +opposite window drew all eyes in that direction. At the lattice +appeared a lovely being; for this potato had been pared, and on the +white surface were painted pretty pink cheeks, red lips, black eyes, +and oblique brows; through the tuft of dark silk on the head were stuck +several glittering pins, and a pink jacket shrouded the plump figure of +this capital little Chinese lady. After peeping coyly out, so that all +could see and admire, she fell to counting the money from a purse, so +large her small hands could hardly hold it on the window seat. While +she did this, the song went on to explain:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Miss Ki Hi was short and squat,</div> + <div>She had money and he had not;</div> + <div>So off to her he resolved to go,</div> + <div>And play her a tune on his little banjo."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>During the chorus to this verse Chan was seen tuning his instrument in +the garden, and at the end sallied gallantly forth to sing the +following tender strain:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="in15">"Whang fun li,</div> + <div class="in2">Tang hua ki,</div> + <div>Hong Kong do ra me!</div> + <div class="in2">Ah sin lo,</div> + <div class="in2">Pan to fo,</div> + <div>Tsing up chin leute!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Carried away by his passion, Chan dropped his banjo, fell upon his +knees, and, clasping his hands, bowed his forehead in the dust before +his idol. But, alas!—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Miss Ki Hi heard his notes of love,</div> + <div>And held her wash-bowl up above;</div> + <div>It fell upon the little man,</div> + <div>And this was the end of Chingery Chan."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Indeed it was: for, as the doll's basin of real water was cast forth by +the cruel charmer, poor Chan expired in such strong convulsions that +his head rolled down among the audience. Miss Ki Hi peeped to see what +had become of her victim, and the shutter decapitated her likewise, to +the great delight of the children, who passed around the heads, +pronouncing a "Potato" pantomime "first-rate fun."</p> + +<p>Then they settled themselves for the show, having been assured by +Manager Thorny that they were about to behold the most elegant and +varied combination ever produced on any stage. And when one reads the +following very inadequate description of the somewhat mixed +entertainment, it is impossible to deny that the promise made was nobly +kept.</p> + +<p>After some delay and several crashes behind the curtain, which mightily +amused the audience, the performance began with the well-known tragedy +of "Blue-beard"; for Bab had set her heart upon it, and the young folks +had acted it so often in their plays that it was very easy to get up +with a few extra touches to scenery and costumes. Thorny was superb as +the tyrant with a beard of bright blue worsted, a slouched hat and long +feather, fur cloak, red hose, rubber boots, and a real sword which +clanked tragically as he walked. He spoke in such a deep voice, knit +his corked eyebrows, and glared so frightfully, that it was no wonder +poor Fatima quaked before him as he gave into her keeping an immense +bunch of keys with one particularly big, bright one, among them.</p> + +<p>Bab was fine to see, with Miss Celia's blue dress sweeping behind her, +a white plume in her flowing hair, and a real necklace with a pearl +locket about her neck. She did her part capitally, especially the +shriek she gave when she looked into the fatal closet, the energy with +which she scrubbed the tell-tale key, and her distracted tone when she +called out: "Sister Anne, O, sister Anne, <i>do</i> you see anybody coming?" +while her enraged husband was roaring: "Will you come down, madam, or +shall I come and fetch you?"</p> + +<p>Betty made a captivating Anne,—all in white muslin, and a hat full of +such lovely pink roses that she could not help putting up one hand to +feel them as she stood on the steps looking out at the little window +for the approaching brothers, who made such a din that it sounded like +a dozen horsemen instead of two.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image07" id="image07"><img src="images/image07.jpg" width="501" +height="308" alt="THE BLUE-BEARD GROUP" title="THE BLUE-BEARD GROUP" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE BLUE-BEARD GROUP.</p> +</div> + +<p>Ben and Billy were got up regardless of expense in the way of arms; for +their belts were perfect arsenals, and their wooden swords were big +enough to strike terror into any soul, though they struck no sparks out +of Blue-beard's blade in the awful combat which preceded the villain's +downfall and death.</p> + +<p>The boys enjoyed this part intensely, and cries of "Go it, Ben!" "Hit +him again, Billy!" "Two against one isn't fair!" "Thorny's a match for +em." "Now he's down, hurray!" cheered on the combatants, till, after a +terrific struggle, the tyrant fell, and with convulsive twitchings of +the scarlet legs, slowly expired, while the ladies sociably fainted in +each others arms, and the brothers waved their swords and shook hands +over the corpse of their enemy.</p> + +<p>This piece was rapturously applauded, and all the performers had to +appear and bow their thanks, led by the defunct Blue-beard, who mildly +warned the excited audience that if they "didn't look out the walls +would break down, and then there'd be a nice mess." Calmed by this fear +they composed themselves, and waited with ardor for the next play, +which promised to be a lively one, judging from the shrieks of laughter +which came from behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>"Sanch's going to be in it, I know, for I heard Ben say, 'Hold him +still; he wont bite,'" whispered Sam, longing to "jounce" up and down, +so great was his satisfaction at the prospect, for the dog was +considered the star of the company.</p> + +<p>"I hope Bab will do something else, she is so funny. Wasn't her dress +elegant?" said Sally Folsom, burning to wear a long silk gown and a +feather in her hair.</p> + +<p>"I like Betty best, she's so cunning, and she peaked out of the window +just as if she <i>really</i> saw somebody coming," answered Liddy Peckham, +privately resolving to tease mother for some pink roses before another +Sunday came.</p> + +<p>Up went the curtain at last, and a voice announced "A Tragedy in Three +Tableaux." "There's Betty!" was the general exclamation, as the +audience recognized a familiar face under the little red hood worn by +the child who stood receiving a basket from Teacher, who made a nice +mother with her finger up, as if telling the small messenger not to +loiter by the way.</p> + +<p>"I know what that is!" cried Sally; "it's 'Mabel on Midsummer Day.' The +piece Miss Celia spoke; don't you know?"</p> + +<p>"There isn't any sick baby, and Mabel had a 'kerchief pinned about her +head.' <i>I</i> say it's Red Riding Hood," answered Liddy, who had begun to +learn Mary Howitt's pretty poem for her next piece, and knew all about +it.</p> + +<p>The question was settled by the appearance of the wolf in the second +scene, and such a wolf! On few amateur stages do we find so natural an +actor for that part, or so good a costume, for Sanch was irresistibly +droll in the gray wolf-skin which usually lay beside Miss Celia's bed, +now fitted over his back and fastened neatly down underneath, with his +own face peeping out at one end, and the handsome tail bobbing gayly at +the other. What a comfort that tail was to Sancho, none but a bereaved +bow-wow could ever tell. It reconciled him to his distasteful part at +once; it made rehearsals a joy, and even before the public he could not +resist turning to catch a glimpse of the noble appendage, while his own +brief member wagged with the proud consciousness that though the tail +did not match the head, it was long enough to be seen of all men and +dogs.</p> + +<p>That was a pretty picture, for the little maid came walking in with the +basket on her arm, and such an innocent face inside the bright hood +that it was quite natural the gray wolf should trot up to her with +deceitful friendliness, that she should pat and talk to him confidingly +about the butter for grandma, and then that they should walk away +together, he politely carrying her basket, she with her hand on his +head, little dreaming what evil plans were taking shape inside.</p> + +<p>The children encored that, but there was no time to repeat it, so they +listened to more stifled merriment behind the red table-cloths, and +wondered whether the next scene would be the wolf popping his head out +of the window as Red Riding Hood knocks, or the tragic end of that +sweet child.</p> + +<p>It was neither, for a nice bed had been made, and in it reposed the +false grandmother, with a ruffled nightcap on, a white gown, and +spectacles. Betty lay beside the wolf, staring at him as if just about +to say, "Why, grandma, what great teeth you've got!" for Sancho's mouth +was half open and a red tongue hung out, as he panted with the exertion +of keeping still. This tableau was so very good, and yet so funny, that +the children clapped and shouted frantically; this excited the dog, who +gave a bounce and would have leaped off the bed to bark at the +rioters, if Betty had not caught him by the legs, and Thorny dropped +the curtain just at the moment when the wicked wolf was apparently in +the act of devouring the poor little girl, with most effective growls.</p> + +<p>They had to come out then, and did so, both much disheveled by the late +tussle, for Sancho's cap was all over one eye, and Betty's hood was +anywhere but on her head. She made her courtesy prettily, however; her +fellow-actor bowed with as much dignity as a short night-gown +permitted, and they retired to their well-earned repose.</p> + +<p>Then Thorny, looking much excited, appeared to make the following +request: "As one of the actors in the next piece is new to the +business, the company must all keep as still as mice, and not stir till +I give the word. It's perfectly splendid! so don't you spoil it by +making a row."</p> + +<p>"What <i>do</i> you suppose it is?" asked every one, and listened with all +their might to get a hint, if possible. But what they heard only +whetted their curiosity and mystified them more and more. Bab's voice +cried in a loud whisper, "Isn't Ben beautiful?" Then there was a +thumping noise, and Miss Celia said, in an anxious tone, "Oh, do be +careful," while Ben laughed out as if he was too happy to care who +heard him, and Thorny bawled "Whoa!" in a way which would have +attracted attention if Lita's head had not popped out of her box, more +than once, to survey the invaders of her abode, with a much astonished +expression.</p> + +<p>"Sounds kind of circusy, don't it?" said Sam to Billy, who had come out +to receive the compliments of the company and enjoy the tableau at a +safe distance.</p> + +<p>"You just wait till you see what's coming. It beats any circus <i>I</i> ever +saw," answered Billy, rubbing his hands with the air of a man who had +seen many instead of but one.</p> + +<p>"Ready? Be quick and get out of the way when she goes off!" whispered +Ben, but they heard him and prepared for pistols, rockets or +combustibles of some sort, as ships were impossible under the +circumstances, and no other "she" occurred to them.</p> + +<p>A unanimous "O-o-o-o!" was heard when the curtain rose, but a stern +"Hush!" from Thorny kept them mutely staring with all their eyes at the +grand spectacle of the evening. There stood Lita with a wide flat +saddle on her back, a white head-stall and reins, blue rosettes in her +ears, and the look of a much-bewildered beast in her bright eyes. But +who the gauzy, spangled, winged creature was, with a gilt crown on its +head, a little bow in its hand, and one white slipper in the air, while +the other seemed merely to touch the saddle, no one could tell for a +minute, so strange and splendid did the apparition appear. No wonder +Ben was not recognized in this brilliant disguise, which was more +natural to him than Billy's blue flannel or Thorny's respectable +garments. He had so begged to be allowed to show himself "just once," +as he used to be in the days when "father" tossed him up on bare-backed +old General, for hundreds to see and admire, that Miss Celia had +consented, much against her will, and hastily arranged some bits of +spangled tarletan over the white cotton suit which was to simulate the +regulation tights. Her old dancing slippers fitted, and gold paper did +the rest, while Ben, sure of his power over Lita, promised not to break +his bones, and lived for days on the thought of the moment when he +could show the boys that he had not boasted vainly of past splendors.</p> + +<p>Before the delighted children could get their breath, Lita gave signs +of her dislike to the foot-lights, and, gathering up the reins that lay +on her neck, Ben gave the old cry, "Houp-la!" and let her go, as he had +often done before, straight out of the coach-house for a gallop round +the orchard.</p> + +<p>"Just turn about and you can see perfectly well, but stay where you are +till he comes back," commanded Thorny, as signs of commotion appeared +in the excited audience.</p> + +<p>Round went the twenty children as if turned by one crank, and sitting +there they looked out into the moonlight where the shining figure +flashed to and fro, now so near they could see the smiling face under +the crown, now so far away that it glittered like a fire-fly among the +dusky green. Lita enjoyed that race as heartily as she had done several +others of late, and caracoled about as if anxious to make up for her +lack of skill by speed and obedience. How much Ben liked it there is no +need to tell, yet it was a proof of the good which three months of a +quiet, useful life had done him, that even as he pranced gayly under +the boughs thick with the red and yellow apples almost ready to be +gathered, he found this riding in the fresh air with only his mates for +an audience pleasanter than the crowded tent, the tired horses, profane +men, and painted women, friendly as some of them had been to him.</p> + +<p>After the first burst was over, he felt rather glad, on the whole, that +he was going back to plain clothes, helpful school, and kindly people, +who cared more to have him a good boy than the most famous Cupid that +ever stood on one leg with a fast horse under him.</p> + +<p>"You may make as much noise as you like, now; Lita's had her run and +will be as quiet as a lamb after it. Pull up, Ben, and come in; sister +says you'll get cold," shouted Thorny, as the rider came cantering +round after a leap over the lodge gate and back again.</p> + +<p>So Ben pulled up, and the admiring boys and girls were allowed to +gather about him, loud in their praises as they examined the pretty +mare and the mythological character who lay easily upon her back. He +looked very little like the god of love now; for he had lost one +slipper and splashed his white legs with dew and dust, the crown had +slipped down upon his neck, and the paper wings hung in an apple-tree +where he had left them as he went by. No trouble in recognizing Ben, +now; but somehow he didn't want to be seen, and, instead of staying to +be praised, he soon slipped away, making Lita his excuse to vanish +behind the curtain while the rest went into the house to have a +finishing-off game of blindman's-buff in the big kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ben, are you satisfied?" asked Miss Celia, as she stayed a +moment to unpin the remains of his gauzy scarf and tunic.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, thank you, it was tip-top."</p> + +<p>"But you look rather sober. Are you tired, or is it because you don't +want to take these trappings off and be plain Ben again?" she said, +looking down into his face as he lifted it for her to free him from his +gilded collar.</p> + +<p>"I <i>want</i> to take 'em off; for somehow I don't feel respectable," and +he kicked away the crown he had help to make so carefully, adding with +a glance that said more than his words: "I'd rather be 'plain Ben' than +any one else, if you'd like to have me."</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do; and I'm so glad to hear you say that, because I was +afraid you'd long to be off to the old ways, and all I've tried to do +would be undone. <i>Would</i> you like to go back, Ben?" and Miss Celia held +his chin an instant, to watch the brown face that looked so honestly +back at her.</p> + +<p>"No, I wouldn't—unless—<i>he</i> was there and wanted me."</p> + +<p>The chin quivered just a bit, but the black eyes were as bright as +ever, and the boy's voice so earnest, she knew he spoke the truth, and +laid her white hand softly on his head, as she answered in the tone he +loved so much, because no one else had ever used it to him:</p> + +<p>"Father is not there; but I know he wants you, dear, and I am sure he +would rather see you in a home like this than in the place you came +from. Now go and dress; but, tell me first, has it been a happy +birthday?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Celia! I didn't know they <i>could</i> be so beautiful, and this +is the beautifulest part of it; I don't know how to thank you, but I'm +going to try—" and, finding words wouldn't come fast enough, Ben just +put his two arms round her, quite speechless with gratitude; then, as +if ashamed of his little outburst, he knelt down in a great hurry to +untie his one shoe.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image08" id="image08"><img src="images/image08.jpg" width="300" +height="401" alt="MISS CELIA AND BEN" title="MISS CELIA AND BEN" /></a> +<p class="caption">MISS CELIA AND BEN.</p> +</div> + +<p>But Miss Celia liked his answer better than the finest speech ever made +her, and went away through the moonlight, saying to herself:</p> + +<p>"If I can bring one lost lamb into the fold, I shall be the fitter for +a shepherd's wife, by and by."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<h4>A BOY'S BARGAIN.</h4> + +<p>It was some days before the children were tired of talking over Ben's +birthday party; for it was a great event in their small world; but, +gradually, newer pleasures came to occupy their minds, and they began +to plan the nutting frolics which always followed the early frosts. +While waiting for Jack to open the chestnut burrs, they varied the +monotony of school life by a lively scrimmage long known as "the +wood-pile fight."</p> + +<p>The girls liked to play in the half-empty shed, and the boys, merely +for the fun of teasing, declared that they should not, so blocked up +the door-way as fast as the girls cleared it. Seeing that the squabble +was a merry one, and the exercise better for all than lounging in the +sun or reading in school during recess, Teacher did not interfere, and +the barrier rose and fell almost as regularly as the tide.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to say which side worked the harder; for the boys +went before school began to build up the barricade, and the girls +stayed after lessons were over to pull down the last one made in +afternoon recess. They had their play-time first, and, while the boys +waited inside, they heard the shouts of the girls, the banging of the +wood, and the final crash as the well-packed pile went down. Then, as +the lassies came in, rosy, breathless, and triumphant, the lads rushed +out to man the breach, and labor gallantly till all was as tight as +hard blows could make it.</p> + +<p>So the battle raged, and bruised knuckles, splinters in fingers, torn +clothes, and rubbed shoes, were the only wounds received, while a great +deal of fun was had out of the maltreated logs, and a lasting peace +secured between two of the boys.</p> + +<p>When the party was safely over, Sam began to fall into his old way of +tormenting Ben by calling names, as it cost no exertion to invent +trying speeches and slyly utter them when most likely to annoy; Ben +bore it as well as he could, but fortune favored him at last, as it +usually does the patient, and he was able to make his own terms with +his tormentor.</p> + +<p>When the girls demolished the wood-pile they performed a jubilee chorus +on combs, and tin kettles played like tambourines; the boys celebrated +their victories with shrill whistles, and a drum accompaniment with +fists on the shed walls. Billy brought his drum, and this was such an +addition that Sam hunted up an old one of his little brother's, in +order that he might join the drum corps. He had no sticks, however, +and, casting about in his mind for a good substitute for the genuine +thing, bethought him of bulrushes.</p> + +<p>"Those will do first-rate, and there are lots in the ma'sh, if I can +only get 'em," he said to himself, and turned off from the road on his +way home to get a supply.</p> + +<p>Now, this marsh was a treacherous spot, and the tragic story was told +of a cow who got in there and sank till nothing was visible but a pair +of horns above the mud, which suffocated the unwary beast. For this +reason it was called "Cowslip Marsh," the wags said, though it was +generally believed to be so named for the yellow flowers which grew +there in great profusion in the spring.</p> + +<p>Sam had seen Ben hop nimbly from one tuft of grass to another when he +went to gather cowslips for Betty, and the stout boy thought he could +do the same. Two or three heavy jumps landed him, not among the +bulrushes as he had hoped, but in a pool of muddy water where he sank +up to his middle with alarming rapidity. Much scared, he tried to wade +out, but could only flounder to a tussock of grass and cling there +while he endeavored to kick his legs free. He got them out, but +struggled in vain to coil them up or to hoist his heavy body upon the +very small island in this sea of mud. Down they splashed again, and Sam +gave a dismal groan as he thought of the leeches and water-snakes which +might be lying in wait below. Visions of the lost cow also flashed +across his agitated mind, and he gave a despairing shout very like a +distracted "Moo!"</p> + +<p>Few people passed along the lane, and the sun was setting, so the +prospect of a night in the marsh nerved Sam to make a frantic plunge +toward the bulrush island, which was nearer than the main-land, and +looked firmer than any tussock around him. But he failed to reach this +haven of rest, and was forced to stop at an old stump which stuck up, +looking very like the moss-grown horns of the "dear departed." Roosting +here, Sam began to shout for aid in every key possible to the human +voice. Such hoots and howls, whistles and roars, never woke the echoes +of the lonely marsh before, or scared the portly frog who resided there +in calm seclusion.</p> + +<p>He hardly expected any reply but the astonished "Caw!" of the crow, who +sat upon a fence watching him with gloomy interest, and when a cheerful +"Hullo, there!" sounded from the lane, he was so grateful that tears of +joy rolled down his fat cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Come on! I'm in the ma'sh. Lend a hand and get me out!" bawled Sam, +anxiously waiting for his deliverer to appear, for he could only see a +hat bobbing along behind the hazel-bushes that fringed the lane.</p> + +<p>Steps crashed through the bushes, and then over the wall came an active +figure, at the sight of which Sam was almost ready to dive out of +sight, for, of all possible boys, who should it be but Ben, the last +person in the world whom he would like to have see him in his present +pitiful plight.</p> + +<p>"Is it you, Sam? Well, you <i>are</i> in a nice fix!" and Ben's eyes began +to twinkle with mischievous merriment, as well they might, for Sam +certainly was a spectacle to convulse the soberest person. Perched +unsteadily on the gnarled stump, with his muddy legs drawn up, his +dismal face splashed with mud, and the whole lower half of his body as +black as if he had been dipped in an inkstand, he presented such a +comically doleful object that Ben danced about, laughing like a naughty +will-o'-the-wisp who, having led a traveler astray, then fell to +jeering at him.</p> + +<p>"Stop that or I'll knock your head off," roared Sam, in a rage.</p> + +<p>"Come on and do it, I give you leave," answered Ben, sparring away +derisively as the other tottered on his perch and was forced to hold +tight lest he should tumble off.</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh, there's a good chap, but fish me out somehow or I shall +get my death sitting here all wet and cold," whined Sam, changing his +tone, and feeling bitterly that Ben had the upper hand now.</p> + +<p>Ben felt it also, and though a very good natured boy, could not resist +the temptation to enjoy this advantage for a moment at least.</p> + +<p>"I wont laugh if I can help it, only you do look so like a fat, +speckled frog I may not be able to hold in. I'll pull you out pretty +soon, but first I'm going to talk to you, Sam," said Ben, sobering down +as he took a seat on the little point of land nearest the stranded +Samuel.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, then; I'm as stiff as a board now, and it's no fun sitting +here on this knotty old thing," growled Sam, with a discontented +squirm.</p> + +<p>"Dare say not, but 'it is good for you,' as you say when you rap me +over the head. Look here, I've got you in a tight place, and I don't +mean to help you a bit till you promise to let me alone. Now then!" and +Ben's face grew stern with his remembered wrongs as he grimly eyed his +discomfited foe.</p> + +<p>"I'll promise fast enough if you wont tell any one about this," +answered Sam, surveying himself and his surroundings with great +disgust.</p> + +<p>"I shall do as I like about that."</p> + +<p>"Then I wont promise a thing! I'm not going to have the whole school +laughing at me," protested Sam, who hated to be ridiculed even more +than Ben did.</p> + +<p>"Very well; good-night!" and Ben walked off with his hands in his +pockets as coolly as if the bog was Sam's favorite retreat.</p> + +<p>"Hold on, don't be in such a hurry!" shouted Sam, seeing little hope of +rescue if he let this chance go.</p> + +<p>"All right!" and back came Ben ready for further negotiations.</p> + +<p>"I'll promise not to plague you if you'll promise not to tell on me. Is +that what you want?"</p> + +<p>"Now I come to think of it, there is one thing more. I like to make a +good bargain when I begin," said Ben, with a shrewd air. "You must +promise to keep Mose quiet, too. He follows your lead, and if you tell +him to stop it he will. If I was big enough I'd <i>make</i> you hold your +tongues. I aint, so we'll try this way."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, I'll see to Mose. Now, bring on a rail, there's a good +fellow. I've got a horrid cramp in my legs," began Sam, thinking he had +bought help dearly, yet admiring Ben's cleverness in making the most of +his chance.</p> + +<p>Ben brought the rail, but just as he was about to lay it from the +main-land to the nearest tussock, he stopped, saying, with the naughty +twinkle in his black eyes again: "One more little thing must be +settled first, and then I'll get you ashore. Promise you wont plague +the girls either, 'specially Bab and Betty. You pull their hair, and +they don't like it."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image09" id="image09"><img src="images/image09.jpg" width="359" +height="500" alt="THE BROOK ABOVE THE MARSH" title="THE BROOK ABOVE THE +MARSH" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE BROOK ABOVE THE MARSH.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Don't neither. Wouldn't touch that Bab for a dollar; she scratches and +bites like a mad cat," was Sam's sulky reply.</p> + +<p>"Glad of it; she can take care of herself. Betty can't, and if you +touch one of her pig-tails I'll up and tell right out how I found you +sniveling in the ma'sh like a great baby. So now!" and Ben emphasized +his threat with a blow of the suspended rail which splashed the water +over poor Sam, quenching his last spark of resistance.</p> + +<p>"Stop! I will!—I will!"</p> + +<p>"True as you live and breathe!" demanded Ben, sternly binding him by +the most solemn oath he knew.</p> + +<p>"True as I live and breathe," echoed Sam, dolefully relinquishing his +favorite pastime of pulling Betty's braids and asking if she was at +home.</p> + +<p>"I'll come over there and crook fingers on the bargain," said Ben, +settling the rail and running over it to the tuft, then bridging +another pool and crossing again till he came to the stump.