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diff --git a/19399.txt b/19399.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d47ac7b --- /dev/null +++ b/19399.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6369 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, +Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3, 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, January 1878, No. 3 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Mary Mapes Dodge + +Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19399] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: TWO WAYS OF CARRYING THE MAIL. [See Letter-Box.]] + + + + +ST. NICHOLAS. + +VOL. V. +JANUARY, 1878. +No. 3. + +[Copyright, 1877, by Scribner & Co.] + + + + +THE RAVENS AND THE ANGELS. + +(_A Story of the Middle Ages._) + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "CHRONICLES OF THE SCHOeNBERG-COTTA FAMILY." + + +I. + +In those old days, in that old city, they called the cathedral--and they +thought it--the house of God. The cathedral was the Father's house for +all, and therefore it was loved and honored, and enriched with lavish +treasures of wealth and work, beyond any other father's house. + +The cathedral was the Father's house, and, therefore, close to its gates +might nestle the poor dwellings of the poor,--too poor to find a shelter +anywhere besides; because the central life and joy of the house of God +was the suffering, self-sacrificing Son of Man; and dearer to Him, now +and forever, as when He was on earth, was the feeblest and most fallen +human creature He had redeemed than the most glorious heavenly +constellation of the universe He had made. + +And so it happened that when Berthold, the stone-carver, died, Magdalis, +his young wife, and her two children, then scarcely more than babes, +Gottlieb and little Lenichen, were suffered to make their home in the +little wooden shed which had once sheltered a hermit, and which nestled +into the recess close to the great western gate of the minster. + +Thus, while inside from the lofty aisles pealed forth, night and day, +the anthems of the choir, close outside, night and day, rose also, even +more surely to God, the sighs of a sorrowful woman and the cries of +little children whom all her toil could hardly supply with bread. +Because, He hears the feeblest wail of want, though it comes not from a +dove or even from a harmless sparrow, but a young raven. And He does not +heed the sweetest anthem of the fullest choir, if it is a mere pomp of +sound. Because, while the best love of His meanest creatures is precious +to Him, the second-best of His loftiest creatures is intolerable to Him. +He heeds the shining of the drops of dew and the rustling of the blades +of grass. But from creatures who can love he cannot accept the mere +outside offering of creatures which can only make a pleasant sound. + +All this, or such as this, the young mother Magdalis taught her babes as +they could bear it. + +For they needed such lessons. + +The troubles of the world pressed on them very early, in the shape +little children can understand--little hands and feet nipped with frost, +hunger and darkness and cold. + +Not that the citizens of that city were hypocrites, singing the praises +of God, whilst they let His dear Lazaruses vainly crave at His gates for +their crumbs. + +But Magdalis was very tender and timid, and a little proud; proud not +for herself, but for her husband and his babes. And she was also feeble +in health. She was an orphan herself, and she had married, against the +will of her kindred in a far-off city, the young stone-carver, whose +genius they did not appreciate, whose labor and skill had made life so +rich and bright to them while he lived, and whose early death had left +them all so desolate. + +For his dear sake, she would not complain. For herself it had been +easier to die, and for his babes she would not bring the shame of +beggary on them. Better for them to enter into this life maimed of +strength, she thought, by meager food, than tainted with the taint of +beggary. + +Rather, she thought, would their father himself have seen them go hungry +to bed than deserve that the fingers of other children should be pointed +scornfully at them as "the little beggars by the church door," the door +of the church in which she gloried to think there were stones of his +carving. + +So she toiled on, carving for sale little devotional symbols--crosses, +and reliquaries, and lilies and lambs--with the skill she had learnt +from him, and teaching the little ones, as best she could, to love and +work and suffer. Teaching them only, perhaps, not quite enough to hope. +For the lamp of hope burnt low in her own heart, and therefore her +patience, not being enough the patience of hope, lacked something of +sweetness. It never broke downward into murmurs, but it too seldom +soared upward into praise. + +So it happened that one frosty night, about Christmas-tide, little +Gottlieb lay awake, very hungry, on the ledge of the wall, covered with +straw, which served him for a bed. + +It had once been the hermit's bed. And very narrow Gottlieb thought it +must have been for the hermit, for more than once he had been in peril +of falling over the side, in his restless tossings. He supposed the +hermit was too good to be restless, or perhaps too good for the dear +angels to think it good for him to be hungry, as they evidently did +think it good for Gottlieb and Lenichen, or they would be not good +angels at all, not even as kind as the ravens which took the bread to +Elijah when they were told. For the dear Heavenly Father had certainly +told the angels always to take care of little children. + +The more Gottlieb lay awake and tossed and thought, the further off the +angels seemed. + +For, all the time, under the pillow lay one precious crust of bread, the +last in the house until his mother should buy the loaf to-morrow. + +He had saved it from his supper in an impulse of generous pity for his +little sister, who so often awoke, crying with hunger, and woke his poor +mother, and would not let her go to sleep again. + +He had thought how sweet it would be, when Lenichen awoke the next +morning, to appear suddenly, as the angels do, at the side of the bed +where she lay beside her mother, and say: + +"Dear Lenichen! See, God has sent you this bit of bread as a Christmas +gift." + +For the next day was Christmas Eve. + +This little plan made Gottlieb so happy that at first it felt as good to +him as eating the bread. + +But the happy thought, unhappily, did not long content the hungry animal +part of him, which craved, in spite of him, to be filled; and, as the +night went on, he was sorely tempted to eat the precious crust--his very +own crust--himself. + +"Perhaps it was ambitious of me, after all," he said to himself, "to +want to seem like a blessed angel, a messenger of God, to Lenichen. +Perhaps, too, it would not be true. Because, after all, it would not be +exactly God who sent the crust, but only me." + +And with the suggestion, the little hands which had often involuntarily +felt for the crust, brought it to the hungry little mouth. + +But at that moment it opportunely happened that his mother made a little +moan in her sleep, which half awakened Lenichen, who murmured, sleepily, +"Little mother, mother, bread!" + +Whereupon, Gottlieb blushed at his own ungenerous intention, and +resolutely pushed back the crust under the pillow. And then he thought +it must certainly have been the devil who had tempted him to eat, and he +tried to pray. + +He prayed the "Our Father" quite through, kneeling up softly in bed, and +lingering fondly, but not very hopefully, on the "Give us our daily +bread." + +And then again he fell into rather melancholy reflections how very often +he had prayed that same prayer and been hungry, and into distracting +speculations how the daily bread could come, until at last he ventured +to add this bit of his own to his prayers: + +"Dear, holy Lord Jesus, you were once a little child, and know what it +feels like. If Lenichen and I are not good enough for you to send us +bread by the blessed angels, do send us some by the poor ravens. We +would not mind at all, if they came from you, and were your ravens, and +brought us real bread. And if it is wrong to ask, please not to be +displeased, because I am such a little child, and I don't know better, +and I want to go to sleep!" + +Then Gottlieb lay down again, and turned his face to the wall, where he +knew the picture of the Infant Jesus was, and forgot his troubles and +fell asleep. + +The next morning he was awaked, as so often, by Lenichen's little bleat; +and he rose triumphantly, and took his crust to her bedside. + +Lenichen greeted him with a wistful little smile, and put up her face +for a kiss; but her reception of the crust was somewhat disappointing. + +She wailed a little because it was "hard and dry," and when Gottlieb +moistened it with a few drops of water, she took it too much, he felt, +as a mere common meal, a thing of course, and her natural right. + +He had expected that, in some way, the hungry hours it had cost him +would have been kneaded into it, and made it a kind of heavenly manna +for her. + +To him it had meant hunger, and heroism, and sleepless hours of +endurance. It seemed strange that to Lenichen it should seem nothing +more than a hard, dry, common crust. + +But to the mother it was much more. + +She understood all; and, because she understood so much, she said +little. + +She only smiled, and said he looked more than ever like his father; and +as he sat musing rather sadly while she was dressing, and Lenichen had +fallen asleep again, she pointed to the little peaceful sleeping face, +the flaxen hair curling over the dimpled arm, and she said: + +"That is thy thanks--just that the little one is happy. The dear +Heavenly Father cares more, I think, for such thanks than for any other; +just to see the flowers grow, just to hear the birds sing to their +nestlings, just to see His creatures good and happy, because of His +gifts. Those are about the best thanks for Him and for us." + +But Gottlieb looked up inquiringly. + +"Yet He likes us to say 'Thank you,' too? Did you not say all the Church +services, all the beautiful cathedral itself, is just the people's +'Thank you' to God? Are we not going to church just to say 'Thank you,' +to-day?" + +"Yes, darling," she said. "But the 'thank you' we _mean_ to say is worth +little unless it is just the blossom and fragrance of the love and +content always in the heart. God cares infinitely for our loving Him, +and loves us to thank Him if we do. He does not care at all for the +thanks without the love, or without the content." + +And as she spoke these words, Mother Magdalis was preaching a little +sermon to herself also, which made her eyes moisten and shine. + +So she took courage, and contrived to persuade the children and herself +that the bread-and-water breakfast that Christmas Eve morning had +something quite festive about it. + +And when they had finished with a grace which Gottlieb sang, and +Lenichen lisped after him, she told him to take the little sister on his +knee and sing through his songs and hymns, while she arrayed herself in +the few remnants of holiday dress left her. + +And as she cleaned and arranged the tiny room, her heart was lighter +than it had been for a long time. + +"I ought to be happy," she said to herself, "with music enough in my +little nest to fill a church." + +When Gottlieb had finished his songs, and was beginning them over again, +there was a knock at the door, and the face of old Hans, the dwarf, +appeared at the door, as he half opened it. + +"A good Christmas to thee and thy babes, Mother Magdalis! Thy son is +born indeed with a golden spoon in his mouth," croaked old Hans in his +hoarse, guttural voice. + +The words grated on Magdalis. Crooked Hans' jokes were apt to be as +crooked as his temper and his poor limbs, and to give much +dissatisfaction, hitting on just the sore points no one wanted to be +touched. + +She felt tempted to answer sharply, but the sweet Christmas music had +got into her heart, and she only said, with tears starting to her eyes: + +"If he was, neighbor, all the gold was lost and buried long ago." + +"Not a bit of it!" rejoined Hans. "Didn't I hear the gold ring this very +instant? The lad has gold in his mouth, I say! Give him to me, and you +shall see it before night." + +She looked up reproachfully, the tears fairly falling at what she +thought such a cruel mockery from Hans, who knew her poverty, and had +never had from her or hers the rough words he was too used to from every +one. + +"The golden days are over for me," was all she said. + +"Nay! They have yet to begin," he replied. "Your Berthold left more +debtors than you know, Frau Magdalis. And old Hans is one of them. And +Hans never forgets a debt, black or white. Let the lad come with me, I +say. I know the choir-master at the cathedral. And I know he wants a +fine high treble just such as thy Gottlieb's, and will give anything for +it. For if he does not find one, the Cistercians at the new convent will +draw away all the people, and we shall have no money for the new organ. +They have a young Italian, who sings like an angel, there; and the young +archduchess is an Italian, and is wild about music, and lavishes her +gifts wherever she finds it good." + +Magdalis looked perplexed and troubled. + +"To sell the child's voice seems like selling part of himself, +neighbor," she said at length; "and to sell God's praises seems like +selling one's own soul." + +"Well, well! Those are thy proud burgher notions," said Hans, a little +nettled. "If the Heavenly Father pleases to give thee and the little +ones a few crumbs for singing His matins and evensong, it is no more +than He does for the robins, or, for that matter, for the very ravens, +such as me, that croak to Him with the best voice they have." + +At these words, Gottlieb, who had been listening very attentively, +gently set little Lenichen down, and, drawing close to Hans, put his +little hand confidingly in his. + +"I will go with neighbor Hans, mother!" he said, decisively. "The dear +Lord himself has sent him." + +"Thou speakest like a prophet," said the mother, smiling tenderly at his +oracular manner, "a prophet and a king in one. Hast thou had a vision? +Is thy will indeed the law of the land?" + +"Yes, mother," he said, coloring, "the dear Lord Jesus has made it quite +plain. I asked Him, if we were not good enough for Him to send us an +angel, to send us one of His ravens, and He has sent us Hans!" + +Hans laughed, but not the grim, hoarse laugh which was habitual to him, +and which people compared to the croaking of a raven; it was a hearty, +open laugh, like a child's, and he said: + +"Let God's raven lead thee, then, my lad, and the mother shall see if we +don't bring back the bread and meat." + +"I did not ask for meat," said Gottlieb, gravely, "only for bread." + +"The good God is wont to give more than we either desire or deserve," +croaked Hans, "when He sets about giving at all." + + +II. + +There was no time to be lost. + +The services of the day would soon begin, and Hans had set his heart on +Gottlieb's singing that very day in the cathedral. + +The choir-master's eyes sparkled as he listened to the boy; but he was +an austere man, and would not utter a word to make the child think +himself of value. + +"Not bad raw material," he said, "but very raw. I suppose thou hast +never before sung a note to any one who understood music?" + +"Only for the mother and the little sister," the child replied in a low, +humbled tone, beginning to fear the raven would bring no bread after +all, "and sometimes in the litanies and the processions." + +"Sing no more for babes and nurses, and still less among the beggars in +the street-processions," pronounced the master, severely. "It strains +and vulgarizes the tone. And, with training, I don't know but that, +after all, we might make something of thee--in time, in time." + +Gottlieb's anxiety mastered his timidity, and he ventured to say: + +"Gracious lord! if it is a long time, how can we all wait? I thought it +would be to-day! The mother wants the bread to-day." + +Something in the child's earnest face touched the master, and he said, +more gently: + +"I did not say you might not _begin_ to-day. You must begin this hour, +this moment. Too much time has been lost already." + +And at once he set about the first lesson, scolding and growling about +the child setting his teeth like a dog, and mincing his words like a +fine lady, till poor Gottlieb's hopes more than once sank very low. + +But, at the end of a quarter of an hour's practice, the artist in the +choir-master entirely overcame the diplomatist. + +He behaved like a madman. He took the child in his arms and hugged him, +like a friendly bear; he set him on the table and made him sing one +phrase again and again, walking round and round him, and rubbing his +hands and laughing with delight; and, finally, he seized him and bore +him in triumph to the kitchen, and said to his housekeeper: + +"Ursula, bring out the finest goose and the best preserves and puddings +you have. We must feast the whole choir, and, may be, the dean and +chapter. The archduke and the young archduchess will be here at Easter. +But we shall be ready for them. Those beggarly Cistercians haven't a +chance. The lad has the voice of an angel, and the ear--the ear--well, +an ear as good as my own." + +"The child may well have the voice of an angel," scolded old Ursula; "he +is like to be among the angels soon enough." + +For the hope, and the fear, and the joy had quite overcome the child, +enfeebled as he was by meager fare; his lips were quite pale, and his +cheeks. + +Moreover, the last order of the choir-master had not been quite +re-assuring to him. The fat goose and the puddings were good, indeed; +but he would have preferred his mother and Lenichen being feasted in his +honor, rather than the choir and the chapter. + +And besides, though little more than seven years old, he was too much of +a boy quite to enjoy his position on the master's shoulder. He felt it +too babyish to be altogether honorable to the protector of Lenichen and +incipient bread-winner of the family. And, therefore, he was relieved +when he found himself once more safely on the ground. + +But when Ursula set before him a huge plate of bread and meat, his manly +composure all but gave way. It was more of an approach to a feast than +any meal he had ever participated in, and he was nearly choked with +repressed tears of gratitude. + +It was so evident _now_ that Hans was altogether an orthodox and +accredited raven! + +At first, as the child sat mute and wondering before the repast, with a +beautiful look of joy and prayer in his blue eyes, Ursula thought he was +saying his grace, and respected his devotion. But as the moments passed +on, and still he did not attempt to eat, she became impatient. + +"There is a time for everything," she murmured, at length. "That will do +for thy grace! Now quick to the food! Thou canst finish the grace, if +thou wilt, in music, in the church by and by." + +But then the child took courage, and said: + +"The ravens--that is, the good God--surely do not mean all this for me. +Dear, gracious lady, let me run with the plate to the mother and +Lenichen; and I will be back again in two minutes, and sing all day, if +the master likes." + +[Illustration: THE CHOIR-MASTER IS DELIGHTED WITH HIS NEW PUPIL.] + +Ursula was much moved at the child's filial love, and also at his +politeness. + +"The little one has discrimination," she said to herself. "One can see +he is of a good stock. He recognizes that I am no peasant, but the +daughter of a good burgher house." + +And, in spite of the remonstrances of her master, she insisted on giving +the lad his way. + +"I will accompany him, myself," said she. + +And, without further delay or parley, she walked off, under the very +eyes of the master, with the boy, and also with a considerable portion +of his own dinner, in addition to the plate she had already set before +Gottlieb. + + * * * * * + +A very joyful and miraculous intervention it seemed to Mother Magdalis +when Gottlieb re-entered the hermit's cell, under the stately convoy of +the choir-master's housekeeper, and with food enough to feed the frugal +little household for a week. + +The two women greeted each other ceremoniously and courteously, as +became two German housewives of good burgher stock. + +"The little lad has manners worthy of a burgomaster," said Ursula. "We +shall see him with the gold chain and the fur robes yet,--his mother a +proud woman." + +With which somewhat worldly benediction, she left the little family to +themselves, conjuring Gottlieb to return in less than an hour, for the +master was not always as manageable as this morning. + +And when they were alone, Gottlieb was not ashamed to hide his tears on +his mother's heart. + +"See, darling mother!" he said, "the dear Savior did send the raven! +Perhaps, one day, He will make us good enough for Him to send the +angels." + +Then the simple family all knelt down and thanked God from their hearts, +and Gottlieb added one especial bit of his own of praise and prayer for +his kind Hans, of whom, on account of his grim face and rough voice, he +had stood in some dread. + +"Forgive me, dear Lord Jesus," he said, "that I did not know how good he +was!" + +And when they had eaten their hasty Christmas feast, and the mother was +smoothing his hair and making the best of his poor garments, Gottlieb +said, looking up gravely in her face: + +"Who knows, mother, if Hans is only a raven now, that the good God may +not make him, his very self, the angel?" + +"Perhaps God is making Hans into the angel even now," replied the +mother. + +And she remembered for a long time the angelic look of love and devotion +in the child's eyes. + +For she knew very well the cathedral choir was no angelic host. + +She knew she was not welcoming her boy that morning to a haven, but +launching him on a voyage of many perils. But she knew, also, that it is +only by such perils, and through such voyages, that men, that saints, +are made. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +HOW THE PONY WAS TAKEN. + +BY C. W. + + +One morning, last August, Jimmie Wood was sitting on the gate-post +making a willow whistle, when a remarkable wagon, drawn by a lean, gray +horse, came up over the hill. The wagon looked like a big black box with +a window in it. In front was a man driving, and this man seemed rather +peculiar too. He had a long, pointed mustache and very curly hair. He +was not a cigar and candy peddler, nor a patent medicine man, nor a +machine agent, for Jim could recognize any of these in a minute. The +curly-haired man stopped directly in front of the gate. + +"Good morning," said he. + +"Morning," answered Jim, shutting up his knife. + +"My name's Leatherbee," continued the curly-haired man. + +"Is it?" said Jim, unconcernedly, and then slid off the gate-post and +started for the house. + +"Hi boy!" + +Jim turned quickly. + +"Ask your pa whether he wouldn't like to have his house took!" called +out the stranger. + +Jim nodded, and went across the grass-plot meditating upon what the man +meant by proposing to take the house. His father was in the sitting-room +writing a letter. + +"Papa," said Jim, leaning up against the table, "there's a man out there +in the road that wants to take the house." + +"Wants to take the house!" exclaimed Mr. Wood, making a blot in his +astonishment. + +"Yes," continued Jim, "and he has the funniest-looking wagon you ever +saw in your life." + +"Ah!" said Mr. Wood, "I understand now; he wants to take some +photographs, I suppose. Well, tell him I don't want any," and Mr. Wood +went on with his letter, while Jim proceeded across the front yard +again. He noticed his pony over in the orchard. A thought struck him, +and he wheeled around and went back in the sitting-room again in some +haste. + +"Papa," said he, "can't I have the pony taken?" + +"She wont stand still long enough," answered Mr. Wood, sealing up his +letter. + +"But, papa, can't the man try?" pleaded Jim. + +Mr. Wood thought for a minute. Then said: + +"Yes. He may try." + +Jim galloped across the front yard in a second. + +"Well?" said the curly-haired man, raising his eyebrows. + +"Papa doesn't want the house taken," said Jim, with some dignity. "But +can you take my pony over there in the orchard?" + +The man looked at Baby, who was calmly crunching harvest apples under +the trees. + +"Purty little beast," he said, getting out of his wagon and leading his +horse up to the fence. + +"Can you take her?" asked Jim again, anxiously. + +"Course I kin," answered Mr. Leatherbee. He then tied his horse to the +fence and lifted his apparatus out of the wagon, and arranged it in the +orchard. The pony immediately kicked up her heels and trotted off to a +far-away corner. Mr. Wood came out of the house and talked to the +photographer, while Jim, after chasing around for some time trying to +catch the pony, went to the stable and put a quart of oats in a +measure. As soon as Baby spied that round, yellow box under Jim's arm, +she trotted up to him with a gentle neigh. He caught her by the fore-top +and led her to where Mr. Leatherbee was standing. + +"Jest put her there," said he, pointing to a place under a big tree. Jim +led her to the place and held her while Mr. Leatherbee made all his +arrangements. + +"Now we're ready," said he. + +Baby looked pleased at this announcement, but waved her tail wildly. + +Mr. Wood smiled. + +"Tell Baby to keep perfectly quiet," said he to Jim, "and ask her to +lower her chin a little, cast a pleasant expression around her eyes, and +breathe gently." + +[Illustration: "THE PONY STOOD QUIETLY EATING."] + +Mr. Leatherbee laughed at this. So did Jim; for it was exactly what the +photographer always told him when he had his picture taken. + +The pony thought this all very pleasant, but she wanted the oats, and, +consequently, was trying to thrust her nose through Jim's back in her +efforts to get at the measure. + +The photographer looked despairing. + +"Here, I'll fix it," said Mr. Wood, stepping up to the pony. "No, Jim, +stand back; Mr. Leatherbee, are you ready?" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Leatherbee, with one hand on the velvet that covered +his camera. + +Mr. Wood poured the oats on the ground and let go of the pony's head. +For a while Baby grabbed the oats up in great haste, but finally she +stood with her nose to the ground quietly eating. Mr. Leatherbee drew +away the velvet from the camera, and looked at his watch for some +breathless minutes. Then he slipped the velvet on again, and said: + +"That's all right." + +Jim drew a long sigh. + +"Will it be good, do you think?" he asked, anxiously. + +"Not a doubt of it," said Mr. Leatherbee, in such a cheerful tone that +Jim immediately made up his mind that the pony should have an extra +quart of oats all winter for her fine behavior. He expected the picture +would be done right away, but Mr. Leatherbee said he would have to send +the plates to Poughkeepsie to his partner, and the pictures would come +soon by the mail. Mr. Leatherbee then put all his apparatus in his wagon +again, and jogged on as he had come. + +For the next four days Jimmie went to the post-office about every two +hours. + +"Expectin' a love-letter?" said old Mr. Halloway, the postmaster. At +this all the loafers who were sitting on the counter laughed loudly. Jim +made up his mind that Mr. Halloway was a very unpleasant old gentleman, +and vowed all sorts of threats against him. His revengeful plans melted +away, however, when Mr. Halloway handed him a big envelope, and said: +"Here, Bub, yer letter's come." + +Jim tore it open, and six photographs dropped out all alike, all +representing Baby eating under a tree. He privately showed one to her +that afternoon. She evidently thought it very handsome, for she +delicately chewed it up out of Jim's hand, to his great amazement. He +says nothing about this when telling how the pony's picture was taken. + + + + +MERRY MIKE. + +BY FLETA FORRESTER. + +[Illustration] + + + Merry Mike, from his door, bounded out to his play, + With his head in his hat, on a blustering day; + When the wind, of a sudden, came frolicking down, + And lifted Mike's hat from his little round crown. + "He-he!" said Mike, and he said "Ho-ho! + Do you call that funny, I'd like to know?" + +[Illustration] + + Then he made up his mind to return to the house, + But the merry wind pushed itself under his blouse; + And it roared and it roared, as he puffed and he ran, + Till it just knocked over this queer little man. + "Ho-ho!" said Mike, and he said "He-he! + I'll get up again, Old Wind, you'll see!" + +[Illustration] + + Then the wind, with a flurry of bluster and racket, + Went crowding and crowding right under his jacket; + And it lifted him off from his two little feet, + And it carried him bodily over the street. + Mike laughed "He-he!" and he laughed "Ho-ho! + Do you call this flying, I'd like to know?" + +[Illustration] + + But the wind with its antics was plainly not through, + For fiercer and fiercer and fiercer it blew, + Till making one effort of fury intense + It carried Mike neatly right over a fence. + Mike said "Ho-ho!" and "He-he!" together, + "Do you think I am naught but a little hen's-feather?" + +[Illustration] + + He met there a somewhat discouraged old cow, + That had blown thither too, though she failed to see how; + And he smiled and said, "Make yourself easy, my friend-- + Only keep your mind quiet, and things'll soon mend!" + And he laughed "He-he!" and he laughed "Ho-ho! + The wind is just playing, old cow, you know!" + +[Illustration] + + As he scampered off home, what above should he see + But the roof of a shed, that had lodged in a tree; + So he laughed and he laughed, till his sides they did ache, + For he said, "This is better nor wedding nor wake!" + And he roared "Ho-ho!" and he roared "He-he!" + For he was as tickled as tickled could be. + +[Illustration] + + "That boy," say the terrified folks of the town, + "He would laugh just the same if the sky tumbled down!" + "Indeed, an' I would," fancied Mike, with a grin, + "For I might get a piece with a lot of stars in!" + And he chuckled "He-he!" and he chuckled "Ho-ho!" + The very idea delighted him so! + +[Illustration] + + His father complained to the priest, "Now, I say, + Mike never stops laughing, by night or by day!" + "Let him laugh," spoke the priest; "he will change by and by, + And 't is better to laugh than to grumble or cry! + It's the way with the lad; let him laugh, if he like; + And be glad you've a son that's as merry as Mike!" + + + + +AN AGREEABLE GUEST. + +BY SUSAN A. BROWN. + + +The longest visit that we read of in modern days was one which Dr. Isaac +Watts made at Lord Abney's in the Isle of Wight. He went to spend a +fortnight, but they made him so happy that he remained a beloved and +honored guest for _forty years_. + +Few of us would care to make so long a visit as that, but it might be +worth the while for us all to try and learn the secret of making +ourselves agreeable and welcome guests. To have "a nice time" when one +is visiting is delightful, but to leave behind us a pleasant impression +is worth a great deal more. + +An agreeable guest is a title which any one may be proud to deserve. A +great many people, with the best intentions and the kindest hearts, +never receive it, simply because they have never considered the subject, +and really do not know how to make their stay in another person's home a +pleasure instead of an inconvenience. If you are one of these +thoughtless ones, you may be sure that, although your friends are glad +to see you happy, and may enjoy your visit on that account, your +departure will be followed with a sigh of relief, as the family settle +down to their usual occupations, saying, if not thinking, that they are +glad the visit is over. + +A great many different qualities and habits go to make up the character +of one whom people are always glad to see, and these last must be proved +while we are young, if we expect to wear them gracefully. A young person +whose presence in the house is an inconvenience and a weariness at +fifteen, is seldom a welcome visitor in after-life. + +The two most important characteristics of a guest are tact and +observation, and these will lead you to notice and do just what will +give pleasure to your friends in their different opinions and ways of +living. Apply in its best sense the maxim--"When you are in Rome, do as +the Romans do." + +Unless you have some good reason for not doing so, let your friends know +the day, and, if possible, the hour when you expect to arrive. Surprises +are very well in their way, but there are few households in which it is +quite convenient to have a friend drop in without warning for a +protracted visit. If they know that you are coming, they will have the +pleasure of preparing for you and looking forward to your arrival, and +you will not feel that you are disturbing any previous arrangements +which they have made for the day. + +Let your friends know, if possible, soon after you arrive, about how +long you mean to stay with them, as they might not like to ask the +question, and would still find it convenient to know whether your visit +is to have a duration of three days or three weeks. Take with you some +work that you have already begun, or some book that you are reading, +that you may be agreeably employed when your hostess is engaged with her +own affairs, and not be sitting about idle, as if waiting to be +entertained, when her time is necessarily taken up with something else. +Make her feel that, for a small part at least of every day, no one needs +to have any responsibility about amusing you. + +A lady who is charming as a guest and as a hostess once said to me: "I +never take a nap in the afternoon when I am at home, but I do when I am +visiting, because I know what a relief it has sometimes been to me to +have company lie down for a little while, after dinner." + +Try, without being too familiar, to make yourself so much like one of +the family that no one shall feel you to be in the way; and, at the same +time, be observant of those small courtesies and kindnesses which all +together make up what the world agrees to call good manners. + +Regulate your hours of rising and retiring by the customs of the house. +Do not keep your friends sitting up until later than usual, and do not +be roaming about the house an hour or two before breakfast. If you +choose to rise at an early hour, remain in your own room until near +breakfast-time, unless you are very sure that your presence in the +parlor will not be unwelcome. Write in large letters, in a prominent +place in your mind, "BE PUNCTUAL." A visitor has no excuse for keeping a +whole family waiting, and it is unpardonable negligence not to be prompt +at the table. Here is a place to test good manners, and any +manifestation of ill-breeding here will be noticed and remembered. Do +not be too ready to express your likes and dislikes for the various +dishes before you. The wife of a certain United States Senator once +visiting acquaintances at some distance from her native wilds, made a +lasting impression upon the family by remarking at the breakfast-table +that "she should starve before she would eat mush," and that she "never +heard of cooking mutton before she came East." + +If you are tempted to go to the other extreme, and sacrifice truth to +politeness, read Mrs. Opie's "Tale of Potted Sprats," and you will not +be likely to be insincere again. + +It is well to remember that some things which seem of very little +importance to you may make an unpleasant impression upon others, in +consequence of a difference in early training. The other day two young +ladies were heard discussing a gentleman who had a great many pleasant +qualities. "Yes," said one, "he _is_ very handsome, but he _does_ eat +pie with his knife." Take care that no trifle of that kind is recalled +when people are speaking of you. + +Keep your own room in order, and do not scatter your belongings all over +the house. If your friends are orderly, it will annoy them to see your +things out of place; and if they are not, their own disorder will be +enough without adding yours. + +Make up your mind to be entertained with what is designed to entertain +you. If your friends invite you to join them in an excursion, express +your pleasure and readiness to go, and do not act as though you were +conferring a favor instead of receiving one. No visitors are so +wearisome as those who do not meet half way whatever proposals are made +for their pleasure. Be contented to amuse yourself quietly in the house, +or to join in any outside gayeties to which you are invited, and show by +your manner that you enjoy both. + +If games are proposed, do not say that you will not play, or "would +rather look on;" but join with the rest, and do the best you can. Never +let a foolish feeling of pride, lest you should not make so good an +appearance as the others, prevent your trying. + +If you are not skillful, you will at least show that you are +good-natured, and that you do not think yourself modest when you are +only proud. + +If you have any skill in head or fingers, you will never have a better +time to use it than when you are visiting; only, whatever you do, do +well, and do not urge your offers of assistance after you see that it is +not really desired. Mrs. Poyser, who is one of George Eliot's best +characters, says: "Folks as have no mind to be o' use have allays the +luck to be out o' the road when there's anything to be done." If you do +not find any place to be useful, you may be tolerably sure that it is +your own fault. + +I heard a gentleman say of a young lady whose small affectations were +undergoing a sharp criticism, "Well, whatever you may say of her, she is +certainly more ready to make herself useful than any other young lady +who visits here. If I lose my glasses, or mislay the newspaper, or want +a stitch taken, she is always ready." And I shall never forget the +impression which a young lady made upon me, as I saw her sit idly +rocking backward and forward, complacently surveying the young friends +she was visiting as they were hurrying to finish peeling a basket of +peaches. + +While visiting, remember that you meet many who are strangers to you, +and do not seem to you especially attractive, but who may still be dear +and valued friends of the family; and be cautious about making +criticisms upon them. Be friendly and cordial toward those whom you +meet, and try to show that you are ready to like them. Whatever +peculiarities you may observe, either in the family or its guests, which +strike you as amusing, be careful that you do not sin against the law of +love, by repeating little things, to their disadvantage, which you have +found out while you were admitted to the sanctuary of the home. + +Do not ask questions which people would rather not answer, and be +careful not to speak of anything which will bring up painful +recollections, or be likely to cause unpleasant forebodings. The old +proverb expresses this in few words: "Never mention a rope in the family +of a man who has been hanged." + +If your own home is in any way better and handsomer than your friends', +do not say anything which may seem like making invidious comparisons, or +allow them to see that you miss any of the conveniences to which you +have been accustomed. + +Be careful about making any unnecessary work for others, and do not ask +even the servants to do for you anything which you ought to do for +yourself. The family had their time filled up before you came, and, do +what you will, you are an extra one, and will make some difference. + +Provide yourself, before you leave home, with whatever small supplies +you are likely to need, so that you need not be borrowing ink, pens, +paper, envelopes, postage-stamps, etc. + +It may seem unnecessary to speak of the need of taking due care of the +property of others, but having just seen a young lady leaning forward +with both elbows upon the open pages of a handsome volume which was +resting upon her knees, I venture to suggest that you do not leave any +marred wall, or defaced book, or ink-stains, or mark of a wet tumbler, +to remind your friends of your visit long after it has ended. + +Do not forget, when you go away, to express your appreciation of the +kindness which has been shown you, and when you reach home inform your +friends by letter of your safe arrival. + +If you follow faithfully these few suggestions, you will probably be +invited to go again; and if you do not thank ST. NICHOLAS for telling +you these plain truths, perhaps the friends whom you visit will be duly +grateful. + + + + +NEW-YEAR CARD. + +(Drawn by Miss L. GREENAWAY.) + +[Illustration: I send my serving-maiden With New-Year letter laden.] + + + + +HOW KITTY GOT HER NEW HAT. + +BY E. P. W. + + +It was all because of Polly, and this was the way of it. + +Ma had gone 'cross lots to Aunt Mari's, to stay till milking-time, to +see the new things Aunt Mari had brought from Boston, and Polly and I +were alone at home. Polly is our hired help, and she is Irish, and has +got red hair, but she's as good as gold; and I am Kitty, my Pa's little +chatterbox. + +Polly was in the buttery, washing the dinner-dishes, and I was on the +kitchen floor, playing with Queen Victoria, our old yellow cat, trying +to teach her to stand on her hind-legs and beg, like Johnny Dane's dog. +But Vic was cross, and wouldn't learn; and when I boxed her ears, she +scratched me on my chin, and bounced over my shoulder, and was off to +the barn in less than no time. + +You needn't suppose I cried, because I didn't, for I shall be ten years +old next July. I don't ever cry any more; only when I have the earache, +and then I can't help it. Except the other day when Tom stepped on my +Rachel Tryphena, and jammed her forehead in, I did. But Tom's going to +buy her a new head with the money he gets from selling Jake Lawrence +some of his guinea-hen's eggs, so I don't mind about that now. I was +just thinking how much better I should feel if I'd had a chance to pull +old Vic's tail, when Polly called, "What yer doin', honey!" and said if +I would come and wipe the plates for her, that by and by, when she had +"set the sponge" for to-morrow's baking, she would take her sewing and +sit under the maple-tree, and tell me a story. + +I like Polly's stories, and I like wiping dishes, too, sometimes--and I +can do them first-rate, if I'm _not_ but nine years old, and never let +one drop, neither! So Polly gave me a towel, and we both wiped with all +our might and main, and 'most as quick as you can say Jack Robinson, we +had them piled in shining rows on the kitchen dresser. Then I did twelve +and a half rows on the suspenders I was knitting for Pa's birthday, +while Polly finished the rest of her work. + +About four o'clock it was all done, and the table set for supper, and +everything; so Polly got her needle and thread, and the pink calico she +was making into an apron, and we went out through the front entry. + +As we were passing the closet door, I saw Pa's new green umbrella, that +he had bought when he was in town the day before, hanging inside, and I +thought it would be a good thing for us to carry it out with us, because +the sun was so piping hot that afternoon; so I asked Polly if we +mightn't. She said, "To be shure, darlint," and reached it down for me. + +You know our big maple-tree grows close by the front gate, and stretches +its branches all around, across the fence and into the road; and it's +always cool under it, no matter how hot the sun shines everywhere else. +Polly settled herself on the bench at the foot of the tree, and I +climbed up and sat on the gate-post, where I could see along the road as +far as the turning by Deacon Stiles's, and clear to the five-acre lot, +where Tom and Jed were hoeing corn. + +Then Polly sewed, and told a story about a beautiful maiden in a lonely +tower, and an old banshee that went about nights, howling, and knocking +at folks' windows. + +And she talked about when she was a little girl in Ireland, and how she +and her sisters and Pat Maloney used to wade together in the river, that +wasn't so very much bigger than our "crick." + +And then she folded her hands on her work, and gazed away into the lower +meadow, where we could spy a spot of white moving against the green, +that was Pat's shirt, with Pat inside of it, mowing, and began to tell +what a fine "b'y" Pat was (Aunt Mari's Pat is the one), and how he had +raked and scraped and gone without things ever since he had been in +America, so as to save enough money to buy a snug little home over here +for his old mother, and get her everything she wants before she dies. + +But just as Polly was saying that _she_ was laying by her money, too, +and that when the old woman had come she had promised to go and live +with them, all at once I heard an awful racket, and looked toward the +road, and oh cricky! what do you think I saw? Tearing round Deacon +Stiles's corner, lickety-split, was a span of horses and a buggy, with +the reins dragging in the dust, and the buggy spinning from one side of +the road to the other, and in it was a lady with great wide-open eyes, +and a face as white as a sheet, clutching a little girl in her arms like +death! + +I knew right off that it was the lady who was staying at Judge Gillis's, +in the village, because I had seen her and her little girl in meeting, +Sunday; but my heart flew into my throat and almost choked me, and at +first I couldn't speak a word. Then I screamed, "Polly! _Polly_!" + +Polly jumped as if she was shot--for, if you will believe it, she had +been so busy thinking of Pat that she hadn't heard a sound--and got to +the gate in two leaps, scattering her spools and scissors and pieces of +pink calico on the grass. When she saw the horses, she stood stock-still +for a minute, and stared with all her eyes. Then she gave a screech like +a wild Indian, and stooped and grabbed Pa's umbrella from where I had +thrown it on the ground, and rushing into the middle of the road, she +opened and shut it as fast as she could work her arms, and shouted as +loud as she could yell! + +At that the horses slacked up a bit. The road is pretty narrow, and they +didn't seem to know how to get past the frightful-looking creature that +was blocking their way of a sudden, with a big green thing +flippety-flopping before her. + +Anyhow, they went slower and slower, till they got to the beginning of +our fence, when they tried to turn. Then Polly dropped the umbrella, and +ran and caught them by the bridles, and brought them to a dead stop. + +They were shaking from top to toe, and their glossy black breasts were +streaked and spotted with foam. Polly stroked and patted their necks, +and said, "Be aisy now, me b'ys--be aisy!" and led them to the +hitching-post and made them fast. Then she lifted out the little girl, +whose beautiful sky-blue hat was all smashed in at the crown, and +taking the poor lady in her arms as tender as though she was a baby, sat +her on the bench under the maple. The lady lay back so white and still +that I thought she was going to faint, like Miss Clarissa Lovett, that +boarded with us last summer, did once, because of Tom's putting a mouse +in her work-box. + +Polly was dreadfully scart, and fanned her with a breadth of her new +apron. + +"Run, darlint," said she to me, "run for yer life and fetch a dipper of +water!" + +[Illustration: "RUSHING INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, SHE RAPIDLY OPENED +AND SHUT THE UMBRELLA."] + +But the lady smiled, and said: "No, don't, my dear. I shall be better +presently." + +And sure enough she was, and in a little while she let Polly help her to +the house; and when she had drunk a tumbler of water, and had lain on +the sitting-room lounge for a spell, she appeared as smart as ever. + +The horses were some new ones of Judge Gillis's, she said, and were very +skittish. The judge was going to drive her to Mrs. Colonel Givens's, a +mile beyond the village; but as he was stepping into the buggy he +noticed there was no whip, so he went to the barn to get one. While he +was gone, the horses shied at something and started "two-forty." + +"And, you good, noble girl, but for you we certainly should have been +killed," she ended, squeezing Polly's hand. + +Polly grew as red as fire, and said she "must be afther a-seein' about +supper." + +At that moment Ma came in the kitchen-way, and, hearing voices in the +sitting-room, walked in, very much surprised, because the sitting-room +was generally kept shut, on account of the flies and the new +window-shades. + +She was more surprised on hearing what had been going on, and said the +lady must stay to supper, and that afterward Pa would drive her into the +village. And she blew the horn for Tom, and told him to saddle Jerry and +ride to Judge Gillis's and say to the folks that the lady and little +girl were all right, and at our house, and that Pa would bring them home +after supper. + +Then Ma hurried to the pantry to open some of her best preserve-jars, +and Polly to the barn to milk the cows, and I was left to entertain the +lady. + +I couldn't think how to, exactly, and I thought it wouldn't do for her +to talk, being still so pale; so I laid the photograph-album on the +corner of the table nearest to her, and asked her little girl if she +didn't want to go to the barn and see my four cunning little Maltese +kittens. + +"Yes, I would, dear," said the lady. "Go with the little girl." + +So she put her hand in mine, and we scampered down the hill to the barn +as tight as we could go. + +We were not very long getting acquainted when we were alone together, +and the little girl talked as much as I did. + +I asked her what her name was, and she said, "Jessie." + +"That's a real pretty name," said I. "Mine's Kitty." + +"Why, is it?" said she. "I've got a cousin Kitty. But she isn't near as +nice as _you_ are." + +And with that we both laughed, and felt as if we had lived next door to +each other all our lives. + +I showed her the four kittens, and she said they were perfectly lovely, +but liked most the one with a white breast and a sweet dot of a white +nose. I told her she might have it for hers as quick as it was old +enough to leave its mother. But she has never sent for it since. I guess +she must have forgotten. + +When she had seen the guinea-pigs, and Tom's rabbits, and fed them all +they would eat, we clambered into the hay-mow, and had a fine time +playing on the hay, till the supper-horn blew. + +There was no end of goodies for supper, but Jessie's Ma didn't eat +scarcely a thing. But she drank two tumblers of Daisy's milk, and said +she hadn't tasted anything so delicious in a year. But Jessie and I +could eat, and Tom too,--after he had spilt a cup of tea and a pitcher +of water, and knocked a piece of pie under the table. He said, when +Jessie and her Ma had gone, that the lady's black eyes "discombobolated" +him so that he had more than half a mind to dive under the table +himself. + +Soon as we were through supper, Pa brought up the horses (which Tom had +driven to the barn, and watered and fed), for it was growing late, and +the lady wanted to be home before dark. I put on Jessie's hat for her, +and tried to straighten the crown, and pin on the long white feather, +that was broken in two in the middle. + +"It's 'most spoilt," I said. "Isn't it a pity?" + +"Poh! I don't care," said Jessie. "I've got three more at home, prettier +'n this." + +"Why-e-e-e!" said I. "Truly honest?" + +"Why, yes!" said Jessie. "How many've you?" + +"Just a horrid old Leghorn!" said I. "And it's been pressed over and +over, and the trimmings washed, and I can't bear it!" + +And I was telling her about the chip jockey hat that Sally Carroll's +aunt bought her for a birthday present, when the buggy came to the +door. + +"Come, say good-bye to the little girl, my love," said the lady, smiling +down at me. + +Jessie threw her arms around my neck and whispered that I was the best +girl she ever knew, and that she should write me a letter when she got +to Boston, and hopped in. + +The lady shook hands with Ma, and thanked her for being so kind, and +then turned to Polly and said, softly: + +"You good Polly, I _must_ do something for you. Wont you let me?"--and +put her hand in her pocket. + +I never saw Polly so mad but once before, and that was when Tom chucked +Queen Victoria into the churn, because she wouldn't let him have but a +quarter of an apple-pie to take to school. I mean Polly wouldn't. She +walked into the buttery, and banged the door behind her as hard as ever +she could. + +The lady didn't say anything, but her cheeks were rather pink, and she +bent and kissed me as if to hide them. Then Pa helped her into the +buggy, and they drove away. + +The next week, Jed went to the grist-mill, the other end of the village, +with some buckwheat to be ground, and, calling at the post-office coming +home, he found an express-box from Boston, with "Miss Mary Ann Murphy, +Redfield, Massachusetts," printed on it in large black letters. He knew +that was Polly's name, he said; and never having heard tell of but one +Mary Ann Murphy in these parts, he hoisted it into the wagon. + +Polly was washing by the kitchen-door as he rattled in at the gate. + +"Hullo, there!" he sang out. "Here's a box that's a-wantin' Miss Mary +Ann Murphy!" + +"Git along wid yer nonsinse!" Polly said, scrubbing at one of Tom's blue +gingham shirts. For Jed is such a fellow for fooling that you never can +be sure when to believe him, and Polly thought it was a box of starch, +or else of soap, that Ma had ordered from the grocery, and that Jed was +only trying to get her to come and lug it into the house for him, so he +could drive straight on to the barn. + +Ma had set me to picking currants for jelly that morning, and I was +getting over the vegetable-garden fence with a heaping pail on each arm +when Jed spoke. In a minute, one pail was this side of the fence, and +one was rolling along the path the other side, and I was in the wagon, +reading the big black letters! + +"Oh, Polly, _'t is_!" I hollered. "True's you live and breathe, a box +from Boston! Oh, hurry up!" + +Polly stopped short in "The Wearing of the Green," that she had +commenced to sing at the top of her voice, and whirled about, her mouth +and eyes as round as three pepper-box covers. + +"Heh!" said she. + +"An express-box for Polly, Jed?" called Ma, sticking her head from the +kitchen-window. "You don't say so! Fetch it right in here." And Ma +whisked the clothes-basket from before the door. + +Jed threw the lines on Jerry's back, and shouldered me and the box, and +dumped us both on the kitchen-floor. + +"There you be, marm!" he said. "Want I should open it? Them nails appear +to be driv' in pretty tight." For Jed was on tenter-hooks to know what +was in it. + +"No, I guess not," said Ma. "I'm afraid Jerry wont stand. Polly and I +can open it." + +"Oh, bless your soul and body, marm, he'll stand!" said Jed. "Best hoss +I ever see fer that." + +But Ma wouldn't hear to his losing the time; so Jed had to make himself +scarce, looking mournfuller than when his grandmother died last spring. + +"Come, here's the hatchet, Polly! Be a little spry!" Ma said. For Polly +stood with her arms akimbo, and didn't budge an inch. + +"Shure, an' who sint it?" she asked. And that was the only word she had +spoken. + +"Why, I don't know," said Ma. "But I can imagine. Can't you?" + +Polly marched to her tub, her head high in the air. + +"I wont tech the ould thing!" said she. + +"Then I will for you," said Ma, and had it open in a jiffey. + +Underneath the cover was a piece of paper, with this written on it: + + Will Polly please accept these few articles in token that she + forgives me for having justly offended her by offering _pay_ for + a service which _can never be paid for_? + + MRS. E. G. EDSON. + +When she heard that, Polly wasn't quite so riled. She said Jessie's Ma +was a _rale_ lady, anyway, and she might as well see what she had sent. +So, wiping her hands on her apron, she planted herself in the door-way, +while Ma went to work to empty the box. + +First, there were six calico dress-patterns,--one purple, sprinkled with +little black rings, and another pink, with a criggly vine running +through it, and a black-striped white one, and the rest mixed colors. + +Then beneath were three more dresses, of some sheeny stuff,--_alapaca_, +Ma called it,--black, purple and brown, that took every inch of dander +out of Polly. She wiped her hands extra clean, and came and twisted them +this way and that, and crinkled them and smoothed them, and puckered the +ends into folds, and laying them across the ironing-table, backed +toward the wall with her head cocked sideways, and her eyes squinted +together like Mr. Green's, the portrait-painter, when he looks at +pictures. + +"Shure, the Quane 'u'd be proud to wear thim!" she said; and said she +should have the purple for a wedding-gown. + +Then, besides, there was a red and black plaid shawl, and a whole piece +of white muslin, such as you buy by the yard mostly, and a work-box, +with cases of scissors and needles, and spools of thread and +sewing-silk. And last was a bandbox tied with string, and that, Ma said, +Polly must open. + +[Illustration: "I LOOKED IN ONE OF POLLY'S BRIGHT MILK-PANS."] + +So Polly pulled a pin from her belt and puttered at the knot till I +'most had a fit. For Ma wont ever have a string cut; she says it is a +sinful waste. I thought it never would untie. Polly's fingers were all +thumbs, and twice she dropped the pin. But it did--all knots do if you +pick at them long enough--and in the box was a splendiferous bonnet, +with green ribbon bows and three pink roses. + +"Well, I declare!" said Ma. "What more can you want, Polly?" + +Polly put the bandbox on the floor, and the bonnet on her head, and +started for the sitting-room looking-glass. + +"Sakes alive! Here's another!" Ma said, and held up by one of its bows +the sweetest little hat you ever laid eyes on! It was light straw, +trimmed with black velvet and blue silk, and had white daisies fastened +to the velvet. Pinned to one of the streamers was a slip of paper, and +on it was written, "For Kitty." + +I just squealed! It was all I could do! To think of that beautiful +little hat being for _me_, Kitty Hazel! Why, I never counted on having +anything half so fine, unless I got to be the Grand Mogul, or something +of that sort! + +"The lady is very kind, I'm sure," said Ma, seeming as pleased as could +be. "Try it on, child. You can squeal afterward." And she set it on my +head. + +I ran and looked in one of Polly's bright milk-pans that were sunning +outside the door, and I hardly knew myself! + +"Aint you smart!" said I, nodding to the girl in the pan. She smiled and +nodded back, and looked so jolly that I came near turning a summer-set, +new hat and all! + +I wore it to meeting the next Sunday, with my new blue cambric; and I +tell you what it is--it's enough sight easier to be good in an old hat +than it is in a new one! I tried not to feel stuck-up, and I kept saying +to myself: "Kitty Hazel, you're the same girl that sat here last Sunday, +with an old Leghorn on. _You_ aint any different!" + +But it wasn't much use; for whenever I'd raise my eyes there was Phil +Gillis smiling at me from the judge's pew, and opposite were Dave and +Aggie Stebbins, staring as though they had never seen the like of me +before, and every now and then old Deacon Pettengil, who sits in front +of us, would turn and peer at me through his green spectacles so funny +that once I nearly giggled. + +This all happened last summer, but my hat is as pretty now as it ever +was. Ma says she should have supposed the blue would have faded some by +this time--blue is such a poor color to wear; but it hasn't a bit. When +it does, I shall take it off, and have it for a sash for Rachel +Tryphena, and the hat will be 'most as nice as it is now. + +KITTY HAZEL. + +N.B.