</p> + +<p>"I never thought of that way," said Sam, watching him with much inward +chagrin at his own failure.</p> + +<p>"I should think you'd written 'Look before you leap,' in your copy-book +often enough to get the idea into your stupid head. Come, crook," +commanded Ben, leaning forward with extended little finger.</p> + +<p>Sam obediently performed the ceremony, and then Ben sat astride one of +the horns of the stump while the muddy Crusoe went slowly across the +rail from point to point till he landed safely on the shore, when he +turned about and asked with an ungrateful jeer:</p> + +<p>"Now, what's going to become of you, old Look-before-you-leap?"</p> + +<p>"Mud-turtles can only sit on a stump and bawl till they are taken off, +but frogs have legs worth something, and are not afraid of a little +water," answered Ben, hopping away in an opposite direction, since the +pools between him and Sam were too wide for even his lively legs.</p> + +<p>Sam waddled off to the brook above the marsh to rinse the mud from his +nether man before facing his mother, and was just wringing himself out +when Ben came up, breathless but good-natured, for he felt that he had +made an excellent bargain for himself and friends.</p> + +<p>"Better wash your face; it's as speckled as a tiger-lily. Here's my +handkerchief if yours is wet," he said, pulling out a dingy article +which had evidently already done service as a towel.</p> + +<p>"Don't want it," muttered Sam, gruffly, as he poured the water out of +his muddy shoes.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> was taught to say 'Thanky' when folks got <i>me</i> out of scrapes. But +<i>you</i> never had much bringing up, though you do 'live in a house with a +gambrel roof,'" retorted Ben, sarcastically quoting Sam's frequent +boast; then he walked off, much disgusted with the ingratitude of man.</p> + +<p>Sam forgot his manners, but he remembered his promise, and kept it so +well that all the school wondered. No one could guess the secret of +Ben's power over him, though it was evident that he had gained it in +some sudden way, for at the least sign of Sam's former tricks Ben would +crook his little finger and wag it warningly, or call out "Bulrushes!" +and Sam subsided with reluctant submission, to the great amazement of +his mates. When asked what it meant, Sam turned sulky; but Ben had much +fun out of it, assuring the other boys that those were the signs and +pass-word of a secret society to which he and Sam belonged, and +promised to tell them all about it if Sam would give him leave, which, +of course, he would not.</p> + +<p>This mystery, and the vain endeavors to find it out, caused a lull in +the war of the wood-pile, and before any new game was invented +something happened which gave the children plenty to talk about for a +time.</p> + +<p>A week after the secret alliance was formed, Ben ran in one evening +with a letter for Miss Celia. He found her enjoying the cheery blaze of +the pine-cones the little girls had picked up for her, and Bab and +Betty sat in the small chairs rocking luxuriously as they took turns to +throw on the pretty fuel. Miss Celia turned quickly to receive the +expected letter, glanced at the writing, post-mark and stamp, with an +air of delighted surprise, then clasped it close in both hands, saying, +as she hurried out of the room:</p> + +<p>"He has come! he has come! Now you may tell them, Thorny."</p> + +<p>"Tell us what?" asked Bab, pricking up her ears at once.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's only that George has come, and I suppose we shall go and get +married right away," answered Thorny, rubbing his hands as if he +enjoyed the prospect.</p> + +<p>"Are <i>you</i> going to be married?" asked Betty, so soberly that the boys +shouted, and Thorny, with difficulty, composed himself sufficiently to +explain.</p> + +<p>"No, child, not just yet; but sister is, and I must go and see that is +all done up ship-shape, and bring you home some wedding-cake. Ben will +take care of you while I'm gone."</p> + +<p>"When shall you go?" asked Bab, beginning to long for her share of +cake.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, I guess. Celia has been packed and ready for a week. We +agreed to meet George in New York, and be married as soon as he got his +best clothes unpacked. We are men of our word, and off we go. Wont it +be fun?"</p> + +<p>"But when will you come back again?" questioned Betty, looking anxious.</p> + +<p>"Don't know. Sister wants to come soon, but I'd rather have our +honeymoon somewhere else,—Niagara, Newfoundland, West Point, or the +Rocky Mountains," said Thorny, mentioning a few of the places he most +desired to see.</p> + +<p>"Do you like him?" asked Ben, very naturally wondering if the new +master would approve of the young man-of-all-work.</p> + +<p>"Don't I? George is regularly jolly; though now he's a minister, +perhaps he'll stiffen up and turn sober. Wont it be a shame if he +does?" and Thorny looked alarmed at the thought of losing his congenial +friend.</p> + +<p>"Tell about him; Miss Celia said you might," put in Bab, whose +experience of "jolly" ministers had been small.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there isn't much about it. We met in Switzerland going up Mount +St. Bernard in a storm, and—"</p> + +<p>"Where the good dogs live?" inquired Betty, hoping they would come into +the story.</p> + +<p>"Yes; we spent the night up there, and George gave us his room; the +house was so full, and he wouldn't let me go down a steep place where I +wanted to, and Celia thought he'd saved my life, and was very good to +him. Then we kept meeting, and the first thing I knew she went and was +engaged to him. I didn't care, only she would come home so he might go +on studying hard and get through quick. That was a year ago, and last +winter we were in New York at uncle's; and then, in the spring, I was +sick, and we came here, and that's all."</p> + +<p>"Shall you live here always when you come back?" asked Bab, as Thorny +paused for breath.</p> + +<p>"Celia wants to. I shall go to college, so <i>I</i> don't mind. George is +going to help the old minister here and see how he likes it. I'm to +study with him, and if he is as pleasant as he used to be we shall have +capital times,—see if we don't."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he will want me round," said Ben, feeling no desire to be +a tramp again.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> do, so you needn't fret about that, my hearty," answered Thorny, +with a resounding slap on the shoulder which re-assured Ben more than +any promises.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see a live wedding, then we could play it with our dolls. +I've got a nice piece of mosquito netting for a veil, and Belinda's +white dress is clean. Do you s'pose Miss Celia will ask us to hers?" +said Betty to Bab, as the boys began to discuss St. Bernard dogs with +spirit.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could, dears," answered a voice behind them, and there was +Miss Celia, looking so happy that the little girls wondered what the +letter could have said to give her such bright eyes and smiling lips. +"I shall not be gone long, or be a bit changed when I come back, to +live among you years I hope, for I am fond of the old place now, and +mean it shall be home," she added, caressing the yellow heads as if +they were dear to her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goody!" cried Bab, while Betty whispered with both arms round Miss +Celia:</p> + +<p>"I don't think we <i>could</i> bear to have anybody else come here to live."</p> + +<p>"It is very pleasant to hear you say that, and I mean to make others +feel so, if I can. I have been trying a little this summer, but when I +come back I shall go to work in earnest to be a good minister's wife, +and you must help me."</p> + +<p>"We will," promised both children, ready for anything except preaching +in the high pulpit.</p> + +<p>Then Miss Celia turned to Ben, saying, in the respectful way that +always made him feel, at least, twenty-five:</p> + +<p>"We shall be off to-morrow, and I leave you in charge. Go on just as if +we were here, and be sure nothing will be changed as far as you are +concerned when we come back."</p> + +<p>Ben's face beamed at that; but the only way he could express his relief +was by making such a blaze in honor of the occasion that he nearly +roasted the company.</p> + +<p>Next morning, the brother and sister slipped quietly away, and the +children hurried to school, eager to tell the great news that "Miss +Celia and Thorny had gone to be married, and were coming back to live +here forever and ever."</p> + +<div class="center">(<i>To be continued.</i>)</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image10" id="image10"><img src="images/image10.jpg" width="500" +height="194" alt="SATURDAY AFTERNOON" title="SATURDAY AFTERNOON" /></a> +<p class="caption">SATURDAY AFTERNOON.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="bear" id="bear">LITTLE BEAR.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Samuel W. Duffield.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image11" id="image11"><img src="images/image11.jpg" width="400" +height="350" alt="LITTLE BEAR" title="LITTLE BEAR" /></a> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>There lives with us an Indian—</div> + <div class="in1">A Paw-knee, I declare—</div> + <div>And he utters dreadful war-whoops,</div> + <div class="in1">And his name is Little Bear.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>A braver foe in a battle,</div> + <div class="in1">When his hands are in your hair,</div> + <div>There is none in all my knowledge</div> + <div class="in1">Than this same Little Bear.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>But when the firelight shining</div> + <div class="in1">Lights the room up with its glare,</div> + <div>I often camp on the hearth-rug,</div> + <div class="in1">Good friends with Little Bear.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza2"> + <div>And I'm very sure I should miss him</div> + <div class="in1">If ever he wasn't there—</div> + <div>This irrepressible Indian,</div> + <div class="in1">By the name of Little Bear!</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="george" id="george">MY ST. GEORGE.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Alice Maude Eddy.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>It is ten years ago to-day since Georgie May and I went to "Captain +Kidd's Cave" after sea-urchins. Georgie was a neighbor's child with +whom I had played all my short life, and whom I loved almost as dearly +as my own brothers. Such a brave, bright face he had, framed by sunny +hair where the summers had dropped gold dust as they passed him by. I +can see him now as he stood that day on the firm sand of the beach, +with his brown eyes glowing and his plump hand brandishing a wooden +sword which he himself had made, and painted with gorgeous figures of +red and yellow.</p> + +<p>"You see, Allie," he was saying, "his name was Saint George, and he was +a knight. And so there was a great dragon with a fiery crest. And so he +went at him, and killed him; and he married the princess, and they +lived happy ever after. I'd have killed him, too, if I'd been there!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Could</i> you kill a dragon?" I asked, rather timidly.</p> + +<p>"Course I could!" replied the young champion. "I'd have a splendid +white horse,—no, a black one,—and a sword like Jack the Giant +Killer's, and—and—oh, and an invisible ring! I'd use him up pretty +quick. Then I'd cut off his head and give it to the princess, and we'd +have a feast of jelly-cake, and cream candy, and then I would marry +her!"</p> + +<p>I could only gasp admiringly at this splendid vision.</p> + +<p>"But mamma said," went on Georgie, more thoughtfully, "that there are +dragons now; and she said she would like me to be a Saint George. She's +going to tell some more to-night, but there's getting angry, that's a +dragon, and wanting to be head of everything, that's another, and she +and me are going to fight 'em. We said so."</p> + +<p>"But how?" I asked, with wide open eyes. "I don't see any dragon when +I'm angry!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're a girl," said Georgie, consolingly; and we ran on +contentedly, wading across the shallow pools of salt water, clambering +over the rocks, and now and then stopping to pick up a bright pebble or +shell. The whole scene comes vividly before me as I think of it +now:—the gray and brown cliffs, with their sharp crags and narrow +clefts half choked up by the fine, sifting sand, the wet "snappers" +clinging to the rocks along the water's edge; the sea itself clear and +blue in the bright afternoon, and the dancing lights where the sunbeams +struck its rippling surface. A light wind blew across the bay. It +stirred in Georgie's curls, and swept about us both as if playing with +us. We grew happier and happier, and when at last we saw "Captain +Kidd's Cave" just before us, we were in the wildest spirits, and almost +sorry that our walk was ended.</p> + +<p>There was plenty to be seen in the cave, however, beside the excitement +of searching for the pirate's treasures, which the country people said +were buried there. The high rocks met, forming a wide, arched cavern +with a little crevice in the roof, through which we could just see the +clear sky. The firm floor was full of smaller stones, which we used for +seats, and one high crag almost hid the entrance. It was delicious to +creep through the low door-way, and to sit in the cool twilight that +reigned there, listening to the song of the winds and waters outside, +or to clamber up and down the steep sides of the cave, playing that we +were cast-aways on a desert island. We played, also, that I was a +captive princess, and Georgie killed a score of dragons in my defense. +We were married, too, with the little knight's sword stuck in the sand +for the clergyman. Quite tired out, at last, we went into the cave and +sat on the sand-strewn floor, telling stories and talking of dragons +and fairies, until a drop of rain suddenly fell through the cleft in +the roof. Georgie sprang up.</p> + +<p>"We must go home, Allie!" he cried. "What if we were to be caught in a +shower!"</p> + +<p>Just as he was speaking, a peal of thunder crashed and boomed right +above us, and I clung to the boy, sobbing for very terror.</p> + +<p>"O Georgie!" I cried, "don't go out. We'll be killed! Oh, what shall we +do?"</p> + +<p>But Georgie only laughed blithely, saying, "No, we wont go if you don't +want to. Let's play it's a concert and the thunder's a drum. It will be +over in a minute," and he began to whistle "Yankee Doodle," in which +performance I vainly endeavored to join. But as time went on, and the +storm became more violent, we were both frightened, and climbing to a +ledge about half-way up the wall, sat silent, clinging to each other, +and crying a little as the lightning flashed more and more vividly. +Yet, even in his own terror, Georgie was careful for me, and tried to +cheer me and raise my heart. Dear little friend, I am grateful for it +now!</p> + +<p>At last, leaning forward, I saw that the water was creeping into the +cave and covering the floor with shallow, foaming waves. Then, indeed, +we were frightened. What if the rising tide had covered the rocks +outside? We should have to stay all night in that lonely place; for, +though the tide went down before midnight, the way was long and +difficult, and we could not return in the darkness.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Allie!" cried Georgie, scrambling down the side of the cave. +"We can wade, may be."</p> + +<p>I followed him, and we crept out upon the beach. The water had risen +breast high already, and I was nearly thrown down by the force with +which it met me.</p> + +<p>"Lean on me, Allie," said Georgie, throwing his arm about me and +struggling onward. "We must get to the rocks as soon as we can."</p> + +<p>It was with great difficulty that we passed over the narrow strip of +sand below the high cliffs. I clung wildly to Georgie, trying in vain +to keep a firm footing on the treacherous sand, that seemed slipping +from beneath my feet at every step.</p> + +<p>The water had reached my neck. I cried out with terror as I felt myself +borne from my feet. But Georgie kept hold of me, and bracing ourselves +against the first low rock, we waited the coming of the great green +wave that rolled surging toward us, raising its whitening crest high +over our heads. It broke directly above us, and for a moment we stood +dizzy with the shock, and half blinded by the dashing salt spray. Then +we ran on as swiftly as was possible in the impeding water. +Fortunately for us, the next wave broke before it reached us, for in +the rapidly rising tide we could not have resisted it.</p> + +<p>We were thoroughly exhausted when, after a few more struggles, we at +last climbed the first cliff and sat on the top, resting and looking +about us for a means of escape. It was impossible for us to scale the +precipice that stretched along the beach. We must keep to the lower +crags at its foot for a mile before we could reach the firm land. This, +in the gathering twilight, was a difficult and dangerous thing to +attempt. Yet there was no other way of escape. We could not return to +the cave. I shuddered as I looked at the foaming waves that rolled +between us and it.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do, Georgie?" I cried. "I <i>can't</i> be drowned!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Allie!" answered Georgie, bravely; "we must go right on, of +course. This place will be covered soon. Take off your shoes. You can +climb easier. There now! take hold of my hand. I'll jump over to that +rock and help you to come on, too!"</p> + +<p>Well was it for me that Georgie was a strong, agile boy, head and +shoulders taller than I. I needed all his help in the homeward journey. +I tremble even yet as I think of the perils of the half mile that we +traversed before darkness fell. The rough rocks tore our hands and feet +as we clambered painfully over them. They were slippery with sea-weed +and wet with the waves that from time to time rolled across them. More +than once I slipped and would have fallen into the raging water below, +but for Georgie's sustaining arm. Looking back now to that dark +evening, Georgie's bravery and presence of mind seem wonderful to me. +He spoke little, only now and then directing me where to place my feet, +but his strong, boyish hand held mine in a firm grasp, and his clear +eyes saw just when to seize the opportunity, given by a receding wave, +to spring from one rock to another.</p> + +<p>"Georgie, shall we <i>ever</i> reach home?" I sighed at last as we gained +the end of a spur of rock over which we had been walking. Georgie made +no answer, and I turned, in surprise, to look at him. His face was very +white, and his great eyes were staring out into the twilight with such +a frightened gaze that I looked about me with a sudden increase of +terror. I had thought the worst of the way over, and in the gathering +darkness had hardly noticed where we were going, following Georgie with +perfect trust in his judgment. Now I suddenly saw that we could proceed +no farther. We stood, as I have said, on a long ridge of rock. Before +us, at our very feet, was the wildly surging water, tearing at the +rocks as if to wrest them from their foundation. Beyond, we could see +the strong cliffs again, but far out of reach. Behind were only the +narrow rocks over which we had come; and on either side the cruel sea +cut us off from all hope of gaining the land. I sank on the slippery +sea-weed, in an agony of terror, sobbing out my mother's name. Georgie +sat down beside me. "Don't cry, Allie!" he said, in a trembling voice. +"Please don't! We may be saved yet. Perhaps they'll come after us in a +boat. Or we can stay here till morning."</p> + +<p>"But oh! I want to go home! I want mamma," I sobbed; "and I'm so cold +and tired, and my feet ache so! O Georgie, <i>can't</i> we go on?"</p> + +<p>Georgie was silent for a few moments. "No," he said, at last, "we must +stay here, but don't be afraid. Here, I'm not cold, take my coat, and +I'll tie our handkerchiefs round your feet. There, lean on me, now. We +must hold on to the rock, you know, or we might tumble. Now, let's both +scream 'help' as loud as we can. May be, some one will hear us and +come."</p> + +<p>But though we shouted till we were hoarse, the only answering voices +were those of the roaring wind and "the wild sea water."</p> + +<p>It was quite dark now. I could see nothing as I clung there, half +sitting, half lying, with my face on Georgie's shoulder. Strangely +vivid were the pictures that passed before my closed eyes. I saw my +pretty nursery, with the clear lamplight falling on the pictured walls +and the little white beds; I saw my mother seated by the fire, with the +baby in her arms, and heard her low, sweet voice singing:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Sleep, baby, sleep,</div> + <div>Thy father watches the sheep!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>I saw my father, laughing and frolicking with my little brothers, as +his wont was on a leisure evening. How I longed to be among them. Then +my hair, blowing across my eyes, blotted out the pleasant picture, and +the hoarse shouting of the sea drove the sweet cradle-song from my +ears.</p> + +<p>Georgie's voice stopped my weary sobbing. "Allie," he said, softly, +"mamma told me that true knights prayed for help when they were +fighting. So I shall ask God to help us now. I think He will."</p> + +<p>Then, clear and soft, amid the roaring of the storm, arose the childish +voice repeating his evening prayer:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Now I lay me down to sleep,</div> + <div>I pray the Lord my soul to keep!</div> + <div>If I should die before I wake,</div> + <div>I pray the Lord my soul to take."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>I felt a little quieter when he had finished. Georgie's strong, sweet +faith strengthened me unawares, and involuntarily I repeated the little +prayer after him. Then we were silent for a long time. I was strangely +weak and weary. The fear of death was gone now; I thought no more of +even my mother. I think I was fast lapsing into unconsciousness when +Georgie's voice half aroused me. "Allie! Allie!" he cried. "Wake up! +You are slipping down! O, Allie, dear, do try to get up! You'll be +drowned!" But even this failed to arouse me from the stupor into which +I had fallen. I felt myself slipping from my seat. Already my feet were +in the icy water, and the spray was dashing about my face. I heard +Georgie call me once again, felt my hands firmly grasped in his, and +then I knew nothing more.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>"Alice, dear little Alice!" I opened my eyes at the words. Somebody's +arms were about me; warm tears were falling on my head, and the scent +of roses was in the air. Where was I? Was this my own little bed, with +its snowy curtains and soft, fresh pillows? Was Baby Robin lying beside +me, stroking my cheek with his tiny hand? I was not dead, then? Where +were the water and the cold sea-weed? A kiss fell on my forehead, and a +voice murmured soft love-words in my ear. "Allie! my little girl! +Mamma's darling!"</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image12" id="image12"><img src="images/image12.jpg" width="410" +height="499" alt="ON THE ROCK" title="ON THE ROCK" /></a> +<p class="caption">ON THE ROCK.</p> +</div> + +<p>Then I raised my head and looked straight into my mother's sweet, +tearful eyes. "Mamma," I said, throwing my arms around her neck, "O, +mamma, I was so afraid! I wanted you so!"</p> + +<p>"But you are safe, Allie, now. Lie down again, dear. You are weak yet."</p> + +<p>So I lay back on the soft pillow with a feeling of rest and content in +my heart, such as had never been there before. I cared to ask no +questions. It was enough that I was safe, with my mother beside my bed +and the early sunbeams flickering on the wall opposite. It was a long +time before I thought of even Georgie. When I asked for him, mamma's +eyes filled with tears. "Dear Allie," she said, "Georgie saved your +life. My little girl would have been taken away from me, but for him. +He caught you when you slipped, and, tired as he was, held you up till +help came. He fainted as soon as papa took him into the boat. We +thought you were both dead!" Her voice broke in a sob, and she clasped +me closer in her arms. "He is better now," she went on. "Allie, we must +never forget his courage. Thank God, he was with you!"</p> + +<p>"Mamma, O mamma!" I cried, "he said he was trying to be like Saint +George. <i>Isn't</i> he like him? He saved me, and he prayed there in the +dark—and, O mamma, I love him so for it!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Allie," answered my mother, "not one of the old knights was +braver than ours, and not one of all the saints did better service in +the sight of God than our little Saint George last night."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="prison" id="prison">BORN IN PRISON.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Julia P. Ballard.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgright"> +<a name="image13" id="image13"><img src="images/image13.jpg" width="228" +height="300" alt="THE PRISONERS" title="THE PRISONERS" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE PRISONERS.</p> +</div> + +<p>I am only a day old! I wonder if every butterfly comes into the world +to find such queer things about him? I was born in prison. I can see +right through my walls; but I can't find any door. Right below me (for +I have climbed up the wall) lies a queer-looking, empty box. It is +clear, and a pale green. It is all in one piece, only a little slit in +the top. I wonder what came out of it. Close by it there is another +green box, long and narrow, but not empty, and no slit in the top. I +wonder what is in it. Near it is a smooth, green caterpillar, crawling +on the edge of a bit of cabbage-leaf. I'm afraid that bright light has +hurt my eyes. It was just outside of my prison wall, and bright as the +sun. The first thing I remember, even before my wings had opened wide, +or I was half through stretching my feet to see if I could use them in +climbing, there was a great eye looking at me. Something round was +before it, with a handle. I suppose it was a quizzing-glass to see what +I was about. I heard somebody say, "Oh! oh!" twice, just as if they +wondered I was here. Then they held the great bright light close to the +wall till my eyes were dazzled. I don't like this prison. It isn't +worth while to fly about. It seems as if I ought to have more room. +There must be something inside that green box. It moves! I saw it half +tip over then, all of itself. I believe that caterpillar is afraid of +it. He creeps off slowly toward the wall. How smooth and green he is! +How his rings move when he crawls! Now he is gone up the wall. He has +stopped near the roof. How he throws his head from side to side! He is +growing broader! He looks just as if he was turning into one of these +green boxes! How that box shakes! There, I see it begin to open! There +is a slit coming in the back! Something peeps out! A butterfly's head, +I declare! Here it comes,—two long feelers, two short ones! Four +wings, two round spots on each of the upper pair, and none on the other +two. Dressed just like me. I wonder why it hid away in that box?</p> + +<p>First Butterfly.—"What made you hide in that green box?"</p> + +<p>Second Butterfly.—"What box? I haven't hid anywhere. I don't know what +box you mean?"</p> + +<p>First Butterfly.—"That one. You just crawled out of it. I saw you."</p> + +<p>Second Butterfly.—"That's the first I knew of it. There are <i>two</i> +boxes just alike. <i>Both</i> empty. May be you were hid in the other!"</p> + +<p>First Butterfly.—"Ho! There goes up our prison wall! That's the big +hand that held the bright light. How good the air feels! Now for a +chance to try our wings! Away we go!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="lilytoes" id="lilytoes">HOW LILY-TOES WAS CAUGHT IN A SHOWER.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Emily H. Leland.