--I asked Polly how she thought of the umbrella. She said that when +she was visiting her sister, that works for a dress-maker in Boston, she +saw a picture of an old lady who was chased by a mad bull, and just as +the bull was coming at her like sixty, the old lady turned and opened +her umbrella square in his face. Polly said she always thought it was so +cute of the old lady, and had meant to do the same when a mad bull +chased _her_, if she had an umbrella with her. She said it all popped +into her head when she saw the horses. + + + + +THE STORK AND THE CRANE: A FABLE. + +BY HOWARD PYLE. + + +A Stork and a Crane once frequented the same marsh. The Stork was a +quiet, dignified individual, with a philosophical countenance. One would +never have thought, from his deeply reflective look, of the number of +frogs and pollywogs, eels and small fish, that had disappeared in his +meditative mouth. For the Stork was like many another philosopher, and +in spite of his supernaturally wise external appearance, inside he was +just as selfish, and just as voracious, as all the rest of his kind. + +Although he never mentioned the subject, he was secretly very proud to +recall the former grandeur of his ancestors, one of whom, in old Greek +days, had been a famous king over the frogs, eels, and snakes, in a +Spartan marsh. + +The Crane was a lively little fellow, and not at all philosophical. He +ate his dinner without moralizing over it, and felt thankful when he had +enough. He had not a particle of aristocratic blood in his veins, and, +in consequence, rather ridiculed the possession of that indescribable +material by the Stork. Ridicule as he would, however, he was really +secretly proud of his acquaintance with the other, and used to say to +his friends and relatives sometimes: + +"There is no one in the world that more despises pretentiousness than +myself. One only too frequently hears an animal boast of its +aristocratic acquaintances. _I_ never do that. Now, there is John Stork, +of one of our highest families, and although I am not only on friendly +but intimate terms with him, and even have been invited to call upon his +estimable family, and make the acquaintance of Miss Stork (I have never +had an opportunity to do so yet), one never hears _me_ boast of his +friendship and intimacy." + +To tell the truth, the conversations he held with the philosophical +Stork were frequently so deep, that he found himself floundering beyond +his depth. For instance, "Do you always stand upon one leg?" said he, +one day. + +The Stork reflected so long over this question that the Crane thought +he had gone to sleep. Finally, however, the philosopher said: + +"No; I do not. I always stand upon the other." + +The Crane meditated for a space over this, but as it was completely +beyond his comprehension, he gave the matter up and changed the subject. +His respect for the Stork's wisdom was vastly increased by such +conversations, for one often takes for wisdom what one cannot +understand. + +These two friends, however, did not always dwell together in perfect +amity. The Stork was so proud that he frequently galled his humbler +companion, and bitter disputes often arose. It was under the influence +of such a feeling that the Crane burst forth one day: + +"And what are you that you should boast? You have blue blood in your +veins, indeed! Perhaps it is that blue blood that makes you so sluggish +and stupid." + +The Stork meditated a long while over this speech; finally, he said: + +"When you accuse me of sluggishness and stupidity you judge by external +appearances, and, consequently, by deductive logic. Beside, you do not +take collateral matter into the case from which you draw your inference. +You have never seen me when my physical energies have been aroused, +consequently, your conclusion is both hollow and baseless--Q. E. D." + +The Crane was rather taken aback by this speech, and, not comprehending +it, he felt somewhat humbled. At length he said: + +"_I_ am no philosopher, but as they say 'the proof of the pudding is in +the eating of it,' I am willing at any time to run a foot-race with you, +and so prove who is the more agile." + +"I do not know," answered the Stork, meditatively, "whether my family +would altogether approve of my entering into the lists with such a +vulgar creature as yourself." Here he shut one eye, and looked +reflectively with the other at a frog that sat on a tussock near by. +"Still, I recollect that one of my ancestors proved his valor upon a +turbulent duckling once, so I see no logical reason why I should not +compete with you." + +And so the matter was settled. + +All was hubbub and excitement among the birds when the coming race was +announced. The racecourse was so constructed that the larger birds stood +upon one side, and the smaller birds and animals upon the other. This +was so arranged, chiefly at the request of a deputy of frogs, because, +at a mass meeting once, an albatross had eaten twenty-seven of these +animals in a fit of absent-mindedness, as he said. Still the frogs +desired to prevent the recurrence of so painful a scene. + +[Illustration: "THE STORK WAS AHEAD!"] + +The Cassowary was chosen director of the race, chiefly because he was a +famous traveler as well as a pedestrian himself, and so was a judge of +such matters. He was the same of whom the Gander, the poet-laureate, had +written the poem commencing-- + + "It was a noble cassowary, + On the plains of Timbuctoo, + That gobbled up a missionary + Body, bones, and hymn-book too." + +All were assembled. The champions stood neck to neck, while the +spectators looked on, breathless with excitement. + +"Go!" cried the Cassowary, and they went. + +For a long time they continued neck and neck, and the excitement rose to +fever heat. At this juncture a mouse attempted to cross the racecourse, +and was instantly devoured by an owl, who acted as police of the course. +At length the two racers re-appeared coming toward the grand +stand,--that is, the place where the Cassowary stood with the signal-gun +or, rather, pistol. The shouts and cries became more agitated and +violent; there was no doubt about it,--_the Stork was ahead_! It was in +vain that the gallant little Crane strained every sinew; the Stork came +into the stand a good three lengths ahead of his adversary. Bang! went +the pistol, and the Stork had won. His adherents crowded around him +cheering vociferously, and raising him aloft upon their shoulders above +the crowd. Even the Cassowary came forward and shook hands with him. + +"Recollect, hereafter," said the successful Stork to the poor Crane, who +stood dejectedly to one side, "not to scorn and undervalue qualities in +any one, because they are not flaunted in the eyes of the world." + +The Crane's adherents maintained that it was a foul start, while the +Stork's friends answered that when two birds ran a race, it could not +well be anything else. + +The frogs, the mice, and most of the small birds, were divided among the +successful betters; and, altogether, it was a day of rejoicing, except +to the frogs, the mice, and most of the small birds. + + * * * * * + + + + +WINTER FIRE-FLIES. + +BY MRS. W. N. CLARKE. + + One by one appearing + In their lower sky, + Come a host uncounted + Like the stars on high, + Flashing lights uncertain, + Ever changing place,-- + Tricksy constellations + That we cannot trace! + + Throbbing through the elm-tree + Little heart of fire!-- + One in lonely longing + Rises ever higher; + Flits across the darkness, + Like a shooting star, + While the changeless heavens + Calmly shine afar. + + When the flames are lighting + All the chimney dark, + When the green wood hisses, + And the birchen bark + In the blaze doth redden, + Glow and snap and curl, + Fire-flies, freed from prison, + Merrily dance and whirl. + + Children on the hearth-stone, + Peering up the flue, + See a mimic welkin, + Lights that twinkle through,-- + Sparks that flash and flicker, + Little short-lived stars, + On the sooty darkness + Glowing red as Mars! + + Eager eyes a-watching + Fain would have them pause. + Catch these fire-flies--can you?-- + In a web of gauze! + Ever upward flying + Toward the chimney's crown-- + Up to meet the snow-flakes + As they flutter down! + + + + +THE ARMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. + +BY SUSAN ARCHER WEISS. + + +My young readers have doubtless often observed upon familiar objects, +such as books, china and steelware, etc., the device of a lion and a +horse (sometimes represented as a unicorn) supporting between them a +shield, surmounted by a crown. On the shield are certain divisions +called "quarterings," in one of which you will observe two lions and a +horse. Attached to the whole is the motto, _Dieu et mon droit_,--French +words, whose meaning is, "God and my right." + +If you inquire, you will be told that this device is the "coat-of-arms" +of Great Britain,--as the eagle, shield and olive branch is that of the +United States,--and that all articles thus marked are of British +manufacture. + +In old times the national symbol of England was the rose, of Scotland +the thistle, of Ireland the shamrock, or clover. When England claimed +Ireland and Scotland, these three were united on the British royal +shield, as we find them in the time of Queen Elizabeth. On a victory +over France, the symbol of France, a unicorn, was also added, the +unicorn wearing a chain, to denote the subjection of France to England. +This explains the nursery rhyme which you have no doubt often heard-- + + "The lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown; + The lion whipped the unicorn all around the town." + +The sovereignty of Great Britain is by law hereditary, but sometimes +there are disputes and wars for possession of the crown, and it passes +into a new family. Thus some of the kings and queens of Great Britain +have belonged to the family of Plantagenet, others to that of Tudor, and +still others to the Stuarts. George the First of England was of a family +named Guelph, and all the sovereigns of Great Britain succeeding him, +down to Queen Victoria, have been of this family and name. + +When a new sovereign succeeds to the crown, he has a right to place his +own family coat-of-arms on the royal shield of Great Britain. George the +First did this. The two lions and the white horse, which you see on one +of the quarterings, is the coat-of-arms of the Guelphs, who were dukes +of Brunswick and Hanover in Germany. It is therefore called the arms of +the House of Brunswick, and it is about this that I now design to tell +you. + +In order to begin at the beginning, we must go far back into past +ages--almost to the time when our Savior was upon earth. At that period +the whole northern portion of Europe was inhabited by wild and barbarous +tribes who had never heard of Christ, but were Pagans and worshiped +imaginary gods, of whom Woden was chief. Among these races were the +Saxons, a fair-haired, fair-complexioned people, of great size and +strength, who inhabited that portion of country now known as north +Germany. They have never been permanently driven out of this country, +which is to this day occupied by their descendants, the Germans. This +latter name signifies a "war-like people." + +Now, according to the pagan belief, the god Woden had a favorite white +or light-gray horse, created by magic art, and upon which he bestowed +the power of assisting and protecting warriors. This horse was regarded +as sacred, and shared in the worship given to Woden. The pagan priests +had no temples; the art of building was unknown to them; but, instead, +their religious ceremonies were performed in thick groves of oak which +were set apart for the purpose. In these gloomy woods the priests reared +beautiful white horses, which no man was ever permitted to mount, and +which, being from their birth solemnly dedicated to Woden, were believed +to be gifted by him with the power of foretelling events by means of +certain signs and motions. Before going into battle these sacred steeds +were consulted, and occasionally one was sacrificed to Woden or to his +white horse, and the bloody head was then mounted upon a pole, and borne +aloft in the van of the Saxon army, they believing that it possessed the +power of vanquishing the enemy and protecting themselves. We read in +history that when the great emperor, Charlemagne, conquered the northern +countries, one of the Saxon leaders, named Wittikind, refused to submit +to him, and that, in consequence, many bloody battles were fought, +wherein the Saxons bore in their van a tall pole surmounted by a wooden +horse's head. This was their ensign; and when they afterward became more +civilized, they retained the same emblem,--a white horse painted upon a +black ground,--which remains to this day the standard or banner of the +little kingdom of Saxony. + +In the year 861,--just about one thousand years ago,--Bruno, the son of +a Saxon king, founded a city in Saxony which he called after himself, +Brunonis Vicus, now known as Brunswick. He retained as the standard of +Brunswick the white horse of Saxony, and thus it remained until the end +of the three succeeding centuries. About that time the reigning prince +of Brunswick was a certain Henry Guelph, a leader in the Crusades, noted +for his strength and daring, which acquired for him the title of "Henry +the Lion." This prince refused to own allegiance to the great Emperor of +Germany, Frederic Barbarossa. He declared himself independent, and as a +token of defiance set up a great stone lion in Brunswick, and had the +same symbol placed upon his standard, two lions supporting a shield +beneath the white horse. + +Thus you now know the origin of the Brunswick coat-of-arms. But how came +the banner of a small German country to be adopted on the arms of Great +Britain? This I will now explain. + +About the year 1650, the then reigning Duke of Brunswick, afterward also +Elector of Hanover, married the granddaughter of King James the First of +England. Their eldest son was named George Louis. When, on the death of +Queen Anne, the English were in want of a successor, they looked about +among those nearest of kin to the royal family, and decided to choose +this great-grandson of King James I. Thus it was that George Louis +Guelph--a Saxon-German--came to be King George the First of England, and +this was how the "lion-and-horse" arms of Brunswick and Hanover came to +be also part of the arms of Great Britain. His successors were George +the Second, George the Third (against whose rule the American colonies +rebelled), George the Fourth, William, and lastly Victoria, the present +queen, who is granddaughter to George the Third. Thus you understand how +Queen Victoria is descended from the princes of Brunswick,--how she +happens to be of German instead of English blood,--and why her name is +Guelph. + +Now, whenever you look upon "The lion and the unicorn fighting for the +crown," you will reflect how strange it is that this great and +enlightened Christian nation should bear on its proud standard a symbol +of pagan superstition. You will think of the bold Crusader, Henry the +Lion; of Wittikind, the brave Saxon duke who, after a twenty years' +resistance, was finally conquered and baptized into Christianity; of the +wild, half-clad Saxons, with their bloody horse-head ensign; of the +Druid priests, who sacrificed human beings as well as white horses; and +so, far back to the god Woden himself, who was probably merely some +great hero or warrior who lived in a period so remote that we have no +record of it in history. + +And yet, while you are wondering at England and her relic of +Woden-worship, shall I tell you that here, in America, we too possess +relics of this very pagan god to which some people accord a +superstitious regard? Look on the threshold, or above the door of some +cottage or cabin, and you will see nailed there a common horse-shoe as a +protection against evil. Examine your grown-up sister's watch-chain, and +you will find attached to it a tiny gold horse-shoe, studded with +diamond nail-heads, which some friend has given her as a "charm" to +secure "good luck." These are simply remnants of the old pagan +Woden-worship which we inherit from our English ancestors, who are +partly descended from the Saxons, as you have probably learned from your +school history. And the word Wednesday is a corruption of Woden's-Day, a +name given by our Saxon ancestors to the fourth day of the week in honor +of their god. + +When I was recently in Germany, I noticed upon the gable-end of every +cottage and farm-house in Brunswick and Hanover a curious ornament, +consisting of two horses' heads, roughly carved in wood, mounted upon +poles, and placed above the entrance-doors, in the form of a cross. This +was first done by order of Wittikind, who, upon professing Christianity, +changed the pagan symbols above the doors of dwellings to the sign of +Christianity--the cross. The ignorant peasants do not know the origin of +the custom, but will tell you that the crossed-heads are placed there +"to keep out evil spirits, and to bring good luck to the house." + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE GATE TO THE OLD CASTLE OF THE DUKES OF +BRUNSWICK.] + +I saw in Brunswick the great stone lion which Henry Guelph placed there +seven hundred years ago; and in Hanover, the old palace in which George +the First was born, with the lion and the horse above the entrance. +Once, too, in the Hartz mountains, I visited a grand-looking ancient +castle of the old dukes of Brunswick, in which was born the wife of +George the Second of England. It stood on the summit of a lofty +precipice, up which we had to climb; then crossing a deep moat by a +narrow bridge, we entered through a great arched gate-way, surmounted by +the Brunswick coat-of-arms, cut in the stone wall. The moat was dry, and +ivy and tall trees growing in it far below, thrust the tips of their +branches over the walls. I stopped and took a sketch of the old +gate-way, which I here present my young readers. + + + + +UNDER THE LILACS. + +BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT. + +CHAPTER IV. + +HIS STORY. + + +"I ran away from a circus," began Ben, but got no further, for Bab and +Betty gave a simultaneous bounce of delight, and both cried out at +once-- + +"We've been to one! It was splendid!" + +"You wouldn't think so if you knew as much about it as I do," answered +Ben, with a sudden frown and wriggle, as if he still felt the smart of +the blows he had received. "We don't call it splendid; do we, Sancho?" +he added, making a queer noise, which caused the poodle to growl and +bang the floor irefully with his tail, as he lay close to his master's +feet, getting acquainted with the new shoes they wore. + +"How came you there?" asked Mrs. Moss, rather disturbed at the news. + +"Why, my father was the 'Wild Hunter of the Plains.' Didn't you ever +see or hear of him?" said Ben, as if surprised at her ignorance. + +"Bless your heart, child, I haven't been to a circus this ten years, and +I'm sure I don't remember what or who I saw then," answered Mrs. Moss, +amused, yet touched by the son's evident admiration for his father. + +"Didn't _you_ see him?" demanded Ben, turning to the little girls. + +"We saw Indians and tumbling men, and the Bounding Brothers of Borneo, +and a clown and monkeys, and a little mite of a pony with blue eyes. Was +he any of them?" answered Betty, innocently. + +"Pooh! he didn't belong to that lot. He always rode two, four, six, +eight horses to oncet, and I used to ride with him till I got too big. +_My_ father was A No. 1, and didn't do anything but break horses and +ride 'em," said Ben, with as much pride as if his parent had been a +President. + +"Is he dead?" asked Mrs. Moss. + +"I don't know. Wish I did," and poor Ben gave a gulp as if something +rose in his throat and choked him. + +"Tell us all about it, dear, and may be we can find out where he is," +said Ma, leaning forward to pat the shiny dark head that was suddenly +bent over the dog. + +"Yes, ma'am, I will, thank y'," and with an effort the boy steadied his +voice and plunged into the middle of his story. + +"Father was always good to me, and I liked bein' with him after granny +died. I lived with her till I was seven, then father took me, and I was +trained for a rider. You jest oughter have seen me when I was a little +feller all in white tights, and a gold belt, and pink riggin', standin' +on father's shoulder, or hangin' on to old General's tail, and him +gallopin' full pelt, or father ridin' three horses with me on _his_ head +wavin' flags, and every one clappin' like fun." + +"Oh, weren't you scared to pieces?" asked Betty, quaking at the mere +thought. + +"Not a bit. I liked it." + +"So should I!" cried Bab, enthusiastically. + +"Then I drove the four ponies in the little chariot, when we paraded," +continued Ben, and I sat on the great ball up top of the grand car +drawed by Hannibal and Nero. But I _didn't_ like that, 'cause it was +awful high and shaky, and the sun was hot, and the trees slapped my +face, and my legs ached holdin' on." + +"What's hanny bells and neroes?" demanded Betty. + +"Big elephants. Father never let 'em put me up there, and they didn't +darst till he was gone; then I had to, else they'd 'a' thrashed me." + +"Didn't any one take your part?" asked Mrs. Moss. + +"Yes'm, 'most all the ladies did; they were very good to me, 'specially +'Melia. She vowed she wouldn't go on in the Tunnymunt act if they didn't +stop knockin' me round when I wouldn't help old Buck with the bears. So +they had to stop it, 'cause she led first rate, and none of the other +ladies rode half as well as 'Melia." + +"Bears! oh, do tell about them!" exclaimed Bab, in great excitement, for +at the only circus she had seen the animals were her delight. + +"Buck had five of 'em, cross old fellers, and he showed 'em off. I +played with 'em once, jest for fun, and he thought it would make a hit +to have me show off instead of him. But they had a way of clawin' and +huggin' that wasn't nice, and you couldn't never tell whether they were +good-natured or ready to bite your head off. Buck was all over scars +where they'd scratched and bit him, and I wasn't going to do it, and I +didn't have to, owin' to Miss St. John's standin' by me like a good +one." + +"Who _was_ Miss St. John?" asked Mrs. Moss, rather confused by the +sudden introduction of new names and people. + +"Why, she was 'Melia,--Mrs. Smithers, the ring-master's wife. His name +wasn't Montgomery any more'n hers was St. John. They all change 'em to +something fine on the bills, you know. Father used to be Senor Jose +Montebello, and I was Master Adolphus Bloomsbury after I stopped bein' a +flying Coopid and a Infant Progidy." + +Mrs. Moss leaned back in her chair to laugh at that, greatly to the +surprise of the little girls, who were much impressed with the elegance +of these high-sounding names. + +"Go on with your story, Ben, and tell why you ran away and what became +of your Pa," she said, composing herself to listen, really interested in +the child. + +"Well, you see, father had a quarrel with old Smithers and went off +sudden last fall, just before the tenting season was over. He told me he +was goin' to a great ridin' school in New York, and when he was fixed +he'd send for me. I was to stay in the museum and help Pedro with the +trick business. He was a nice man and I liked him, and 'Melia was good +to see to me, and I didn't mind for awhile. But father didn't send for +me, and I began to have horrid times. If it hadn't been for 'Melia and +Sancho I would have cut away long before I did." + +"What did you have to do?" + +"Lots of things, for times was dull and I was smart. Smithers said so, +anyway, and I had to tumble up lively when he gave the word. I didn't +mind doin' tricks or showing off Sancho, for father trained him and he +always did well with me. But they wanted me to drink gin to keep me +small, and I wouldn't, 'cause father didn't like that kind of thing. I +used to ride tip-top, and that just suited me till I got a fall and hurt +my back; but I had to go on all the same, though I ached dreadful, and +used to tumble off, I was so dizzy and weak." + +"What a brute that man must have been! Why didn't 'Melia put a stop to +it?" asked Mrs. Moss, indignantly. + +"She died, ma'am, and then there was no one left but Sanch, so I run +away." + +Then Ben fell to patting his dog again, to hide the tears he could not +keep from coming at the thought of the kind friend he had lost. + +"What did you mean to do?" + +"Find father; but I couldn't, for he wasn't at the ridin' school, and +they told me he had gone out West to buy mustangs for a man who wanted a +lot. So then I was in a fix, for I couldn't go to father, didn't know +jest where he was, and I wouldn't sneak back to Smithers to be abused. +Tried to make 'em take me at the ridin' school, but they didn't want a +boy, and I traveled along and tried to get work. But I'd have starved if +it hadn't been for Sanch. I left him tied up when I ran off, for fear +they'd say I stole him. He's a very valuable dog, ma'am, the best trick +dog I ever see, and they'd want him back more than they would me. He +belongs to father, and I hated to leave him, but I did. I hooked it one +dark night, and never thought I'd see him ag'in. Next mornin' I was +eatin' breakfast in a barn miles away and dreadful lonesome, when he +came tearin' in, all mud and wet, with a great piece of rope draggin'. +He'd gnawed it, and came after me and wouldn't go back or be lost; and +I'll never leave him again; will I, dear old feller?" + +Sancho had listened to this portion of the tale with intense interest, +and when Ben spoke to him he stood straight up, put both paws on the +boy's shoulders, licked his face with a world of dumb affection in his +yellow eyes, and gave a little whine which said as plainly as words-- + +"Cheer up, little master; fathers may vanish and friends die, but _I_ +never will desert you." + +Ben hugged him close and smiled over his curly, white head, at the +little girls who clapped their hands at the pleasing tableau, and then +went to pat and fondle the good creature, assuring him that they +entirely forgave the theft of the cake and the new dinner-pail. Inspired +by these endearments and certain private signals given by Ben, Sancho +suddenly burst away to perform all his best antics with unusual grace +and dexterity. + +Bab and Betty danced about the room with rapture, while Mrs. Moss +declared she was almost afraid to have such a wonderfully intelligent +animal in the house. Praises of his dog pleased Ben more than praises of +himself, and when the confusion had subsided he entertained his audience +with a lively account of Sancho's cleverness, fidelity, and the various +adventures in which he had nobly borne his part. + +While he talked Mrs. Moss was making up her mind about him, and when he +came to an end of his dog's perfections, she said, gravely: + +"If I can find something for you to do, would you like to stay here +awhile?" + +"Oh yes, ma'am, I'd be glad to!" answered Ben, eagerly; for the place +seemed home-like already, and the good woman almost as motherly as the +departed Mrs. Smithers. + +"Well, I'll step over to the Judge's to-morrow to see what he says. +Shouldn't wonder if he'd take you for a chore-boy, if you are as smart +as you say. He always has one in the summer, and I haven't seen any +round yet. Can you drive cows?" + +"Hope so;" and Ben gave a shrug, as if it was a very unnecessary +question to put to a person who had driven four calico ponies in a +gilded chariot. + +"It mayn't be as lively as riding elephants and playing with bears, but +it is respectable, and I guess you'll be happier switching Brindle and +Buttercup than being switched yourself," said Mrs. Moss, shaking her +head at him with a smile. + +"I guess I will, ma'am," answered Ben, with sudden meekness, remembering +the trials from which he had escaped. + +Very soon after this, he was sent off for a good night's sleep in the +back bedroom, with Sancho to watch over him. But both found it difficult +to slumber till the racket overhead subsided, for Bab insisted on +playing she was a bear and devouring poor Betty in spite of her wails, +till their mother came up and put an end to it by threatening to send +Ben and his dog away in the morning if the girls "didn't behave and be +as still as mice." + +[Illustration: BEN AT THE WELL.] + +This they solemnly promised, and they were soon dreaming of gilded cars +and moldy coaches, run-away boys and dinner-pails, dancing dogs and +twirling tea-cups. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BEN GETS A PLACE. + + +When Ben awoke next morning, he looked about him for a moment half +bewildered, because there was neither a canvas tent, a barn roof, nor +the blue sky above him, but a neat white ceiling, where several flies +buzzed sociably together, while from without came, not the tramping of +horses, the twitter of swallows, or the chirp of early birds, but the +comfortable cackle of hens and the sound of two little voices chanting +the multiplication table. + +Sancho sat at the open window watching the old cat wash her face, and +trying to imitate her with his great ruffled paw, so awkwardly that Ben +laughed, and Sanch, to hide his confusion at being caught, made one +bound from chair to bed and licked his master's face so energetically +that the boy dived under the bedclothes to escape from the rough tongue. + +A rap on the floor from below made both jump up, and in ten minutes a +shiny-faced lad and a lively dog went racing down-stairs--one to say, +"Good-morning, ma'am," the other to wag his tail faster than ever tail +wagged before, for ham frizzled on the stove, and Sancho was fond of it. + +"Did you rest well?" asked Mrs. Moss, nodding at him, fork in hand. + +"Guess I did! Never saw such a bed. I'm used to hay and a horse-blanket, +and lately nothing but sky for a cover and grass for my feather bed," +laughed Ben, grateful for present comforts and making light of past +hardships. + +"Clean, sweet corn-husks aint bad for young bones, even if they haven't +got more flesh on them than yours have," answered Mrs. Moss, giving the +smooth head a motherly stroke as she went by. + +"Fat aint allowed in our profession, ma'am. The thinner the better for +tight-ropes and tumblin'; likewise bareback-ridin' and spry jugglin'. +Muscle's the thing, and there you are." + +Ben stretched out a wiry little arm with a clenched fist at the end of +it, as if he were a young Hercules ready to play ball with the stove if +she gave him leave. Glad to see him in such good spirits, she pointed to +the well outside, saying pleasantly: + +"Well, then, just try your muscle by bringing in some fresh water." + +Ben caught up a pail and ran off, ready to be useful; but while he +waited for the bucket to fill down among the mossy stones, he looked +about him, well pleased with all he saw,--the small brown house with a +pretty curl of smoke rising from its chimney, the little sisters sitting +in the sunshine, green hills and newly planted fields far and near, a +brook dancing through the orchard, birds singing in the elm avenue, and +all the world as fresh and lovely as early summer could make it. + +"Don't you think it's pretty nice here?" asked Bab, as his eye came back +to them after a long look, which seemed to take in everything, +brightening as it roved. + +"Just the nicest place that ever was. Only needs a horse round somewhere +to be complete," answered Ben, as the long well-sweep came up with a +dripping bucket at one end, an old grind-stone at the other. + +"The Judge has three, but he's so fussy about them he wont even let us +pull a few hairs out of old Major's tail to make rings of," said Betty, +shutting her arithmetic, with an injured expression. + +"Mike lets _me_ ride the white one to water when the Judge isn't 'round. +It's such fun to go jouncing down the lane and back. I do love horses!" +cried Bab, bobbing up and down on the blue bench to imitate the motion +of white Jenny. + +"I guess you are a plucky sort of a girl," and Ben gave her an approving +look as he went by, taking care to slop a little water on Mrs. Puss, who +stood curling her whiskers and humping up her back at Sancho. + +"Come to breakfast!" called Mrs. Moss, and for about twenty minutes +little was said as mush and milk vanished in a way that would have +astonished even Jack the Giant-killer with his leather bag. + +"Now, girls, fly round and get your chores done up; Ben, you go chop me +some kindlings; and I'll make things tidy. Then we can all start off at +once," said Mrs. Moss, as the last mouthful vanished, and Sancho licked +his lips over the savory scraps that fell to his share. + +Ben fell to chopping so vigorously that chips flew wildly all about the +shed, Bab rattled the cups into her dish-pan with dangerous haste, and +Betty raised a cloud of dust "sweeping-up," while mother seemed to be +everywhere at once. Even Sanch, feeling that his fate was at stake, +endeavored to help in his own somewhat erratic way,--now frisking about +Ben at the risk of getting his tail chopped off, then trotting away to +poke his inquisitive nose into every closet and room whither he followed +Mrs. Moss in her "flying round" evolutions; next dragging off the mat so +Betty could brush the door-steps, or inspecting Bab's dish-washing by +standing on his hind-legs to survey the table with a critical air. When +they drove him out he was not the least offended, but gayly barked Puss +up a tree, chased all the hens over the fence, and carefully interred an +old shoe in the garden, where the remains of a mutton-bone were already +buried. + +By the time the others were ready, he had worked off his superfluous +spirits and trotted behind the party like a well-behaved dog accustomed +to go out walking with ladies. At the cross-roads they separated, the +little girls running on to school, while Mrs. Moss and Ben went up to +the Squire's big house on the hill. + +"Don't you be scared, child. I'll make it all right about your running +away; and if the Squire gives you a job, just thank him for it, and do +your best to be steady and industrious; then you'll get on, I haven't a +doubt," she whispered, ringing the bell at a side-door on which the +word "Allen" shone in bright letters. + +"Come in!" called a gruff voice, and feeling very much as if he were +going to have a tooth out, Ben meekly followed the good woman, who put +on her pleasantest smile, anxious to make the best possible impression. + +A white-headed old gentleman sat reading a paper, and peered over his +glasses at the new-comers with a pair of sharp eyes, saying in a testy +tone, which would have rather daunted any one who did not know what a +kind heart he had under his capacious waistcoat: + +"Good-morning, ma'am! What's the matter now? Young tramp been stealing +your chickens?" + +"Oh dear no, sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Moss, as if shocked at the idea. Then, +in a few words, she told Ben's story, unconsciously making his wrongs +and destitution so pathetic by her looks and tones, that the Squire +could not help being interested, and even Ben pitied himself as if he +was somebody else. + +"Now then, boy, what can you do?" asked the old gentleman, with an +approving nod to Mrs. Moss as she finished, and such a keen glance from +under his bushy brows that Ben felt as if he was perfectly transparent. + +"'Most anything, sir, to get my livin'." + +"Can you weed?" + +"Never did, but I can learn, sir." + +"Pull up all the beets and leave the pigweed, hey? Can you pick +strawberries?" + +"Never tried anything but eatin' 'em, sir." + +"Not likely to forget that part of the job. Can you ride a horse to +plow?" + +"Guess I could, sir!"--and Ben's eyes began to sparkle, for he dearly +loved the noble animals who had been his dearest friends lately. + +"No antics allowed. My horse is a fine fellow, and I'm very particular +about him." + +The Squire spoke soberly, but there was a twinkle in his eye, and Mrs. +Moss tried not to smile, for the Squire's horse was a joke all over the +town, being about twenty years old, and having a peculiar gait of his +own, lifting his fore-feet very high; with a great show of speed, though +never going out of a jog-trot. The boys used to say he galloped before +and walked behind, and made all sorts of fun of the big, Roman-nosed +beast who allowed no liberties to be taken with him. + +"I'm too fond of horses to hurt 'em, sir. As for riding, I aint afraid +of anything on four legs. The King of Morocco used to kick and bite like +fun, but I could manage him first-rate." + +"Then you'd be able to drive cows to pasture, perhaps?" + +"I've driven elephants and camels, ostriches and grizzly bears, and +mules, and six yellow ponies all to onct. May be I could manage cows if +I tried hard," answered Ben, endeavoring to be meek and respectful when +scorn filled his soul at the idea of not being able to drive a cow. + +The Squire liked him all the better for the droll mixture of indignation +and amusement betrayed by the fire in his eyes and the sly smile round +his lips; and being rather tickled by Ben's list of animals, he +answered, gravely: + +"We don't raise elephants and camels much round here. Bears used to be +plenty, but folks got tired of them. Mules are numerous, but we have the +two-legged kind, and as a general thing prefer Shanghae fowls to +ostriches." + +[Illustration: THE VISIT TO THE SQUIRE.] + +He got no farther, for Ben laughed out so infectiously that both the +others joined him, and somehow that jolly laugh seemed to settle matters +better than words. As they stopped, the Squire tapped on the window +behind him, saying, with an attempt at the former gruffness: + +"We'll try you on cows awhile. My man will show you where to drive them, +and give you some odd jobs through the day. I'll see what you are good +for, and send you word to-night. Mrs. Moss, the boy can sleep at your +house, can't he?" + +"Yes, indeed, sir. He can go on doing it, and come up to his work just +as well as not. I can see to him then, and he wont be a care to any +one," said Mrs. Moss, heartily. + +"I'll make inquiries concerning your father, boy; meantime mind what you +are about, and have a good report to give when he comes for you," +returned the Squire, with a warning wag of a stern fore-finger. + +"Thank y', sir. I will, sir. Father'll come just as soon as he can, if +he isn't sick or lost," murmured Ben, inwardly thanking his stars that +he had not done anything to make him quake before that awful finger, and +resolving that he never would. + +Here a red-headed Irishman came to the door, and stood eying the boy +with small favor while the Squire gave his orders. + +"Pat, this lad wants work. He's to take the cows and go for them. Give +him any light jobs you have, and let me know if he's good for anything." + +"Yis, your honor. Come out o' this, b'y, till I show ye the bastes," +responded Pat; and, with a hasty good-bye to Mrs. Moss, Ben followed his +new leader, sorely tempted to play some naughty trick upon him in return +for his ungracious reception. + +But in a moment he forgot that Pat existed, for in the yard stood the +Duke of Wellington, so named in honor of his Roman nose. If Ben had +known anything about Shakspeare he would have cried, "A horse, a +horse!--my kingdom for a horse!" for the feeling was in his heart, and +he ran up to the stately animal without a fear. Duke put back his ears +and swished his tail as if displeased for a moment; but Ben looked +straight in his eyes, gave a scientific stroke to the iron-gray nose, +and uttered a chirrup which made the ears prick up as if recognizing a +familiar sound. + +"He'll nip ye, if ye go botherin' that way. L'ave him alone, and attind +to the cattle as his honor tould ye," commanded Pat, who made a great +show of respect toward Duke in public, and kicked him brutally in +private. + +"I aint afraid! You wont hurt me, will you, old feller? See there +now!--he knows I'm a friend, and takes to me right off," said Ben, with +an arm around Duke's neck, and his own cheek confidingly laid against +the animal's, for the intelligent eyes spoke to him as plainly as the +little whinny which he understood and accepted as a welcome. + +The Squire saw it all from the open window, and suspecting from Pat's +face that trouble was brewing, called out: + +"Let the lad harness Duke, if he can. I'm going out directly, and he may +as well try that as anything." + +Ben was delighted, and proved himself so brisk and handy that the roomy +chaise stood at the door in a surprisingly short time, with a smiling +little ostler at Duke's head when the Judge came out. + +His affection for the horse pleased the old gentleman, and his neat way +of harnessing suited as well; but Ben got no praise except a nod and a +brief "All right, boy," as the equipage went creaking and jogging away. + +Four sleek cows filed out of the barn-yard when Pat opened the gate, and +Ben drove them down the road to a distant pasture where the early grass +awaited their eager cropping. By the school they went, and the boy +looked pityingly at the black, brown and yellow heads bobbing past the +windows as a class went up to recite, for it seemed a hard thing to the +liberty-loving lad to be shut up there so many hours on a morning like +that. + +But a little breeze that was playing truant round the steps did Ben a +service without knowing it, for a sudden puff blew a torn leaf to his +feet, and seeing a picture he took it up. It evidently had fallen from +some ill-used history, for the picture showed some queer ships at +anchor, some oddly dressed men just landing, and a crowd of Indians +dancing about on the shore. Ben spelt out all he could about these +interesting personages, but could not discover what it meant, because +ink evidently had deluged the page, to the new reader's great +disappointment. + +"I'll ask the girls; may be they will know," said Ben to himself as, +after looking vainly for more stray leaves, he trudged on, enjoying the +bobolink's song, the warm sunshine, and a comfortable sense of +friendliness and safety, which soon set him to whistling as gayly as any +blackbird in the meadow. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A CIRCULATING LIBRARY. + + +After supper that night, Bab and Betty sat in the old porch playing with +Josephus and Belinda, and discussing the events of the day, for the +appearance of the strange boy and his dog had been a most exciting +occurrence in their quiet lives. They had seen nothing of him since +morning, as he took his meals at the Squire's, and was at work with Pat +in a distant field when the children passed. Sancho had stuck closely to +his master, evidently rather bewildered by the new order of things, and +bound to see that no harm happened to Ben. + +"I wish they'd come. It's sun-down, and I heard the cows mooing, so I +know they have gone home," said Betty, impatiently; for she regarded the +new comer in the light of an entertaining book, and wished to read on as +fast as possible. + +"I'm going to learn the signs he makes when he wants Sancho to dance; +then we can have fun with him whenever we like. He's the dearest dog I +ever saw" answered Bab, who was fonder of animals than her sister. + +"Ma said--Ow, what's that!" cried Betty, with a start as something +bumped against the gate outside, and in a moment Ben's head peeped over +the top as he swung himself up to the iron arch, in the middle of which +was the empty lantern frame. + +"Please to locate, gentlemen; please to locate. The performance is about +to begin with the great Flyin' Coopid act, in which Master Bloomsbury +has appeared before the crowned heads of Europe. Pronounced by all +beholders the most remarkable youthful progidy agoin'. Hooray! here we +are!" + +Having rattled off the familiar speech in Mr. Smithers's elegant manner, +Ben began to cut up such capers that even a party of dignified hens, +going down the avenue to bed, paused to look on with clucks of +astonishment, evidently fancying that salt had set him to fluttering and +tumbling as it did them. Never had the old gate beheld such antics, +though it had seen gay doings in its time; for of all the boys who had +climbed over it, not one had ever stood on his head upon each of the big +balls which ornamented the posts, hung by his heels from the arch, gone +round and round like a wheel with the bar for an axis, played a tattoo +with his toes while holding on by his chin, walked about the wall on his +hands, or closed the entertainment by festooning himself in an airy +posture over the side of the lantern frame, and kissing his hand to the +audience, as a well-bred Cupid is supposed to do on making his bow. + +The little girls clapped and stamped enthusiastically, while Sancho, who +had been calmly surveying the show, barked his approval as he leaped up +to snap at Ben's feet. + +"Come down and tell what you did up at the Squire's. Was he cross? Did +you have to work hard? Do you like it?" asked Bab, when the noise had +subsided. + +"It's cooler up here," answered Ben, composing himself in the frame, and +fanning his hot face with a green spray broken from the tall bushes +rustling odorously all about him. "I did all sorts of jobs. The old +gentleman wasn't cross; he gave me a dime, and I like him first-rate. +But I just _hate_ "Carrots"; he swears at a feller, and fired a stick of +wood at me. Guess I'll pay him off when I get a chance." + +Fumbling in his pocket to show the bright dime, he found the torn page, +and remembered the thirst for information which had seized him in the +morning. + +"Look here, tell me about this, will you? What are these chaps up to? +The ink has spoilt all but the picture and this bit of reading. I want +to know what it means. Take it to 'em, Sanch." + +The dog caught the leaf as it fluttered to the ground, and carrying it +carefully in his mouth, deposited it at the feet of the little girls, +seating himself before them with an air of deep interest. Bab and Betty +picked it up and read it aloud in unison, while Ben leaned from his +perch to listen and learn. + +"'When day dawned land was visible. A pleasant land it was. There were +gay flowers, and tall trees with leaves and fruit such as they had never +seen before. On the shore were unclad, copper-colored men, gazing with +wonder at the Spanish ships. They took them for great birds, the white +sails for their wings, and the Spaniards for superior beings brought +down from heaven on their backs.'" + +"Why, that's Columbus finding San Salvador. Don't you know about _him_?" +demanded Bab, as if she were one of the "superior beings," and +intimately acquainted with the immortal Christopher. + +"No, I don't. Who was he anyway? I s'pose that's him paddlin' ahead; but +which of the Injuns is Sam Salvindoor?" asked Ben, rather ashamed of his +ignorance, but bent on finding out now he had begun. + +"My gracious! twelve years old and not know your Quackenbos," laughed +Bab, much amused, but rather glad to find that she could teach the +"whirligig boy" something, for she considered him a remarkable creature. + +"I don't care a bit for your quackin' boss, whoever he is. Tell about +this fine feller with the ships; I like _him_," persisted Ben. + +So Bab, with frequent interruptions and hints from Betty, told the +wonderful tale in a simple way, which made it easy to understand, for +she liked history, and had a lively tongue of her own. + +"I'd like to read some more. Would my ten cents buy a book?" asked Ben, +anxious to learn a little since Bab laughed at him. + +"No, indeed! I'll lend you mine when I'm not using it, and tell you all +about it," promised Bab, forgetting that she did not know "all about it" +herself yet. + +"I don't have any time only evenings, and then may be you'll want it," +begun Ben, in whom the inky page had roused a strong curiosity. + +"I do get my history in the evening, but you could have it mornings, +before school." + +"I shall have to go off early, so there wont be any chance. Yes, there +will,--I'll tell you how to do it: Let me read while I drive up the +cows. Squire likes 'em to eat slow along the road, so's to keep the +grass short and save mowin'. Pat said so, and I could do history instead +of loafin' round!" cried Ben, full of this bright idea. + +"How will I get my book back in time to recite?" asked Bab, prudently. + +"Oh, I'll leave it on the window-sill, or put it inside the door as I go +back. I'll be real careful, and just as soon as I earn enough, I'll buy +you a new one and take the old one. Will you?" + +"Yes; but I'll tell you a nicer way to do. Don't put the book on the +window, 'cause teacher will see you; or inside the door, 'cause some one +may steal it. You put it in my cubby-house, right at the corner of the +wall nearest the big maple. You'll find a cunning place between the +roots that stick up under the flat stone. That's my closet, and I keep +things there. It's the best cubby of all, and we take turns to have it." + +"I'll find it, and that'll be a first-rate place," said Ben, much +gratified. + +"I could put my reading-book in sometimes, if you'd like it. There's +lots of pretty stories in it and pictures," proposed Betty, rather +timidly, for she wanted to share the benevolent project, but had little +to offer, not being as good a scholar as bright Bab. + +"I'd like a 'rithmetic better. I read tip-top, but I aint much on +'rithmetic; so, if you can spare yours, I might take a look at it. Now +I'm going to earn wages, I ought to know about addin' 'em up, and so +on," said Ben, with the air of a Vanderbilt oppressed with the care of +millions. + +"I'll teach you that. Betty doesn't know much about sums. But she spells +splendidly, and is always at the head of her class. Teacher is real +proud of her, 'cause she never misses, and spells hard, fussy words, +like _chi-rog-ra-phy_ and _bron-chi-tis_ as easy as anything." + +Bab quite beamed with sisterly pride, and Betty smoothed down her apron +with modest satisfaction, for Bab seldom praised her, and she liked it +very much. + +"I never went to school, so that's the reason I aint smart. I can write, +though, better'n some of the boys up at school. I saw lots of names on +the shed door. See here now," and scrambling down, Ben pulled out a +cherished bit of chalk and flourished off ten letters of the alphabet, +one on each of the dark stone slabs that paved the walk. + +"Those are beautiful! I can't make such curly ones. Who taught you to do +it?" asked Bab, as she and Betty walked up and down admiring them. + +"Horse blankets," answered Ben, soberly. + +"What!" cried both girls, stopping to stare. + +"Our horses all had their names on their blankets, and I used to copy +'em. The wagons had signs, and I learned to read that way after father +taught me my letters off the red and yellow posters. First word I knew +was lion, 'cause I was always goin' to see old Jubal in his cage. Father +was real proud when I read it right off. I can draw one, too." + +Ben proceeded to depict an animal intended to represent his lost friend; +but Jubal would not have recognized his portrait, since it looked much +more like Sancho than the king of the forest. The children admired it +immensely, however, and Ben gave them a lesson in natural history which +was so interesting that it kept them busy and happy till bedtime; for +the boy described what he had seen in such lively language, and +illustrated in such a droll way, it was no wonder they were charmed. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +MUSIC ON ALL FOURS. + +BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD. + + + A Pussy-cat and a Black-and-Tan + Were shut in a room together, + And, after a season of quiet, began + To talk of the change in the weather, + And new spring fashions, and after that + They had a sort of musical chat. + + Said Puss: "To me it is quite absurd-- + But tastes and opinions vary; + And some have declared that no beast or bird + Can sing like the small canary,-- + Who, if it be true as I've heard it told, + Is really worth more than its weight in gold!" + + Said the Black-and-Tan, with a pensive smile: + "I've wanted to call attention + To this bit of scandal for quite a while, + And, if not amiss, to mention + That my daily allowance of bark and w(h)ine + Has greatly improved this voice of mine." + + "It has," said Puss, with a comic grin; + "The words of truth you have spoken; + A name for ourselves we must strive to win + At once, now the ice is broken; + For one or two doses of catnip tea + Have had a wondrous effect on me! + + "'Twas only the other night I strayed + Where a silvery moonbeam slanted, + And gave such a beautiful serenade + You'd have thought the place enchanted. + It roused the neighborhood to a pitch + Of praise, or envy--I can't tell which." + + Said the Black-and-Tan, "Why shouldn't we try + To sing a duet together?" + Said the Puss, "I see no reason why + We can't; and we'll show them whether + To birds and bipeds alone belong + The gift of singing a pleasing song!" + +[Illustration: THE DUET.] + + They sang--and they sang; but oh, my dears! + If you had been anywhere near them, + You'd have shut your eyes and stopped your ears, + And wished that you couldn't hear them. + 'Twas a brilliant effort, upon my word, + And nearly killed the canary-bird. + + The Pussy-cat and the Black-and-Tan + With the music were so delighted, + They will give a concert as soon as they can, + And perhaps we may be invited. + "Bow-wow!" "Miaow!" I'm sorry, you know, + I've another engagement--and cannot go! + + + + +A LETTER TO AMERICAN BOYS. + +BY GEORGE MACDONALD. + + +My dear Cousins: Shall I really be talking to you as I sit here in my +study with the river Thames now flowing, now ebbing, past my window? I +am uttering no word, I am only writing; and you are not listening, not +reading, for it will be a long time ere what I am now thinking shall +reach you over the millions of waves that swell and sink between us. And +yet I shall in very truth be talking to you. + +In like manner, with divine differences, God began to talk to us ages +before we were born: I will not say before we began to be, for, in a +sense, that very moment God thought of us we began to exist, for what +God thinks of, _is_. We have been lying for ages in his heart without +knowing it. But now we have begun to know it. We are here, with a great +beginning, and before us an end so great that there is no end to it. But +we must take heed, for, else, the very greatness will turn to confusion +and terror. + +Shall I explain what made me begin my letter to you just this way?--I +was sitting in my room, as I am now, thinking what I should say to you. +And as I sat thinking after something worth saying and fit to say, my +room spoke to me,--that is, out of its condition and appearance came a +thought into my mind. And that you may understand how it came, and how +it was what it was, I will first show you what my room at this moment is +like. For the thought had nothing to do with the sun outside, or the +shining river, or the white-sailed boats, neither with the high wind +that is tossing the rosy hawthorn-bloom before my windows, or with the +magnolia trained up the wall and looking in at one of them: it had to do +only with the inside of the room. + +It is a rather long room. The greater part has its walls filled with +books, and I am sitting at one end quite surrounded by them. But when I +lift my eyes, I look to the other end, and into the heart of a stage for +acting upon, filling all the width and a third part of the length of the +room. It is surrounded with curtains, but those in front of it are +withdrawn, and there the space of it lies before me, a bare, empty +hollow of green and blue and red, which to-morrow evening will be filled +with group after group of moving, talking, shining, acting men and +women, boys and girls. It looked to me like a human heart, waiting to be +filled with the scenes of its own story,--with this difference, that the +heart itself will determine of what sort those groups shall be. Then +there grew up in my mind the following little parable, which, to those +who do not care to understand it, will be dark,--but to those who desire +to know its meaning, may give light: + +There was once a wise man to whom was granted the power to send forth +his thoughts in shapes that other people could see. And, as he walked +abroad in the world, he came upon some whom his wisdom might serve. One +day, having, in a street of the city where he dwelt, rescued from danger +a boy about ten years of age, he went with him to his mother, and begged +that he might take him to his house for a week. When they heard his +name, the parents willingly let their son go with him. And he taught him +many things, and the boy loved and trusted him. + +When the boy was asleep in bed, the wise man would go to his room at +midnight, and lay his ear to his ear, and hearken to his dreams. Then he +would stand and spread out his arms over him and look up. And the boy +would smile, and his sleep was the deeper. + +Once, just an hour after the sage had thus visited him, the boy woke, +and found himself alone in the middle of the night. He could not get to +sleep again, and grew so restless that he rose and went down the stair. +The moon shone in at every western window, and his way was "now in +glimmer and now in gloom." On the first landing he saw a door wide open, +which he had never seen open till now. It was the door of the wizard's +room. Within, all was bright with moonlight, and the boy first peeped, +then stepped in, and peered timidly about him. + +The farther end of the room was hidden by a curtain stretched quite +across it, and, curious to see what was behind, he approached it. But +ere he reached it, the curtain slowly divided in the midst and, drawn +back to each side, revealed a place with just light enough in it from +the moonshine to show that it was a dungeon. In the middle of it, upon +the floor, sat a prisoner, with fetters to his feet, and manacles to his +hands; an iron collar was round his neck, and a chain from the collar +had its last link in an iron staple deep fixed in the stone floor. His +head was sunk on his bosom, and he sat abject and despairing. + +"What a wicked man he must be!" thought the boy, and was turning to run +away in terror, when the man lifted his head, and his look caught and +held him. For he saw a pale, worn, fierce countenance, which, somehow, +through all the added years, and all the dirt that defiled it, he +recognized as his own. For a moment the prisoner gazed at him +mournfully; then a wild passion of rage and despair seized him; he +dragged and tore at his chains, raved and shrieked, and dashed himself +on the ground like one mad with imprisonment. For a time he lay +exhausted, then half rose and sat as before, gazing helplessly upon the +ground. + +By and by a spider came creeping along the bar of his fetters. He put +out his hand, and, with the manacle on his wrist, crushed it, and +smiled. Instantly through the gloom came a strong, clear, yet strangely +sweet voice--and the very sweetness had in it something that made the +boy think of fire. And the voice said: + +"So! in the midst of misery, thou takest delight in destruction! Is it +not well thou art chained? If thou wast free, thou wouldst in time +destroy the world. Tame thy wild beast, or sit there till I tame him." + +The prisoner peered and stared through the dusk, but could see no one; +he fell into another fit of furious raving, but not a hair-breadth would +one link of chain yield to his wildest endeavor. + +"Oh, my mother!" he cried, as he sank again into the grave of +exhaustion. + +"Thy mother is gone from thee," said the voice, "outworn by thine evil +ways. Thou didst choose to have thyself and not thy mother, and there +thou hast thyself, and she is gone. I only am left to care for thee--not +with kisses and sweet words, but with a dungeon. Unawares to thyself +thou hast forged thine own chains, and riveted them upon thy limbs. Not +Hercules could free thee or himself from such