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>Lily-toes, though quite a pet, was the fourth baby, and, consequently, +was not so great a wonder in the eyes of her family as she might have +been. She and her mamma were on a visit to her grandma's, in the +country. As she had been there a week, the excitement attendant on her +arrival had so far subsided that grandma was beginning to turn her +attention to cheese-making, her two aunties to sew vigorously on their +new cambric dresses, and grandpa and the big hired man to become so +engaged in the "haying" that they scarcely saw Lily-toes except at +supper-time.</p> + +<p>Lily-toes, as if to make amends for being the fourth, was a lovely +chubby baby of eight months, so full of sunshine and content and +blessed good health, that although her two first teeth were just +grumbling through, she would sit in her high chair by the window or +roll and wriggle about on the floor, singing tuneless songs and telling +herself wordless stories, an hour at a time, without making any demands +on anybody, so that grandma and the aunties declared that half the time +they would not know there was a baby in the house. Perhaps it is +sometimes a fault to be too good-natured; for there came a certain +afternoon when Lily-toes would have been pleased if somebody had +remembered there <i>was</i> a baby in the house.</p> + +<p>It happened in this way. There was company at grandma's. Not the kind +of city company that comes to dine after babies are in bed for the +night, but country company,—that comes early in the afternoon and +stays and talks over whole life-times before tea. Grandma, mamma, and +the aunties were enjoying it all very much; and Lily-toes, who was, if +possible, more angelic than ever, had wakened from a blessed nap, +lunched on bread and milk and strawberries, and was stationed in her +high chair on the back piazza where she could admire the landscape and +watch the cows and sheep feeding upon the hill-sides. A honeysuckle +swung in the breeze above her head, and little chickens, not big enough +to do harm to grandma's flower-beds, ran to and fro in the knot-grass, +hunting for little shiny green bugs, and fluttering and peeping in a +way that was very interesting to Lily-toes. No baby could be more +comfortably situated on a hot summer day; at least, so her mamma +thought, as she tied Lily-toes securely in her chair with a soft scarf, +and went back to the sitting-room and the busy sewing and talking with +her dear old girlhood friends. I presume if Lily-toes had been a first +baby, her mamma would have hesitated about leaving her there. She would +have feared—may be—that the chickens would eat her up or that she +might swallow the paper-weight. As it was, she only kissed the little +thing with a sort of mechanical smack and left her alone, as coolly as +if lovely Lily-toe babies were an every-day affair.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, and for many days before, great distress was going on in the +fields and gardens for lack of rain. The young corn was drooping, the +vines fainting, the sweet red roses opening languidly, the grasses +growing dry and brittle to the bite of the patient cows and nibbling +sheep. Everything, except Lily-toes, was expressing a desire for rain. +In fact, all through the night before this story of a wronged baby +opens, the hills, woods, fields, and gardens, had been praying for rain +according to their individual needs, the maples and elms desiring a +"regular soaker," while the lowly pansies lifted their fevered little +palms to the stars and begged but a few drops.</p> + +<p>And the rain came. Slowly up the western skies rose a solid cloud. No +attention was paid it for some time, it came on so quietly and +serenely. But, by and by, the cows came sauntering down to the +barn-yard bars as if they thought it was milking-time, and the sheep +huddled together under the great elms. Grandpa and his big man +commenced raking the hay together vigorously, and a sudden, cool, puffy +breeze began to ruffle the little rings of hair on Lily-toes' head, and +send the small chickens careening over the knot-grass in such fashion +that the careful mother-hen put her head out of her little house and +called them in. And still in the cool, pleasant sitting-room, with its +cheerful talk and laughter, the approach of the storm was hardly +noticed. Grandma, the most thoughtful body present, remarked that she +believed it was "clouding up a little," and mamma said she hoped so. +And then the talk went on about making dresses and the best way to put +up strawberries and spiced currants. But when big drops came suddenly +plashing against the windows and a lively peal of thunder rolled +overhead, then there was a scattering in the sitting-room. The aunties +scampered out through a side door to snatch some clothes from the +grass-plot, and to gather up the bright tin pans and pails that had +been sunning on the long benches. Grandma, throwing her apron over her +head, ran to see that some precious young turkeys were under shelter. +The visitors hurried to the door, bewailing the windows they had left +open at home, and hoping their husbands <i>would</i> have sense enough to +see to things. And the mamma ran upstairs to close the windows and +potter over some collars and ruffles that had blown about, never +thinking of baby on the uncovered piazza.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image14" id="image14"><img src="images/image14.jpg" width="451" +height="500" alt="LILY-TOES IN THE SHOWER" title="LILY-TOES IN THE SHOWER" /></a> +<p class="caption">LILY-TOES IN THE SHOWER.</p> +</div> + +<p>Oh, how it poured! Grandpa and his man got as far as the wagon-shed +just as the worst came, and they stayed there. Grandma was +weather-bound along with her young turkeys in the granary. And +Lily-toes!—no one will ever know what her reflections were for a few +moments. I imagine she rather liked the first drops; for she was always +fond of plashing about in her bath-tub, and had no fear of water in +reasonable quantities. But when the wind began to dash the rain in her +face, probably she first gasped in astonishment, and then kicked, and, +eventually, as everybody knew, screamed! Yes; aunties, visitors, and +mamma, as they met in the hall and shrieked to each other about the +storm, heard, at last, in the lull of the gale, a sound of indignant +squalling.</p> + +<p>Then there was another scamper. Lily-toes was snatched in-doors and +borne along amid a tempest of astonishment and pity, until one visitor +burst out laughing; and then all laughed except the mamma, who kept a +straight face until baby stopped crying and smiled around on them like +wet sunlight.</p> + +<p>Before grandma could reach the house, Lily-toes had been rubbed very +dry and put into dry clothes; but her wrapper and petticoats and +stockings and blue shoes, lying in a sopping heap on the floor, told +the tale to grandma and grandpa and the hired man, who all agreed it +was a burning shame to forget Lily-toes, even for five minutes; and the +hired man went so far as to remark that, "If there had been a few more +women-folks in the house, she'd most likely been drown-ded." And +Lily-toes looked at him gratefully, as if he had spoken the very words +she had longed to say.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="thanks" id="thanks">"THANKS TO YOU."</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Mary E. Bradley.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<table summary="Thanks to you" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<td valign="top" rowspan="3"> +<img src="images/image15.jpg" width="176" height="401" alt="E" /> +</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanzathanks"> + <div style="text-indent:-2em;">very day for a month of Sundays,</div> + <div>Saturdays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Mondays,</div> + <div>Jack had pondered the various means</div> + <div>And methods pertaining to grinding machines,</div> + <div>Until he was sure he could build a wheel</div> + <div>That, given the sort of dam that's proper,</div> + <div>Would only need some corn in the hopper</div> + <div>To turn out very respectable meal.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanzathanks"> + <div>Jerry and Jane and Jo, and the others,</div> + <div>Jack's incredulous sisters and brothers,</div> + <div>Gave him credit for good intentions,</div> + <div>But took no stock in the boy's inventions.</div> + <div>In fact they laughed them quite to scorn;</div> + <div>Instead of wasting his time, they said,</div> + <div>He would be more likely to earn his bread</div> + <div>Planting potatoes or hoeing corn!</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanzathanks"> + <div>Bessie alone, when all the rest</div> + <div>Crushed his spirit with gibe and jest,</div> + <div>Whispered softly, "Whatever they say,</div> + <div>I know you will build the wheel some day!"</div> + <div>Chirping crickets and singing birds</div> + <div>Were not so sweet as her heartsome words;</div> + <div>Straight he answered, "If ever I do,</div> + <div>I know it will only be thanks to you!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanzathanks"> + <div>Many a time sore heart and brain</div> + <div>Leap at a word, grown strong again.</div> + <div>Thanks to her, as the story goes,</div> + <div>Hope and courage in Jack arose;</div> + <div>Till one bright day in the meadow-brook</div> + <div>There was heard a sound as of water plashing,</div> + <div>And Bessie watched with her happy look</div> + <div>The little wheel in the sunlight flashing.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanzathanks"> + <div>By and by as the years were fraught</div> + <div>With fruit of his earnest toil and thought,</div> + <div>Brothers and sisters changed their tune,—</div> + <div>"Our Jack," they cried, "will be famous soon!"</div> + <div>Which was nothing more than Bessie knew,</div> + <div>She said, and had known it all the while!</div> + <div>But Jack replied with a kiss and a smile,</div> + <div>"If ever I am, it is thanks to you!"</div> +</div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image16" id="image16"><img src="images/image16.jpg" width="300" +height="196" alt="HOW BIRDS FLY" /></a> +</div> + +<h2><a name="birds" id="birds">HOW BIRDS FLY.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Prof. W.K. Brooks.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>In our last talk about birds (in <span class="sc">St. Nicholas</span> for July), I +told you about birds and their nests. Now I wish to say, first, a few +words about the different kinds of birds, and then we will see how +birds manage to fly. Naturalists have divided the class, birds, into +several smaller groups which are called orders. One of these includes +the birds of prey, such as the hawks, eagles, and owls. In the picture +of a bird of prey you can see the strong, hooked bill and powerful +claws, which are well fitted for seizing and tearing its prey.</p> + +<p>The second order includes the climbing birds, such as the woodpeckers. +The birds of this order can readily be recognized, since two of the +toes of each foot point backward, to give support in climbing.</p> + +<p>The next order, that of the perching birds, includes all our common +song-birds, such as the robin, bluebird, and blackbird, as well as a +few larger birds, like the crow.</p> + +<p>The scratching birds form another order, including our domestic fowls +and many wild game-birds.</p> + +<p>The next order comprises the ostrich and a few other large birds, which +have such small wings that they are unable to fly, but with very large +and powerful legs, so that they are excellent runners. Although this +order includes the largest bird at present living, there were formerly +running birds very much larger than any which now exist; for, in +Madagascar and New Zealand, the bones, and even the eggs, of gigantic +birds have been found. One of these eggs was over a foot in length, and +contained more than ten quarts or as much as six ostrich eggs or one +hundred and fifty hen's eggs. A nearly complete skeleton of one of +these birds has been found, and this must have belonged to a bird +fifteen feet high, or taller than the largest elephant!</p> + +<p>The next order includes the wading birds such as the snipe, plover, +woodcock, heron, and rail.</p> + +<p>Another order is that of the gulls, ducks, geese, pelicans, penguins, +and other swimming birds.</p> + +<p>Besides these living birds, fossil birds have been found in the rocks. +Some of these are very different from any species now living, and very +much like reptiles, so that it is not easy to decide whether they are +to be called birds or reptiles.</p> + +<p>The chief peculiarity of birds is their power of flight, and, although +there are a few birds which do not fly, most of them do, and the +various organs of their bodies are all constructed in such a way as to +fit them for a life in the air. Their bodies are very solid and +compact, in order that most of their weight shall be near the place +where the wings are attached. The feet, legs, head, and neck are light, +and so arranged that they may be drawn up close to the body while the +bird is flying. As the neck is long and very flexible, the body does +not need to be pliant, as with most creatures having backbones; but it +is important that the wings should have a firm support, so the bones of +the back are united. The body of a bird must also be well protected +from the cold; for, as it ascends and descends through the air, it +passes through regions of very different temperatures, and it must be +provided with a thick and warm covering in order to be able to endure +these sudden changes, and one also which shall be very light and able +to shed the water; for, otherwise, a bird would be unable to fly. The +feathers of a bird answer to all these needs, and are so placed upon +the body that they form a smooth surface which does not catch against +the air when the bird is passing through it. In its rapid ascents and +descents, the bird is exposed to another danger even greater than the +sudden changes of temperature. You all know that air presses in every +direction with great force, and that we do not feel it because there is +air in all parts of our bodies as well as outside them, and the +pressure of the air inside exactly balances that of the outside air. If +we should suddenly take away the outside air in any way, such as +covering a person up with an air-pump receiver, and quickly and +completely exhausting the air, the consequences of the inside pressure +would be very terrible, and if the experiment could be tried quickly +enough the body would burst like an exploding gun, with a loud noise.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image17" id="image17"><img src="images/image17.jpg" width="400" +height="372" alt="THE EAGLE (BIRD OF PREY)" title="THE EAGLE (BIRD OF +PREY)" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE EAGLE (BIRD OF PREY).</p> +</div> + +<p>When people go up rapidly in a balloon or climb very high mountains, +they are troubled by a ringing noise and a feeling of great pressure in +the ears and head, and by palpitation of the heart, bleeding at the +nose, and fainting. These unpleasant and often dangerous symptoms are +caused by the expansion of the air inside their bodies. In ascending +very high mountains it is necessary to go very slowly and to stop very +often, to give time for some of the expanded air to escape, and +equalize the pressure again. Now, many birds, the condor, for example, +fly over the tops of the highest mountains, and nearly all birds, +either occasionally or habitually, ascend to very great altitudes, and, +unless there were some plan for regulating the pressure of the air +inside their bodies, they would suffer great inconvenience and even +pain and danger. But they are provided with an arrangement by which the +air within them can escape easily as it expands and thus keep the +pressure within just equal to that outside, so that they can ascend and +descend as rapidly as they wish, without feeling the least +inconvenience. In the body of the bird there are several large bags, +like the lungs, called air-chambers; many of their bones are hollow, +and others are pierced with long winding tubes called air-tubes. All +these air-chambers and air-tubes are connected with the lungs so that +air can pass into and out of them at each breath. The connection +between these chambers and the lungs is so complete that a wounded hawk +can breathe through a broken wing almost as well as through its mouth. +When a bird mounts upward, the air inside its body gradually expands, +but the bird does not feel any inconvenience; for, at each breath, part +of the air passes from the air-chambers into the lungs, so that the +pressure on the inside does not become greater than that on the +outside.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image18" id="image18"><img src="images/image18.jpg" width="400" +height="357" alt="PENGUINS (SWIMMERS AND DIVERS)" title="PENGUINS (SWIMMERS +AND DIVERS)" /></a> +<p class="caption">PENGUINS (SWIMMERS AND DIVERS).</p> +</div> + +<p>I could easily fill the whole of this chapter with an account of the +different ways in which the body of a bird is fitted for life in the +air, but we have room to examine only one of these,—the way in which +the wing is adapted to its use.</p> + +<p>Did you ever look at a bird's wing carefully, and try to find out from +it the way in which it is used? People usually suppose, either that a +bird flies because it is lighter than the air, like a balloon, or that +it rows itself along as a boat is rowed through the water. Neither of +these suppositions is true. A bird is not lighter than the air, and +does not float; for when a bird is shot on the wing it falls to the +ground just as quickly as a squirrel. On the contrary, a bird flies by +its own weight, and could not fly at all if it were not heavier than +the air.</p> + +<p>You know that when you move a large, flat surface rapidly through the +air, it meets with considerable resistance. A bird's wing is so large, +and is moved so rapidly, that the resistance of the air is enough to +raise the bird a short distance each time the wings are flapped +downward; but after each down-flap there must be an up-flap, and the +air resists this just as it does the down-flap; so, unless there were +some arrangement to prevent it, the bird would drive itself down each +time it raised its wings, just as far as it had raised itself by the +down-stroke before, so that it would never get into the air at all. To +meet this difficulty, the wing is so shaped that it is concave or +hollow upon its lower surface, so that it gathers the air together and +prevents it from escaping; while the upper surface is convex or +bulging, so that the air slides off from it when the wing is moved +upward. If you have ever been caught in a sudden squall of wind with an +open umbrella, you will easily understand how great a difference in +resisting power this difference in the shape of the two sides of the +wing will make. As long as you can keep the bulging side of the +umbrella pointed toward the wind, you find no difficulty in holding it; +but if the wind strikes the hollow under-side of the umbrella, it pulls +so violently that, unless you are able to turn around and face the +wind, the chances are that the umbrella will either be pulled away from +you or turned inside out. But in the latter case, the wind slides out +over the edges again, so that there is no trouble in holding on to the +umbrella.</p> + +<p>The peculiar shape of the wing is only one of the ways by which the +down-stroke is made to strike the air with more force than the +up-stroke. If you will look at a quill-feather, you will see that, on +each side of the central shaft or quill, there is a broad, thin +portion, which is called the <i>vane</i>. The vane on one side of the shaft +is quite broad and flexible, while that on the other side is narrow and +stiff; and by looking at a wing with the feathers in their places, you +will find that they are placed so that they overlap a little, like the +slats on a window-blind. Each broad vane runs under the narrow vane of +the feather beside it, so that, when the wing is moved downward, each +feather is pressed up against the stiff narrow vane of the one beside +it, and the whole wing forms a solid sheet like a blind with the slats +closed. After the down-stroke is finished and the up-stroke begins, the +pressure is taken off from the lower surface of the wing, and begins to +act on the upper surface and to press the feathers downward instead of +upward. The broad vanes now have nothing to support them, and they bend +down and allow the air to pass through the wing, which is now like a +blind with the slats open. By these two contrivances,—the shape of the +wing, and the shape and arrangement of the feathers,—the wing resists +the air on its down-stroke and raises the bird a little at each flap, +but at each up-stroke allows the air to slide off at the sides, and to +pass through between the feathers, so that nothing is lost.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image19" id="image19"><img src="images/image19.jpg" width="399" +height="291" alt="QUAIL (SCRATCHERS)" title="QUAIL (SCRATCHERS)" /></a> +<p class="caption">QUAIL (SCRATCHERS).</p> +</div> + +<p>So much for the way in which the bird is raised into the air. Rising in +the air is not flying, for a balloon and a kite rise but do not fly. +Now, how is a bird able to move forward? This is not quite as easy to +understand as the other, but I hope to be able to make it clear to you. +I must first say, however, that it is not done by rowing with the +wings, for they move up and down, not backward and forward, and no +amount of rowing up and down would drive a bird forward, any more than +rowing backward and forward would lift a boat up into the air.</p> + +<p>You will find, if you carefully examine a bird's wing, that all the +bones and muscles are placed along the front edge, which is thus made +very stiff and strong. The quill feathers are fastened in such a way +that they point backward, so that the hind edge of the wing is not +stiff like the front edge, but is flexible and bends at the least +touch. As the air is not a solid, but a gas, it has a tendency to slide +out from under the wing when this is driven downward, and of course it +will do this at the point where it can escape most easily. Since the +front edge of the wing is stiff and strong, it retains its hollow +shape, and prevents the air from sliding out in this direction, but the +pressure of the air is enough to bend up the thin, flexible ends of the +feathers at the hinder border of the wing, so the air makes its escape +there, and slides out backward and upward. The weight of the bird is +all the time pulling it down toward the earth; so, at the same time +that the air slides out upward and backward past the bent edge of the +wing, the wing itself, and with it the bird, slides forward and +downward off from the confined air. You will have a much better idea of +this if you will cut out a little paper model of a bird's wing and +watch the way in which it falls through the air.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image21" id="image21"><img src="images/image21.png" width="500" +height="165" alt="MODEL OF BIRD'S WING" /></a> +</div> + +<p>Take a sheet of stiff paper and cut it in the shape shown in the +diagram above, but considerably larger. Be very careful to have the two +sides alike, so that they shall balance each other. Now fold up the +front margin of each wing, along the dotted lines <i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, +<i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, to form a stiff rim to represent the rim of bone +along the front edge of a bird's wing, and cut out a small strip of +wood, about as thick as a match and twice as long, and run this through +the two slits, <i>b</i>, <i>b</i>, to represent the body of the bird. If +you hold this model about three feet from the ground, and allow it to +fall gently, you will see that, instead of falling straight to the +ground, it will slide forward, and strike the ground two or three feet +ahead of you. It is really its weight which causes it to do this, so +that the statement that a bird flies by its own weight is strictly +true.</p> + +<p>This is true, also, of insects and bats. They all have wings with stiff +front edges, and flexible hind edges which bend and allow the air to +pass out, so that flying is nothing but sliding down a hill made of air. +A bird rises, then, by flapping its wings, and it flies by falling back +toward the earth and sliding forward at the same time. At the end of +each stroke of its wings it has raised itself enough to make up for the +distance it has fallen since the last stroke, and accordingly it stays +at the same height and moves forward in a seemingly straight line. But +if you watch the flight of those birds which flap their wings slowly, +such as the woodpecker, you can see them rise and fall, and will have no +trouble in seeing that their path is not really a straight line, but is +made up of curves; although most birds flap their wings so rapidly that +they have no time to fall through a space great enough to be seen. Birds +also make use of the wind to aid them in flight, and by holding their +wings inclined like a kite, so that the wind shall slide out under them, +they can sail great distances without flapping their wings at all. They +are supported, as a paper kite is, by the wind, which is continually +pushing against their wings, and sliding out backward and downward, thus +lifting or holding up the bird, and at the same time driving it forward.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image20" id="image20"><img src="images/image20.jpg" width="400" +height="165" alt="A SKILLFUL FLYER" title="A SKILLFUL FLYER" /></a> +<p class="caption">A SKILLFUL FLYER.</p> +</div> + +<p>The birds are not compelled to face the wind while they are sailing, but +by changing the position of the wings a little they can go in whatever +direction they wish, much as a boy changes his direction in skating by +leaning a little to one side or the other. Some birds are very skillful +at this kind of sailing, and can even remain stationary in the air for +some minutes when there is a strong wind; and they do this without +flapping their wings at all. It is a difficult thing to do, and no birds +except the most skillful flyers can manage it. Some hawks can do it, and +gulls and terns may often be seen practicing it when a gale of wind is +blowing, and they seem to take great delight in their power of flight.</p> + +<p>Of all birds the albatross is the most skillful in the art of sailing in +the air. It is a large sea-bird, about the size of a swan, and has very +long and powerful wings. It lives far out upon the open ocean, hundreds +of miles from land, and spends nearly all of its life in the air, very +seldom alighting upon the water. It flies almost entirely by the aid of +the wind, and sometimes does not flap its wings for an hour at a time. +Albatrosses often follow a ship clear across the ocean, or, rather, they +keep company with the ship, for as they are able to fly one hundred +miles an hour with ease, the rate at which a ship travels is much too +slow for them; so they make long journeys ahead and behind, like a dog +taking a walk with his master, returning occasionally to the ship to +pick up any food which may have been thrown overboard.</p> + +<br /> + +<h2><a name="nancy" id="nancy">NANCY CHIME.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By S. Smith.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgleft"> +<a name="image22" id="image22"><img src="images/image22.jpg" width="141" +height="500" alt="NANCY CHIME" title="NANCY CHIME" /></a> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Untarnished by the breath of fame,</div> + <div class="in1">Untouched by prose or rhyme,</div> + <div>The world has never heard that name,—</div> + <div class="in1">The name of Nancy Chime.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Domestic, friend, and monitor,</div> + <div class="in1">She served us long and well;</div> + <div>Not many "helps" could equal her,</div> + <div class="in1">And none, perhaps, excel.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>No evil lurked within her breast;</div> + <div class="in1">Her face was always bright;</div> + <div>Her trusty hands, scarce needing rest,</div> + <div class="in1">Were busy day and night.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Her voice was sweet as voice of birds</div> + <div class="in1">That to each other call;</div> + <div>And when she spoke, her striking words</div> + <div class="in1">Were listened to by all.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>E'en Baby Bunting—darling boy,</div> + <div class="in1">The happiest of his race—</div> + <div>Would clap his little hands with joy,</div> + <div class="in1">And look up in her face.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>But none can reach perfection here;</div> + <div class="in1">Like all beneath the sun,</div> + <div>She, too, could err, and her career</div> + <div class="in1">Was not a faultless one.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>She only did, here let me tell,</div> + <div class="in1">Each day the best she could;</div> + <div>Would young folks all but do as well,</div> + <div class="in1">The world might soon grow good.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>But all is past! Ah! cold that face!</div> + <div class="in1">That bosom throbs no more!</div> + <div>Oh! must another take her place,</div> + <div class="in1">And we our loss deplore?</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Nay, nay, we could not bear the pain</div> + <div class="in1">Of losing one so true;—</div> + <div>Old Nancy Chime shall tick again,</div> + <div class="in1">And be as good as new.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="caught" id="caught">HOW HE CAUGHT HIM.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<table summary="How he caught him"> +<tr> +<td style="text-align:center; width:50%;"><img src="images/image23a.jpg" width="300" height="228" alt="HANS GETS A FIRST-RATE BITE" title="HANS GETS A FIRST-RATE BITE" /> +<p class="caption">HANS GETS A FIRST-RATE BITE.</p></td> +<td class="center"><img src="images/image23b.jpg" width="299" height="244" alt="THEN HE CATCHES A FISH AND PULLS HIM OUT" title="THEN HE CATCHES A FISH AND PULLS HIM OUT" /> +<p class="caption">THEN HE CATCHES A FISH<br /> AND PULLS HIM OUT.</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="center"><img src="images/image23c.jpg" width="299" height="218" alt="HANS FINDS IT HARDER TO HOLD THE FISH THAN TO CATCH HIM" title="HANS FINDS IT HARDER TO HOLD THE FISH THAN TO CATCH HIM" /> +<p class="caption">HANS FINDS IT HARDER TO HOLD<br /> THE FISH THAN TO CATCH HIM.</p></td> +<td class="center"><img src="images/image23d.jpg" width="300" height="214" alt="THEN HANS BEGINS TO WONDER WHETHER HE OR THE FISH IS CAUGHT" title="THEN HANS BEGINS TO WONDER WHETHER HE OR THE FISH IS CAUGHT" /> +<p class="caption">THEN HANS BEGINS TO WONDER<br /> WHETHER HE OR THE FISH IS CAUGHT.</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="center"><img src="images/image23e.jpg" width="300" height="223" alt="THE FISH NOW CATCHES HANS AND PULLS HIM IN" title="THE FISH NOW CATCHES HANS AND PULLS HIM IN" /> +<p class="caption">THE FISH NOW CATCHES HANS<br /> AND PULLS HIM IN.</p></td> +<td class="center"><img src="images/image23f.jpg" width="301" height="226" alt="HANS AND THE FISH AGREE TO STOP CATCHING EACH OTHER" title="HANS AND THE FISH AGREE TO STOP CATCHING EACH OTHER" /> +<p class="caption">HANS AND THE FISH AGREE<br /> TO STOP CATCHING EACH OTHER.</p></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="teaparty" id="teaparty">WHO PUT OUT THE TEA-PARTY?</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Ellen Frances Terry.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p>One day, when I was a small girl, my little sister Katy and I found in +the yard a dry-goods box, in which the new carpets had been sent home. +As usual, we ran to where grandma sat knitting and nodding:</p> + +<p>"Oh, grandma, <i>mayn't</i> we have it?" cried I.</p> + +<p>"Yet hab it, dranma?" echoed Katy.</p> + +<p>"You know we never had a baby-house."</p> + +<p>"No, nebber had no baby-'ouse."</p> + +<p>"Oh, say yes!"</p> + +<p>"'Ay 'et!"</p> + +<p>"Do, do!"</p> + +<p>"Pede do!"</p> + +<p>Then, before she knew what she was to do, or +say, or what she never had done, or said, we coaxed +her to the back door and pointed to our treasure. +She couldn't refuse us, and the box was given to us.</p> + +<p>John made us a card-board chimney, and cut a square window in either +end, for, of course, we set it on its feet, turning its back to the lane +against whose fence it stood, looking into the yard. Grandma gave us red +curtains for the windows, and a big striped apron, which hung across the +front and did for a door. We had to have a door, for, when we took tea, +the chickens came, without invitation, peeping inside, looking for +crumbs. And, seeing what looked like a party, down flew, with a whir and +rustle, a flock of doves, saying, "Coo-oo! how do-oo-do!" and prinking +themselves in our very faces. Yes, we really had too many of these +surprise-parties; for, another time, it was a wasp that came to tea, and +flew from me to Katy, and from Katy to me, till we flew, too, to hide +our heads in grandma's lap. Then she gave us the apron, which was very +grand, though the blue stripes were walking into the red ones, and there +were a good many little holes which let small arrows of light fly out. +That was when we lighted the chandelier, and they (the holes and the +arrows) were the very things to let people know what grand doings there +were inside.</p> + +<p>Then, when our crockery was arranged on the shelf at the back, a stool +set in the middle for a table, our two small green chairs placed one at +either end, and a good many nails driven into the "walls" to serve as +hooks,—then we gave a party. The dolls were invited, of course, +and their invitations Katy wrote on her slate. To be sure, the letters +looked a good deal like Jack and Jill,—climbing up hill and +tumbling down again,—still the dolls understood us. There were no +little girls invited, because little girls couldn't have squeezed in, +unless they were willing to be hung up, like the extra dollies.</p> + +<p>But oh! wouldn't they have liked to go? We had ice-cream, just made of +vanilla, cream-candy, and water,—delicious! Then there was a whole +tea-potful of chocolate-tea, which was a chocolate-cream drop scraped +fine and mixed with water. Do just try it sometime. Thimble-biscuits, +too, and holes with cookies round them. I never expect to be as happy +again as I was when I dropped the curtain at half-past four precisely, +and lighted the chandelier, which I forgot to say was a candle cut in +two, stuck in cologne-bottles of different shapes and colors.</p> + +<p>We well knew—for didn't we go out twice to look?—how +splendidly the light streamed through the two windows and the eight +holes. Why, the chickens knew it, too, on their perches, for they opened +one sleepy eye after another, solemnly changed legs, and dozed off +again. Those long rays of light, playing truant, ran down the lane and +flashed into the very eyes of naughty Billy Quinn, who was going home +from a visit, whistling, and with his hands in his pockets.</p> + +<p>Of course the dolls arrived promptly, and took off their shawls in the +best bedroom, which was that convenient shelf that was turned into +anything on short notice. The baby-dolls had to go early to bed under +the table, and you can imagine how much pleasanter it is to say, +"Bed-time, children!" than to have it said to you. Mrs. Green was a +perfect little Mrs. Herod in her treatment of her children. Indeed, +their yells under punishment were heart-rending; but when she was only +dear Katy she was tender as one of those cooing doves.</p> + +<p>So we ate up the ice-cream, and turned the tea-pot upside down to +squeeze out the last drop of chocolate-tea. Mrs. Green was just doing +this very thing when the most dreadful event happened. +Crash!—bang!—clatter!—the whole world had turned +upside down. Out went the lights, and everything fell together in a +dismal heap; but whether up or down nobody could tell. There was a +splash of cold, cold water in my face as the wash-bowl and pitcher fell +and crashed beside me. Katy lay with her small nose buried in the +butter-plate. <i>The house had tumbled over!!</i></p> + +<p>For a few seconds not a sound was heard, but then there was a +half-stifled burst of laughter, which quickly died away as some thickly +shod feet scampered down the alley. Yes, the beautiful house was tipped +over, and the tea-party put out, as an extinguisher is slipped over a +candle, or a hat clapped upon a butterfly. Inside, there was a confused +heap, with legs uppermost,—table-legs, chair-legs, little legs +clad in white stockings, and, mixed hopelessly up with these, the dolls, +the dishes, the candles.</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image24" id="image24"><img src="images/image24.jpg" width="400" +height="388" alt="THE TEA-PARTY" title="THE TEA-PARTY" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE TEA-PARTY.</p> +</div> + +<p>This heap, however, was silent only for a moment. Then a feeble cry +struggled up through it,—a cry which, reaching the upper air, grew +loud, doubled itself, became two cries, and rushed out through a window, +which, having lost its way, was where the roof ought to be. Then growing +fast and shrill, the cry ran toward the house, waking up the Brown baby, +who at once joined in. The rooster waked suddenly, and feeling that +something had happened, thought it could do no harm to crow, and that +agitated his household to the last hen. Then to the cackling and +crowing, Beppo added a bark of duty, and nearly turned inside out, +tugging at his chain, and howling between times. The canary began his +scales, and the scream grew and grew and rushed into the house through +every door and window. Uncle John was reading the paper, but, hearing +the fearful uproar, he dashed into the yard, turned back the house with +one hand, with the other picked out from the heap of legs all the white +ones, and dragged us from the wreck of our residence. It was quickly +done, but not too soon, for a little flame, which was hiding under the +close mass of ruins, now hopped merrily up on the tarletan skirts of +Alice Isabella, the prettiest of the dolls.</p> + +<p>While we were being taken to grandma to be cried over and comforted, and +the poor old house lay on its side forgotten, that flame finished off +poor dolly, ran up to the roof, ate up the red-striped curtain in the +twinkling of an eye, and, in fact, made short work of the whole thing. +We knew nothing of this that night, but were so honored and indulged as +to make us think everything else had turned a new leaf as well as the +house.</p> + +<p>The next morning, grandma, coming into the breakfast-room, was called to +the window by Uncle John, who was looking at something in the yard. +There was a forlorn little figure sitting on a log among the charred +embers of the burnt house. It was I, sobbing as if my heart would break, +and beside me was Katy, who stood sadly by, trying with a corner of her +apron to dry my tears. But her eyes were wet, too, and in the fat arms +were squeezed a leg and shoe, which was all that was left of Alice +Isabella.</p> + +<p>What wicked eye had watched the festivities through the window, or what +cruel heart had yielded to the temptation to turn over the house upon it +all, we never knew. I heard that Billy Quinn was punished that night for +coming home late to supper, and now, looking impartially at the matter +over all these years, I am inclined to think it was that very Billy +Quinn, and no other, who put out the tea-party.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="fox" id="fox">THE FOX, THE MONKEY, AND THE PIG.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Howard Pyle.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image25" id="image25"><img src="images/image25.jpg" width="400" +height="236" alt="THE FOX, THE MONKEY, AND THE PIG" /></a> +</div> + +<p>The fox, the monkey, and the pig were once inseparable companions. As +they were nearly always together, the fox's thefts so far reflected upon +his innocent associates, that they were all three held to be wicked +animals.</p> + +<p>At length, the enemies of these three laid a snare, in a path they were +known to use.</p> + +<p>The first that came to the trap was the pig. He viewed it with contempt, +and, to show his disdain of his enemies and his disregard for their +snare, he tried to walk through it with a lofty tread. He found he had +undervalued it, however, when, in spite of his struggles, he was caught +and strangled.</p> + +<p>The next that came was the monkey. He inspected the trap carefully; +then, priding himself upon the skill and dexterity of his fingers, he +tried to pick it to pieces. In a moment of carelessness, however, he +became entangled, and soon met the fate of the unfortunate pig.</p> + +<p>The last that came was the fox. He looked at the snare anxiously, from a +distance, and, approaching cautiously, soon made himself thoroughly +acquainted with its size and power. Then he cried, "Thus do I defeat the +machinations of my enemies!"—and, avoiding the trap altogether, by +leaping completely over it, he went on his way rejoicing.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="dab" id="dab">DAB KINZER: A STORY OF A GROWING BOY.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By William O. Stoddard.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<p>The next day's newspapers, from the city, brought full accounts of the +stranding of the "Prudhomme," as well as of the safety of her passengers +and cargo; but they had nothing whatever to say about the performances +of the "Swallow." The yacht had been every bit as well handled as the +great steamship, but then she had got home safely, and she was such a +little thing, after all. Whatever excitement there had been in the +village died out as soon as it was known that the boys were safe; and +then, too, Mrs. Lee found time to "wonder wot Dab Kinzer means to do wid +all de money he done got for dem blue-fish."</p> + +<p>Dab himself had been talking with Ford Foster and Frank Harley, and an +original idea of his own was beginning to take some sort of form in his +mind. He did not, as yet, mention it to any one, as he wanted very much +to consult with Ham Morris about it. As for Frank, Mr. Foster had +readily volunteered to visit the steamship office, in the city, when he +went over to business, next day, and do whatever might be needed with +reference to the young gentleman's baggage. At the same time, Mrs. +Foster wrote to her sister, Mrs. Hart, giving a full account of what had +happened, and saying she meant to keep Frank as Ford's guest for a +while.</p> + +<p>The Hart boys hardly knew whether to submit or not, when that letter +came, as they had planned for themselves all sorts of rare fun with "the +young missionary" in their own home.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Fuz," said Joe, "we'll serve him out when we get to +Grantley."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Fuz; "I'd just as lief not see too much of him before +that. He wont have any special claim on us if he doesn't go there from +our house."</p> + +<p>Other talk they had together, and the tone of it promised very lively +times at Grantley Academy for the stranger from India. But while the +Hart boys were laying their plans for the future, they were themselves +the subjects of more than one discussion, for Ford Foster gave his two +friends the benefit of all he knew of his cousins.</p> + +<p>"It's a good thing for you that the steamer didn't go ashore anywhere +near their house," he said to Frank Harley. "They're a pair of born +young wreckers. Just think of the tricks they played on my sister +Annie."</p> + +<p>After that conversation, it was remarkable what daily care and attention +Dab Kinzer and Frank paid to their sparring lessons. It even exceeded +the pluck and perseverance with which Dab went to work at his French.</p> + +<p>Plenty of fishing, bathing, riding, boxing. Three boys together can find +so much more to do than one can alone, and they made it four as often as +they could, for Dick Lee had proved himself the best kind of company. +Frank Harley's East Indian experience had made him very indifferent to +the mere question of color, and Ford Foster had too much manhood to +forget that long night of gale and fog and danger on board the +"Swallow."</p> + +<p>It was only a day or so after the perilous "cruise" that Dab Kinzer met +his old playmate, Jenny Walters, just in the edge of the village.</p> + +<p>"How well you look, Dabney!" remarked the sharp-tongued little lady. +"Drowning must agree with you."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dab; "I like it."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what a fuss they made over you when you were gone? I s'pose +they'd nothing else to do."</p> + +<p>"Jenny!" suddenly exclaimed Dab, holding out his hand, "you mustn't +quarrel with me any more. Bill Lee told me about your coming down to the +landing. You may say anything you want to."</p> + +<p>Jenny colored and bit her lip, and she would have given her bonnet to +know if Bill Lee had told Dab how very red her eyes were as she looked +down the inlet for some sign of the "Swallow." Something had to be said, +however, and she said it almost spitefully.</p> + +<p>"I don't care, Dabney Kinzer. It did seem dreadful to think of you three +boys being drowned, and you, too, with your new clothes on. +Good-morning, Dab!"</p> + +<p>"She's a right good girl, if she'd only show it," muttered Dab, as Jenny +tripped away; "but she isn't a bit like Annie Foster. How I do wish Ham +would come back!"</p> + +<p>Time enough for that; and as the days went by, the Morris homestead +began to look less and less like its old self, and more and more like a +house made for people to live and be happy in. Mrs. Kinzer and her +daughters had now settled down into their new quarters as completely as +if they had never known any others, and it seemed to Dab, now and then, +as if they had taken almost too complete possession. His mother had her +room, as a matter of course, and a big one. There could be no objection +to that. Then another big one, of the very best, had to be set apart and +fitted up for Ham and Miranda on their return, and Dab delighted in +doing all in his power to make that room all it could be made. But, +then, Samantha had insisted on a separate domain, and Keziah and Pamela +imitated their elder sister to a fraction. The "guest-chamber" had to be +provided as well, or what would become of the good old Long Island +customs of hospitality?</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image26" id="image26"><img src="images/image26.jpg" width="500" +height="366" alt="THE FIRE" title="THE FIRE" /></a> +<p class="caption">THE FIRE (SEE PAGE 748.)</p> +</div> + +<p>Dab said nothing for a while, but one day, at dinner, just after the +arrival of a letter from Miranda announcing the speedy return of herself +and husband, he quietly remarked:</p> + +<p>"Now I can't sleep in Ham's room any longer,—I suppose I'll have +to go out on the roof. I wont sleep in the garret or in the cellar."</p> + +<p>"That'll be a good deal as Mrs. Morris says, when she comes," calmly +responded his mother.</p> + +<p>"As Miranda says!" said Dab, with a long breath.</p> + +<p>"Miranda?" gasped Samantha and her sisters.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dears, certainly," said their mother. "This is Mrs. Morris's +house, or her husband's,—not mine. All the arrangements I have +made are only temporary. She and Ham both have ideas and wills of their +own. I've only done the best I could for the time being."</p> + +<p>The girls looked at one another in blank amazement over the idea of Mrs. +Kinzer being anything less than the mistress of any house she might +happen to be in, but Dabney laid down his knife and fork with:</p> + +<p>"It's all right, then. If Ham and Miranda are to settle it, I think I'll +take the room Sam has now. You needn't take away your books, Sam. I may +want to read some of them or lend them to Annie. You and Kezi and Meli +had better take that upper room back. The smell of the paint's all gone +now, and there's three kinds of carpet on the floor."</p> + +<p>"Dabney!" exclaimed Samantha, reproachfully, and with an appealing look +at her mother, who, however, said nothing on either side, and was a +woman of too much good sense to take any other view of the matter than +that she had announced.</p> + +<p>Things were all running on smoothly and pleasantly before dinner was +over, but Dab's ideas of the way the house should be divided were likely +to result in some changes. Perhaps not exactly the ones he indicated, +but such as would give him a better choice than either the garret, the +cellar, or the roof. At all events, only three days would now intervene +before the arrival of the two travelers, and everything required for +their reception was pushed forward with all the energy Mrs. Kinzer could +bring to bear. She had promised Ham that his house should be ready for +him, and it was likely to be a good deal more "ready" than either he or +his wife had dreamed of.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<p>One of the most troublesome of the annoyances which come to dwellers in +the country, within easy reach of the great city, is the kind of +patrolling beggar called the "tramp." He is of all sorts and sizes, and +he goes everywhere, asking for anything he wants, very much as if it +belonged to him, so long as he can ask it of a woman or a sickly-looking +man.</p> + +<p>There had been very few of these gentry seen in that vicinity that +summer, for a wonder, and those who had made their appearance had been +reasonably well behaved. Probably because there had been so many +healthy-looking men around, as a general thing. But it came to pass, on +the very day when Ham and Miranda were expected to arrive, by the last +of the evening trains, as Dab Kinzer was coming back from the landing, +where he had been for a look at the "Swallow," to be sure she was all +right for her owner's eyes, that a very disreputable specimen of a +worthless man stopped at Mrs. Kinzer's to beg something to eat, and then +sauntered away down the road.</p> + +<p>It was a little past the middle of the afternoon, and even so +mean-looking, dirty a tramp as that had a perfect right to be walking +along then and there. The sunshine and the fresh salt air from the bay +were as much his as anybody's, and so was the water in the bay, and no +one in all that region of country stood more in need of water than he.</p> + +<p>The vagabond took his right to the road, as he had taken his other right +to beg his dinner, until, half-way down to the landing, he was met by an +opportunity to do more begging.</p> + +<p>"Give a poor feller suthin," he impudently drawled, as he stared +straight into the sweet, fresh face of Annie Foster. Annie had been out +for only a short walk, but she happened to have her pocket-book with +her, and she thoughtlessly drew it out, meaning to give the scamp a +trifle, if only to get rid of him.</p> + +<p>"Only a dime, Miss," whined the tramp, as he shut his dirty hand over +Annie's gift. "Come, now, make it a dollar, my beauty. I'll call it all +square for a dollar."</p> + +<p>The whine grew louder as he spoke, and the wheedling grin upon his +disgusting face changed into an expression so menacing that Annie drew +back with a shudder, and was about to return her little portemonnaie to +her pocket.</p> + +<p>"No you don't, honey!"</p> + +<p>The words were uttered in a hoarse and husky voice, and were accompanied +by a sudden grip of poor Annie's arm with one hand, while with the other +he snatched greedily at the morocco case.</p> + +<p>Did she scream? How could she help it? Or what else could she have done +under the circumstances? She screamed vigorously, whether she would or +no, and at the same moment dropped her pocket-book in the grass beside +the path, so that it momentarily escaped the vagabond's clutches.</p> + +<p>"Shut up, will you!" and other angry and evil words, accompanied with +more than one vicious threat, followed thick and fast, as Annie +struggled to free herself, while her assailant peered hungrily around +after the missing prize.</p> + +<p>It is not at all likely he would have attempted anything so bold as that +in broad daylight if he had not been drinking too freely, and the very +evil "spirit" which had prompted him to his rascality unfitted him for +its immediate consequences. These latter, in the shape of Dab Kinzer and +the lower "joint" of a stout fishing-rod, had been bounding along up the +road from the landing at a tremendous rate for nearly half a minute.</p> + +<p>A boy of fifteen assailing a full-grown ruffian?</p> + +<p>Why not? Age hardly counts in such a matter, and then it is not every +boy of even his "growth" that could have brought muscles like those of +Dab Kinzer to the swing he gave that four feet length of seasoned +ironwood.</p> + +<p>Annie saw him coming, but her assailant did not until it was too late +for anything but to turn and receive that first hit in front instead of +behind. It would have knocked over almost anybody, and the tramp +measured his length on the ground, while Dabney plied the rod on him +with all the energy he was master of.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, Dabney, don't; you'll kill him!" pleaded Annie.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't want to do that," said Dabney, but he added, to the tramp: +"Now you'd better get up and run for it. If you are caught around here +again it'll be the worse for you."</p> + +<p>The vagabond staggered to his feet, looking savagely enough at Dab, but +the latter seemed so very ready to put in another hit with that terrible +cudgel, and the whole situation was so unpleasantly suggestive of +further difficulty, that the youngster's advice was taken without a +word.</p> + +<p>"Here it is. I've found my pocket-book," said Annie, as her enemy made +the best of his way off.</p> + +<p>"He did not hurt you?"</p> + +<p>"No, he only scared me, except that I s'pose my arm will be black and +blue where he caught it. Thank you ever so much, Dabney! You're a brave +boy. Why, he's almost twice your size."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but the butt end of my rod is twice as hard as his head," replied +Dabney. "I was almost afraid to strike him with it, because I might have +broken his skull."</p> + +<p>"You didn't even break your rod."</p> + +<p>"No, and now I must run back for the other pieces and the tip. I dropped +them in the road."</p> + +<p>"Please, Dabney, see me home first," said Annie. "I know it's foolish +and there isn't a bit of danger, but I must confess to being rather +frightened."</p> + +<p>Dab Kinzer was a little the proudest boy on Long Island, as he marched +along in compliance with her request. He went no further than the gate, +to be sure, and then returned for the rest of his rod, but, before he +got home, Keziah hurried back from a call on Mrs. Foster, bringing a +tremendous account of Dab's heroism, and then his own pride was a mere +drop in the bucket compared to that of his mother.</p> + +<p>"Dabney is growing wonderfully," she remarked to Samantha. "He'll be a +man before any of us know it."</p> + +<p>If Dabney had been a man, however, or if Ham Morris or Mr. Foster had +been at home, the matter would not have been permitted to drop there. +That tramp ought to have been followed, arrested and shut up where his +vicious propensities could have been restrained for a while. As it was, +after hurrying on for a short distance and making sure that he was not +pursued, he sprang over the fence and sneaked into the nearest clump of +bushes. From this safe covert he watched Dab Kinzer's return after the +lighter joints of his rod, and then even dared to crouch along the fence +until he saw which house his young conqueror went into.</p> + +<p>"That's where he lives, is it?" exclaimed the tramp, with a scowl of the +most ferocious vengeance. "Well, they'll have fun before bed-time, or +I'll know the reason why."</p> + +<p>The bushes were a good enough hiding-place for the time, and he went +back to them with the air and manner of a man whose mind is made up to +something.</p> + +<p>Ford Foster and Frank Harley were absent in the city that day, with Mr. +Foster, attending to some affairs of Frank's, and when the three came +home and learned what had happened, they were all on the point of +rushing over to the Morris house to thank Dab, but Mrs. Foster +interposed.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I would. To-morrow will do as well, and you know they're +expecting Mr. and Mrs. Morris this evening."