imprisonment." + +The man burst out weeping, and cried with sobs: + +"What then am I to do, for the burden of them is intolerable?" + +"What I will tell thee," said the voice; "for so shall thy chains fall +from thee." + +"I will do it," said the man. + +"Thy prison is foul," said the voice. + +"It is," answered the prisoner. + +"Cleanse it, then." + +"How can I cleanse it when I cannot move?" + +"Cannot move! Thy hands were upon thy face a moment gone--and now they +are upon the floor! Near one of those hands lies a dead mouse; yonder is +an open window. Cast the dead thing out into the furnace of life, that +it may speedily make an end thereof." + +With sudden obedient resolve the prisoner made the endeavor to reach it. +The chain pulled the collar hard, and the manacle wrenched his wrist; +but he caught the dead thing by the tail, and with a fierce effort threw +it; out of the window it flew and fell--and the air of his dungeon +seemed already clearer. + +After a silence, came the voice again: + +"Behind thee lies a broom," it said; "reach forth and take it, and sweep +around thee as far as thy chains will yield thee scope." + +The man obeyed, and, as he swept, at every stroke he reached farther. At +length,--how it came he could not tell, for his chains hung heavy upon +him still,--he found himself sweeping the very foot of the walls. + +A moment more, and he stood at the open window, looking out into the +world. A dove perched upon the window-sill, and walked inquiringly in; +he caught it in his hands, and looked how to close the window, that he +might secure its company. Then came the voice: + +"Wilt thou, a prisoner, make of thyself a jailer?" + +He opened his hands, and the dove darted into the sunlight. There it +fluttered and flashed for a moment, like a bird of snow; then +re-entered, and flew into his very hands. He stroked and kissed it. The +bird went and came, and was his companion. + +Still, his chains hung about him, and he sighed and groaned under their +weight. + +"Set thee down," said the voice, "and polish thine irons." + +He obeyed, rubbing link against link busily with his hands. And thus he +labored--as it seemed to the boy in the vision--day after day, until at +last every portion within his reach, of fetter, and chain, and collar, +glittered with brightness. + +"Go to the window," then said the voice, "and lay thee down in the +sunshine." + +He went and lay down, and fell asleep. When he awoke, he began to raise +himself heavily; but, lo! the sun had melted all the burnished parts of +his bonds, the rest dropped from him, and he sprung to his feet. For +very joy of lightness, he ran about the room like a frolicking child. +Then said the voice once more: + +"Now carve thee out of the wall the figure of a man, as perfect as thou +canst think and make it." + +"Alas!" said the prisoner to himself, "I know not how to carve or +fashion the image of anything." + +But as he said it, he turned with a sigh to find among the fragments of +his fetters what piece of iron might best serve him for a chisel. To +work he set, and many and weary were the hours he wrought, for his +attempts appeared to him nothing better than those of a child, and again +and ever again as he carved, he had to change his purpose, and cut away +what he had carved; for the thing he wrought would not conform itself to +the thing he thought, and it seemed he made no progress in the task that +was set him. But he did not know that it was because his thought was not +good enough to give strength and skill to his hand,--that it seemed too +good for his hand to follow. + +One night he wrought hard by the glimmer of his wretched lamp, until, +overwearied, he fell fast asleep, and slept like one dead. When he +awoke, lo! a man of light, lovely and grand, who stood where he had been +so wearily carving the unresponsive stone! He rose and drew nigh. +Behold, it was an opening in the wall, through which his freedom shone! +The man of light was the door into the universe. And he darted through +the wall. + +As he vanished from his sight, the boy felt the wind of the morning lave +his forehead; but with the prisoner vanished the vision; he was alone, +with the moon shining through the windows. Too solemn to be afraid, he +crept back to his bed, and fell fast asleep. + +In the morning, he knew there had come to him what he now took for a +strange dream, but he remembered little of it, and thought less about +it, and the same day the wizard took him home. + +His mother was out when he arrived, and he had not been in five minutes +before it began to rain. It was holiday-time, and there were no lessons, +and the school-room looked dismal as a new street. He had not a single +companion, and the rain came down with slow persistence. He tried to +read, but could not find any enjoyment in it. His thoughts grew more and +more gloomy, until at last his very soul was disquieted within him. When +his mother came home and sought him in the school-room, she found him +lying on the floor, sullen and unkind. Although he knew her step as she +entered, he never looked up; and when she spoke to him, he answered like +one aggrieved. + +"I am sorry you are unhappy," said his mother, sweetly. "I did not know +you were to be home to-day. Come with me to my room." + +He answered his mother insolently: + +"I don't want to go with you. I only want to be left alone." + +His mother turned away, and, without another word, left the room. + +The cat came in, went up to him purring, and rubbed herself against him. +He gave her such a blow that she flew out again, in angry fright, with +her back high above her head. And the rain rained faster, and the wind +began to blow, and the misery settled down upon his soul like lead. At +last he wept with his face on the floor, quite overmastered by the most +contemptible of all passions--self-pity. + +Again the voice of his mother came to him. The wizard had in the +meantime come to see her, and had just left her. + +"Get up, my boy," she said, in a more commanding tone than he had ever +heard from her before. + +With her words the vision returned upon him, clear, and plain, and +strong. He started in terror, almost expecting to hear the chains rattle +about him. + +"Get up, and make the room tidy. See how you have thrown the books +about!" said his mother. + +He dared not disobey her. He sprung to his feet, and as he reduced the +little chaos around him to order, first calmness descended, and then +shame arose. As he fulfilled her word, his mother stood and looked on. +The moment he had finished, he ran to her, threw his arms about her +neck, burst into honest, worthy tears, and cried: + +"Mother!" + +Then, after a while, he sobbed out: + +"I am sorry I was so cross and rude to my mother." + +She kissed him, and put her arms around him, and with his mind's eye he +saw the flap of the white dove's wing. She took him by the hand and led +him to the window. The sun was shining, and a grand rainbow stood +against the black curtain of the receding cataract. + +"Come, my child," she said; "we will go out together." + +It was long years ere the boy understood _all_ the meanings of the +vision. I doubt if he understands them all yet. But he will one day. And +I can say no more for the wisest of the readers, or for the writer +himself, of this parable. + +The Father of all the boys on earth and in heaven be with the boys of +America! and when they grow up, may they and the men of England +understand, and love, and help each other! Amen! Your friend, + +GEORGE MACDONALD. + + + + +ANNIE AND THE BALLS. + +(_A Story for the Kindergarten Children._) + +BY H. E. H. + + +Little Annie had been quite ill, and her mamma thought best to keep her +at home from the Kindergarten; but she was now almost well again, and +had been promised she should return to her little companions in two more +days. Two days seems a long time to a little girl, and Annie seemed so +sadly to miss all the pretty amusements of the Kindergarten, that mamma +tried to think what she could do to interest her. At last a very bright +thought came into her head, and she ran into the hall and whispered it +to papa, who was just putting on his hat and coat to go out. + +[Illustration: Colored balls.] + +He came back very soon, and brought Annie a box with the Kindergarten +colored balls in it. + +"Oh!" she cried, "now I can play Kindergarten with my dolls, for they +are really growing up quite ignorant, especially Arabella Louisa, who +asked me, only yesterday, to cut her apple into three halves." + +All the little stools in the house were soon collected and brought to +the nursery, where they were placed in true Kindergarten fashion, and +the dolls seated on them with heels together and toes turned out. Rosie +was there with her beautiful golden curls, her bright blue eyes, and +arms and hands which would move quite as Alice could move her own. Then +there were four younger children, and even old Peggy--the rag-baby--was +made to sit up very stiff and straight with the aid of a little string, +and the lesson began. + +Annie took out the yellow ball and asked the babies to point out +something in the room the same color. Rosie managed, with a little help +from her teacher, to raise her kid arm and point with her dainty finger +to the canary-bird. + +"Point to something round like the ball," said little Annie, and +Arabella Louisa made herself very cross-eyed looking down at her gold +beads, but was too bashful to speak. Next Annie brought out the purple +ball and laid it down. Then the red and green ones came out, and, +lastly, the orange and blue. Now the teacher began to look very dull, +even duller than her scholars; her eyelids began to droop, and she spoke +very slowly, and said: "Children,--can--you--count--the--balls?" but not +hearing any answer, she looked up and found they had all disappeared, +and that she was no longer in the nursery. Before her was a beautiful +green field dotted all over with buttercups and daisies. After she had +stepped around carefully on the soft grass and smelt the flowers, she +heard some one call her name, and, looking up, she saw a beautiful +castle standing quite alone by itself in the air, while a little fairy +in a yellow, gauzy dress beckoned her to come up. + +"Oh!" thought Annie, "how I should like to go and make her a pretty +courtesy, but I have no wings and cannot fly!" + +The kind fairy seeing the sad look on the little girl's face, cried out: +"Wait a minute till we get our fairy pipe." + +Annie could but wonder of what use a pipe would be, but she had been +taught to be patient and wait until things were explained to her; so she +stood very quiet, and soon saw the fairy in yellow come floating down to +the earth. Behind her came another little creature all in red, and still +behind her a third in a beautiful blue dress. Between them they carried +a long pipe, much like the one Roger, the gardener, smoked; and when +they were in front of the little girl they began to blow through it very +hard, and Annie soon found herself inside a a large soap-bubble, and +felt that she was gently floating upward in her fairy balloon. When she +reached the castle she touched the thin wall with her fingers and it +melted away, and left her standing in Fairy Land! + +Her three companions--the fairy in yellow, the one in red, and the one +in blue--crowded around her, and cried "Welcome!" three times. Then they +made a place for three more, who tried to smile and say "Welcome!" also, +but could only look very sad and wipe a tiny tear from their little +eyes. + +Now, Annie was a kind little girl, and she asked them in her gentlest +voice what made them sad, and they all replied: "Oh, we want some +dresses so badly; these are only our little skirts made out of cobwebs." + +"What color do you want?" said Annie. + +"Well," said the first, "_I_ want one of green, like the beautiful grass +and the leaves of the trees." + +"Ah!" sighed Annie, "if I could _only_ remember how our teacher told us +to make green, but I am afraid I have forgotten." + +Away ran one of the fairies, and soon came back with a little white cap, +which she placed upon Annie's head, saying: "This is our thinking-cap", +and as soon as it touched the child's brown curls, she cried: "I've +thought! If you mix yellow and blue together it will make green; but how +can we do it?" + +"Oh, _we_ know!" all the six cried together, and they brought a lily +filled with dew, and the fairy with the yellow dress and the one with +the blue dress dipped their little skirts in it, and they stirred the +dew around with a tiny wand, and took out a lovely green robe, which was +put on the fairy who had chosen that color, and she began to smile very +sweetly. + +Now, the next one stepped up, and said: "_I_ want a dress of purple like +the beautiful sweet violets which grow in our little gardens." + +As Annie still had the thinking-cap on, she quickly told them that red +and blue must be mixed together, and another lily was brought and the +red and blue dresses dipped in it; and after some stirring, out came a +beautiful purple frock, and the fairy who had chosen this smiled even +more sweetly than the other one. + +Now, Annie turned to the last one and asked her what color she wanted, +and she replied: "_I_ want a dress of orange." + +"I do not need the cap this time," said Annie, "for I remember that red +and yellow will make orange." + +So a third lily was brought by the fairies, and when the red and yellow +dresses were dipped in it, out came one of an orange color, and the +fairy who put this on really laughed aloud. Then taking hold of hands, +all the little things began to dance gayly around Annie, who was quite +tired from her long journey, and had asked permission to lie on the soft +bed of moss. + +She noticed that wherever the red fairy went the green one followed +close behind. The blue fairy and the one with the orange dress kept +close together with their arms around each other, and the yellow and +purple fairies kissed, and seemed to say such very pretty things of each +other that Annie thought they must be the _complementary_ colors that +she had heard her mother talk about. Just now it grew quite dark, and as +Annie looked up at the clouds she felt a rain-drop on her cheek, and +looking at her companions she saw that every drop clung to their +clothing, and looked like beautiful diamonds and pearls. The shower +lasted only a little while, and then the sun came out, and the fairies +all called out: "Good-by, kind Lady Annie, we are wanted now away up in +the sky!" and they floated up one above the other, and stretched +themselves out quite long, and arched their bodies very gracefully; and +as Annie turned her face away from where the sun was setting, she saw in +the opposite direction a beautiful rainbow, and she knew why the fairies +had been called away. + +"Annie! Annie!!" + +"Why, that is my name," thought the little girl; and she gave a jump and +opened her eyes, and can you believe me, she was back in the nursery, +the balls were lying on the floor just as she had left them, and the +dolls were all staring at her with their round glass eyes. + + + + +A MODERN WILLIAM TELL. + +[Illustration: A MODERN WILLIAM TELL. + +"HERE, GRANDPA, LET'S PLAY WILLIAM TELL. I'LL BE MR. +TELL, AND YOU MAY PLAY YOU'RE MY SON, AND STAND OVER THERE BY THE MIRROR +WHILE I SHOOT THIS APPLE OFF YOUR HEAD."] + + + + +THE KING AND THE THREE TRAVELERS. + +BY ARLO BATES. + + +Three travelers, who had been found asleep in the royal park, were once +brought before King Jollimon. In answer to inquiries, they said that +they were story-tellers, who earned their living by relating those tales +and legends of which the inhabitants of Jolliland are so extravagantly +fond. + +"If that be so," said the king, "and if you can tell stories worth +hearing, you are indeed welcome. The court story-teller has just been +banished for presuming to tell the same story twice, and his place is +unfilled. It would be a right royal idea to have three story-tellers +instead of one." + +So the three travelers, after having been refreshed with food and drink, +were bidden to seat themselves at the august feet of King Jollimon, that +they might prove their power to please the royal fancy by strange and +unheard tales. + +They were all old and withered; and the first had a crooked back, the +second a crooked nose, and the third a crooked mouth. He of the crooked +back began, and told the tale of + + +THE RAVEN MAIDEN. + +There once lived a young and accomplished prince called Orca. His father +was king over all the country and the neighboring provinces, and Orca +was his only heir. + +The prince was a daring hunter, and went often to the royal forests, +sometimes in company with the lords of the court, but oftener alone. For +it so happened that the gamekeeper had a young daughter, Sipelie, who +was as fair as the morning, and as modest as she was fair; and the +prince, having seen her, of course fell over head and ears in love with +her, forgetting all differences of wealth and station. As for Sipelie, +having no mother to tell her better, although she took good care to wait +a modest while before showing it, she gave away her whole heart to him. +Nor was this so much to be wondered at, for Orca was every inch a +prince, and a fine, manly fellow beside. And so I warrant there was +billing and cooing enough at the gamekeeper's lodge, for when the prince +came the gamekeeper kept discreetly in the background, and Sipelie had +no brothers or sisters to be in the way. + +[Illustration: THE CROOKED-BACKED TRAVELER TELLS A STORY TO THE KING.] + +But the course of true love is never without its rapids, and it was not +long before Orca's visits to Sipelie began to be talked about among the +nobles. So at last the news came to the ears of the Lady Ildea, the +prime minister's daughter, who hoped to win Prince Orca herself. The +Lady Ildea's temper was certainly none of the best, nor was her beauty +at all to be compared with that of the gamekeeper's daughter. She had +long laid siege to the heart of the prince, and she was now convinced +that it was only on account of the peasant maiden that she made so +little progress. + +The Lady Ildea was not unskilled in magic, and by consultation with +divers not very respectable spirits, she found means to transform the +beautiful Sipelie into a raven. Thus it happened that when the prince +went as usual to visit his beloved, he found the cottage empty, and no +living thing in sight but a raven, which croaked dolorously from a +neighboring tree. When the gamekeeper appeared, in answer to Prince +Orca's eager questions, he could only say that his daughter was missing. +Together, the two men searched the whole night for the lost maiden; but +neither then, nor in any after search, could a trace of Sipelie be +discovered. + +It is needless to speak of the gamekeeper's grief, or the prince's +despair. Both refused to be comforted, and the unhappy prince became so +pale and thin that it was pitiful to see. + +In all his grief and anguish, the Lady Ildea showed a deep sympathy, +encouraging him to tell her all his woes, and if she could not comfort +him, she at least wept for him, and that was something. + +And so it went on until the prince was taken violently ill. The wise men +gathered about his bed, and at last concluded, after many long and +tedious days of consultation, that his sickness was caused by an evil +influence, which they ascribed to a raven that had been noticed +fluttering continually about the palace windows. They farther announced +that the prince could only be cured by the juice of certain wild herbs, +which were exceedingly rare, and which only grew in wild and dangerous +places in the mountains. Messengers were dispatched throughout the whole +country in search of the precious herbs, but the third day a bundle of +the plants was found on the ledge of the prince's window. No one knew +whence they came, nor did any one notice that the raven sat on a distant +tree, and watched until the herbs were taken in, but then flew silently +away, to return no more. + +The prince now rapidly recovered, and was soon able to go again into the +open air. The lady Ildea had been most attentive throughout his illness, +and on the first day on which he went to the hunt, she rode by his side. +She was outwardly calm enough, but inwardly she was not at all at ease. +Only one day remained of the duration of the magic spell which ensnared +Sipelie, and Prince Orca had not yet forgotten the peasant maiden, or +bound himself to Ildea. As they followed the hounds through the pleasant +forest, the sharp eyes of the lady espied a raven fluttering along from +branch to branch, always keeping near the prince. + +She pointed it out to her companion, saying, "Do you see the bird of ill +omen? It is the same which brought you illness. Now is your time to +destroy it." + +Prince Orca raised his bow, but lowered it again, for something within +stayed his hand, and he said: "Let the poor blackamoor live. I have been +too near death myself to feel like harming it." + +"If you do not care for yourself," said Lady Ildea, "others do. It might +bring you harm again." And with unerring aim she sent an arrow flying +through the air. The raven fell, uttering a last mournful cry. But Lady +Ildea was not satisfied. Hastily dismounting, she ran through the grass +to where the bird lay, and found the body of the maiden Sipelie, pierced +to the heart, and covered with blood. Horror-struck, she turned away, +but at that instant she trod upon an adder, which suddenly darted its +fangs into her foot, inflicting a mortal wound. + + * * * * * + +"And served her right," quoth King Jollimon, as the crooked-backed man +ended. "The prince is left to bury the dead, I suppose. Well, I've heard +worse tales, I'm sorry to say; but I generally hear better ones. What +have you to tell?" he added, nodding to the man with the crooked nose. + +"Mine is a fable, and very instructive," said he; "And the moral----" + +"Moral me no morals," interrupted King Jollimon. "Tell your fable, if +you please; but I'll draw my own moral as mild as I please." + +Thus admonished, he of the crooked nose told the tale of + + +THE WISE CAT. + +A certain cat set out to seek his fortune, and traveled through the +whole world. At last he came to a country where a cat had never been +seen before. The inhabitants were at first frightened by the strange +monster, but having observed Puss killing the mice with which the +country was overrun, they plucked up courage, and approaching him, +requested that he should follow them before the king. Puss complied +willingly enough, and the end of the matter was that he was installed +rat-catcher to the king, and a large salary bestowed upon him. The +faithfulness with which Puss discharged his duties raised him high in +the royal regard, and a circumstance soon occurred which advanced him +still further. The king took his naps by an open window, and had a plate +of cherries placed beside him that he might eat them when he awoke. A +crow from the neighboring forest constantly stole the fruit, nor had all +the efforts of the king's servants succeeded in destroying the bird. +The cat, however, concealed himself in the window-hangings, and pounced +upon the unlucky marauder, and broke his neck. The king was full of +gratitude, and ordered that Puss's salary be increased. Soon after, a +bear came and ravaged the king's flocks. His majesty commanded Puss to +kill him. "I can only do what I am able," pleaded the cat; but the king +insisted. While Puss was coming, Bruin attacked the store of a swarm of +bees, and was stung to death. "You have done as I knew you would, my +dear cat," said the king, and would listen to no explanations. The cat +received the Order of the Royal Shoe-string. + +Next an elephant came and ravaged the crops. The king sent the cat to +attack him. "Alas! I can only do what I am able," again pleaded the cat, +but there was no moving the king. While the cat was coming, the elephant +fell into a pit and was killed. + +"You have done as I knew you would," said the king once more; and the +cat received the Order of the Royal Penknife, and the care of the Royal +Shoe-brush. + +A great army marched to subdue the kingdom. The king gave himself no +uneasiness. "Have we not the cat here?" he asked. "My dear, go and put +these troublesome fellows to flight." + +"Alas! your majesty," said the unfortunate cat, "I can but do as I am +able, and luck will turn at last;" but the king was stubborn as ever. +And while the cat was coming, a band of the enemy fell upon him and +destroyed him; and they overthrew all the kingdom. The king was taken +prisoner and compelled to feed cats all his life. "That ungrateful cat!" +he continually exclaimed. + + * * * * * + +"And do you call that a fable?" asked King Jollimon. "I should have let +you tell the moral, that there might have been some good to it. Come, +you fellow," he said to the crooked-mouthed man, "speak quickly. I long +to hear another tale, that I may forget this." + +And this tale was that of + + +HANS AND PETER. + +Hans and Peter met one fine morning on the way to market. Hans was large +and stout; the world always went easily with him; he troubled himself as +little as possible about the cares of life, and seemed to grow plumper +every day. + +Peter, on the other hand, was thin and slim. He was continually worrying +himself about some trifle, and his face grew more and more care-worn +every day. + +"Good morrow, friend Peter," said plump Hans, in a hearty tone of +cheer. + +"Good-day, neighbor!" answered Peter, solemnly. + +"Why are you so downcast?" asked Hans. + +"Downcast! Have you no troubles," retorted Peter, "that you cannot +understand why people look downcast?" + +"I?" said jovial Hans. "I've only one trouble in the world, and that +does not trouble me. My wife complains because I have become so stout." + +"Happy man!" exclaimed Peter. "My friends complain because I am so +thin." + +"My friends say it makes me move too slowly," said Hans. + +"My wife upbraids me," returned Peter, "because I move so very quickly." + +"Suppose we change bodies!" said they both in a breath. And they +changed. + +Again, in a few months, Hans and Peter met one fine morning; and Hans +was again large and stout, while Peter had become thin and slim. + +"What have you done to my body?" asked Hans. + +"What have you done to my body?" asked Peter. + +"I was puzzled at first," said Hans, "to know whether I was Hans or +Peter; but it soon came right." + +"At first," returned Peter, "I knew not whether I was Peter or Hans, but +as you say, it soon came right." + +"Then the difference," remarked Hans, "is not _my_ body." + +"Nor _my_ body," put in Peter. + +"But," said they both, "ourselves!" + + * * * * * + +"Worse and worse," said King Jollimon, at the conclusion of the +remarkable legend. "If there were four of you, I shudder to think what a +bad story the fourth one would tell!" + +"It is because we did not know your majesty's taste," said the man with +the crooked back. "If you would hear us once more, we should please you +better." + +"I have heard enough," said the king; but upon second thought he +consented that they should try again. + +And first the crooked-backed man told the tale of + + +THE EGG-SHELL. + +A boy once met a magician, who gave him an egg-shell, telling him to +place it in his mouth, but on no account to break it. The boy was as +foolish as boys usually are, so he instantly obeyed him, without at all +stopping to think what the consequences might be. Immediately his head +swelled up like an enormous balloon, so that the wind nearly blew him +away. He managed to catch hold of a post and save himself from this +fate, and a crowd began to gather around his head. His body was quite +out of sight underneath, and only the huge head was to be seen. + +As everybody stood staring at the wonderful sight, a fly lit on the +boy's cheek. He could not reach it himself, for his arms would not reach +a tenth part of the way to his chin; so he asked one of the bystanders +to kill the troublesome insect. The boy's voice was so smothered by the +egg-shell that it was long before he could make himself understood; but +at last the man got an idea of what was wanted, and aimed a severe blow +at the fly. The insect flew away unharmed, but the boy started so +suddenly that he bit the egg-shell in two, and his head collapsed to its +natural size. So there was a little boy in the middle of the place, +holding on by a post, and a crowd of people looking at him from a +distance. + +"What a disappointment!" said the boy's mother. "He was fast becoming +remarkable! But then, what a sum his hats would have cost! After all, it +is best as it is." + +"And besides," added a neighbor, "how could you have got at him to +punish him?" + +"To be sure!" answered the mother. + + * * * * * + +"This is better than the first, because it is shorter," said the king; +and the man with a crooked nose began the story of + + +THE CROOKED-NOSED PHILOSOPHER. + +"There was once a man," he said, "with a nose so long that it reached +half way round his head, and thus the point was continually behind him. +This not unnaturally caused him a great deal of trouble, but in the end +was the means of his good fortune, as you shall hear. For once, as he +sat reading, he felt something on the end of his nose, and turning round +his head he saw a fly sitting on the point of it." + +"Saw a fly on the point!" interrupted King Jollimon. "What do you take +me for, that you thus try to impose such stories on me? Can a man see +what is behind him?" + +"Certainly, if he turns round," answered the traveler, quite unmoved. + +"If he turns round!" repeated the king, in a rage, "can one see the back +of his head? I have turned round, but I never could see my back." + +"That is because your majesty always looks away from it," replied the +other. "If you would turn round and look toward the back of your head, +you would undoubtedly see it." + +"Do you presume to dispute with me?" screamed his majesty, getting very +red in the face. He felt sure he was right, but he could not answer the +traveler's argument. "Do you presume to dispute with me?" he repeated. +"Get out of my sight, and if one of you three vagabonds, with your +trumpery stories, is found in all the kingdom of Jolliland by sunset +to-morrow, I'll have every man of you beheaded three times over. A man +see his back, indeed!" + +And thus it happened that the tale of "The Crooked-Nosed Philosopher" +was never concluded, which was the greater pity, since, if the end was +like the beginning, it must have been a very marvelous tale. + + + + +SOMETHING IN THE OLD CLOTHES LINE. + +BY PAUL FORT. + + +When I look at pictures of people of old times, I often think what a +curious thing it is that the only apparent difference between them and +the people of the present day is to be seen in their clothes. + +If we could take a dozen or so of ancient Greeks and Romans; some +gentlemen and ladies of the middle ages; a party of our +great-grandfathers and mothers, and some nice people who are now living +in the next street, and were to dress all the women in calico frocks and +sun-bonnets, and all the men in linen coats and trousers and broad straw +hats, with their hair cut short; and were then to jumble them all up +together, and make them keep their tongues quiet, it would be very +difficult, if not impossible, for a committee, unacquainted with any of +the party, to pick out the ancients, the middle-agers, or the moderns. + +Lady Jane Grey, or Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, or Helen of +Troy, would not look unlike the other women in sun-bonnets and calico +frocks; and while there would be a greater difference in the men, whose +nationality might show more strongly, Christopher Columbus, Nero, and +Marco Bozzaris would be pretty much the same kind of fellows as the +other men of the party. + +It is certainly a fact that there are a great many more points of strong +resemblance between the people of past ages and ourselves than most of +us suppose. It is often very surprising, when reading of the domestic +life of the past, to see how precisely similar, in some respects, it was +to our own. And, as I have said, the people looked, with the exception +of their clothes, very much as we do--meaning by "we" the people of the +present day, all over the world. + +In 1876, at the Centennial Exposition, I saw a marble bust--life +size--which was a portrait of a lady of ancient Rome. There was only the +head and neck, the hair was dressed very plainly, and it was astonishing +how well that bust would have answered for the portrait of a lady of +Thirty-fourth street, New York, or the wife of a gentleman in +Springfield, Ohio. The head and face were just such a head and face as +I had often seen, and the countenance even seemed familiar to me. + +But dress makes all the difference in the world. Had I met that lady +attired in her flowing Roman garments, with her golden head-dress and +her sandaled feet, I should have had no thought of Thirty-fourth street, +or Springfield, Ohio. + +And so down the whole line of ages you can tell, pretty nearly, when a +man or a woman lived, if you can but get an idea of his or her clothes. + +The next thing which strikes most of us when looking at the pictures of +old-time people, is a feeling of wonder how they ever could have been +willing to make such scarecrows of themselves. + +To be sure, we are willing to admire the flowing robes of Greece and +Rome, although we feel quite sure that our style of dress is much more +sensible, and we have an admiration for a soldier clad in armor, as well +as for the noblemen and gentry who figured, some hundreds of years ago, +in their splendid velvets and laces, their feathers and cocked hats, and +their diamond-hilted swords. + +But, as a rule, the garments of our ancestors appear very ridiculous to +us. If we did not have good reasons for belief to the contrary, we +should be very apt to consider them a set of fools. + +It even seems a little wonderful that people should be able to invent +such curious fashions of dressing themselves. + +Think, for instance, of the wife of Jean Van Eyck, a celebrated old +Dutch painter, who was willing to dress her hair so that she looked like +a cat, and, moreover, had her portrait taken in that style, so that +future generations might see what a guy she was! + +Yes, the picture painted over five hundred years ago hangs to-day in the +Academy of Bruges, and the staidest little Belgians laugh when they +look at it. You may see it yourselves some day, but, if not, you can at +least enjoy this excellent copy, which has been engraved for ST. +NICHOLAS from a photograph of the painting. If you look at her face, you +will see that in feature she is very much like an ordinary woman of the +present day. There is nothing at all distinctive about her countenance. +As far as that is concerned, she might just as well have lived now as at +any other time. + +But if she were to appear in an ordinary evening company dressed in the +style in which you see her in the picture, the difference between her +and the other ladies would be very striking, to say the least. + +[Illustration: THE WOMAN WHO LOOKED LIKE A CAT.] + +The curious methods of dress in olden times were so many, and were of +such infinite variety, that I cannot even allude to them in a little +article like this; but you cannot look at very many pictures of the +people of by-gone days without seeing some costume which will appear +quite funny, if not absolutely absurd. + +You need not go very far back either. What could be queerer than the +high coat-collars of some of your great-grandfathers, which came up +under their ears, while their throats were wrapped in fold after fold of +long cravats--or else encircled by a hard, stiff stock,--and the +hind-buttons of their coats were away up in the middle of their backs! + +But perhaps your great-grandmothers, with the waists of their gowns +just under their arms, with their funny long mittens and their great +calash bonnets, were just as queer as their husbands. + +Now the question comes very naturally to us: Why did these people, as +well as the people who came before them, dress in such ridiculous +fashions? We know that many of them were very sensible folk, who knew +how to do many things as well as we can do them, and some things a great +deal better. Mentally and physically the most of them are not surpassed +by the people who live now. Then why did not they know enough to dress +sensibly and becomingly as we do? + +In reply to this I will say that your great-grandfather and your +great-grandmother, unless they belonged to some religious sect which +regulated the clothes of its members, would have dressed exactly as your +father and mother now do, if it had been the fashion in their day. + +And if you had seen their portraits, dressed in clothes of the present +day (which, had those old people worn them, would have been out of +fashion long before you were born), you would have thought they looked +perfectly ridiculous. + +The truth of the matter is, that with a great many of us the attractive +and desirable qualities of clothes depend entirely upon their relations +to the current styles or fashions. We think everything unbecoming and +ugly excepting those styles; and no matter how absurd the present +fashion may be, there are not ten persons out of a thousand who, when +they become used to them, do not admire them and follow them to the +extent of their ability. + +There are few of you who are not old enough to remember fashions of +dress, which at one time you and every one else considered very stylish +and becoming, and which now would make a perfect fright of any one who +would be bold enough to wear them. + +Indeed, were a fine lady to make her appearance in the streets of one of +our large cities dressed in the hoops and wide skirts in which she was +so fashionable and attractive a few years ago, the street boys would +hoot her, and she might walk about all day without meeting a single +person who would think that there was anything whatever to be said in +favor of such a costume. + +Of course, some fashions are uglier and more absurd than others, and it +is not strange that we wonder how sensible people could have endured +them; but if these very styles were to become fashionable again, most of +us would adopt them. + +If, in a few years, it should become the fashion for ladies to dress +their hair like that of the good wife of Jean Van Eyck, I feel quite +certain that nearly all the fashionable ladies you know would go about +looking very much like cats. This may seem a libelous assertion; but if +you will keep a watch on the fashions, I think you will find I am +correct, provided the Van Eyck style comes up. + + + + +TOMMY'S DREAM; OR, THE GEOGRAPHY DEMON. + +BY LAURA E. RICHARDS. + + + I HATE my geography lesson! + It's nothing but nonsense and names; + To bother me so every morning, + It's really the greatest of shames. + + The brooks, they flow into the rivers, + And the rivers flow into the sea; + I hope, for my part, they enjoy it, + But what does it matter to me? + + Of late, even more I've disliked it, + And more disagreeable it seems, + Ever since the sad evening last winter, + When I had that most frightful of dreams. + + I thought that a great horrid monster + Stood suddenly there in my room-- + A frightful Geography Demon, + Enveloped in darkness and gloom; + + His body and head like a mountain, + A volcano on top for a hat; + His arms and his legs were like rivers, + With a brook round his neck for cravat. + + He laid on my poor trembling shoulder + His fingers, cold, clammy and long; + And fixing his red eyes upon me, + He roared forth this horrible song: + + + "Come! come! rise and come + Away to the banks of the Muskingum! + It flows o'er the plains of Timbuctoo, + With the peak of Teneriffe just in view. + And the cataracts leap in the pale moonshine, + As they dance o'er the cliffs of Brandywine. + + "Flee! flee! rise and flee + Away to the banks of the Tombigbee! + We'll pass by Alaska's flowery strand, + Where the emerald towers of Pekin stand; + We'll pass them by, and will rest awhile + On Michillimackinac's tropic isle; + While the apes of Barbary frisk around, + And the parrots crow with a lovely sound. + + "Hie! hie! rise and hie + Away to the banks of the Yang-tze-ki! + There the giant mountains of Oshkosh stand, + And the icebergs gleam through the falling sand; + While the elephant sits on the palm-tree high, + And the cannibals feast on bad-boy pie. + + "Go! go! rise and go + Away to the banks of the Hoang-ho + There the Chickasaw sachem makes his tea, + And the kettle boils and waits for thee. + We'll smite thee, ho! and we'll lay thee low, + On the beautiful banks of the Hoang-ho!" + + These terrible words were still sounding + Like trumpets and drums through my head, + When the monster clutched tighter my shoulder, + And dragged me half out of the bed. + + In terror, I clung to the bed-post; + But the faithless bed-post, it broke. + I screamed out aloud in my anguish, + And suddenly--well, I awoke. + + He was gone. But I cannot forget him, + The fearful Geography Sprite. + He has my first thought in the morning, + He has my last shudder at night. + + Do you blame me for hating my lesson? + Is it strange that it frightful should seem? + Or that I more and more should abhor it + Since I had that most horrible dream? + + + + +THE TOWER MOUNTAIN + +BY GUSTAVUS FRANKENSTEIN. + +II. + + +When I reached the crowd of monkeys who were making such a noise and +were evidently in such trouble, I soon saw what was the matter. A very +large monkey had his claws fastened in the back of a much smaller one, +and was biting him in the shoulder--the little fellow shrieking, and the +others dreadfully excited, yet hesitating to come to the rescue. + +What are monkeys compared to a man? I rushed in, seized the ruffian by +the throat, which loosened his hold upon the weaker party, and hurling +him with all my force against the ground, broke his ugly skull upon the +rock on which it struck. + +Then, such a yell of delight as went up from that motley monkey crew! It +was simply indescribable. This was immediately followed by an immense +amount of jabbering, as they gathered in little groups, no doubt +discussing the merits of the action and the valor of the hero. Doubtless +the monkey I had slain was a great tyrant over the others, by reason of +his superior size and strength, and they were congratulating one another +upon their deliverance from his hated rule. + +His last victim--poor little fellow!--I raised from the ground, washed +his wounds, and, gathering some plantain-leaves, placed them carefully +over the lacerated flesh, and bound them on snugly and firmly with +strips of palm-leaf. + +The little creature looked at me very affectionately, evincing by his +expression the deepest gratitude. + +As he was in a very sad plight indeed, I nursed and petted him until +quite late in the afternoon, his companions not far off observing my +movements with great interest. At last I said to the wounded monkey: + +"Now, little fellow, go your way in peace. Take care of yourself, and +you will get well. Good-bye!" + +I took my basket and started up the hill. Occasionally I looked back to +see what he was doing, and each time his gaze was fixed on me; and when +I had entirely lost sight of him, I began to regret that I had not taken +him with me and cared for him until he should get well. + +Pippity, as I returned, was overjoyed to see me. He had certainly grown +anxious at my long absence. + +"Pippity," I said, "I shall not go down again into the valley for a long +time. We have had cocoa-nuts enough lately; let us enjoy that which is +around us." + +But, after a couple of months had passed away, knowing that Pippity was +very fond of the cocoa-nuts (and I, too, liked very much the milk they +contained), I determined to go and get some more. + +I was getting the nuts down from the trees as best I could, when, all at +once, I was surprised at their falling around me fast and thick, and on +looking up, there was a little monkey throwing them down! At first, I +thought he was throwing them at me; but he stopped when he saw me +looking up, and I went on gathering and putting them in the basket. Not +one of them that had been thrown down had hit me, so I concluded that +the monkey had no evil design, but that, on the contrary, he was trying +to do me a good turn. + +"That's a pretty good sort of monkey," I thought, "and I wouldn't mind +meeting him any time I come down. He has saved me to-day considerable +trouble." + +Then, up the mountain I went, and got back home quite early, which +seemed to surprise Pippity not a little. + +The next time I went down, the same thing happened again; and so on for +a number of times. + +Once, after taking up my basket and starting for home, I noticed a +little monkey (I thought it was the very one that had so kindly thrown +me the cocoa-nuts) following me at some distance. The next trip I made, +this occurred again, and this time the monkey kept following me nearer +and nearer, until, finally, I heard at my heels a slight squeal, and on +looking around there was the little creature. + +"Why, monkey!" I exclaimed, "what in the world do you want?" + +He stood there, trembling somewhat, I thought; but quickly he leaped on +my back, and put his arms around my neck. I was a little frightened, at +first; but, taking hold of his hands, I gently loosened his hold and +brought him around in front of me, when, holding him out to view, I saw +a scar on his shoulder. + +"Oh! it's you, is it?" I cried. "Then it's you who have been throwing me +the cocoa-nuts all this time. It's plain you haven't forgotten a favor." +I set him on the ground. "Go, join your comrades, and, whenever you feel +disposed to throw me cocoa-nuts, I shall always accept the kindness as +a very great favor." + +But monkey wouldn't go and join his comrades, and persisted in following +me. I did not want to speak unkind words or use harsh measures toward +him, although I tried everything I could think of to induce him to leave +me; but all my efforts to get rid of him failed. He followed me home. + +Pippity was a little surprised to see two individuals instead of one +approaching, and eyed the stranger with much curiosity. + +After we had partaken of refreshments, I addressed our guest in the +following words: + +"Monkey, since you have followed me, and seem inclined to join our +society, I shall not object to your remaining, provided you behave +yourself properly; and I have no doubt that my worthy friend to whom I +have had the high honor of introducing you, will heartily second me in +any effort looking toward your comfort and general well-being. You may +make this your home, if it so pleases you. If you want to leave us +to-morrow, go. If you would like to remain with us until death shall us +three part, you are welcome." + +I was curious to see how Pippity would treat the new-comer. It was to be +expected that he would show some signs of jealousy, but his was a noble +nature, and scorned to descend to such mean conduct. He and the monkey +were almost immediately on the best of terms, at which I was much +pleased, for I would not for a moment have endured any quarreling in my +household. + +When our cocoa-nuts were nearly all gone, I went down for some more. It +was not long after this that, one fine day, the monkey was missing. +Neither did he come back the next day. About noon, I said to Pippity: + +"Pippity, we have but few cocoa-nuts left. To-morrow I shall go down and +get another supply; and who knows but I may meet our friend the monkey? +Although he was at any time at liberty to leave us if he liked, yet I +confess I have a desire to know what has become of him. Perhaps some +accident has befallen him." + +While I was yet speaking, a cocoa-nut rolled into our house. + +"Why, what's that?" I exclaimed; and, looking out, there was the little +monkey, just without the entrance, in the very act of throwing a +cocoa-nut into the cavern! Going toward him, I saw him catch one thrown +to him by another monkey. + +Now, here was a most singular performance, and one which certainly +demanded investigation. Where did the second monkey get _his_ cocoa-nut? +I went toward him, and found that he caught a cocoa-nut thrown to him by +a third monkey about fifteen feet beyond him. + +As the nuts kept coming all the time, the sight was highly interesting. + +To ascertain the true state of the case I went farther; found a fourth +monkey, then a fifth, then a sixth; and as I proceeded I left one monkey +only to find another farther on, all about fifteen feet one from the +other, some perched on rocks, some on trees, forming a zigzag line down +the mountain, all busily catching and throwing the cocoa-nuts in the +most remarkably systematic fashion, There must have been sixty monkeys +or more engaged in this delightful occupation. + +I went back and found a large pile of the fruit in our house; and +thinking we had enough for a long time to come, I would have liked to be +able to make our little monkey understand that we wanted no more. The +parrot had learned to discover my wishes very well, but with the monkey +I supposed it would be a matter of some difficulty to make him +comprehend me. He seemed to divine my thoughts, however, or else his own +good sense came to his aid, for, almost immediately, he gave a little +shriek, which the next monkey took up, and which went along the line +until the sounds died away in the distance. After this a few more nuts +rolled into the house, then the throwing and catching ceased, and the +monkeys which had been in sight disappeared, with the exception of our +little friend, who sprang, all elasticity and animation, into our +domicile. + +"Now, come, my little friend, sit up and have something to eat," I said. +"You must be hungry after the expenditure of so much energy. We had +given you up for lost; but now, after this evidence of your good-will +toward us, we are satisfied that you really intend to remain with us." + +I wished the monkey was able to relate to us how he managed to assemble +so many of his friends, and to get them to act with such perfect accord; +and how, in the first place, he could make them understand what he +wished them to do. Of course, not being able to talk, he could give us +no explanation of how the thing was brought about. I could therefore +only form an opinion in the matter, which was as follows: + +Our little friend was undoubtedly a great favorite with his fellows, and +although he was as gentle as a kitten he was not without power, and his +companions were ever ready to serve him out of sheer good-will. When, +therefore, after he had been rescued from the ferocious monkey, his +appreciation of a kind action naturally enkindled in him a desire to +return the favor in some way, he threw me the cocoa-nuts from the trees; +and, although I believe that from the first he felt an ardent desire to +be near his benefactor, his natural modesty prevented his thrusting +himself upon me without considerable preliminary skirmishing. His +fellow monkeys, keenly sensible of his noble qualities, and happy in +having got rid of the odious despot who had so long oppressed them, were +only too glad to aid him in any reasonable and honorable project which +might benefit the hero who had slain their hated ruler. But by what +queer signs and by what sort of jabbering our little monkey had made his +wishes known to his companions, only he and they knew. + +I now took occasion to tell our four-handed friend that he must have a +name. + +"'Grilly' you shall be called," I said; "and, although you cannot utter +our names, common politeness requires that you be informed of them. +There is Pippity, the parrot, and here am I, Frank, the man." + +As Pippity was a good scholar, while Grilly yet remained uneducated, it +was a source of grief to me that the monkey continued in his deplorable +ignorance in the midst of such enlightened society. + +What was to be done? + +Talk he could not. There was not the slightest use in making any effort +in that direction, because nature had failed to furnish him with the +organs needed for speaking articulately. + +I had noticed frequently, when going down into the valley, a certain +rock which fell in pieces by splitting off in smooth plates; and another +kind which lay scattered about in small fragments that would make marks +like chalk-marks. This substance was of a reddish color, and, on the +purplish surface of the thin slabs of the harder rock, it made very +clear, distinct lines. + +On one of these slabs I wrote the alphabet in large letters, and began +by teaching Pippity his A B C's. The next step was to instruct Grilly +how to hold the pencil. Taking his hand in mine, I guided it in making +the letters. He was rather slow at first in comprehending the science or +acquiring the knack of tracing the letters; but continued application +will accomplish wonders even with a monkey; and in a few weeks' time +Grilly would make any letter at command. I got Pippity to call out the +alphabet while Grilly wrote. Thus they taught each other--Pippity +addressing the monkey's ear, and Grilly appealing to the parrot's eye. + +After they were thus well grounded in the alphabet, I made them spell +short and familiar words. I would spell the words to Pippity, and he +would repeat them in a loud, clear voice to Grilly, whose province of +course it was to write them in a bold, legible hand, whilst the parrot +kept his eye sharply on the writing; and if, perchance, the monkey +should make a mistake, it was expected of him to call out +immediately--"Error!" + +As Pippity had a great many phrases and a vast number of nouns at +command, and began pretty rapidly to comprehend the science of English +orthography, he was soon able to give out the words to Grilly without my +help; though he did make some funny mistakes, for which, however, the +poor bird was in no way responsible, but which made me laugh at him +nevertheless. + +[Illustration: TEACHING GRILLY TO WRITE.] + +It may seem strange to some that a monkey could be taught to write. With +such persons I will hold no argument. All I have to say is: Get a +monkey, and try it. + +Grilly as well as Pippity became in course of time quite a fine scholar, +and he, too, learned the names of the plants and many other objects +which we found in our dominions. The two agreed very well, and the one +furnished what the other lacked. The parrot could talk but not write; +the monkey could write but not talk. + +But it occurs to me that two such extraordinary characters deserve +description. + +First come, first served. The external appearance of Pippity was +gorgeous in the extreme. His wings, green, red-spotted, were tipped with +golden yellow, while the most delicate flush of iridescent colors +suffused his back, neck and breast; his toes in pairs, two forward and +two back, like those of all other parrots; a bill and tongue exactly +formed for speech; eyes in observation keen; and a bearing dignified and +commanding. + +Grilly, of course, had not so gay an exterior; yet he had a handsome +clothing of soft, fine hair; a gentle, intelligent eye; a head +exceedingly well formed, round and full, with prominent forehead; +handsome moustache and full stylish whiskers; an expression winning and +full of animation; a carriage elegant and graceful; and, withal, he was +astonishingly expert with tail and hands and feet. + +The time now coursed smoothly and happily along, Pippity entertaining us +with his lively prattle, and Grilly, full of his antics and his +learning, affording a never-failing fund of amusement. Nor did he ever +omit, when the supply of cocoa-nuts was about exhausted, to go down and +assemble his tribe, who forthwith took their places up the height, +passed the nuts one to another, and, when they deemed we had enough, +dispersed to their own wild homes of sylvan shade. + +One day Grilly was amusing himself turning over some stones that lay in +a little heap in one corner of our vast chamber. I had always thought it +strange that they were the only loose stones to be found either in the +cavern or in the neighborhood, but had never troubled myself any further +about them. Seeing Grilly busy with them, I thought I would join him in +his work or sport, and in a little time we had the pile reduced to the +floor. There, I saw, was a square slab, having on it certain characters +and a drawing of a serpent held firmly in the talons of a condor. These +symbols excited my curiosity not a little, and I noticed that the stone, +which was about three feet square, was loosely resting in its place. I +managed to pry it up, and found a dark cavity beneath. It was nearly +square, but of its depth I could not judge, owing to the darkness. To +satisfy myself on this point, I got a very long stem of one of those +gigantic grasses that grow in the tropics, and, letting it down, found +the hole to be about forty feet deep. I felt a great desire to descend +into this pit, but dared not venture for fear of the foul and deadly air +that might have to be encountered below. Such things as matches, of +course, we had not, nor any fire whatever. I therefore delayed the +experiment for several days, with the expectation that the air would +improve considerably in that time. Then, by bracing my hands and feet +against the sides, I descended slowly, and found the air good enough to +breathe freely, which emboldened me to go to the bottom. There was just +light enough to perceive that on one side was an opening about six feet +in height, and somewhat more than a foot in width; and I could see +rough steps leading down a slight descent. I followed them cautiously, +until I came to a level place, which I found to be a passage about three +feet wide and higher than I could reach. + +It was so dark here that I could no longer see, when, feeling the rock +on either side, I came to a place where there was a recess about three +feet above the floor of the passage. Raising myself into this recess, I +found it to be about four feet in height. This led back a considerable +distance,--how far I never discovered,--and as I was groping about, +being obliged to stoop all the time, I stumbled over something that +rolled and rattled like a bone. I felt for it, and found it to be one, +and with it were a number of others. As far as I could judge in the +darkness, they were the skeleton of a human being. + +How came these there? Was this a tomb? + +I felt about for more relics, going hither and thither in the +earnestness of quest, but found no more. + +I had now been in this dungeon upward of an hour, and felt inclined to +return as speedily as possible to the daylight. I searched for the place +where I had got up from the narrow passage. I groped this way and that; +and this had to be done with precaution, for who could tell where I +might not step off suddenly and fall to some great depth? Yet I could +find nothing that promised to lead me to the passage by which I had +come. + +Where was I? What was I to do? Remaining still would never do; to keep +moving, moving, was the only course to pursue. I had, I knew not how, +emerged from that low-roofed recess, and stood now in what seemed to be +a vast chamber where there were neither sides nor roof. I hallooed that +I might hear the echo from its walls, and perhaps in that way find them. +I was startled, almost frightened, at the solemn mocking sounds that +reverberated through the lonely cavern. I grew fearful of my own voice. + +At last I sank down exhausted, and slept. I awoke, and groped about once +more. This occurred again and again. How often I lay down to sleep I +cannot tell. Sometimes I thought of the skeleton I had stumbled over, +and wondered if my bones, too, would here find their resting-place. Then +I thought of the grand, lofty mountain overhead. What a stupendous +monument! But what would I not have given for deliverance from it! + +(_To be continued._) + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, BY OUR JAPANESE ARTIST] + + + + +HOW TO MAKE AN ICE-BOAT. + +BY J. H. HUBBARD. + + +The sport of sailing on the ice has within a few years attracted +considerable attention on our northern rivers and lakes, and seems +likely to increase. It is an amusement well adapted to big boys, being +exciting, requiring skill, and certainly not more dangerous than +skating. It is even more fascinating than yachting, without the danger +which always attends the latter pursuit. A small ice-boat that a boy can +build will sail ten to twenty miles an hour with a good wind. Some large +ones, strange as it may seem, can sail, with a wind on the beam, +actually faster than the wind which is blowing. This fact is attested by +the highest scientific authorities. + +Having seen some unsuccessful attempts at ice-boats by boys in various +places, I propose to tell you how to build one, at a small expense, that +will sail well, and give you a great deal of sport. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +The directions and measurements here given are the result of careful +experiments and some failures. Fig. 1 is an elevation, Fig. 2 a +ground-plan of the frame, and Fig. 3 a section of a runner. Get a spruce +plank, A, 12 feet long, 6 inches wide, 2 inches thick. This is the +backbone of the structure. Cut near one end of it a hole two inches +square to receive the foot of the mast. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.] + +Take two oak cross-bars, E E, 8 feet long, 4 inches deep, 2 inches +thick. The cross-bars are bolted to A, one foot apart, the forward one a +foot from mast-hole. This distance is best. + +Next get one oak plank, C, 16 inches long, 3-1/2 inches deep, 2 inches +thick. + +The hard-wood piece, D, is for tiller, 4 feet long, 2 inches wide, 1 +inch thick. This is to be set into the top of plank C, and fastened +there with screws. To each end of it is attached a rope, which runs over +a sheave fastened to the cross-bar, C D, and the ropes, _l l_, +constitute the steering apparatus. Two boards, F F, each 11 feet long, 8 +inches wide, 7/8-inch thick, are planed, and the edges matched together, +at the stern. They are nailed to the plank, A, and the cross-bars, E E, +as shown in Fig. 2. Four blocks, each 3 inches thick, must be put under +them where they lie over the cross-bars. A board a foot long, 7/8-inch +thick, must also be put under F F at the stern. + +Six slats, G G, as long as may be needed, 2 inches wide, 7/8-inch thick, +are nailed over A, and under F F. + +The mast is a natural spruce stick, 13 feet long, shaved down to 3-1/2 +inches at butt, 2-1/2 inches at the top. + +The boom is 13-1/2 feet long, 2 inches thick at each end, and a little +thicker in the middle. It is fastened to the mast by an iron eye, +screwed into the mast, and a hook in the end of the boom. The sprit is +10 feet long, 1-1/2 inches diameter, shaved to 3/4-inch for 2 inches at +each end. + +The iron collar, _i_, through which the mast is inserted loosely, stands +two feet above the top of plank, A. It is supported by three iron +braces, _h h h_, and is bolted to the tops of them. The braces are +3/4-inch round iron, and bolted to the frame as shown. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3.] + +The hind-runner block, C, is fastened to A by a strong iron, _m_, as +shown in Fig. 1. It allows the runner to rock up and down, and to be +turned sidewise by the tiller. A must be plated with iron top and bottom +where _m_ goes through, that the runner may not "wobble." + +The construction of the runners, J J J, must be attended to with the +greatest care, as upon these, in a great measure, will depend the +success of your boat. Get a square bar of cast steel, 6 feet long, cut +off 22 inches for third runner, and divide the rest in halves, across. +Shape two forward runners and one hind one as shown in Fig. 1. The +bearing surface is a right-angled edge, as shown in Fig. 3. This sharp +edge holds the ice firmly without much friction. Holes are bored two +inches up into the cross-bars, near their ends, and the runners driven +in and fastened with rivets. After the runners are forged, they should +be finished with a file and emery paper if not perfectly smooth. The +front turn must be long and gradual like a skate, two-thirds the length, +however, flat on the ice. The running edges should not be too sharp. +They will project 2-1/2 or three inches below the bottom of the wood. + +For the sail get twenty yards, three-quarters of a yard wide, of heavy +drilling. The dimensions are: Head, 5 feet; foot, 13 feet; foreleach, 10 +feet; afterleach, 14-1/2 feet. Make these measurements on a floor, and +mark the outlines with a chalk-line. Cut the after-breadth first, and +the others to match. Lap the breadths 1 inch. Allow an inch all around +for a hem. The breadths should be basted before stitching. Put two rows +of stitching where the breadths lap. Look out for puckering. Put a +narrow hem clear around the sail. Then stitch a 3/8-inch rope around the +hem. Make a loop at the peak to put the end of sprit into. Draw the +rope tight along the boom, and fasten it through a hole in the end. +Fasten the throat of sail tight to the top of the mast. Cut a number of +short pieces of heavy twine, and lace the sail, at intervals of a foot, +to the boom and mast. Fasten a becket or loop of rope at a suitable +position on the mast, to set the heel of the sprit into. Rig main-sheet +over two sheaves, as shown; it brings less strain on the boom, and +clears the skipper's head in tacking. Make a good, large wooden cleat to +belay it to. + +The cost of materials will be about as follows: + + Boards, plank and mast $5.00 + Iron work 6.00 + Twenty yards Drilling 2.75 + Four single-sheave galvanized + pulley-blocks at 35 c 1.40 + (May be omitted by using leather straps.) + Ropes, etc. 85 + ______ + Total $16.00 + +A boat built as above will sail nearly as close to the wind as a good +cat-boat. It is managed much the same. Don't turn too short in coming +about. Jibe when you like without fear of capsizing. Your boat will +carry three persons in a light wind,--more if it blows fresh. Rig it +neatly, and try to make a finished thing all through. Your ice-boat will +then be more than a boy's plaything, and will be admired by old and young. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + + There once was a man with a child + Who, the neighbors said, never had smiled; + But the father said, "See! + Smile in this way, like me, + And then folks will know when you've smiled." + + + + +DEBBY'S CHRISTMAS. + +BY ELLA A. DRINKWATER. + + +Most young people's Christmas commences the night before; so did +Debby's. She had just settled down in Blanket street, and fallen into +the sleep of tired, healthy girlhood, when she was aroused by her +mother's irritable voice screaming up the stairway. + +"Debby! Debby!" she called. "Get up quick and help me pick these +turkeys. Your father's made up his mind to sell them dead weight, and +we've got to pick them to-night, so he can take them to the hotel early +in the morning. Do you _hear_ me, Debby?" + +"Yes, ma'am," answered Debby, scrambling out of her warm nest to the +square of rag carpet before her bed. + +Four minutes later she felt her way down-stairs and opened the kitchen +door into a room filled with steam, and the peculiar smell of scalded +fowls. + +"There's seven to do," her mother said, bending over the brass kettle on +the stove to draw from it a dripping turkey. "Yours are all scalded. Go +to work." + +Debby buttoned on a large apron, seated herself with a tin pan in her +lap containing a turkey, and then began quickly to pluck off its +feathers, laying them to dry on a religious newspaper spread on the +table beside her. + +Mrs. Blanchard soon sat down at the other side of the table, and began +to pick and talk as fast as fingers and tongue would allow. + +What did possess Mr. Blanchard to change his mind, and give them so much +extra trouble, she could not conceive; and selling them to Tate, too, +when he might have made a quarter of a cent more a pound if he had let +Morris have them. And then those hoop-poles! He might have made she +didn't know how much if he had taken her advice, and kept them a week +longer. + +As for the potatoes, they had turned out so small, and the corn was so +short in the ear, that the land only knew where the money to get them +all something to wear was to come from. Not that _she_ cared for dress, +for hadn't she worn the same bonnet and shawl to church until she was +ashamed to show her face there? As for the sewing society, she was a +master hand at cutting and planning, and she could go as well as not, +too, now that Debby was quite old enough to take care of the baby, and +get the supper ready for her father and the boys; but not a step was she +going to sit next Mrs. Williams with her black silk, and Mrs. White with +her handsome alpaca, although their husbands' farms were no larger than +Mr. Blanchard's; and for the life of her she could not understand why +_she_ should not dress as well when she worked twice as hard as they +did. + +To all of which Debby listened with a sinking heart and great sobs in +her throat, wondering why they should be such an unhappy family when +every one around them appeared so glad. + +Did it really make people so happy, this Christmas-day that they talked +so much about in Sunday-school? That was a beautiful hymn that they sung +last Sunday; she repeated one verse softly to herself while the stream +of her mother's talk ran on: + + "Jesus is our childhood's pattern, + Day by day, like us, he grew; + He was little, weak and helpless, + Tears and smiles, like us, he knew; + And he feeleth for our sadness, + And he shareth in our gladness." + +With a comforted feeling she pushed back her hair with her feathery +hand, heartily wishing that all the people who ate their turkeys would +be comfortable, and have clothes to wear and go to sewing societies +whenever they liked. + +The clock ticked loudly, the fire died away while Mrs. Blanchard +enlarged upon the trials of her life, and, despite the refrain in her +heart-- + + "And he feeleth for our sadness, + And he shareth in our gladness"-- + +Debby's eyes were as heavy with tears as with sleepiness when the last +plump turkey lay on the table plucked of his feathers, just as the clock +was striking eleven. + +"Go to bed, child, and I'll clear up the mess," her mother said, when +Debby sprang up and straightened herself with a long sigh. "I'm sure +your father ought to give you something for keeping out of your bed so +late, when he is sleeping as innocent as the baby this minute, I'll +warrant." + +As Debby had a way of only thinking her replies, her answer was to wash +her hands at the sink and run upstairs with joyful feet, thinking, "How +_splendid_ it will be if he gives me some money; then I can spend it at +the Fair to-morrow night." + +But even rose-colored visions could not keep the weary child awake; she +was not conscious of touching the pillow, and thought of nothing until +the clock striking six awoke her to remember, with a thrill, that it +was Christmas-day,--the day of the Fair. + +But there would be no presents or merry greetings in her home, for she +could not remember ever hearing either father or mother wish any of the +family "Merry Christmas!" and a little candy on that day was among the +dimmest pictures of her childhood. + +"I'll make the fire, so that mother can sleep a little longer," she +decided, lighting her candle, and beginning to dress with shivering +alacrity. "And I'll be as helpful as I can all day, and perhaps father +_will_ give me some of the turkey money." + +With shaking fingers she kindled the wood fire, and had the kettle +boiling and the griddle heated for the cakes, when her mother came out +of the bedroom, asking her what had wakened her so early, and telling +her to dress the baby while she finished getting the breakfast ready. + +Debby willingly brought the screaming baby out to the fire, where she +washed and dressed him, soothing him with many motherly little airs. Sam +and Jim ran down-stairs to hover over the red-hot stove; the father came +in, bringing the pail of milk, stamping his feet, his beard white with +his frozen breath; then they all sat down to breakfast by candle-light, +and no one would have supposed, from their conversation, that they had +ever heard of Christmas-day. + +Immediately after breakfast Mr. Blanchard hurried away to dispose of his +turkeys, taking the boys with him; Mrs. Blanchard heated the brick oven +preparatory to a morning's baking, and Debby flew about as busily as the +bee she represented, washing dishes, making beds, peeling vegetables, +and tending the baby, lightening her labor with the thought of the money +her father might possibly give her. + +When it was time for him to return, she determined to keep in sight, as +a kind of hint that some of the money should be given to her; not that +she would ask him for it,--her askings were only for favors to the boys, +made in much fear and inward shrinking; but she would just wait around +and remind him by her presence that she had helped pick the turkeys. + +But, with no understanding of the feverish anxiety that filled the heart +of the little maiden who was moving briskly about the pleasant kitchen +dishing up the dinner, Mr. Blanchard threw open the door with a chuckle. +"Took every one of them and paid the money down," he announced, coming +to the fire. "Got more than I expected, too, for his scales made them +weigh more than ours, so I gained just thirty cents." + +Debby thought that her heart stopped beating while she stood bewildered +in the middle of the floor with a dish of potatoes in her hand, waiting +to hear her father say that the extra money should be hers; but he +merely asked if dinner were ready, and why she moved so slowly; guessed +that sitting up so late made her lazy. + +All her castles built of ice-cream, candy, pin-cushions, and fancy +needle-books, fell to the ground with a crash as she set the dish on the +table, leaving her with no appetite for dinner, not even for the first +pumpkin-pie of the season. + +She sat at the table absently tasting the savory pork stew, believing +that no one else was ever as miserable as she, and that she should never +feel like laughing again, when suddenly she remembered that she had +twenty-four cents change left from the dollar that her father gave her +to buy school-books, and she would--yes--she would give it to him as she +was starting for the Fair, and perhaps he would say that she might keep +it. + +So she was all ready to laugh when Jim asked if the little boys in the +big cities wore muzzles like the dog he had seen in town this morning, +and when her mother asked if she would take pie, her "yes" was emphatic; +for a world of trouble had rolled off her heart, and she was her hopeful +self again. + +After the dinner-dishes were washed, and the baby trotted away to +dream-land, Debby stole up to her room to look over the dress she was to +wear in the evening; as the ruffles in neck and wrists were fresh, she +found there was nothing for her to do but brush it and lay it out on the +bed. Still she lingered with an undefined feeling that it was +Christmas-day everywhere else, and if she could only---- + +All the week, while seeing and hearing about the presents the +school-girls were making, she had been full of vague longings to do +something for some one; but she had neither money nor material, and was +not at all sure how a present from her would be received by her father +and mother. "Perhaps I might make a pin-ball," she thought, beginning to +search through the old chest of drawers that stood at the foot of her +bed. + +In the lowest drawer were odds and ends that she had been collecting for +years, and from one corner, carefully wrapped up, she drew a square of +black cloth in which was worked in wool a bunch of rose-buds, pink, +white and yellow, surrounded by their green leaves. A lady who had +boarded with them the last summer had begun it for a pair of slippers, +but after making two or three mistakes on it, had given it to Debby. + +"I wonder if I could make it into a cushion for mother?" soliloquized +Debby, turning it around in her red fingers. "Mrs. Williams said old +flannel was good to stuff them with, and I can bind it with----" she +leaned forward and picked among her bunch of faded ribbons. "There is +nothing nice enough," she sighed; "but this green will _have_ to do." + +[Illustration: DEBBY AND THE ICE-CREAM [SEE PAGE 227.]] + +Wrapping herself in a quilt she sat down on the rounded top of a +hair-covered trunk, close to the frosty window, and cutting the cloth in +the shape of a diamond, she sewed it together like a bag, filled it with +flannel, and hurriedly stitched on the faded green ribbon as a binding. + +These rosebuds were a wonderful work of art to Debby, and one of her +great treasures; it would have been a "perfectly lovely cushion," she +thought, if the binding had only been new and the silk with which she +stitched it green instead of blue; and it was _so_ delightful to make +presents. Next year she would have a present for every one in the house; +she wondered why she had never thought of it before. + + "And He feeleth for our sadness, + And He shareth in our gladness," + +sprang from her heart to her lips, and she hummed it over and over all +the three-quarters of an hour that she was at work. When the cushion was +finished, she held it out in different positions, trying to decide in +which it would look best when she should present it; and then she ran +down-stairs, possessed with such a variety of feelings that she could +scarcely speak when she opened the kitchen door. + +Her mother was ironing, with her back toward her. Debby was glad that no +one else was there. + +"I've made you a Christmas present, mother," she said, timidly, laying +it on the ironing-board. + +"So _that's_ what you have been doing in the cold so long," her mother +answered, without pausing in her work. "Miss Holmes was a beautiful hand +with her needle, and how she did fuss over that! But you might just as +well have made it some other day; I was in no hurry for it. Put it in my +bureau-drawer, and come and mend these blankets your father has just +brought in. He thinks that we have so little to do that we can sew for +the horses right in the midst of everything." + +So Debby laid the cushion away, glad that it had met with no worse +reception, and sat down in a corner near the stove to mend the coarse, +dirty horse-blankets. She usually disliked it exceedingly; but her +little attempt at making Christmas presents had so warmed her heart, and +her head was so full of the Fair, that it did not now seem so +uncongenial, and she was really surprised when the last stitch was +taken. + +"You are almost as handy with your needle as your mother," her father +said, throwing the blankets over his shoulder to carry them to the barn. + +"Now spring to, child, and set the table," her mother added, "and I'll +rest a few minutes, for I feel as if every bone in my body was broken." + +While Debby sewed, the bright sunlight on the green field of wheat and +the brown, ridged field of corn-stubble visible through the one large +window, had faded quickly away; and as she paused a moment to pick some +shreds off her dress and glance out at the weather, all she could see +was the dim outline of the woods, the dark forms of the hills rising +behind them, and the cold, black wind-clouds piled high above them all. + +Tea was ready and over at last, and then Mrs. Blanchard said, while she +tried to quiet the screaming baby: + +"Go and get ready for the Fair, child, and I will wash the dishes. I +have a dreadful sideache, and I expect this young one will cry for an +hour or two. But 'every dog must have his day,' and yours will be short +enough." + +With the cloud on her heart that always followed her mother's gloomy +sayings, Debby went slowly up to her room to array herself in her last +year's blue merino. But it was a pleasant figure to look upon that she +tiptoed up to the glass to survey, and a round rosy face, with a little +frown over the right eyebrow, that looked out at her with wistful eyes. + +Drawing on hood and shawl, she went down-stairs and stood before her +father with the money in her hand. He was seated at the table, bending +over a large account-book, with Debby's frown deepened at the corner of +his bushy eyebrow, and his fingers in his ears to shut out the baby's +cries that reached him from the bedroom. As soon as she caught sight of +what he was doing, Debby's hopes fell, for reckoning up the yearly +expenses always made him cross for a week. + +"Where are you off to now?" he asked, glancing up at her. + +"To the Fair. The boys are there to come home with me. And here," her +voice faltering, "is the change from the school-books." + +"Don't stay late," he replied, turning away and dropping the precious +money into his vest-pocket. + +With a bursting heart, Debby stumbled out into the windy starlight and +walked rapidly along the rough road, with her mittened fingers in her +mouth to prevent her crying aloud. + +How bitterly she wished she had never heard of the Fair! She was ashamed +to go back into the house with no reason for returning, yet the thought +of attending the Fair with no money to spend was torturing to her. + +"There's Debby! Merry Christmas! Ride with us! Jump in, Debby!" called +several voices, as a wagon full of boys and girls stopped beside her. + +"I don't want to; I'd rather walk," answered Debby, swallowing her sobs. + +"_Walk_, then!" replied Harry Williams, snapping his whip. "I guess you +got a switch in your stocking this morning!" + +Laughing thoughtlessly, the party rattled past her, leaving her crying +harder than before. But a walk full of dread comes to an end some time, +and Debby soon found herself at the entrance to the Fair. + +Slipping in behind a group of men, she stood confused by the light and +noise. + +It was a grand and exciting scene to the little country maiden, this +long, low room, trimmed with evergreens and flags, and illuminated by +all the lamps in the neighborhood. + +A table extended across each of three sides of the room. One, used for a +supper-table, was filled with people eating and drinking noisily; on +another was displayed the handiwork of the sewing society for the past +year; and the third, which appeared the most attractive, was laden with +cake, confectionery, and ice-cream. + +Debby rubbed her swollen eyes, and was gazing about her in admiring +astonishment, when her neighbor, Annie Williams, shouted "Merry +Christmas" in her ear. + +"Oh! Thank you," replied the startled Debby. + +"Come and take off your things," suggested Annie. "You may put them with +mine behind the apron and necktie end of the table. Mother tends that, +you know." + +Annie tucked the wraps carefully away, and then drew Debby through the +crowd over to the stove, screened off in the corner behind the +supper-table, where the good aunties of the village were heating their +faces and spotting their Sunday dresses while cooking oysters and making +coffee for the benefit of the church. But these ladies looked so annoyed +by seeing the girls stand around the stove that Debby hurried away. +Possibly they thought that the church would not be benefited by Debby's +warming her fingers and toes. + +Elbowing their way back, with arms clasped around each other's waist, +they encountered and stepped on the toes of a big German boy, who +convulsed them by pointing down at them with both forefingers, +exclaiming: "See the two craz-z-z-y! See the two craz-z-z-y!" And +Debby's laugh was as light-hearted as if she could buy everything in the +room, and her mother had nineteen silk dresses. + +"Now come and get some ice-cream," urged Annie, as they were pushed +toward it. "I have had three saucers, and think it is lovely. I ought to +be a judge, don't you think so?" + +"Not now," said Debby, hastily. "I want to look at the needle-books your +mother made." + +"It's pokey over there! But I'll humor you, because it is Christmas," +laughed Annie. + +So they dodged under elbows, and slipped between young men and their +sweethearts, until they reached the other end of the room, where Debby +admired pen-holders with spiders and mice on them, cushions representing +the old lady who lived in a shoe, and needle-books made like +wheelbarrows, wondering if there had been anything at the Centennial +more beautiful than these. But when a group of girls claimed Annie's +attention, she eagerly seized the opportunity to slip away and sit on +the bench behind Mrs. Williams's table. + +"Tired so soon?" inquired Mrs. Williams, kindly. "But why didn't your +mother come?" + +"She didn't have--I don't mean--I mean she didn't speak of coming," +stammered Debby, with burning cheeks. + +"Never mind," replied Mrs. Williams, "you will have a good time, I know; +and you must be sure to ride home with us." + +Soothed by her sympathetic words, Debby almost forgot her troubles, and +sat watching the moving picture with great amusement, until she espied +her brothers helping Mr. Williams pass the saucers of cream. + +"Oh, I hope they wont be tempted to _take_ any," she thought, her heart +full of a wordless prayer for them. But her anxiety was soon relieved by +seeing Sam forcing his way toward her with a plate of cream. + +"He gave it to me for helping," he whispered; "but you take it. Jim ate +his right up." + +"Eat it yourself, Sammy," she said, drawing back the hand she had +stretched out for it. "I don't care so _very_ much about it, because I +am older, you know." + +"Don't you, now, 'truly, truly, black and bluely, lay me down and cut me +in twoly?'" he asked, with the air of a magistrate about to "swear" a +witness. + +"I would very much rather you should eat it," evaded Debby. + +"Then I will," he answered, brightly, "for I _do_ want it awfully." + +"Eat it, then; but don't be tempted to take any," she cautioned. + +"Catch me taking--I'm not a thief!" and he hastened away. + +Debby was thirteen years old, but she could have cried for that +ice-cream. + +"Oh, _here_ you are at last!" cried Annie, running up to her a few +minutes afterward. "I couldn't imagine where you had got to. Now, just +read my letter," placing a tiny sheet of pink paper in her hand. "That +box all trimmed up at the end of the candy-table is the post-office," +she explained, "and we give them five cents and ask for a letter. Just +read mine." + +Debby read, written in a large, clear hand: + + "And shouldst thou ask my judgment of that which hath most profit + in the world, For answer take thou this: The prudent penning of a + letter." + +"It's lovely!" was Debby's comment. "If I should have one, I wonder what +it would be!" + +"I'll run and get you one," volunteered Annie. + +"No, no!" cried Debby, in terror. "I have no money to pay for it." + +"Have you spent it all so soon?" asked Annie, curiously. "But we must +go now and get our ice-cream; for, do you know, Mr. James has promised +to treat all our class. So come along, for the more we eat the richer +the church will grow." + +"No," refused Debby, shaking off Annie's hand, "I wont do any such +thing," and she shrank back into her corner. + +"How queerly you act! You wont do anything I ask you," pouted Annie, +turning away. + +"I couldn't take it," Debby excused to herself. "I want it so much that +I'd feel like a beggar in taking it from him. Annie can't understand, +because she has bought it for herself, and will only eat it now for fun. +I wish there was something for me to do." + +Her thought was scarcely finished before it was answered by Mrs. White, +in the handsome alpaca Debby's mother so admired. + +"What am I to do with this child?" she asked, stopping before Mrs. +Williams with a sleeping baby in her arms. "Phil wants me to go to +supper with him, but what can I do?" + +"I'll hold her," said Debby, eagerly. "I have a nice quiet place here." + +"Much obliged, I'm sure," answered Mrs. White, placing the baby +carefully in her arms. + +With something to take care of, Debby grew so comfortable that when Mrs. +White returned from supper she begged to keep the baby longer. + +"Every one is so busy here that I'd like to have something to do, too," +she said, arranging a paper so as to shade the baby's eyes from the +light, remembering with a throb of gratitude the oranges Mrs. White sent +her when she was sick last fall. + +"If you don't really care to run about, it would be a great favor to +me," returned Mrs. White, "for there are so many people here that I +shall not see again for a year, and I want to speak to them all. But a +baby is not the most convenient article to carry in a crowd." + +The handsome alpaca disappeared, and Debby kept her guard for an hour, +watching the young people who visited the post-office or joked over the +neckties and aprons. + +"Here's an industrious young lady who has had no supper," declared a +bald-headed old gentleman, stopping before her with a large bell in his +hand. + +"I've had my supper," quickly answered Debby. + +"I don't remember counting you at the table," he replied, wiping the +perspiration from his forehead as he passed on, loudly ringing the bell. + +"I didn't tell a story," sighed Debby, "for I've had my supper; but I'd +like people to think I'd had it here. It looks so nice to sit at the +table," she added, catching a glimpse of Annie's blue ribbons as she sat +at the table next her brother. + +"How thoughtless I _have_ been!" cried Mrs. White, returning in a +fluster. "I forgot all about you; you must be tired to death." + +"Only a little tired," said Debby, "and I am so glad to do anything for +you." + +"Well, you must come and see me," invited Mrs. White, with her mouth +full of pins, as she rolled the baby into a large shawl, "and perhaps I +can find something for you to read." + +But when Debby stood up she felt more stiff and tired than she had +acknowledged, and, fearing that she had stayed too late, she hurried on +her wraps, and with much persuasion induced her brothers to go home with +her. + +"It wouldn't do us any good to stay and see the auction," she reasoned, +closing the