</p> + +<p>It was harder for the boys than for Mr. Foster, that waiting, and they +lingered near the north fence two hours later, even though they knew +that the whole Kinzer family were down at the railway station waiting +for Ham and Miranda.</p> + +<p>There was a good deal of patience to be exercised, for that train was +behind time, and the darkness of a moonless and somewhat cloudy night +had settled over the village and the outlying farms long before the +engine puffed its way in front of the station platform. Just at that +moment, Ford Foster exclaimed, "What's that smell?"</p> + +<p>"It's like burning hay," replied Frank.</p> + +<p>"Where can it come from, I'd like to know? We haven't had a light out at +our barn."</p> + +<p>"Light?" exclaimed Frank. "Just look yonder!"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's that old barn away beyond the Morris and Kinzer house. +Somebody must have set it on fire. Hullo! I thought I saw a man running. +Come on, Frank."</p> + +<p>There was indeed a man running just then, but they did not see him, for +he was already very nearly across the field, hidden by the darkness. He +had known how to light a fire that would smolder long enough for him to +get away. There had been no sort of lingering at the railway station, +for Ham and Miranda were as anxious to get at the "surprise" they were +told was waiting for them as their friends were to have them come to it. +Before they were half-way home, however, the growing light ahead of them +attracted their attention, and then they began to hear the vigorous +shouts of "Fire" from the throats of the two boys, now re-enforced by +Mr. Foster himself. Dabney was driving the ponies, and they had to go +pretty fast for the rest of that short run.</p> + +<p>"Surprise!" exclaimed Ham. "I should say it was. Did you light it before +you started, Dabney?"</p> + +<p>"Don't joke, Hamilton," remarked Mrs. Kinzer. "It may be a very serious +affair for all of us. But I can't understand how that barn could have +caught fire."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<p>The Morris farm, as has been said, was a pretty large one, and the same +tendency on the part of the owners which had made them set up so very +extensive and barn-like a house, had led them, from time to time, to +provide the most liberal sort of storage for their crops. The first barn +they had ever built, which was now the oldest and the furthest from the +stables and the residence, was a pretty large one. It was now in a +somewhat dilapidated condition, to be sure, and bowed a little northerly +by the weight of years which rested on it, but it had still some hope of +future usefulness, if it had not been for that tramp and his box of +matches.</p> + +<p>"There isn't a bit of use in trying to save it," exclaimed Ham, as they +were whirled in through the wide gate. "It's gone."</p> + +<p>"But," said Mrs. Kinzer, "we can save the other barns, perhaps. Look at +the cinders on the long stable. If we could only keep them off somehow."</p> + +<p>"We can do it, Ham!" exclaimed Dab, very earnestly. "Mother, will you +send me out a broom and a rope, while Ham and I set up the ladder?"</p> + +<p>"You're the boy for me," said Ham. "I guess I know what you're up to."</p> + +<p>The ladder was one the house painters had been using, and was a pretty +heavy one, but it was quickly set up against the largest and most +valuable of the barns, and the one, too, which was nearest and most +exposed to the burning building and its flying cinders. The rope was on +hand, and the broom, by the time the ladder was in position.</p> + +<p>"Ford," said Dab, "you and Frank help the girls bring water till the men +from the village get here. There's plenty of pails. Now, Ham, I'm +ready."</p> + +<p>Up they went, and were quickly astride the ridge of the roof. It would +have been perilous work for any man to have ventured further unassisted, +but Dab tied one end of the rope firmly around his waist, Ham Morris +tied himself to the other, and then Dab could slip down the steep roof +in any direction without fear of falling.</p> + +<p>But the broom? As useful as a small engine. The flying cinders, burning +hay or wood, as they alighted on the sun-dried shingles of the roof, +needed to be swept off as rapidly as they fell. Here and there the +flames had so good a start that the broom alone would have been +insufficient, and there the fast-arriving pails of water came into +capital play. They had to be used economically, of course, but they did +the work as effectually as if they had been the streams of a steam +fire-engine. Hard work for Ham and Dab, and now and then the strength +and weight and agility of the former were put to pretty severe tests, as +Dab danced around under the scorching heat or slipped flat upon the +sloping roof.</p> + +<p>There were scores and scores of people from the village, now, arriving +every moment, and Mrs. Kinzer had all she could do to keep them from +"rescuing" every atom of her furniture from the house and piling it up +in the road.</p> + +<p>"Wait," she said, quietly. "If Ham and Dab save the long barn, the fire +wont spread any further. The old barn wont be any loss to speak of, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>Fiercely as the dry old barn burned, it used itself up all the quicker +on that account, and it was less than thirty minutes from the time Ham +and Dabney got at work before roof and rafters fell in and the worst of +the danger was over. The men and boys from the village were eager enough +to do any thing that now remained to be done, but a large share of this +was confined to standing around and watching the "bonfire" burn down to +a harmless heap of badly smelling ashes. As soon, however, as they were +no more wanted on the roof, the two volunteer "firemen" came down, and +Ham Morris's first word on reaching the ground was:</p> + +<p>"Dab, my boy, how you've grown!"</p> + +<p>Not a tenth of an inch, in mere stature, and yet Ham was correct about +it. There was plenty of light, just then, moon or no moon, and Ham's +eyes were very busy for a minute. He noted the improvements in the +fences, sheds, barns, the blinds on the house, the paint, a host of +small things that had changed for the better, and then he simply said: +"Come on, Dab," and led the way into the house. Her mother and sisters +had already given Miranda a hurried look at what they had done, but Ham +was not the man to do anything in haste. Deliberately and silently he +walked from room to room and from cellar to garret, hardly seeming to +hear the frequent comments of his enthusiastic young wife. That he did +hear, however, was manifest, for at last he asked:</p> + +<p>"Dab, I've seen all the other rooms, where's yours?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to let you and Miranda have my room," said Dab. "I don't +think I shall board here long."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you will, either," said Ham, emphatically. "You're going +away to boarding-school. Miranda, is there any reason why Dabney can't +have the south-west room, upstairs, with the bay-window?"</p> + +<p>That room had been Samantha's choice, and she looked at Dab +reproachfully, but Miranda replied:</p> + +<p>"No, indeed; not if you wish him to have it."</p> + +<p>"Now, Ham," said Dabney, "I'm not big enough to fit that room. Give me +one nearer my size. That's a little loose for even Sam, and she can't +take any tucks in it!"</p> + +<p>Samantha's look changed to one of gratitude, and she did not notice the +detested nickname.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Ham, "we'll see about it. You can sleep in the spare +chamber to-night. Mother Kinzer, I couldn't say enough about this house +business if I talked all night. It must have cost you a deal of money. I +couldn't have dared to ask it. I guess you'd better kiss me again."</p> + +<p>Curious thing it was that came next. One that nobody could have reckoned +on. Mrs. Kinzer—good soul—had set her heart on having Ham's +house and Miranda's "ready for them" on their return, and now Ham seemed +to be so pleased about it she actually began to cry. She said, too: "I'm +so sorry about the barn!" But Ham only laughed in his quiet way as he +kissed his portly mother-in-law, and said:</p> + +<p>"Come, mother Kinzer, you didn't set it afire. Can't Miranda and I have +some supper? Dab must be hungry, after all that roof-sweeping."</p> + +<p>There had been a sharp strain on the nerves of all of them that day and +evening, and they were glad enough to gather around the tea-table, while +what was left of the old barn smoldered away, with the village boys on +guard. Once or twice Ham or Dab went out to make sure all was right, but +there was no danger, unless a high wind should come.</p> + +<p>By this time the whole village was aware of Dabney's adventure with the +tramp, and it was well for that individual that he had walked fast and +far before suspicion settled on him, for men went out to seek for him on +foot and on horseback.</p> + +<p>"He's a splendid fellow, anyway."</p> + +<p>Odd, was it not, but Annie Foster and Jenny Walters were half a mile +apart when they both said that very thing, just before the clock in the +village church hammered out the news that it was ten and bed-time. They +were not speaking of the tramp.</p> + +<p>It was long after that, however, before the lights were out in all the +rooms of the Morris mansion.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<p>Sleep?</p> + +<p>One of the most excellent things in all the world, and very few people +get too much of it nowadays.</p> + +<p>As for Dabney Kinzer, he had done his sleeping as regularly and +faithfully as even his eating, up to that very night after Ham Morris +came home to find the big barn afire. There had been a few, a very few +exceptions. There were the nights when he was expecting to go +duck-shooting before daylight, and waked up at midnight with a strong +conviction that he was already too late about starting. There were +perhaps a dozen or so of "eeling" expeditions which had kept him out +late enough for a full basket and a proper scolding. There, too, was the +night when he had stood so steadily by the tiller of the "Swallow," +while she danced through the dark across the rough waves of the +Atlantic.</p> + +<p>But on the whole, Dab Kinzer had been a good sleeper all his life till +then. Once in bed, and there had been an end of all wakefulness.</p> + +<p>On that particular night, for the first time, sleep refused to come, +late as was the hour when the family circle broke up. It could not have +been the excitement of Ham's and Miranda's return. He'd have gotten over +that by this time. No more could it have been the fire, though the smell +of the smoldering hay came in pretty strongly, at times, through the +wide-open windows. If any one patch of that great roomy bed was better +made up for sleeping than the rest of it, Dab would surely have found +the spot, for he tumbled and rolled all over it in his restlessness. +Some fields on a farm will "grow" better wheat than others, but no part +of the bed seemed to grow any sleep. At last Dab got wearily up and took +a chair by the window. The night was dark, but the stars were shining, +and every now and then the wind would make a shovel of itself and toss +up the hot ashes the fire had left, sending a dull red glare around on +the house and barns for a moment, and flooding all the neighborhood with +a stronger smell of burnt hay.</p> + +<p>"If you're going to burn hay," soliloquized Dab, "it wont do to take a +barn for a stove. Not that kind of a barn. But what did Ham Morris mean +by saying I was to go to boarding-school? That's what I'd like to know."</p> + +<p>The secret was out.</p> + +<p>He had kept remarkably still, for him, all the evening, and had not +asked a question; but if his brains were ever to work over his books as +they had over Ham's remark, his future chances for sound sleep were all +gone. It had come upon him so suddenly, the very thing he had been +wishing for during all those walks and talks and lessons of all sorts +with Ford Foster and Frank Harley ever since the cruise of the +"Swallow."</p> + +<p>It was a wonderful idea, and Dab had his doubts as to the way his mother +would take to it when it should be brought seriously before her. Little +he guessed the truth. Ham's remark had found other ears as well as +Dabney's, and there were reasons, therefore, why good Mrs. Kinzer was +sitting by the window of her own room, at that very moment, as little +inclined to sleep as was the boy she was thinking of. So proud of him, +too, she was, and so full of bright, motherly thoughts of the man he +would make "one of these days, when he gets his growth."</p> + +<p>There must have been a good deal of sympathy between Dab and his mother, +for, by and by, just as she began to feel drowsy and muttered, "Well, +well, we'll have a talk about it to-morrow," Dab found himself nodding +against the window-frame, and slowly rose from his chair, remarking:</p> + +<p>"Guess I might as well finish that dream in bed. If I'd tumbled out o' +the window I'd have lit among Mirandy's rose-bushes. They've got their +thorns all on at this time o' night."</p> + +<p>It was necessary for them both to sleep hard after that, for more than +half the night was gone and they were to be up early. So indeed they +were; but what surprised Mrs. Kinzer when she went into the kitchen was +to find Miranda there before her.</p> + +<p>"You here, my dear? That's right. I'll take a look at the milk-room. +Where's Ham?"</p> + +<p>"Out among the stock. Dab's just gone to him."</p> + +<p>Curious things people will do at times. Miranda had put down the +coffee-pot on the range. There was not a single one of the farm "help" +around, male or female, and there stood the blooming young bride, with +her back toward her mother, and staring out through the open door. And +then Mrs. Kinzer slipped forward and put her arms around her daughter's +neck.</p> + +<p>Well, it was very early in the morning for those two women to stand +there and cry; but it seemed to do them good, and Miranda remarked, at +last, as she kissed Mrs. Kinzer: "O mother, it is all so good and +beautiful, and I'm so happy."</p> + +<p>And then they both laughed in a subdued and quiet way, and Miranda +picked up the coffee-pot while her mother walked away into the +milk-room.</p> + +<p>Such cream as there seemed to be on all the pans that morning!</p> + +<p>As for Ham Morris, his first visit, on leaving the house, had been to +the ashes of the old barn, as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>"Not much of a loss," he said to himself; "but it might have been but +for Dab. There's the making of a man in him. Wonder if he'd get enough +to eat if we sent him up yonder. On the whole, I think he would. If he +didn't, I don't believe it would be his fault. He's got to go, and his +mother'll agree, I know. Talk about mothers-in-law. If one of 'em's +worth as much as she is, I'd like to have a dozen. Don't know, though. +I'm afraid the rest would have to take back seats while Mrs. Kinzer was +in the house."</p> + +<p>Very likely Ham was right; but just then he heard the voice of Dab +Kinzer behind him.</p> + +<p>"I say, Ham, when you've looked at the other things I want to show you +the 'Swallow.' I haven't hurt her a bit, and her new grapnel's worth +three of the old one."</p> + +<p>"All right, Dab. I think I'd like a sniff of the water. Come on. There's +nothing else like that smell of the shore with the tide half out."</p> + +<p>No more there is, and there have been sea-shore men, many of them, who +had wandered away into the interior of the country, hundreds and +hundreds of long miles, and settled there, and even got rich and old +there, and yet who have come all the way back again just to get another +smell of the salt marshes and the sea breeze and the outgoing tide.</p> + +<p>Ham actually took a little boat and went on board the "Swallow" when +they reached the landing, and Dab kept close by him.</p> + +<p>"She's all right, Ham. But what are you casting loose for?"</p> + +<p>"Dab, they wont all be ready for breakfast in two hours. The stock and +things can go. The men 'll 'tend to 'em. Just haul on that sheet a bit. +Now the jib. Look out for the boom. There. The wind's a little ahead, +but it isn't bad. Ah!"</p> + +<p>The last word came out in a great sigh of relief, and was followed by a +chuckle which seemed to gurgle up all the way from Ham's boots.</p> + +<p>"This is better than railroading," he said to Dabney, as they tacked +into the long stretch where the inlet widened toward the bay. "No +pounding or jarring here. Talk of your fashionable watering-places! Why, +Dab, there aint anything else in the world prettier than that reach of +water and the sand island with the ocean beyond it. There's some ducks +and some gulls. Why, Dab, do you see that? There's a porpoise inside the +bar."</p> + +<p>It was as clear as daylight that Ham Morris felt himself "at home" +again, and that his brief experience of the outside world had by no +means lessened his affection for the place he was born in. If the entire +truth could have been known, it would have been found that he felt his +heart warm toward the whole coast and all its inhabitants, including the +clams. And yet it was remarkable how many of the latter were mere empty +shells when Ham finished his breakfast that morning. He preferred them +roasted, and his mother-in-law had not forgotten that trait in his +character.</p> + +<p>Once or twice in the course of the sail Dabney found himself on the +point of saying something about boarding-schools, but each time his +friend suddenly broke away to discuss other topics, such as blue-fish, +porpoises, crabs, or the sailing qualities of the "Swallow," and Dab +dimly felt it would be better to wait till another time. So he waited.</p> + +<p>And then, as they sailed up the inlet, very happy and very hungry, he +suddenly exclaimed: "Ham, do you see that? How could they have guessed +where we had gone? There's the whole tribe, and the boys are with 'em, +and Annie."</p> + +<p>"What boys and Annie?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ford Foster and Frank Harley. Annie is Ford's sister."</p> + +<p>"What's become of Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"You mean my boat? Why, there she is, hitched a little out, there by the +landing."</p> + +<p>And Dabney did not seem to guess the meaning of Ham's queer, quizzical +smile.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<p>There was a sort of council at the breakfast table of the Foster family +that morning, and Ford and Annie found themselves "voted down."</p> + +<p>"Annie, my dear," said Mrs. Foster, in a gentle but decided way, "I'm +sure your aunt Maria, if not your uncle, must feel hurt about your +coming away so suddenly. If we invite Joe and Foster to visit us, it +will make it all right."</p> + +<p>"Yes!" sharply exclaimed Mr. Foster. "We must have them come. They'll +behave themselves here. I'll write to their father; you write to Maria."</p> + +<p>"They're her own boys, you know," added Mrs Foster, soothingly.</p> + +<p>"Well, mother," said Annie, "if it must be. But I'm sure they'll make us +all very uncomfortable."</p> + +<p>"I can stand 'em for a week or so," said Ford, with the air of a man who +can do or bear more than most people. "I'll get Dab Kinzer to help me +entertain them."</p> + +<p>"Excellent," said Mr. Foster, "and I hope they will be civil to him."</p> + +<p>"To Dabney?" asked Annie.</p> + +<p>"Fuz and Joe civil to Dab Kinzer?" exclaimed Ford.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I hope so."</p> + +<p>"Father," said Ford, "may I say just what I was thinking?"</p> + +<p>"Speak it right out."</p> + +<p>"Well, I was thinking what a good time Fuz and Joe would be likely to +have trying to get ahead of Dab Kinzer."</p> + +<p>Annie looked at her brother and nodded, and there was a bit of a twinkle +in the eyes of the lawyer himself, but he only remarked:</p> + +<p>"Well, you must be neighborly. I don't believe the Hart boys know much +about the sea-shore."</p> + +<p>"Dab and Frank and I will try and educate them."</p> + +<p>Annie thought of the ink and her box of ruined cuffs and collars while +her brother was speaking. Could it be that Ford meant a good deal more +than he was saying? At all events she fully agreed with him on the Dab +Kinzer question. That was one council, and it was of peace or war +according as events and the Hart boys themselves should determine.</p> + +<p>At the same hour, however, matters of even greater importance were +coming to a decision around the well-filled breakfast-table in the +Morris mansion. Ham had given a pretty full account of his visit to +Grantley, including his dinner at Mrs. Myers', and all he had learned of +the academy.</p> + +<p>"It seems like spending a great deal of money," began Mrs. Kinzer, when +Ham at last paused for breath, but he caught her up at once with, "I +know you've been paying out a great deal, Mother Kinzer, but Dab must go +if I pay—"</p> + +<p>"You pay, indeed, for my boy! I'd like to see myself. Now I've found out +what he is, I mean he shall have every advantage, if this Grantley's the +right place."</p> + +<p>"Mother," exclaimed Samantha, "it's the very place Mr. Foster is to send +Ford to, and Frank Harley."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Ham. "Mr. Hart spoke of a Mr. Foster,—his +brother-in-law,—a lawyer."</p> + +<p>"Why," said Keziah, "he's living in our old house now! Ford Foster is +Dab's greatest crony."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard about it last night, but I hadn't put the two together," +said Ham. "Do you really mean Dab is to go?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Mrs. Kinzer.</p> + +<p>"Well, if that isn't doing it easy. Do you know it's about the nicest +thing since I got here?"</p> + +<p>"Except the barn afire," said Dabney, unable to keep still any longer. +"Mother, may I stand on my head a while?"</p> + +<p>"You'll need all the head you've got," said Ham. "You wont have much +time to get ready."</p> + +<p>"Books enough after he gets there," exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer. "I'll risk +Dabney."</p> + +<p>"And they'll make him give up all his slang," added Samantha.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sam, when I come back I'll talk nothing but Greek and Latin. I'm +getting French now from Ford, and Hindoo from Frank Harley. Then I know +English and slang and Long Islandish. Think of one man with seven +first-rate languages."</p> + +<p>But Dabney found himself unable to sit still, even at the +breakfast-table. Not that he got up hungry, for he had done his duty by +Miranda's cookery, but the house itself seemed too small to hold him, +with all his new prospects swelling so within him. Perhaps, too, the +rest of the family felt better able to discuss the important subject +before them after Dab had taken himself into the open air.</p> + +<p>"It beats dreaming all hollow," said the latter to himself, as he stood, +with his hands in his pockets, half-way down toward the gate between the +two farms. "Now I'll see what can be done about that other matter."</p> + +<p>Two plans in one head, and so young a head as that? Yes, and it spoke +very well for Dab's heart, as well as his brains, that plan number two +was not a selfish one. The substance of it came out in the first five +minutes of the talk he had with Ford and Frank, on the other side of the +gate.</p> + +<p>"Ford, you know there's twenty dollars left of the money the Frenchman +paid us for the blue-fish."</p> + +<p>"Well, what of it? Isn't it yours?"</p> + +<p>"One share's mine, the rest yours and Dick's."</p> + +<p>"He needs it more'n I do."</p> + +<p>"Ford, did you know Dick was real bright?"</p> + +<p>"'Cute little chap as I ever saw. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, he ought to go to school."</p> + +<p>"Why don't he go?"</p> + +<p>"He does, except in summer. He might go to the academy if they'd take +him and he had money enough."</p> + +<p>"What academy?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Grantley, of course. I'm going, and so are you and Frank. Why +shouldn't Dick go?"</p> + +<p>"You're going? Hurrah for that! Why didn't you say so before?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't sure till this morning. You fellows'll be a long way ahead of +me, but I mean to catch up."</p> + +<p>For a few minutes poor Dick was lost sight of in a storm of talk, but +Dab came back to him with:</p> + +<p>"Dick's folks are dreadful poor, but we might raise it. Twenty dollars +to begin with—"</p> + +<p>"I've ten dollars laid up, and I know mother'll say pass it right in," +exclaimed Ford.</p> + +<p>It was hardly likely Mrs. Foster would express her assent precisely in +that way, but Frank added:</p> + +<p>"I think I can promise five."</p> + +<p>"I mean to speak to Ham Morris and mother about it," said Dab. "All I +wanted was to fix it about the twenty to start on."</p> + +<p>"Frank," shouted Ford, "let's go right in and see our crowd."</p> + +<p>Ford was evidently excited, and it was hardly five minutes later when he +wound up his story with:</p> + +<p>"Father, may I contribute my ten dollars to the Richard Lee Education +Fund?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, but he will need a good deal more than you boys can raise."</p> + +<p>"Why, father, the advertisement says half a year for a hundred and +fifty. He can board for less than we can. Perhaps Mrs. Myers would let +him work out a part of it."</p> + +<p>"I can spare as much as Ford can," said Annie.</p> + +<p>"Do you leave me out entirely?" asked her mother, with a smile that was +even sweeter than usual. As for sharp-eyed lawyer Foster, he had been +hemming and coughing in an odd sort of way for a moment, and he had +said, "I declare," several times, but he now remarked, somewhat more to +the purpose: "I don't believe in giving any man a better education than +he will ever know what to do with, but then, this Dick Lee, and you +boys,—well, see what you can do, but no one must be allowed to +contribute outside of the Foster and Kinzer families and Frank. As for +the rest, hem,—ah, I think I'll say there wont be any difficulty."</p> + +<p>"You, father?"</p> + +<p>"Why not, Annie? Do you s'pose I'm going to be beaten by a mere country +boy like Dab Kinzer?"</p> + +<p>"Father," said Ford, "if you'd seen how Dick behaved, that night, out +there on the ocean, in the 'Swallow!'"</p> + +<p>"Just as well, just as well, my son!"</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" shouted Ford, "then it's all right, and Dick Lee'll have a +fair shake in the world."</p> + +<p>"A what, my son?" exclaimed his mother.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to talk slang, mother, I only meant,—well, you know +how dreadfully black he is, but then he can steer a boat tip-top, and +he's splendid for crabs and blue-fish, and Dab says he's a good scholar, +too."</p> + +<p>"Dab's a very good boy," said Mrs. Foster, "but your friend Dick will +need an outfit, I imagine. Clothes and almost everything. I must see +Mrs. Kinzer about it."</p> + +<p>Meantime Dick Lee's part in the matter had been taken for granted all +around. An hour later, however, Mrs. Kinzer's first reply to her son, +after a calculation on his part which made it almost seem as if Dick +would make money by going to Grantley, was: "What if Mrs. Lee says she +can't spare him?"</p> + +<p>Dab's countenance fell. He knew Mrs. Lee, but he had not thought so far +as that.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dabney, if we can make the other arrangements, I'll see her about +it."</p> + +<p>Ham Morris had been exchanging remarkable winks with Miranda and +Samantha, and now gravely suggested: "May be the academy authorities +will refuse to take him."</p> + +<p>"They had a blacker boy than he is there last year, Ford says."</p> + +<p>"Now, Dab," exclaimed Ham.</p> + +<p>"Well, I know he's pretty black, but it don't come off."</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Samantha, "Mrs. Foster and Annie are coming through the +gate."</p> + +<p>Dab just waited long enough, after that, to learn the news concerning +the "Richard Lee Education Fund," and Mr. Foster's offer, and then he +was off toward the shore. He knew very well in which direction to go, +for, half-way to the landing, he met Dick coming up the road with a +basket of eels on his arm.</p> + +<p>"Dick, I'm going to boarding-school, at an academy."</p> + +<p>"Cad'my? Whar?"</p> + +<p>"Up in New England. They call it Grantley Academy. Where Ford and Frank +are going."</p> + +<p>"Dat spiles it all," exclaimed Dick, ruefully. "Now I's got to fish wid +fellers 'at don't know nuffin."</p> + +<p>"No you wont. You're going with us. It's all fixed, money and all."</p> + +<p>Dick would never have thought of questioning a statement made by +"Captain Kinzer," but the rueful expression deepened on his face, the +basket of eels dropped heavily on the grass, the tough, black fingers +twisted nervously together for a moment, and then he sat mournfully down +beside the basket.</p> + +<p>"It aint no use, Dab."</p> + +<p>"No use? Why not?"</p> + +<p>"I aint a w'ite boy."</p> + +<p>"What of it? Don't you learn well enough over at the school?"</p> + +<p>"More dar like me. Wot'd I do in a place whar all de res' was w'ite?"</p> + +<p>"Well as anybody."</p> + +<p>"Wot'll my mudder say, w'en she gits de news? You isn't a jokin', is +you, Dab Kinzer?"</p> + +<p>"Joking? I guess not."</p> + +<p>"You's lit on me powerful sudden, 'bout dis. Yonder's Ford an' Frank +a-comin'. Don't tell 'em, not jist yet."</p> + +<p>"They know all about it. They helped raise the money."</p> + +<p>"Did dey? Well, 'taint no use. All I's good for is eels and crabs and +clams and sech. Har dey come. Oh, my!"</p> + +<p>But Ford and Frank brought a fresh gust of enthusiasm with them, and +they had Dick and his eels up from the grass in short order. "We must +see Mrs. Lee right away," said Ford. "It would never do to let Dick tell +her."</p> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image27" id="image27"><img src="images/image27.jpg" width="325" +height="500" alt="I HASN'T SAID HE MIGHT GO" title="I HASN'T SAID HE MIGHT +GO" /></a> +<p class="caption">"I HASN'T SAID HE MIGHT GO."</p> +</div> + +<p>"Guess dat's so," said Dick.</p> + +<p>Quite an embassy they made, those four boys, with Dab Kinzer for +spokesman, and Dick half crouching behind him. Mrs. Lee listened with +open mouth while Dab unfolded his plan, but when he had finished she +shut her lips firmly together. They were not very thin and not at all +used to being shut, and in another instant they opened again.</p> + +<p>"Sho! De boy! Is dat you, Dick? Dat's wot comes of dressin' on him up. +How's he goin' to git clo'es? Wot's he got to do wid de 'cad'my, anyhow? +Wot am I to do, yer, all alone, arter he's gone, I'd like to know? Who's +goin' to run err'nds an' do de choahs? Wot's de use ob bringin' up a boy +'n' den hab 'im go trapesin' off to de 'cad'my? Wot good 'll it do 'im?"</p> + +<p>"I tole yer so, Dab," groaned poor Dick. "It aint no use. I 'most wish I +was a eel."</p> + +<p>Dab was on the point of opening a whole broadside of eloquence when Ford +Foster pinched his arm and whispered: "Your mother's coming, and our +Annie's with her."</p> + +<p>"Then let's clear out. She's worth a ten-acre lot full of us. Come on, +boys."</p> + +<p>If Mrs. Lee was surprised by their very sudden retreat, she need not +have been after she learned the cause of it. She stood in wholesome awe +of Mrs. Kinzer, and a "brush" with the portly widow, re-enforced by the +sweet face of Annie Foster, was a pretty serious matter. Still, she did +not hesitate about beginning the skirmish, for her tongue was already a +bit loosened.</p> + +<p>"Wot's dis yer, Mrs. Kinzer, 'bout sendin' away my Dick to a furrin +'cad'my? Isn't he most nigh nuff sp'iled a'ready?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all arranged, nicely. Miss Foster and I only came over to see +what we could do about getting his clothes ready. He must have things +warm and nice, for the winters are cold up there."</p> + +<p>"I hasn't said he might go,—Dick, put down dem eels,—an' he +hasn't said he'd go,—Dick, take off your hat,—an' his +father—"</p> + +<p>"Now, Glorianna," interrupted Mrs. Kinzer, calling Dick's mother by her +first name, "I've known you these forty years, and do you s'pose I'm +going to argue about it? Just tell us what Dick'll need, and don't let's +have any nonsense. The money's all provided. How do you know what'll +become of him? He may be governor yet—"</p> + +<p>"He mought preach."</p> + +<p>That idea had suddenly dawned upon the perplexed mind of Mrs. Lee, and +Dick's fate was settled. She was prouder than ever of her boy, and, +truth to tell, her opposition was only what Mrs. Kinzer had considered +it, a piece of unaccountable "nonsense," to be brushed away by such a +hand as the widow's.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<p>That was a great day for the boys, but, before the close of it, Ford +Foster had told his friends the news that Joe Hart and his brother Fuz +had been invited to visit with him.</p> + +<p>"Will they come?" asked Dab.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. That kind of boy always comes. Nobody wants to keep him from +coming."</p> + +<p>"When do you look for them?"</p> + +<p>"Right away. Vacation's most gone, you know."</p> + +<p>"Wont they be ashamed to meet your sister!"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. They'll try their tricks even after they get here."</p> + +<p>"All right. We'll help 'em all we know how. But, boys, I tell you what +we must try for."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"One grand, good sailing party, in the 'Swallow,' before they get here."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for that! Annie was wishing for one only yesterday."</p> + +<p>"We'll have all of your folks and all of ours. The 'Swallow' 's plenty +big enough."</p> + +<p>"Mother wouldn't go and father can't, just now. He's trying a case. But +there's Annie and Frank and me—"</p> + +<p>"And my mother and Ham and Miranda and our girls. Ham'll go, sure. Then +we must take Dick Lee along. It'd make him sick if we didn't."</p> + +<p>"Of course. And aint I glad about him? Could we get ready and go +to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Guess not so quick as that. We might by the day after, if the weather's +all right."</p> + +<p>Exactly. There is always a large sized "if" to be put in where anything +depends on the weather. Mrs. Kinzer took the matter up with enthusiasm, +and so did the girls, Miranda included, and Ford Foster was right about +his own part of the company.</p> + +<p>But the weather!</p> + +<p>It looked well enough to unpracticed eyes, but Ham Morris shook his head +and went to consult his fishermen friends. Every human barometer among +them warned him to wait a day or so.</p> + +<p>"Such warm, nice weather," remonstrated Ford Foster, "and there isn't +any wind to speak of."</p> + +<p>"There's too much of it coming," was Ham's response, and there was no +help for it. Not even when the mail brought word from "Aunt Maria" that +her two boys would arrive in a day or so.</p> + +<p>"Our last chance is gone, Annie," said Ford, when the news came.</p> + +<p>"O, mother, what shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"Have your sail, just the same, and invite your cousins."</p> + +<p>"But the Kinzers—"</p> + +<p>"Why, Annie! Mrs. Kinzer will not think of neglecting them. She's as +kind as kind can be."</p> + +<p>"And we are to pay her with Joe and Fuz," said Ford. "Well, I wish Ham +Morris's storm would come along."</p> + +<p>He only had to wait till next day for it, and he was quite contented to +be on shore while it lasted. There was no use in laughing at the +prophecies of the fishermen after it began to blow. Still, it was not a +long one, and Ham Morris remarked: "This is only an outside edge of it. +It's a good deal worse at sea. Glad we're not out in it."</p> + +<p>Ford Foster thought the worst of it was when the afternoon train came +in, and he had to show a pair of tired, moist and altogether unpleasant +cousins to the room set apart for them. Just after tea a note came over +from Mrs. Kinzer, asking the Hart boys to join the yachting party next +morning.</p> + +<p>"The storm may not be over," growled Ford.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Annie, "Mrs. Kinzer adds that the weather will surely be fine +after such a blow, and the bay will be quite safe and smooth."</p> + +<p>"Does she know the clerk of the weather," asked Joe Hart.</p> + +<p>"Got one of her own," said Ford.</p> + +<p>Fuz Hart laughed but said nothing. Both he and his brother felt a little +"strange" as yet, and were almost inclined to try and behave themselves.</p> + +<p>When morning came, however, sea and earth and sky seemed to be the +better for what they had just been through. The grass and trees were +greener and the bay seemed bluer, while the few clouds visible in the +sky were very white and clean, as if all the storms had been washed out +of them. Not a single thing went wrong in Mrs. Kinzer's management of +the "setting out" of the party, and that was half the day now to begin +with. Ford had some trouble in getting Joe and Fuz up so very early, but +an intimation that "Ham Morris wouldn't wait five minutes for the Queen +of England, or even me," was sufficient to rouse them.</p> + +<p>"Joe," whispered Fuz, after they got on board, "are we to be gone a +week?"</p> + +<p>"Why? What's up?"</p> + +<p>"Such piles of provisions as they've stowed away in that kennel!"</p> + +<p>The bit of a water-tight cabin under the half-deck, at which Fuz +pointed, was pretty well filled, beyond a doubt, but Mrs. Kinzer knew +what she was about. She had provided lunch for most of that party +before, and the effect of the sea-air was also to be taken into account.</p> + +<p>"Dab," said Ford Foster, "you've forgotten to unhitch the 'Jenny.' Here +she is, towing astern."</p> + +<p>"That's all right. We may need her. She's too heavy to take on board."</p> + +<p>A careful fellow was Mr. Hamilton Morris, and he knew very well the +value of a row-boat to a picnic party. As for Joe and Fuz they were +compelled to overcome a strong inclination to cast the boat loose. Such +a joke it would have been, but Ham was in the way as long as he held the +tiller.</p> + +<p>The "Swallow" was "steady" enough to inspire even Annie Foster with a +feeling of confidence, but Ford carefully explained to her the +difference between slipping along over the little waves of the +land-locked bay, and plunging into the great billows of the stormy +Atlantic.</p> + +<p>"I prefer this," said Annie.</p> + +<p>"But I wouldn't have missed the other for anything," replied Ford. +"Would you, Dick?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Richard Lee had taken his full share in the work of starting, and +had made himself singularly useful, but if all the rest had not been so +busy they would have noticed his silence. Hardly a word had he uttered, +that anybody could remember, and, now he was forced to say something, +his mouth opened slowly, as if he had never tried to speak before and +was not quite sure he knew how:</p> + +<p>"No,-Mr.-Foster,-I-would-not-have-missed-that-trip-for-a-good-deal."</p> + +<p>Every word by itself, and as different from Dick's ordinary talk as a +cut stone is from a rough one. Ham Morris opened his eyes wide, and Ford +puckered up his lips in a sort of a whistle, but Annie caught the +meaning of it quicker than they did.</p> + +<p>"Dick," she said, "are we to fish to-day?"</p> + +<p>"May be,-but-that-depends-on-Mr.-Morris."</p> + +<p>Every word slowly and carefully uttered, a good deal like a man counts +over doubtful money, looking sharp for a counterfeit.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Dick!" suddenly exclaimed Dab Kinzer, "I give it up. You can +do it. But don't try to keep it up all day. Kill you, sure as anything, +if you do."</p> + +<p>"Did I say 'em all right, Cap'n Dab?" anxiously inquired Dick, with a +happy look on his black, merry face.</p> + +<p>"Every word," said Dab. "Well for you they were all short. Keep on +practicing."</p> + +<p>"I'll jest do dat, shuah!"</p> + +<p>Practicing? Yes, that was it, and Dick himself joined heartily in the +peal of laughter with which the success of his first attempt at "white +folk's English" was received by the party. Dab explained that as soon as +Dick found he was really to go to the academy he determined to teach his +tongue new habits, and the whole company heartily approved, even while +they joined Dab in advising him not to try too much at a time.</p> + +<p>Plenty of talk and fun all around as the "Swallow" skimmed onward, and +the long, low outlines of the narrow sand-island were rapidly becoming +more distinct.</p> + +<p>"Is that a light-house?" asked Annie of Dab.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and there's a wrecking station close by."</p> + +<p>"Men there all the while? Are there many wrecks on this coast?"</p> + +<p>"Ever so many, and there used to be more of them. It was a bad place to +run ashore, in those days. Almost as bad as Jersey."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because of the wreckers. The shore's bad enough, and the bar's a mean +place to escape on, but the wreckers used to make it worse."</p> + +<p>And Dab launched out into a slightly exaggerated description of the +terrors of the Long Island coast in old times and new, and of the +character of the men who were formerly the first to find out if anything +or anybody had gone ashore.</p> + +<p>"What a prize that French steamer would have been!" said Annie, "the one +you took Frank Harley from."</p> + +<p>"No, she wouldn't. Why, she wasn't wrecked at all. She only stuck her +nose in the sand and lay still till the tugs pulled her off. That isn't +a wreck. A wreck is where the ship is knocked to pieces and people are +drowned, and all that sort of thing. Then the wreckers have a notion +that everything that comes ashore belongs to them. Why, I've heard even +some of our old fishermen—best kind of men, too—talk of how +government has robbed 'em of their rights."</p> + +<p>"By the new system?"</p> + +<p>"By having wrecks prevented, and saving the property for the owners."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that strange! Did you say they were good men?"</p> + +<p>"Some of 'em. Honest as the day is long about everything else. But they +weren't all so. There was old Peter, and he lives on the Island yet. +There's his cabin now. You can just see it in the edge of that great +sand-hill."</p> + +<p>"What a queer thing it is!"</p> + +<p>"Sometimes the storms drift the sand all over it, and old Peter has to +dig it out again. He's snowed under two or three times every winter."</p> + +<p>They were now coasting along the island, at no great distance, and, +although it was not nearly noon, Dab heard Joe Hart say to his brother:</p> + +<p>"Never was so hungry in all my life. Glad they did lay in a good stock +of provisions."</p> + +<p>"So am I," returned Fuz. "Isn't there any such thing as our getting into +the cabin!"</p> + +<p>No, there was not, so long as Mrs. Kinzer was the "stewardess" of that +expedition, and Joe and Fuz were compelled to wait her motions.</p> + +<div class="center">(<i>To be continued.</i>)</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="turkeys" id="turkeys">THE FOX AND THE TURKEYS;<br /> OR, CHARLEY AND THE OLD FOLKS.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<div class="author">By Susan Coolidge.</div> +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image28" id="image28"><img src="images/image28.jpg" width="500" +height="290" alt="THE FOX AND THE TURKEYS" /></a> +<p style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0; text-indent:0; max-width: 500px; +margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">[A cunning fox perceived some turkeys +roosting securely +on the bough of a high tree. Unable to climb, he resolved to get at them +in another way. Night after night he stationed himself beneath the tree, +and there played off all sorts of curious tricks. He jumped, he capered, +he turned somersaults, he walked on his hind legs, he pretended to be +dead, he raised and expanded his tail until, in the moonlight, it looked +like a flame of fire,—in short, he performed every antic +conceivable. The turkeys, who, to sleep in safety, had only to turn +their backs and forget the fox, were so agitated and excited by his +pranks that for whole nights they never closed their eyes; the +consequence was that they lost strength, and one by one dropped from the +bough and into the jaws of Renard, who soon made an end of them. +<br /><br /> +<i>Moral</i>.—It is unwise to concern one's self with the tricks +and antics of mischievous persons.—<i>La Fontaine's Fables</i>.]</p> +</div> + +<p>It was midsummer at the old Brush Farm. When I say "midsummer," how many +pretty things it means,—woods at their freshest and greenest, +meadows sweet with newly cut hay, cinnamon-roses in the hedges and +water-lilies in the ponds, bees buzzing in and out of the clove-pinks +and larkspurs which edge the beds of cabbages and carrots in the +kitchen-garden, a humming-bird at work in the scarlet trumpets of the +honeysuckle on the porch,—everywhere the sense of fullness and +growth, with no shadow as yet of rankness or decay. August is over-ripe. +September's smile is sad, but midsummer is all rosy hope, the crown and +blossom of the year.</p> + +<p>Charley Brush lay under an apple-tree, face downward, and absorbed in +"The Red Rover," a book he had read at least ten times before. Stories +about ships and sea-life and freebooters and buccaneers were his +favorite reading, and, unfortunately, what with illustrated papers and +cheap novels, and so-called "Boys' books," plenty of such tales abound +nowadays. I say unfortunately, for beside teaching him nothing, these +books made Charley utterly dissatisfied with his life at home. Hoeing +vegetables, chopping wood, and going to the district school, seemed dull +work indeed to a boy who was longing to stand sword in hand on a +blood-stained deck, in a gory uniform trimmed with skulls and +cross-bones, and order his enemies to be thrown one by one into the sea. +"The shark awaits your car-casses!" spouted the imaginary desperado with +a vicious snap of his teeth; and when Aunt Greg interrupted by asking +him to bring in an armful of kindling, he glared at her like the Red +Rover himself. Poor Aunt Greg! how little she guessed what was passing +in his mind!</p> + +<p>"You look real pale to-day," she said. "I was afraid all that mince-pie +for supper would be bad for you. Here, Charley, I'll mix you some +ginger-and-water. That'll settle you, and make all right again."</p> + +<p>"Mis-cre-ant!" was what Charley yearned to say, but instead he muttered, +gruffly, "I aint sick, and I don't want no ginger." Very bad grammar, as +you perceive; but grammar seemed such an unnecessary accomplishment for +a would-be buccaneer, that Charley never could be induced to pay the +least attention to it.</p> + +<p>That afternoon, under the apple-tree, he made up his mind. A pirate he +must and he would be, by fair means or by foul. He was cunning enough to +know that the very word "pirate" would frighten his grandmother into +fits, so he only asked her leave to go to sea. Going to sea was, to his +mind, a necessary first step toward the noble profession he desired to +enter.</p> + +<p>"I want to so bad," he whined. "Please say I may."</p> + +<p>Grandmother began to cry. Aunt Hitty was sure he must be out of his +mind, and ran for the Epsom salts. Aunt Greg quoted, "There's no place +like home," and told a story about a boy she once heard of who ran away +to sea and never came back, "foundered or drowndered," she couldn't +remember which. Aunt Prue seized his shoulders and gave him a sound +shake. This was what came of idling over story-books all day long, she +said,—he could just shut up and go and give the pig its supper, +and not let her hear any more trash like that—making them all feel +so bad about nothing.</p> + +<p>Charley twisted his shoulder out of her grasp with a scowl, but he took +the pail and went out to the pen. All the time that piggy ate, he was +considering what to do. "I'll tease 'em," he decided, "and tease and +tease, and then they'll let me go."</p> + +<p>So he did tease, and plead and expostulate, but it was all in vain. +Grandmother and the aunts could not be reached by any of his entreaties, +and at the end of a week he seemed as far from his desire as ever.</p> + +<p>You will wonder, perhaps, that Charley did not run away, as so many boys +do in books, and a few out of them. Somehow he never thought of that. He +was not a hardy, adventurous fellow at all. His desire to go to sea was +a fancy born of foolish reading, and he wanted to have his going made +easy for him.</p> + +<p>"I must set to work in another way," he thought at last. "Asking of 'em +aint no use. I must make 'em want to have me go." Then he fell to +thinking how this could be done.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Hitty wouldn't hold out long if the others didn't," he thought. "I +could coax her into it as easy as fun. She'll do anything if I kiss and +pet her a bit. Then there's Aunt Greg,—she thinks so much of +poetry and such stuff. I'll hunt up the pieces in the 'Reader' about +'The sea, the sea, the deep blue sea,' and all that, and learn 'em and +say 'em to her, and I'll tell her about coral groves and palm-trees, and +make her think it's the jimmiest thing going to sail off and visit 'em. +Grandmother's always bothering about my being sick, and afraid of this +and afraid of that; so I'll just <i>be</i> sick—so sick that +nothing but a viyage'll cure me! As for Aunt Prue, 'taint no use trying +to impose on <i>her</i>. I guess I'll have to be real hateful and +troublesome to Aunt Prue. I'll tease pussy and slop on the pantry +shelves, and track up the floor every time she mops it, and leave the +dipper in the sink, and all the other things she don't like, and by and +by she'll be just glad to see the last of me! Hi!—that'll fetch +'em all!" He ended his reflections with a chuckle. Charley wasn't really +a bad boy,—not bad through and through, that is,—but he had +a cunning, tricky side to his nature which made him like to play on the +weaknesses of his grandmother and aunts. A sharp boy may prove more than +a match for four unsuspecting old women; and though in this case they +were in the right and he in the wrong, none the less was he likely to +succeed in his crafty plans.</p> + +<p>He waited a few days to let opposition subside, and then began his +tricks. Charley's first victim was Aunt Hitty. She was a gentle, +weak-minded person, easy to persuade, and when Charley put his head into +her lap and called her coaxing names, and was sure she was too kind to +disappoint him in the thing he was set upon, her heart softened, and she +began to think that they all had been hard and unkind. "The dear boy +wants to go awful bad," she told Aunt Greg, and to her surprise Aunt +Greg did not fly out and scold as she had expected, but answered, with a +sigh, "I suppose sailing on the ocean <i>is</i> beautiful!" Aunt Greg +had never seen the ocean in her life, but she was naturally romantic; +and Charley, who had been hard at work at the "Reader," had crammed her +with all sorts of poetical quotations and fancies concerning it. Flying +fish, coral islands, pole stars, dolphins, gallant mariners, wet sheets +and flowing seas, figured largely in these extracts, but there was no +mention whatever of storms, sharks, drowning, hard work, or anything +disagreeable. Aunt Greg could not see the charm of "wet sheets," but all +the rest sounded delightful; and gradually a picture formed itself in +her mind of a sea which was always blue and always smooth, and of +Charley standing on the deck of a ship repeating poetry to himself in +the moonlight; and her opposition grew feebler and feebler.</p> + +<p>"Charley's got a lot of ideas in his head," she said one day when she +and her sisters were slicing apples for drying. "He aint no common boy, +Charley aint. He'll make a mark yet—see if he don't."</p> + +<p>"Dear little fellow!" sighed Aunt Hitty. "<i>So</i> lovin' and +affectionate! He used to be a little worrisome in his ways at times, but +he's got all over that!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, has he?" snapped Aunt Prue. "I'd like to know when? He's been more +of a plague the last six weeks than ever in his life before. When he +upset that milk last night I could have cuffed him. It's the third time +since Wednesday. Mark, indeed! The only mark he'll ever make is a +dirt-mark on clean floors. The kitchen looks like Sancho at this moment. +I've washed it up twice as often as ordinary, but as sure as I get it +clean, in he comes stamping about with his muddy boots and tracks it +from end to end. I believe he does it a-purpose."</p> + +<p>"O, Prue!" began Aunt Hitty, in a pleading tone, while Aunt Greg broke +in, indignantly:</p> + +<p>"A-purpose! Well! Charley's mind is on other things, I can tell you, and +it it's no wonder he sometimes forgets to wipe his feet."</p> + +<p>"Other things! Getting off to sea, I suppose you mean?" remarked Aunt +Prue, grimly. "He's pulled the wool over your eyes and Hitty's finely, I +declare. As for me, if he's goin' on to behave as he has done for a +spell back, the sooner he quits the better. I wash <i>my</i> hands of +him," and Aunt Prue flounced into the buttery just as Grandmother came +in at the other door.</p> + +<p>"Charley is it you was talking about?" she asked. "Did you hear him +coughin' last night? I did, and I couldn't sleep a wink for worrying +about it. A real deep cough it was. Do you suppose it the lungs, and +what's good for him to take?"</p> + +<p>"He's well enough except for mischief," put in Aunt Prue through the +buttery door.</p> + +<p>"Prue never thinks anything ails anybody," said Mrs. Brush, sinking her +voice to a whisper. "I'm really consarned about Charley. He don't eat +hardly anything at dinner. That aint a bit natural for a growin' boy. +And he says he lies awake a great deal of nights. He thinks it's the air +about here makes him feel bad, but I don't know if he's right about it. +I wish we'd a doctor here to say if going off to sea—or +somewhere—would be the best thing for him. I'm clean confused as +to what we'd best do about it, but I'm real uneasy in my mind."</p> + +<p>Charley, coming in just then, chuckled to himself as he heard her.</p> + +<p>So things went on, and by October Charley had his wish. It was settled +that he should go to sea. Aunt Greg drove over to Wachuset Center and +consulted with old Mr. Greg, her father-in-law, who was the wise man of +the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>"Let him go—let him go," was Mr. Greg's advice. "When a chap like +that gets the bit between his teeth, it's no use to keep yanking at the +reins. Let him go for one long cruise, and see how he likes it. Ten to +one he'll come back then and be glad to settle down. He aint the kind of +boy to make a sailor of, I judge. There's Ben Bradley,—my first +wife's cousin,—captain of one of them China traders; ship Charley +with him. I'll write a line, and I guess Ben'll kind of keep an eye on +him for the sake of the connection."</p> + +<p>So, late in the fall, Charley went to sea. Grandmother and the aunts +felt dreadfully sad when it came to the parting; but he was full of +satisfaction and triumph, and never shed a tear. The "Helen Weeks," as +Captain Bradley's ship was named, sailed from Boston on the second of +November, and for fifteen months nobody at home heard a word of Charley.</p> + +<p>Those were sad days at the old Brush Farm. Grandmother fell ill from +anxiety, and even Aunt Prue looked white and miserable. Aunt Greg and +Aunt Hitty spent their time crying in corners, and "Why did we let him +go?" was the language of all their hearts. But in February, when +everything was at its coldest and iciest, Charley came +back,—Charley or his ghost, for the tall, thin, starved-looking +ragged boy set down at the gate was very unlike the stout, rosy lad of +the year before.</p> + +<p>He was so weak and forlorn that it was several days before he recovered +enough to explain what had happened to him, and then it was little by +little, and not as I give it, in one connected story.</p> + +<p>"I don't ever want to go to sea again," he began. "It aint a bit like +what <i>we</i> thought it was. I don't know why them chaps in the +'Reader' called it 'blue.' It's green and black and yellow, and all +kinds of colors, but I never see it look blue exceptin' when folks was +looking at it from the land. It's cold, too, and wet and nasty. I wasn't +dry once for the first two months, it seems to me. Ugh! I hate it. Never +let to sleep till you're rested, and such horrid stuff to eat, and +sick—my, how sick I was! Captain Bradley was a fair enough sort of +man, but he fell ill of China fever, and we had to leave him behind in +Canton, and Bill Bunce, the first mate, took his place. After that we +had a hard time enough. I thought it was bad at first, but it wasn't +nothing to that. He was always walloping us boys, and swearing and +kicking and cuffing us about. Then we had a storm, and lost our +mainmast, and came near foundering; and then we were stuck in a calm for +three weeks, and the water aboard ran short. That was the time I had the +fever. I'd have died, I know, if it hadn't been for Tad Brice. He was +one of the sailors, and a real nice man. His boy at home was just as old +as I am, and he sort of took an interest in me from the start. He used +to come in and feed me, and when we were put on allowance, he saved half +his water ration for me; and when I got to crying, and thinking about +home and you all, he'd—" Here Charley choked and was silent. Aunt +Hitty, who sat next, possessed herself of his thin hand and wept +silently over it.</p> + +<p>"When I went away I meant to be a pirate, you know," went on Charley.</p> + +<p>"A pirate!" cried Aunt Hitty and Aunt Greg in awe-struck voices.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I didn't know much about what it meant, but it sounded somehow +nice in the books, and I wanted to be one. But when I asked 'em about it +aboard they roared and hooted and made fun, and they all called me +Captain Kidd from that time on. And once, when we were in Shanghai" +(Charley's voice sounded full of horror), "we saw two pirates. Tad Brice +said they was pirates. The folks was taking 'em to jail. They was +<i>dreadful</i>, black and ugly, and their eyes were so fierce and bad +that it made me cold to look at 'em. I never wanted to be a pirate any +more after that, but Bunce and the others, they all kept on calling me +Captain Kidd just the same."</p> + +<p>"You absurd, ridiculous boy!" began Aunt Prue, but Grandmother hushed +her up.</p> + +<p>"Now, Prue, I wont have poor Charley scolded when he's been so sick," +she said—"He's only a boy, anyhow, and he's going to turn over a +new leaf now; aint you, Charley? and go to school regular, and do his +chores, and be the comfort of his granny's life. He's had enough of +goin' to sea; haven't you, Charley? and he'll stay on the farm now, and +we wont ever talk about this bad time he's had, and just be thankful to +get him back home again."</p> + +<p>Charley didn't answer in words, but he turned and gave Grandmother a big +kiss, which she knew meant "yes," and they were all very happy that +night as they sat together around the fire.</p> + +<p>So you see that the fox, though he succeeded in his tricks, was not a +particularly happy fox after all. Too much turkey may not be good for a +fox, and too much of his own way is certainly not good for a boy.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image29" id="image29"><img src="images/image29.jpg" width="500" +height="328" alt="OUT FISHING" title="OUT FISHING" /></a> +<p class="caption">OUT FISHING.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="hiddy" id="hiddy">HIDDY-DIDDY!</a></h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Hiddy-Diddy! Hiddy-diddy!—</div> + <div>Ten small chicks and one old biddy!</div> + <div class="quote">"Cluck!" says Biddy, "cluck, cluck, cluck!"</div> + <div class="quote">"Scratch as I do!—try your luck!"</div> +</div> +<br /> + <div><a name="image30" id="image30"><img src="images/image30.jpg" + width="400" height="367" alt="HIDDY-DIDDY" /></a></div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>How the chickens, one and all,</div> + <div>Crowd around her at her call!</div> + <div>One chick, missing, peeps to say:</div> + <div class="quote">"Chirp, chirp, chirp!—I've lost my way!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Shrill and shriller, comes the sound!</div> + <div class="quote">"Chirp! chirp! chirp!—I shall be drowned!"</div> + <div>Biddy clucks, and bustles quick,—</div> + <div class="quote">"Where, oh, <i>where's</i> my little chick?"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Mister Rooster bustles, too,</div> + <div>Screaming "Cock-a-doodle-doo!</div> + <div>Biddy, I just chanced to look,</div> + <div>And saw your bantling in the brook!"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Gob!" shrieks Turkey, "gob, gob, gobble!</div> + <div>Mrs. Hen, you're in a hobble!</div> + <div>Why don't some one stir about,</div> + <div>And help your little chicken out?"</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Moo!" roars Sukey, "moo, moo, moo!</div> + <div>What is there that I can do?"</div> + <div class="quote">"Uff!" grunts Piggy, "uff, uff, uff!</div> + <div>Say you're sorry, that's enough."</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Quack!" says Ducky, "quack, quack, quack!</div> + <div>I have brought your chicken back!"</div> + <div class="quote">"Oh!" says Biddy, "cluck, cluck, cluck!</div> + <div>Thank you!—<i>thank you!</i> Mrs. Duck!"</div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="squirrels" id="squirrels">THE SQUIRRELS AND THE CHESTNUT-BURR.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image31" id="image31"><img src="images/image31.jpg" width="399" +height="222" alt="THE SQUIRRELS AND THE CHESTNUT-BURR" /></a> +</div> + +<p>Four squirrels once saw a chestnut-burr growing on a tree. They wanted +the chestnuts in the burr, but were afraid to touch it, because it was +full of sharp points. Just then, along came a flying-squirrel. "I will +tell you what you must do," said he: "wait until the burr opens, and the +chestnuts fall out. The burr always opens when the right time comes." So +they waited, and got the chestnuts.</p> + +<p>It is a good rule to wait until things are ready for us.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"> +<a name="image32" id="image32"><img src="images/image32.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>Vacation's over! School's begun! A splendid holiday time you've had, no +doubt, my dears, and now you feel like setting to work again with +earnest good-will. That's right. But don't try to do to much at first. +Better start easily and keep up the pace, than make a quick run for a +while only to falter and grow weary before you are half-way.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>MOQUI PEEKEE.</h3> + +<p>Word is sent to me of a queer kind of bread called "Peekee," which is +used by the Moqui American Indians. It comes in square loaves that are +made by folding, twice across, several sheets of what looks like very +thin bluish-green crust.</p> + +<p>First, the meal is made by women, who grind it into flour between two +stones, and then it is mixed with water until it is a thin blue paste or +batter, when a little cedar-ash is sprinkled into it. The oven is a +smooth-faced stone heated by kindling a fire under it. The batter is +smeared over the hot stone, and is soon baked into a thin sheet, about +two feet long and a foot and a half wide. Several sheets are folded, +while yet warm and soft, to make a loaf, which is then set aside to dry.</p> + +<p>This curious bread is very brittle and is eaten by breaking off little +bits with the fingers. People who have never eaten it before soon become +quite fond of it.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>POTATO BLOSSOMS AS ORNAMENTS.</h3> + +<p>"Potato plants used to be grown, a very long time ago, in front yards on +Broadway, New York, for the sake of the flowers, which were much prized +for bouquets and other ornamental purposes. However, the potatoes +themselves,"—I suppose this means the tubers,—"became such +favorite food in a few years, that the plants were promoted backward +from the flower-beds to the kitchen-gardens and open fields. The beauty +of the blossoms was forgotten in the usefulness of their roots."</p> + +<p>The moral of this paragram is: If you are merely good-looking, you will +not be apt to get on in life, but will stay about where you are; and if +it should be found out that you can be put to use, you will be planted +in the open fields.</p> + +<p>This doesn't seem to read quite right, somehow; but, dear me, what do we +want with a moral all the time? I leave you to find out what it ought to +be in this case, if you think it's worth while. Only, if you <i>do</i> +find out, I wish you would let me know.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>SHARP-WITTED ROBINS.</h3> + +<blockquote><p class="right">Detroit, Michigan.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear Jack-In-The-Pulpit</span>: Z.R.B's anecdote, "A Congress of Birds," in the +July number, reminds me of an incident of which I was an eye-witness:</p> + +<p>A cherry-tree grew near the house, and was yearly full of luscious +cherries; but the robins scarcely allowed us to have one that did not +have their monogram picked in it. One year, however, my brother +determined to outwit the birds, and hung a large stuffed eagle from one +of the boughs. The birds assembled on a neighboring tree and eyed the +eagle sharply, while a grand consultation was held. Finally, a +courageous robin darted from the tree, swooped directly under the eagle, +and flew triumphantly back to tell the rest there was nothing to be +feared. At once the whole flock of robins flew to the cherry-tree, and +our hopes of a cherry-pie were doomed to disappointment for that year.</p> + +<div class="right">H.P.B.</div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>A VERY DEAD LANGUAGE.</h3> + +<p>I once heard of a green-colored South American parrot who was more than +one hundred years old. This aged fellow could speak in a real language +which was known to have been used by a tribe of South American Indians +who, it is supposed, petted and taught him when he was young. One by one +the Indians died, until there was no one left who could understand a +word of their language. The poor old bird tried hard to keep cheerful, +but there were sorry times when he would mope by himself and say over +some of the words of the language that had been spoken by his earliest +and dearest human friends.</p> + +<p>That was a very dead language, indeed, my dears; so dead that it is no +wonder it made the old green parrot blue to speak it now and then. +However, by this time it is past all power to worry anybody else, let us +hope.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>A PLANT THAT WALKS UPSIDE DOWN.</h3> + +<p>Shrubs, trees, Jack-in-the-Pulpits, and all such plants, grow with their +roots down in the ground; but I've lately heard that a man called a +philosopher, once wrote of a plant that grows and walks with the roots +upward!</p> + +<p>Lord Francis Bacon is the man's name, and the plant he meant is Man. +Only he wrote in Latin, I believe, and so, instead of calling Man "a +plant upside down," he called him "planta inversa." He explained these +words by saying that the brain in man, whence the nerves start, to +spread like a net-work all through the body, corresponds to the roots in +a plant.</p> + +<p>If this is so, my dears, you are a kind of walking plants, only you are +obliged to walk top-side down. This seems curious, but it is pleasant to +think you are not so very different from a Jack-in-the-Pulpit after all.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>THE SMALLEST INSECT KNOWN.</h3> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">The Red Schoolhouse.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">My Dear Jack-in-the-Pulpit</span>: No doubt, you have heard of the +"leaf-cutter" bees, who line their nests with small round pieces of +leaves, which they themselves cut and then fit together so exactly, +without gum, that they hold their stores of honey and do not leak a bit. +Well, a sharp-eyed observer has found, on one of these bees, an insect +whose body is no longer than the width of the dot of this "i" (1-90th of +an inch), and which is believed to be the smallest insect known. It is +called <i>Pteratomus</i>, a word which means "winged atom," and it lives +entirely upon the body of the bee. It has beautiful hairy wings, and +long feelers, and its legs are rather like those of a mosquito, though, +of course, very much smaller. Its feet are so small that they can only +just be seen when magnified to four hundred times their natural size! +Now, for a full-grown insect, as it is, I think the <i>Pteratomus</i> is +very small.—Sincerely yours,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">The Little Schoolma'am.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image33" id="image33"><img src="images/image33.jpg" width="500" +height="350" alt="A WATER-SPOUT" title="A WATER-SPOUT" /></a> +<p class="caption">A WATER-SPOUT.</p> +</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>A WATER-SPOUT.</h3> + +<p>Did any of you ever hear of water-spouts at sea? I don't know much about +them myself, but the St. Nicholas artist will draw a picture of one for +you, and the editors will kindly put it in. According to travelers, the +water seems to come down from the clouds, or go up from the sea,—I +don't know which,—and drives along, through the storm, in a great +watery column. I have heard of whirlwinds, and I think this might be +called a "whirl-water."</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>THE USES OF HAIR ON PLANTS.</h3> + +<p>M.E.K. writes, in answer to my question in July, that her "Botany" book +says, "Hair on plants seems to afford them security against changes of +weather, and plants with hair can stand more heat than bare ones." A.W. +Ferris says:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"If a plant that needs much moisture is dug up from its native wet +home and planted in a dry spot, hairs will sprout on it and try to get +from the air the moisture that can no longer be drawn from the earth. +But if you put back this plant in its old home, it will lose its +hair—becoming bald. Sometimes, plant hairs are connected with +glands of poisonous liquid, as with the nettle, whose hairs we say +'sting,' because of the pain the poison gives when the skin is pricked +by them."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Frances and Margaret Bagley, also, write on this subject, and I'm much +obliged to all four. Besides these letters, I've had word that +plant-hair is put to the following uses: On some plants it catches +insects and helps to eat them; in others, the hair sends out a kind of +juice which keeps away insects that might harm the plant; on the +mulleins, the stiff hairs are supposed to prevent cattle from browsing +on them; and on yet others, the hairs suck in gases and liquids as part +of the food of the plants. And there may be other uses for these hairs +that I haven't heard of yet.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>DARK SUNS.</h3> + +<p>Here's something strange,—so strange that, may be, you 'd better +inquire further into it. I give you the paragram just as it comes to me:</p> + +<p>"The bright star Sirius, itself a vast flaming sun, has a companion +which is also a sun,—nearly seven times as large as our +own,—but which is dark, and gives no light at all. This dark sun +was seen through a very powerful telescope in 1862, and it is thought +that there are a great many like it, although no others have been +found."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="letterbox" id="letterbox">THE LETTER-BOX.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<p><i>To the little girl who asks if Bryant wrote any poem that would +interest "us children" and to all young readers of</i> <span class="sc">St. Nicholas</span>:</p> + + +<p>Yes, indeed. You will find in the collected works of this beloved +American writer many songs and poems that you can understand with ease +and read with delight. A good, pure-hearted man, like William Cullen +Bryant; a man so honest, so simple and earnest, so truly great, that +with a deep knowledge of the world about him he worshiped God, honored +his fellow-man, and loved nature as a child loves its mother—such +a man could not be far removed from young sympathies. He could not be a +poet without singing, sometimes, just the song that little folks would +love to hear.</p> + +<p>And children, themselves, were dear to him. More than once in the course +of an acquaintance that dates back to our own early youth, we have seen +his eyes light with pleasure at some incident of boy and girl life. +Often his kindly interest and hearty words about St. Nicholas have given +us better hope and courage to try to make the magazine just what it +should be. "Good!" from his quiet lips was well worth striving for. His +standard in everything was high. Hear "The Old Man's Counsel," which, +through his own verse, he once gave to his own heart.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Wisely, my son, while yet thy days are long,</div> + <div>And this fair change of seasons passes slow,</div> + <div>Gather and treasure up the good they yield—</div> + <div>All that they teach of virtue, of pure thoughts</div> + <div>And kind affections, reverence for thy God</div> + <div>And for thy brethren; so when thou shalt come</div> + <div>Into these barren years, thou mayst not bring</div> + <div>A mind unfurnished and a withered heart."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>But Bryant was not always solemn in his teaching. If you like playful, +sprightly verses that yet are full of poetry, read his "Robert of +Lincoln," where</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Merrily swinging on brier and weed,</div> + <div class="in1">Near to the nest of his little dame,</div> + <div>Over the mountain-side or mead,</div> + <div class="in1">Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:</div> + <div class="in2">Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,</div> + <div class="in2">Spink, spank, spink;</div> + <div>Snug and safe is that nest of ours,</div> + <div>Hidden among the summer flowers.</div> + <div class="in2">Chee, chee, chee."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And while the poet is telling you of these singers of the air, read "The +Return of The Birds," written in the early spring of 1864, when, as you +know, the country was in great trouble, and the birds saw many a sorry +sight. If you like a beautiful fairy-tale in verse, all about children +and the elves or sprites that children love, read his "Little People of +The Snow." There also is the pretty legend of "The White-footed Deer"; +or if you bigger boys and girls wish something more weird and exciting, +read his tragic story of "The Strange Lady." Then, on some lovely autumn +day, when "the melancholy days are come," and the procession of flowers +has nearly passed by, read his verses "To the Fringed Gentian." There +are other poems in the collection quite as easy to understand as these. +Some of the most admired indeed, that would seem "hard" to many a tall +youngster at the head of the school-class, were written in the poet's +own boyhood. His most famous poem, "Thanatopsis," was composed when he +was but eighteen years of age. When you, too, are eighteen you will more +than enjoy it, if you do not do so already. But you will like a song of +his youth,—lines "To a Waterfowl,"—and the beautiful poem +entitled "June," which has been very much quoted of late because of the +fulfillment of his wish that when he should come to lie at rest within +the ground, he might be laid there</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="in6">"in flowery June,</div> + <div>When brooks send up a cheerful tune,</div> + <div class="in1">And groves a joyous sound."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Another beautiful poem, called "Waiting by the Gate," will be quite +clear to many of you; and one and all can understand "An Invitation to +the Country," addressed to Julia, the poet's devoted daughter, the joy +of his old age, who brightened his declining years, and to the last was +the faithful companion of his home.</p> + +<p>You remember the story of his boyhood days that Mr. Bryant told you in +these pages nearly two years ago? Good as that story is, there is a +picture in his lovely home at Roslyn that could tell you even better +things. It is the portrait of his beautiful young mother, which for +years has shone upon him from the walls of his bedroom with such a +strong, sweet, loving look in her face that it makes one feel sure that +he was reared in a happy home, that his noble, useful manhood sprang +from a sunny, well-directed boyhood. Long ago the good mother passed +from earth, and now the gate through which she passed has opened for him +in his serene old age, the gate of which he wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"And some approach the threshold whose looks are blank with fear,</div> + <div>And some whose temples brighten with joy in drawing near,</div> + <div>As if they saw dear faces, and caught the gracious eye</div> + <div>Of Him, the Sinless Teacher, who came for us to die.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"I mark the joy, the terror; yet these, within my heart,</div> + <div>Can neither wake the dread nor the longing to depart;</div> + <div>And, in the sunshine streaming on quiet wood and lea,</div> + <div>I stand and calmly wait till the hinges turn for me."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: One of your little readers has found the +word "mutch" in one of my poems, and inquires its meaning, and I was +rather surprised, on looking into the dictionaries, to discover that it +was not there. I have heard it used from childhood,—applied to +anything tied around the head in kerchief fashion. The word is in use in +old legends, and possibly comes from the French mouchoir, +"handkerchief;" but some better linguist than myself must say whether +this suggestion is correct. To show, how the word is used, I can refer +my questioner to the little story of "Gertrude's Bird," or the +woodpecker, that is said to "fly about with a red mutch on her head." +The legend is in Dasent's "Popular Tales from the Norse."</p> + +<p>And I may say here that I am almost glad I made that mistake about the +white-throated sparrow, since receiving a note from a lady who writes +from among the Berkshire hills, where the sweet call of this bird is +constantly repeated. It is very pleasant to know that a little girl out +in that beautiful region honors me so much as to recite my verse when +she hears the fresh note of this charming songster, as this lady tells +me her little daughter does.</p> + +<p>Surely the songs of our wild birds are far better than any songs that +can be made about them; but if these serve to remind us how delightful +the winged singers of the deep forests and lonely mountain-sides are, +they are perhaps worth while.—Truly your friend,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Lucy Larcom.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Arlington Hotel, Cobourg, Canada, July 10, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">My Dear St. Nicholas</span>: Do you remember the little boy who +traveled with you on the train last month from Meadville, Pa., to +Jamestown, N.Y., when you were returning from California, and who +promised to write you all about his visit to Niagara Falls? I have not +forgotten my promise, but we have only just settled down for the rest of +the summer at Cobourg, Canada. Well, we reached Niagara that night and +staid there two or three days, and I enjoyed it so much. The fall on the +American side is much smaller than the Canadian, and I remembered what +you told me about part of the rock having fallen away, so that now, +instead of being shaped like a horseshoe, it is like a Y. The old table +rock has fallen away too. We drove every day over Goat Island, the new +Park, around all the beautiful drives, and across the bridges. The best +view is on the Canadian side, just after you cross the bridge, and then +you have a grand view of all the falls at once. We drove out to Lundy's +Lane, and a man came out and invited us to go up Scott's Tower and see +the battle-field. Papa and mamma had been up some years ago, so said +they did not care to go again, as the stairs were hard to climb.</p> + +<p>I said I would go, so the man took me up and showed me the battle-field +and the lakes through an opera-glass. When I got into the carriage I +thanked him for his kindness, and you may imagine my surprise when he +asked me for fifty cents: of course I had to give it to him, but it was +all I had. Papa and mamma laughed at me all the way home, but papa gave +me the half dollar back afterward. We spent a week at St. Catherine's +Wells, visited Toronto, Belleville, Napanee and Kingston, and went over +on a lake steamer to spend the Fourth of July at Oswego, such a pretty +town in New York on Lake Ontario. Cobourg is a pretty little town, too, +right on the lake, and the Arlington Hotel, where we are staying, is +very nice, with nice shade-trees and lawns. Do you know, dear St. +Nicholas, I always thought of you as an old gray-bearded man, like the +pictures of Santa Claus; but now that I know you and have talked to you, +I shall enjoy St. Nicholas more than ever.—Your friend and +constant reader,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Calvert Wilson.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">New York.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: I thought I would tell you about some people +I heard of who like to talk to each other, and everything they say +begins with the same letter. How queer it must sound. I send you a +sentence: Sarah said she saw Susy sewing small shoes swiftly. I wish +some of your scholars would try it, and see who could send you a +sentence with the words beginning with Z.—I remain, your loving</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Maud.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Albany, N.Y.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: Perhaps some of your other boys, who, like +myself, wish to grow big and strong, would like to hear about the +largest human being ever known,—Goliath of Gath,—a person +almost large enough to need introduction by installments, but he is so +well known that the ceremony is needless.</p> + +<p>As nearly as I can make out, he was between ten and eleven feet high. +When he went to battle he wore a coat-of-mail weighing one hundred and +fifty-six pounds,—as heavy as a good-sized man; and the rest of +his armor amounted to at least one hundred and fifteen pounds more. The +head of his spear weighed eighteen pounds,—as heavy as six +three-pound cans of preserved fruit,—and this he carried at the +end of a long and heavy shaft!</p> + +<p>Think what might happen if a man equally big and strong should live +among us now, and insist on taking part in our games and sports! If he +joined a boat-club, a curious six-oared crew could be made up, with him +at one side and five other men opposite. And just imagine him "booming +along" on a velocipede! If he joined the champion Nine, and hit a ball, +where would that ball go to? If he called for a "shoulder-high" ball, +wouldn't the catcher have to climb a stepladder to catch behind the +giant? And if he threw a ball to a baseman, wouldn't he be apt to throw +it clean through him?</p> + +<p>Probably no one can answer these questions, but they are interesting, +all the same, to yours sincerely,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">R.V.D.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Lancaster, Pa.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: Can you please tell me whether there are +fire-flies in England or not? We have had several discussions, and I +would like so much to know.—Yours truly,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Amy.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<p>According to all accounts within our reach there are in England no +fire-flies like those of the United States. But there are glow-worms +there, and, sometimes, the male glow-worm (which has wings), has been +called a "fire-fly." It belongs to a branch (genus) of the family +<i>Lampyridæ</i>, which is also the family of its fire-fly cousins, but +it is not shaped quite like them, and bears a different scientific name.</p> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Philadelphia, Pa.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: I have seen so many little stories written by girls +of my age, that I thought I would write also—about iron. It is a +very useful metal, without which we would be very much at a loss. +Without iron, we could not cook very well; we could not build such +houses as we do, because the nails are made of iron, and some of the +tools; nor could we have gas, for the gas is conveyed through the +different parts of the houses and city by iron pipes. Nor could we have +steam-boats, for the machinery which makes them move is made of iron. +The buckets which we have to carry water in have iron hoops. The doors +have iron locks. The ink with which we write has iron in it. Last, but +not least, we have iron in our blood, enough to make a ten-penny nail.</p> + +<p>I will tell you of a trip we took to the lead mines. We were spending +the summer of 1877 in Wythville, Virginia, and there became acquainted +with a family boarding in the same hotel as ourselves. One day they +invited us to go with them to see the mines; we had a very long but +pleasant ride, and ate our lunch on the grass in the woods, then went +on, and at last arrived at the mines. The man who was outside told us +that he was "going to harness the ladies' sleeping car;" the mouth of +the cave was so low that a man of ordinary height could hardly stand +upright in it: when we started they hitched two carts which were used to +carry the ore out of the mine, and put a little donkey to it; the man +called the donkey Jenny; we had two or three tallow candles which would +not stay lighted; as we advanced further, the water began to leak from +the rocks, and the car ran off track; but when we were inside the mine, +we were more than rewarded for what we had suffered. The men were +working in groups, each group having a lantern, and the lead itself +shined; a few men went up a pair of stairs to nearly the top of the +mine; but all these beauties could not induce me stay a minute longer +than I was obliged, and I can assure you we were all very thankful when +we arrived at the hotel, to find a nice supper and warm beds waiting for +us.—Your little friend,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Joyce.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Junction City, Kansas.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: I like to read you very much, especially +"Under the Lilacs" and "Dab Kinzer." I live in Junction City, and have a +very pleasant home. We have a great many wild flowers growing on the +prairies. One of them is called the soap plant. Our teacher says its +name is "Yucca." It has long slim leaves with sharp edges, and the +flower grows on all sides of the stalk, which sometimes is four feet +high: the flowers are white. Then we have a sensitive rose. The rose +looks like a round purple silk tassel. We have lots more of odd flowers, +which I will tell you about some other time.—Yours truly, </p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Mary Keys</span>.</div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Bunker Hill.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: I read an article lately against nicknames +and spelling names with "ie," but I don't agree with it. I think when +people are grown up their real names look better, but at home, among +one's own friends, a pet name is pretty. I don't like to see a nickname +in a marriage or death notice, but I do like it for young folks and in +the family. They say it is a French fashion to spell names "ie." Whether +it is true or not I like it, for all wise people say against it. I know +I am only a little girl, and my opinion may not be worth much, but I +mean to stand up for it, whatever they say. I suppose every one has a +right to her own opinion, and if others don't agree with me, they +needn't; but I don't like them to call me "silly" because I don't think +as they do. I am willing they should have their own opinions, but I want +the same privilege,—isn't that fair? I don't like such nicknames +as "Tom" and "Bob," or "Mollie" and "Sallie," but like such as "Charlie" +or "Hattie," and I think they look prettier spelt so than they do spelt +"Charley" or "Hatty." If other people like them so, I am willing; but I +want the right to follow my own choice in the matter, whether others +like it or not. I think people have a right to spell their own names as +they please.—Your friend, </p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Allie Bertram</span>.</div> + +<p>P.S.—My parents think my name is too pretty to be used so often as +to get common, and so they call me "Allie," and I like it. I don't want +any one but my friends who love me, and whom I love, to call me "Alma."</p> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: May I tell you about a miniature fountain my +sister and myself made long ago? It was lovely when finished, and fully +repaid us for our labor.</p> + +<p>We first chose a board, about four feet long, and two feet wide, on the +sides of which we nailed laths, to hold the earth we laid upon it, after +having bored two holes, one near the middle and the other close in the +corner. We then placed the board on a box, and set a barrel near it on +blocks that stood about a foot higher than the board.</p> + +<p>We now cut a gourd in two, and making holes through the centers, fitted +them over those in the board, the large one for the fountain-basin, the +small one for a little spring in the corner.</p> + +<p>The next thing was to connect this with the barrel by pipes. For this we +used reeds, placing a small upright piece in the center of the middle +basin, and joining to this a larger reed which ran beneath the board, +and was let into the barrel near the bottom. The spring was finished in +the same manner, with this exception, that there was no upright piece in +the middle. We now searched the woods for moss, bits of twigs, and even +some tiny pine and cedar trees, which we planted with other things in +the earth banked upon the board. We arranged a small rockery with vines +trailing over it; we made paths covered with sand; and laid out tiny +dells, and hills and plains. We lined the fountain-basin with shells and +the "spring" with moss, and made little water-courses for the overflow; +and, after it was all completed, we filled the barrel with water; and, +lo! we had the prettiest little garden imaginable, with a fountain +spurting and plashing in the center, and a pretty little mossy spring in +the corner.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">Lillie F. Fales</span>.</div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Sitapur, Oude, India.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: The people here live in little mud huts +clustered together in rude villages. They worship grotesque idols, wear +very odd clothing, and eat strange food. Carpenters, and tailors, and +shoe-makers, use their toes almost as much and as well as they use their +fingers, and men do the sewing and a great deal of the cooking. Little +girls very, very seldom go to school, and are betrothed when they are +babies. Little boys do not play ball or such games, but they are very +fond of flying the kite.</p> + +<p>There are monkeys here by hundreds. They live in groves and eat fruits. +These are not monkeys which hang up by their tails at night to go to +sleep,—they live in the mountains,—but great big fellows +like plump dogs, only their fore-legs are short and their "feet" are +hands.</p> + +<p>The other day I saw a fight between some monkeys and about a hundred +crows. The monkeys wounded one poor crow, and it hopped about upon the +ground unable to fly. Then the crows settled around it and tried to +carry it off; but they could not. The monkeys charged down upon them, +and then the crows charged the monkeys. It was an exciting time. Seeing +the crows were getting the worst of the battle I came to their rescue, +but the monkeys charged upon me, and I had to run. At last, I carried +off the poor crow, hoping to cure it, but it died the same day. The +other crows followed me home, and made a most dismal noise, as if they +could not trust me.</p> + +<p>Here the squirrels are quite small and not at all wild. I saw a little +boy, the other day, walking along with a saucy little squirrel perched +upon his shoulder.</p> + +<p>In the schools in the villages here, the boys sit upon the ground, write +upon wooden slates, and study aloud. They have wonderful memories and +commit everything, though they do not understand very much of it. It is +much better to understand every lesson as we go along, isn't it?</p> + +<p>Nearly all the little boys in India wear only a long coat which comes +down to their knees. It is so very warm here for most of the year that +the very little folks go without any clothing at all.</p> + +<p>There are 60,000 soldiers in India, sent from England. One of the +regiments is in Sitapur, where I live, and they have a brass band which +makes first-rate music. They also have bagpipes.</p> + +<p>In India there are persons from almost every nation—Hindus, +Arabians, Chinese, Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, +Americans. There are twenty-three languages native to India. A great +many Indians speak English, which is taught in all the schools, as Greek +or Latin or French is taught at home.</p> + +<p>But, although this is a great country, there is no place like America, +especially to Americans. Three cheers for the boys and girls of America!</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">J.E.S.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right">Nauvoo, Ill.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Dear St. Nicholas</span>: Here is something about my sister Lu and a +strange pet she had: Her childhood was spent in a wild, new country. I +cannot remember that she was ever amused with dolls and baby-houses. She +made amends, however, by surrounding herself with kittens, dogs, fawns, +ponies, squirrels, opossums, 'coons, and various birds, which, in turn, +she petted and loved.</p> + +<p>She lived in the Red River country of Louisiana. The climate there is so +warm that out-door play may be had at any season.</p> + +<p>The summer she was thirteen, with an older brother and other friends, +she went fishing on the lake, whose waters were dark and still, studded +here and there with cypress-trees in close ranks. Heavy timber filled +the valley surrounding the lake.</p> + +<p>After catching a full supply of fish, some of which were cooked on the +spot, brother Ed., in wandering about, captured a young alligator, and +led it along to where sister Lu was seated, saying: "I've brought you a +new pet, Lu." She adopted the little monster at once, and it was carried +home, and turned loose in the creek below the house.</p> + +<p>In a few days the alligator was quite at home. It would eat anything +which was brought to it, and soon learned to come to a call, seeming +more delighted with notice than with what there was to eat. It whined +and barked like a dog, and wagged its big tail when pleased. It enjoyed +being patted on the head, and would caper around, the most awkward thing +that ever attempted a frolic.</p> + +<p>In a few months, the pet became so large and familiar as to be a +nuisance. He would track up sister Lu through the field and about the +garden, showing his scent to be true and keen. Often when Lu was seated, +perhaps, at her tatting, he would come to her feet and lie as still as +if carved out of stone, waiting for a little notice. He soon grew to +like eating the young goslings and chickens, and began to climb the +fence, and look longingly at the young pigs. At last the scaly, +good-natured creature disappeared. He probably made his way to a +neighboring bayou, and was never seen again by any little girl's eyes.</p> + +<p>But Lu has never forgotten him, although probably he remembers nothing +now of the good times of his youth.—Yours truly,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="sc">G.M.K.</span></div> +</blockquote> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<p><span class="sc">The Witchery of Archery</span>. By Maurice Thompson. Published by +Charles Scribner's Sons.</p> + +<p>Archery has become so popular, of late, that this book will be of +interest to all boys and girls, as well as grown people, who practice +shooting with bows and arrows. Mr. Thompson, the author, wrote the +articles on Archery in Scribner's Monthly, which have excited such an +interest in bow-shooting, and he probably knows more about the matter +than any one else in the country.</p> + +<p>There is much in the book about the various pleasures and advantages of +archery, which are very many; but there are also a great many plain and +practical directions to those who are unaccustomed to the use of a bow +and arrows. The author tells the young archer just what to do and how to +do it, and, as no one should use a bow who does not know how to use it +properly, such directions are very valuable, and should be carefully +read and followed.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div> + +<div id="puzzles"> + +<h2><a name="riddle" id="riddle">THE RIDDLE-BOX.</a></h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>CLASSICAL DOUBLE ACROSTIC.</h3> + +<p>The initials and finals, read downward, name two Latin poets.<br /> +1. To affirm. 2. A male character in Shakspeare. 3. To cry aloud. +4. One of the United States. 5. An order of architecture. 6. Small.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="small">VERTI.</span></div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>NAMES OF AUTHORS ENIGMATICALLY EXPRESSED.</h3> + +<p>1. An Italian river. 2. A prefix, and an enemy. 3. A berry, and a spine. +4. A machine, and a small house. 5. The cat'll eat it. 6. What doves do, +and an expression of contentment. 7. Bright things that fly upward. 8. +What should be done with a sister in the sulks. 9. What should be done +to one's mother. 10. Half of a New England city, and what is useless +when dry.</p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">RUSTICUS.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>ENIGMA.</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>My first is in boy, but not in lad;</div> + <div>My second in merry, but not in sad.</div> + <div>My third is in stripe, but not in streak;</div> + <div>My fourth is in proud, but not in meek.</div> + <div>My fifth is in little and also in tall;</div> + <div>My sixth in none, but not in all.</div> + <div>My whole a trusty guide is found</div> + <div>For animals men ride around.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">JANIE M.B.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>WHAT IS IT?</h3> + +<p>Name the thing described in the following paragraph:</p> + +<p>Kingdom: Animal, vegetable, and mineral. Conducive to travel; dreaded by +all with whom it comes in contact; an article of personal adornment; +when misplaced, causes terrible disasters; false; beaten, hardened, and +fire-tested; of various colors; preferred when green and flexible; +constantly changed, and changing others; its use enjoined by Scripture.</p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">M.S.R.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>CHARADE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Darker and darker still, the slow hours creeping,</div> + <div class="in1">Bring to my <i>first</i> the inexorable gloom;</div> + <div>Silent and soft, the tender skies are weeping</div> + <div class="in1">For all the beauty they no more illume.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Stay not. O wand'rer, by the hurrying river,</div> + <div class="in1">Nor in the whispering wood, nor where above</div> + <div>Rises the perilous crag. My <i>second</i> ever,</div> + <div class="in1">With added final, welcomes all who rove.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Wildly my <i>third</i> over the hill is flying,</div> + <div class="in1">Over the wide moor, and the wider sea,</div> + <div>Moaning as one whose latest hope, in dying,</div> + <div class="in1">Leaves an eternity of agony.</div> +</div> +<br /> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>Listen! oh, listen! to my <i>whole</i>, while filling</div> + <div class="in1">My shadowy <i>first</i> with ecstasy divine!</div> + <div>Listen! oh, listen! would ye not be willing</div> + <div class="in1">Ever in gloom to dwell, and not repine,—</div> + <div>Ever to joy in such melodious gladness,—</div> + <div>Ever to sorrow in such rapturous sadness?</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">L.S.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>INCOMPLETE SENTENCES.</h3> + +<p>In each of the following sentences, fill up the blanks with suitable +words having the same sound but spelled differently and having different +meanings.</p> + +<p>1. It is but —— to pay your —— to the conductor. +2. When the —— was over, he did —— to +—— to his father. 3. The —— was —— +to do her work well. 4. She —— that the —— of +South America are exceedingly tall. 5. The enraged farmer —— +his neighbor's cow for eating his ——. 6. Don't +—— if the —— should hit you. 7. The +—— of a knave is not always as —— as his +character. 8. He —— would —— but is awed into +sincerity before this sacred ——.</p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">GRACE G.C.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PUZZLE.</h3> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image34" id="image34"><img src="images/image34.jpg" width="500" +height="374" alt="PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PUZZLE" /></a> +</div> + +<p>The answer—a line from Young's "Night Thoughts"—contains six +words.</p> + +<p>Each numeral beneath the pictures represents a letter in that word of +the line which is indicated by the numeral—1 denoting that the +letter it designates belongs to the first word of the line, 4 to the +fourth word, and so on.</p> + +<p>Find a word, letters, or a letter, descriptive of each picture, and +containing as many letters as there are numerals beneath the picture +itself. This is the first process. Then write down, some distance apart, +the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to correspond with the words of the +answer. Group beneath figure 1 all the letters designated by the numeral +1 in the numbering beneath the pictures. You will thus have in a group +all the letters that spell the first word of the line, and these +letters, when set in the right order, will spell the word itself. Follow +the same process of grouping and arranging, in making the remaining five +words of the answer. Of course, the re-arrangement of the letters need +not be begun until all of them have been set apart in their proper +groups. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">S.R.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>THREE DIAMONDS.</h3> + +<p>I.—1. A consonant. 2. A kind of carriage. 3. A well-known +river of Italy. 4. A precious stone. 5. In circumnavigator.</p> + +<p>II.—1. In inconspicuous. 2. A Turkish name. 3. A spice. 4. A +climbing plant. 5. In herbalist.</p> + +<p>III.—1. In iniquity. 2. A girl's name. 3. A country in Asia. +4. Purpose. 5. In Niagara. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">ALLIE.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>RIDDLE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>A head have I, though never do I think;</div> + <div>A mouth as well, but with it never drink.</div> + <div>A body, too, is mine, of giant growth and strength,</div> + <div>Combining with its force majestic length.</div> + <div>But, as to feet, of them I have not one,</div> + <div>Though I am never still, but always run.</div> + <div>Ne'er was I known to leave my lowly bed,</div> + <div>Or ope my mouth so that I might be fed.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">E.S.S.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>POSITIVES AND COMPARATIVES.</h3> + +<p>The positive is found from the first definition given, and the +comparative is made by adding the sound "er" to the positive.</p> + +<p>1. My positive is level, and my comparative is what one's true friends +never do. 2. My positive is an article of food, and my comparative is a +tool. 3. My positive is coarse, and my comparative is a trade. 4. My +positive is a youth, and my comparative is an instrument for climbing. +5. My positive is a preposition, and my comparative is to esteem. 6. My +positive is a part of the body, and my comparative is wrath. 7. My +positive is an American poet, and my comparative is part of the body. 8. +My positive is an article of food, and my comparative is something used +in a part of Asia. 9. My positive is a public place, and my comparative +is a sufferer. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">G.S.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>HIDDEN NAMES.</h3> + +<p>Find a girl's or a boy's name hidden in each of the following sentences.</p> + +<p>1. Arthur likes my apples. 2. Herbert expected letters every night. 3. +Alice rode to her uncle Robert's. 4. Mr. Allen bought eight lambs. 5. +Hattie Arnold reached Rochester yesterday. 6. Even Theodore has eaten +little. 7. Every rainy night Eva sews trimming. 8. Ellen's dog is +terribly hurt. 9. Florence rides every day. 10. Softly the evening light +lingers around. 11. Even dull wits improve, nowadays. 12. Generally, +raisins are capital eating. 13. Fido ran after Ned's kite. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">C.K.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>EASY CROSS-WORD ENIGMA.</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div>My first is in edict, but not in law;</div> + <div>My second's in chilly, but not in raw.</div> + <div>My third is in ice, but not in snow;</div> + <div>My fourth is in cut, but not in mow.</div> + <div>My fifth is in mild, but not in bland;</div> + <div>My sixth is in country, not in land.</div> + <div>My seventh is in silent, not in still;</div> + <div>My eighth is in slaughter, but not in kill.</div> + <div>My ninth is in learn, but not in teach;</div> + <div>My tenth is in sandy, but not in beach.</div> + <div>My whole is the name of a useful book,</div> + <div>As soon you'll see, if you'll closely look.</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">W.B.H.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>DOUBLE WORD-SQUARE.</h3> + +<p>Across: 1. Departed. 2. Declare. 3. Look askance. 4. Terminates. +Down: 1. High wind. 2. Part of a stove. 3. Want. +4. Mistakes. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">H.H.D.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>REBUS.</h3> + +<div class="center">A two-line quotation from a poem by Thomas Gray.</div> + +<div class="imgcenter"> +<a name="image35" id="image35"><img src="images/image35.jpg" width="499" +height="284" alt="REBUS" /></a> +</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>CENTRAL SYNCOPATIONS.</h3> + +<p>1. Syncopate an orifice, and leave a troublesome insect. 2. Syncopate to +cut, and get a natural underground chamber. 3. Syncopate a wise saying, +and get to injure. 4. Syncopate a small house, and leave a fugitive +named in the Bible. 5. Syncopate a crown of a person of rank, and leave +a musical instrument. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">A.B.</div> + +<br /><hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<h3>DOUBLE ACROSTIC.</h3> + +<p>The initials form the name of a European sovereign. The finals form the +name of a great statesman.</p> + +<p>1. Striking. 2. A vowel repeated. 3. A body of soldiers. 4. A lofty +building. 5. A musical drama. 6. Scarce. 7. A pastoral poem. 8. The +surname of a celebrated Italian poet. </p> + +<div style="text-align:right;font-size:90%;">DYCLE</div> + + +<hr /> + +<h3>ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN AUGUST NUMBER.</h3> + +<hr class="tiny" /><br /> + +<p><span class="sc">Double Acrostic.</span>—Primrose, 1. PeaR. 2. RomeO. 3. IsthmuS. 4. MacE.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Numerical Enigma.</span>—All owing: allowing.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Pictorial Transposition Puzzles.</span>—1. Ten mugs; nutmegs. 3. Ten +tea-pots; potentates.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Diamond Puzzle.</span>—1. M. 2. JAy. 3. MaCaw. 4. YAk. 5. W.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Square-word.</span>—1. Crane. 2. Raven. 3. Avert. 4. Nerve. 5. Enter.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Shakspearean Rebus.</span>—"Hamlet," Act III., Scene i.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> + <div class="quote">"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;</div> + <div>And thus the native hue of resolution</div> + <div>Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="sc">Geographical Double Acrostic.</span>—1. ChilI. 2. HellesponT. 3. IndiA. +4. NepauL. 5. AlleghanY.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Metagram.</span>—Dip, fip, lip, hip, rip, nip, pip, sip, tip.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Very Easy Hidden Furniture.</span>—1. Table. 2. Sofa. 3. Chair. 4. Stool. +5. What-not. 6. Crib. 7. Cot 8. Hat-rack 9. Desk.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Double Cross-word Enigma.</span>—Holmes, Lowell.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Transpositions.</span>—1. Warned, warden, wander. 2. Red nag, gander, +ranged, garden, danger. 3. No elms, Lemnos, lemons, melons, solemn. 4. +Red opal, pale rod, real pod, leopard.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Proverb Rebus.</span>—"One swallow does not make a summer."</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Charade.</span>—Pondicherry; pond, I, cherry.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Hour-glass Puzzle.</span>—Centrals, Arrow, 1. CHAnt 2. ORe. 3. R. 4. COg. +5. BoWer.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Contractions.</span>—1. Brown, brow. 2. Plane, plan. 3. Lathe, lath. 4. +Heath, heat. 5. Hazel, haze. 6. Plume, plum. 7. Crown, crow. 8. Lunge, +lung. 9. Forty, fort.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Word-syncopations.</span>—1. Leveret; ever, let. 2. Slashing; ash, sling. +3. Slashings; lash, sings. 4. Carpenter; pea, carter. 5. Carpets; pet, +cars.</p> + + +<p><span class="sc">Answers to Puzzles in the July Number</span> were received, before July 18, +from Bessie Hard, C.C. Bourne; Mamie H.S., and Louise G.H.; Cari Hinkle, +O.C. Turner, "Prebo," "La Gazza Ladra," "Cosy Club," Bertha E. +Keferstein, Nellie M. Slade, "Duchess May" R.H.R.; Alice MacNary and +Elliot MacNary; "Kelloke and Cary and Rose," Fred W.M., E. Farnham Todd, +"Winnie," "Stock-Broker and Doctor," "Dottie and Daisie;" May and +Charlie Pray; Laurie T. Sanders, May Chester, "Hyacinth," H.P.B.; +Frances and Margaret Bagley; W.H. McGee, Charlie Kellogg, Nellie +Kellogg, T.W.H., A.G.D., Nessie E. Stevens, "Romeo and Juliet" Bella W. +Brown, May Duffan, "St. Nicholas Club," H.B. Ayers; "Orada and Ibylsa;" +William W. Bellinger, Lillian Willams E.J.F., A.C.S., George D. +Mitchell, Arthur Boehm, Bessie Taylor, J.B.H., George C. Wedderburn, +William T. Gray, John V.L. Pierson, Henry Kummel, Virginia Simpson; +F.M.J., Jr.; Kitty Curtis, Mildred Meredith, Louisa F. Riedel; "Bessie +and Tic;" X.Y.Z., Sarah Duffield, Dycie Warden, Nettie A. Ives, +"Violet," R.T. French, Josie Hamilton, Alice M. Mason, Ellen Smith, +Liffie D. Hacker, Mamie Packer, Jennie A. Carr, Willie Sellie, Arnold +Guyot Cameron, Grant Squires, Georgine C. Schnitzspahn, T.H. Loomis, +Rachel Hutchins, Mary G. Arnold, M.W. Collet, Laura Maude Benton, Willie +Robinson, Fanny J. Schonacker; May and Louis Ogdea; Arthur Stowe, Nellie +C. Graham, Mattie Olmsted, W.A. Wheeler, Maggie T. Gemmill, Rufus B. +Clark, Lewis G. Davis, Clare G. Hess; Ella and Kittie Blanke; Nellie +Quayle, Gertrude Weasondonk, Clara F. Allen, Addie S. Church, "My +Maryland," Nellie L. Ninde, F. Popenhausen, A.B.C., "Hard and Tough," +Nellie Emerson, L.B. Bancroft, M.P., Wm. C. Ferguson, Alice Lanigan, +Florence Van Rensselaer, Anna E. Mathewson, Josie Morris Brown, Charles +N. Cogswell, "Fritters," "Bertha and Daisy," "Beech-Nut," Stephen +Waterman, E.M. Biddle, Jr., "So So and his Cousin," Georgie B., Chas. +Alfred Christian, George J. Fiske, Esther L. Fiske; Frank Allen and May; +"Lena Kate," Milly E. Adams, Eddie Vultee, Willie B. Deas, F.D., +"Fannie," Grace E. Fuller, C. Speiden, M. Speiden, Austen M. Poole, Ada +L. Goodwin, Fred Huckel, Estelle Jennings; William Guillet, of Canada; +"Brutus and Cassius," Kate Sampson, Edwin C. Garngues, "Bessie and her +Cousin," "A.B. and C.D.," Bessie Barnes, and Charles H. Stout.</p> + +<p>"Fanny Pop" and Ernest B. Cooper answered correctly all the puzzles in +the July number.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and +Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. 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