door upon the noisy scene with a heart lighter than when she +had entered it. "Now let us see how fast we can trot home in the +moonlight." + +Giving a hand to each of the boys, they walked swiftly toward the little +red farm-house, where, although their parents had retired, a lamp and a +bright fire awaited them. + +The kitchen seemed very quiet after the hubbub they had left, with the +clock on the stroke of nine and the cat asleep in the wood-box. + +There were three pieces of pumpkin-pie on the table, left as a lunch for +them, and these they ate, talking in whispers; and then Debby unfastened +the boys' neckties, and followed them upstairs, too tired and sleepy to +be very glad or very sorry about anything. + +But as she snuggled down under the blankets, with the "merry din" still +ringing in her ears, she thought: + +"I have not made much Christmas for any one to-day, but, when I'm +grown-up, _wont_ I make Merry Christmas for little girls!" + + +[Illustration: Chapter end decoration.] + + + + +THE COOLEST MAN IN RUSSIA. + +(_An Old Soldier's Reminiscence._) + +BY DAVID KER. + +[Illustration] + + +"I've seen many a brave man in my time, sure enough," said old Ivan +Starikoff, removing his short pipe to puff out a volume of smoke from +beneath his long white moustache. "Many and many a one have I seen; for, +thank Heaven, the children of holy Russia are never wanting in _that_ +way; but all of them put together wouldn't make one such man as our old +colonel, Count Pavel Petrovitch[1] Severin. It wasn't only that he faced +danger like a man,--all the others did that,--but he never seemed to +know that there _was_ any danger at all. It was as good as a +re-enforcement of ten battalions to have him among us in the thick of a +fight, and to see his grand, tall figure drawn up to its full height, +and his firm face and keen gray eye turned straight upon the smoke of +the enemy's line, as if defying them to hurt him. And when the very +earth was shaking with the cannonade, and balls were flying thick as +hail, and the hot, stifling smoke closed us in like the shadow of death, +with a flash and a roar breaking through it every now and then, and the +whole air filled with the rush of the shot, like the wind sweeping +through a forest in autumn,--then Petrovitch would light a cigarette and +hum a snatch of a song, as coolly as if he were at a dinner-party in the +English Club at Moscow. And it really seemed as if the bullets ran away +from _him_, instead of his running from them; for he never got hit. But +if he saw any of us beginning to waver, he would call out cheerily: +'Never fear, lads--remember what the song says!' For in those days we +had an old camp-song that we were fond of singing, and the chorus of it +was this: + + "'Then fear not swords that brightly shine, + Nor towers that grimly frown; + For God shall march before our line, + And tread our foemen down.' + +"He said this so often, that at last he got the nickname among us of +'Ne-Boisya' (Don't fear), and he deserved it, if ever man did yet. Why, +Father Nikolai Pavlovitch himself (the Emperor Nicholas) gave him the +Cross of St. George[2] with his own hand (the St. George from the +emperor's own hand--think of that!) at the siege of Varna, in the year +'28. You see, our battery had been terribly cut up by the Turkish fire, +so at last there were only about half a dozen of us left on our feet. It +was as hot work as I ever was in,--shot pelting, earth-works crumbling, +gabions crashing, guns and gun-carriages tumbling over together, men +falling on every side like leaves, till, all at once, a shot went slap +through our flag-staff, and down came the colors! + +"Quick as lightning, Pavel Petrovitch was up on the parapet, caught the +flag as it fell, and _held_ it, right in the face of all the Turkish +guns, while I and another man spliced the pole with our belts. You may +think how the unbelievers let fly at him when they saw him standing +there on the top of the breastwork, just as if he'd been set up for a +mark; and all at once I saw one fellow (an Albanian by his dress, and +you know what deadly shots _they_ are) creep along to the very angle of +the wall, and take steady aim at him! + +"I made a spring to drag the colonel down (I was his servant, you know, +and whoever hurt him hurt _me_); but before I could reach him I saw the +flash of the Albanian's piece, and Pavel Petrovitch's cap went spinning +into the air, with a hole right through it just above the forehead. And +what do you think the colonel did? Why, he just snapped his fingers at +the fellow, and called out to him, in some jibber-jabber tongue only fit +to talk to a Turk in: + +"'Can't you aim better than that, you fool? If _I_ were your officer, +I'd give you thirty lashes for wasting the government ammunition!' + +"Well, as I said, he got the St. George, and of course everbody +congratulated him, and there was a great shaking of hands, and giving of +good wishes, and drinking his health in _mavro tchai_,--that's a horrid +mess of eggs, and scraped cheese, and sour milk, and Moldavian wine, +which these Danube fellows have the impudence to call 'black tea,' as if +it was anything like the good old tea that we Russians drink at home! +(I've always thought, for my part, that tea ought to grow in Russia; for +it's a shame that those Chinese idolaters should have such grand stuff +all to themselves.) + +"Well, just in the height of the talk, Pavel Petrovitch takes the cross +off his neck, and holds it out in his hand--just so--and says: + +"'Well, gentlemen, you say I'm the coolest man in the regiment, but +perhaps everybody wouldn't agree with you. Now, just to show that I want +nothing but fair play, if I ever meet my match in that way, I'll give +him this cross of mine!' + +"Now, among the officers who stood around him was a young fellow who had +lately joined--a quiet, modest lad, quite a boy to look at, with light +curly hair, and a face as smooth as any lady's. But when he heard what +the colonel said, he looked up suddenly, and there came a flash from his +clear blue eyes like the sun striking a bayonet. And then I thought to +myself: + +"'It wont be an easy thing to match Pavel Petrovitch; but if it _can_ be +done, here's the man to do it!' + +"I think that campaign was the hardest I ever served. Before I was +enlisted, I had often heard it said that the Turks had no winter; but I +had always thought that this was only a 'yarn,' though, indeed, it would +be only a just judgment upon the unbelievers to lose the finest part of +the whole year. But when I went down there I found it true, sure enough. +Instead of a good, honest, cracking frost to freshen everything up, as +our proverb says, + + "'Na zimni kholod + Vsiaki molod'-- + +(in winter's cold every one is young), it was all chill, sneaking rain, +wetting us through and through, and making the hill-sides so slippery +that we could hardly climb them, and turning all the low grounds into a +regular lake of mud, through which it was a terrible job to drag our +cannon. Many a time in after days, when I've heard spruce young cadets +at home, who had never smelt powder in their lives, talking big about +'glorious war' and all that, I've said to myself, 'Aha, my fine fellows! +if you had been where _I_ have, marching for days and days over ankles +in mud, with nothing to eat but stale black bread, so hard that you had +to soak it before you could get it down; and if you'd had to drink water +through which hundreds of horses had just been trampling; and to +scramble up and down steep hills under a roasting sun, with your feet so +swollen and sore that every step was like a knife going into you; and to +lie all night in the rain, longing for the sun to rise that you might +dry yourself a bit,--perhaps _then_ you wouldn't talk quite so loud +about "glorious war!" + +"However, we drove the Turks across the Balkans at last, and got down to +Yamboli, a little town at the foot of the mountains, which commands the +high-road to Adrianople. And there the unbelievers made a stand, and +fought right well. I _will_ say that for 'em; for they knew that if +Adrianople were lost, all was over. But God fought for us, and we beat +them; though, indeed, with half our men sick, and our clothes all in +rags, and our arms rusted, and our powder mixed with sand by those +rogues of army-contractors, it was a wonder that we could fight at all. + +"Toward afternoon, just as the enemy were beginning to give way, I saw +Pavel Petrovitch (who was a general by this time) looking very hard at a +mortar-battery about a hundred yards to our right; and all at once he +struck his knee fiercely with his hand, and shouted: + +"'What do the fellows mean by firing like that? They might as well pelt +the Turks with potatoes! _I_'ll soon settle them! Here, Vanya (Ivan)!' + +"Away he went, I after him; and he burst into the battery like a storm, +and roared out: + +"'Where's the blockhead who commands this battery?' + +"A young officer stepped forward and saluted; and who should this be but +the light-haired lad with the blue eyes, whom I had noticed that night +at Varna. + +"'Well, you wont command it to-morrow, my fine fellow, for I'll have you +turned out this very day. Do you know that not a single shell that +you've thrown since I've been watching you has exploded at all?' + +"'With your excellency's leave,' said the young fellow, respectfully, +but pretty firmly too, 'the fault is none of mine. These fuses are +ill-made, and will not burn down to the powder.' + +"'Fuses!' roared the general. 'Don't talk to _me_ of fuses; I'm too old +for that rubbish! Isn't it enough for you to bungle your work, but you +must tell me a lie into the bargain?' + +"At the word 'lie,' the young officer's face seemed to turn red-hot all +in a moment, and I saw his hand clench as if he would drive his fingers +through the flesh. He made one stride to the heap of bomb-shells, and, +taking one up in his arms, struck a match on it. + +"'Now,' said he, quietly, 'your excellency can judge for yourself. I'm +going to light this fuse; if your excellency will please to stand by and +watch it burn, you will see whether I have "lied" or not.' + +"The general started, as well he might. Not that he was afraid--you may +be pretty sure of _that_; but to hear this quiet, bashful lad, who +looked as if he had nothing in him, coolly propose to hold a lighted +shell in his arms to see if it would go off, and ask _him_ to stand by +and watch it, was enough to startle anybody. However, he wasn't one to +think twice about accepting a challenge; so he folded his arms and stood +there like a statue. The young officer lighted the fuse, and it began to +burn. + +"As for me and the other men, you may fancy what _we_ felt like. Of +course, we couldn't run while our officers were standing their ground; +but we knew that if the shell _did_ go off, it would blow every man of +us to bits, and it wasn't pleasant to have to stand still and wait for +it. I saw the men set their teeth hard as the flame caught the fuse; and +as for me, I wished with all my heart and soul that if there _were_ any +good fuses in the heap, this might turn out to be one of the bad ones! + +"But no--it burned away merrily enough, and came down, and down, and +down, nearer and nearer to the powder! The young officer never moved a +muscle, but stood looking steadily at the general, and the general at +him. At last, the red spark got close to the metal of the shell; and +then I shut my eyes, and prayed God to receive my soul. + +"Just at that moment, I heard the man next me give a quick gasp, as if +he had just come up from a plunge under water; and I opened my eyes +again just in time to see the fuse _out_, and the young officer letting +drop the shell at the general's feet, without a word. + +"For a moment, the general stood stock still, looking as if he didn't +quite know whether to knock the young fellow down, or to hug him in his +arms like a son; but, at last, he held out his hand to him, saying: + +"'Well, it's a true proverb, that every one meets his match some day; +and I've met mine to-day, there's no denying it. There's the St. George +for you, my boy, and right well you deserve it; for if I'm "the coolest +man in the regiment," you're the coolest in all Russia!' + +"And so said all the rest, when the story got abroad; and the +commander-in-chief himself, the great Count Diebitsch, sent for the lad, +and said a few kind words to him that made his face flush up like a +young girl's. But in after days he became one of the best officers we +ever had; and I've seen him, with my own eyes, complimented by the +emperor himself, in presence of the whole army. And from that day forth, +the whole lot of us, officers and men alike, never spoke of him by any +other name but _Khladnokrovni_ ('the cool-blooded one')." + +NOTE.--Two other versions of this story, differing somewhat in detail, +are current in the Russian army; but the one in the text is the more +probable, as well as the more generally received. + +[Footnote 1: Indecipherable in original text.] + +[Footnote 2: The highest Russian decoration.] + + + + +SKATING + +BY THEODORE WINTHROP. + +[Never before printed.] + + + A BOUNDING gallop is good + Over wide plains; + A wild free sail is good + 'Mid gales and rains; + A dashing dance is good + Broad halls along, + Clasping and whirling on + Through the gay throng. + But better than these, + When the great lakes freeze, + By the clear sharp light + Of a starry night, + O'er the ice spinning + With a long free sweep, + Cutting and ringing + Forward we keep! + On 'round and around, + With a sharp clear sound, + To fly like a fish in the sea!-- + Ah, this is the sport for me! + + + + +THREE SMART LITTLE FOXES. + + +There were once three little foxes who lived in a hole in a bank. It was +a large, comfortable hole, and these three little foxes (two of them +were brothers and one was a sister) could lie down and put their heads +out of the hole, and see what was going on in the neighborhood. + +One afternoon one of the brother foxes slipped out by himself for a +little walk, and when he came back he called the other two, and said: +"Oh, come here! I will show you something, and tell you all about it." + +So they all lay down close together, and looked out of the hole. + +"Now then," said the brother fox who had been out, "you see that fence +down there?" + +"Oh yes," said his brother and sister. + +"Well, on the other side of that fence is a splendid chicken-yard. I +went down there and saw it myself. I peeped through the fence. And in +that yard there is a row of chicken-coops, all with chickens in." + +"Oh!" said the others. They began to feel hungry already. + +"Yes, all with chickens in, and I heard a little girl say that the row +of coops was called Pullet Row, Chicken Avenue, and that all the houses +were taken. The first coop had an old hen and eleven little puffy +chickens in it, and the second one held a whole lot of small chickens +who were big enough to take care of themselves; and the next coop had in +it an old rooster who had hurt his foot, and who had to be shut up. I +think it's funny that neither mother nor father ever found out this +splendid chicken-yard, so near us too! As soon as it gets to be a little +dark we must go down there and get some of those chickens." + +"All right," said the sister fox; "we'll go, and I'll take the first +coop with the little chickens." + +"And I'll take the coop with the young chickens who are big enough to +take-care of themselves," said one of the brother foxes. + +"I'll take the big old rooster," said the other brother fox. "I like +lots of chickens when I eat any." + +At the back of the hole the old Mother Fox was lying down. Her children +thought she was asleep, but she was not, and she heard all that they had +been talking about. + +She now came forward and said: "That is certainly a very nice place that +you see down there, and you, my son, were very smart, no doubt, to +discover it. But when you go down there, this evening, take a look at a +small house near the chicken-yard. A dog lives there--a big black and +white fellow--named Bruce. He is let into the chicken-yard every night +at dark. If you think that he wont see you, when you go inside, or that +he can't run fast enough to catch you, it might be a very good idea for +you to go down there this evening and get some chickens." + +[Illustration: THE THREE SMART LITTLE FOXES.] + +The three little foxes looked at each other, and concluded that they +would not go. It was a long time after that before they were heard to +boast of being smarter than their father and mother. + +[Illustration: Jack in the pulpit.] + + + + +JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT. + + +Happy 1878! Happy New Year to all Jack's little friends! And now let us +begin our year's talk with something about + +A GARDEN IN WINTER. + +Deacon Green took a ride early last month, my dears, and he tells me of +a wonderful garden which he saw from a window as he went whirling by on +a railroad. + +Can you guess what was growing in a garden in December? + +No, it was not in a Southern State; so your guess of oranges isn't +right--though they tell me that oranges do grow in winter-time in +Florida. + +It was a garden of Christmas-trees, set out in even rows, and looking as +spruce and gay and happy as if they knew that they were almost old +enough to hold a candle in each of their thousand hands, and a bright +gift or token of good-will on each of their thousand arms. I fancy that +the gardener who has his mind filled with the care of a garden of +Christmas-trees must be a very cheery, kind-hearted fellow indeed. Don't +you? + + +OVENS IN THE FIELDS. + +In Mecklenburg, Northern Germany, as I'm told, fuel is scarce and dear: +and, as the peasants are very poor, they take an odd way to save wood. +It is this: + +Each village has one or two large ovens in which the baking for a number +of people can be done at one time. These ovens look from a little +distance as if they were small hillocks, and they are built in the open +fields. Why they are placed away from the village I was not told; but I +would like to know. They have very much the look of underground +dairy-cellars, and are built of great stones covered with turf. One or +two men can go into an oven quite comfortably. + +In each oven a great fire is made, to heat the stones, and when these +are hot enough the fire and ashes are swept out, and the bread is put in +to bake. Then a stone door is put over the mouth until it is time to +take out the loaves. There is no chimney or opening, and the heat stays +in well--even for some time after the bread has been taken out; so that +it is no strange thing for a belated traveler to use the shelter or +warmth of one of these empty ovens on some cold and stormy night when +far from his home. + +So much for fire-places out-of-doors. Now for a word about + + +PERSIAN STOVES. + +I've just heard of the queer way the Persians have of keeping themselves +warm in their houses during cold weather. They place in the middle of +the room a pan of burning charcoal under a sort of table or frame which +holds up a large wadded quilt that reaches the floor on all sides, like +a tent. This must look almost like keeping the fire warm. Then the +family sit around the droll stove, with their legs and arms under the +quilt; and when they wish to go to sleep, they put themselves half under +the quilt, and so keep nice and warm until the morning. That's easy +enough for Persians to do, because, as I'm told, they never undress at +night, but just roll themselves in coverings and lie down anywhere. + +Perhaps you would not find such arrangements in your homes quite as +comfortable as soft beds and cozy blankets in well-warmed rooms. +However, the Persian winter is not as cold as ours, I suppose. + + +LIGHT THROUGH METAL. + +Here's an odd thing! My wise old wide-awake friend the owl tells me that +a Yale College professor has found out a way to make a layer of metal so +thin that it will readily show the color of a light-beam sent through +it. That professor will be showing us how to see through a mill-stone +next, may be. + + +GOOD AS AN EXPERIMENT. + + Dear Jack: I have a little friend, called Jack, too, who is + generally the most sweet-tempered boy I know. But one day he came + to play in my rooms, as usual, for I always keep his toys there, in + repair and order. He soon grew tired of them, and came to me for a + story. I was busy with reading, and refused, telling him to wait + until I had leisure. Then he grew impatient, and put my book down + with a coaxing "_Please_, Fred." I could not humor him then, and + gently told him to stop. Then--I am sorry to say it--he became very + angry, and gave me a blow in my face. Now, Jack, don't pass your + sentence yet--remember, it was the first and _only_ act of that + kind. But guess what I did. + + I stooped over him and kissed him, saying: "Is this my little boy?" + He looked at me and went into a corner--ashamed and weeping. Was + not that a sweet victory? I wish some little sisters or brothers + would try it. You may believe me this is truth. Some future day I + will tell you how I made him some toys.--Yours, + +FRED. + + + + +EDIBLE NESTS. + +Did you ever hear of such an article of food as bird's-nest soup? Well, +this soup does not take its name from its looks, as bird's-nest pudding +gets its title, but it is actually made from real birds'-nests. + +In the island of Java, I'm told, there is a species of sea-swallow +which makes a nest much like that of our chimney-swallow, and fastens it +to the rocky walls of caves. These nests are made almost entirely of a +glue-like substance, mixed with a little grass or hair and a few sticks, +and they are carefully gathered and sent to China, where they are sold +as food. + +The nests are soaked in water until the glue becomes soft, when the +sticks and straws are picked out and thrown away. The jelly which +remains is then dried and preserved, to be used in making the +bird's-nest soup. This is considered a great delicacy, and the nests are +sold in the Chinese markets for twenty-five dollars a pound. Of course, +at this price, none but rich folks can indulge in them, and they are +therefore a very fashionable dish. Although they are usually made into +soup, they are sometimes cooked in other ways. + +[Illustration: JAVA SEA-SWALLOWS AND NESTS.] + +It's my opinion that the nest of the chimney-swallow might be used as +food in the same way; for although it has more sticks and hay in it than +the edible nest, there is a good deal of glue, too, and each nest might +yield quite a large pot of soup. If the time shall ever come when our +own country will have as many people in it as there are in China at the +present time, many things little thought of now will be turned to use as +articles of food. But at present there is no need of robbing the birds; +so let them keep cheerful while they may, poor dears! + + +BIRD RAILROAD-TRAVELERS. + +Now that we're talking about birds'-nests, I may as well tell you some +news that has come to me all the way from East Cosham, in Hampshire, +England. + +On a small piece of frame-work under a third-class "smoking" carriage on +the London and South-Western Railway, a water-wagtail built her nest and +reared a young and thriving family of four. The train traveled regularly +about forty miles a day, and the station-master at East Cosham says +that, during every absence of it, the male bird kept close to the spot, +awaiting with great anxiety the return of his wayfaring family. + +Now, in my opinion, that water-wagtail mother made a queer choice for +her home-place. But if the little ones get no other advantage from it, +they are sure to be well trained. What do you think about it, my +chicks? + + + + +THE LETTER-BOX. + + +The following is Dr. J. G. Holland's answer to his "Double Riddle," +published in our last number: + + La, man! I see your little game: + 'Tis "la" itself in song or aria + That piercing dear Maria's name + Transforms it to _Malaria_. + And "la" itself, as all men know, + Raises the _sol_ to _si_ and _do_. + + * * * * * + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have made up a nice little story, and I want you to +know it. It is called "Laziness." + +Once upon a time there was a little boy and his name was James. He was +very lazy. One day he was going out to play when his mother called him +back. "James," said she, "I went up to your room to make your bed, for +the maid was too busy, and your room is very disorderly. Unless you +promise to keep it in order, and have it in order by next week, I will +send you from home. I am very sorry to say this; but it must be said. +Now you may go; that is all I wanted you for." Next week came very soon, +and the room was still in disorder. The mother went up and looked in; +she threw herself on her knees, and prayed that Heaven would not let her +send her boy away. James went away, and his mother never saw him again. + +Now, children, learn a lesson from this, and don't be driven from home +by laziness. + +I am eleven years old, and I want you to give my love to +Jack-in-the-Pulpit and the School-mistress. + +JENNIE MOORE. + + * * * * * + +THE BLIND-CLERK'S PUZZLE. + +This is what the "Blind-clerk" made of the puzzling address that M. B. +T. gave in a letter to Jack-in-the-Pulpit, published last month: + + "Servant Girl, No. 40 Queen's parade, London." + +And that turned out to be the right address, too. Another friend says +that this same blind-clerk once had referred to him a letter addressed +like this: + + "To my uncle tom, london." + +That was too much. The letter never reached "my uncle tom." + + * * * * * + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have taken ST. NICHOLAS for several years, and like +it better every year. I often read over the old numbers, and find many +things that seem almost new to me. One of these was "John Spooner's +Human Menagerie," in the number for April, 1875, and I have been trying +to get up a "menagerie" like John's. I can make most of the wonderful +living curiosities, but I do not know how to make a curtain that will +"go up with a flourish." I have made one to draw sideways, but I want +one to go up. Please inform me how to construct it.--Yours truly, + +FRED R. MARTIN. + +Here is a tolerably easy way to make a stage-curtain that will "go up +with a flourish," and come down either quickly or slowly, as may be +wished. It is easily kept in order, and readily repaired when damaged. + +Above the stage, at the front, set up a stout cross-beam. Let the +curtain be of some opaque stuff that will fold well. Fasten its upper +edge firmly to the front of the cross-beam. Weight the lower edge of the +curtain with a long roller some inches wider than the curtain. Sew to +the curtain, on its wrong side, perpendicular rows of rings set at +suitable distances apart, and in level lines across. The more rows, the +more evenly will the curtain fold. Tie a strong thin cord about the +roller in a line with each perpendicular row of rings, and pass each +cord through its proper rings. On the bottom of the cross-beam above the +several rows of rings, fasten large smooth rings to be used instead of +pullies. Pass the cords up through the large rings, and gather them at +one end of the beam. Then fasten the ends of the cords to a rope, taking +care while doing this that the curtain is down, and hanging properly, +and that all the cords are drawn equally tense. There should be a stout +pin or hook at the side of the curtain, to which the rope is to be +fastened when the curtain is drawn up. Take notice that the cords are of +different lengths and must be free from knots. The curtain should not +touch the stage, and may be kept in place by fixing the ends of the +roller in iron rings or between pegs. + + * * * * * + +TWO WAYS OF CARRYING THE MAIL. + +The frontispiece to this number of ST. NICHOLAS shows how the mails were +carried in winter over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada before +the Union Pacific Railroad was finished (1869), and how they are carried +now. In 1867, to the perils of the snow and wind and of mountain travel, +were added dangers from desperadoes, white as well as red, so that mail +deliveries were few and far between, and very irregular, while too often +both the carriers and their packs were lost. Slow as the old way was, +however, the snow sometimes makes the new way even slower. In spite of +miles and miles of snow-sheds and snow-fences, and ever so many steam +snow-plows, the railroad is blocked now and then until a way can be dug +through huge heaps of drift. Thus, sometimes, whole days are lost on the +steam road, when a man might be speeding and coasting on his queer +foot-gear, over the snow-crust like the wind, to reach the destination +perhaps a week ahead of the snorting snowed-up monster. However, year by +year, as sheds and fences and other preventions are multiplied, railroad +delays caused by snow become fewer and fewer. + + * * * * * + +Georgetown, D. C. + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I was so much pleased with the little figure of a nun +in the November number, that I made eight like it. I have been taking +the ST. NICHOLAS ever since it came out, and think it gets nicer every +time it is published. I am not quite seven years old, but I composed all +of this letter. + +JOHN WM. MITCHELL. + + * * * * * + +MY VERY DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We really don't know what we should do +without you. We took the "Young Folks" for a great many years, and have +taken you ever since you were first established. + +We went, a short time ago, to see a man who swallowed swords for a +profession. Now, can any of our ST. NICHOLAS friends tell us whether he +really swallowed them or not, and explain how it is done?--Your loving +friends and devoted readers, + + FANNIE CHANDLER, + MARY WHITE. + + * * * * * + +Painesville, Ohio. + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: My children learn the names of English kings and +queens, the books of the Old Testament in their order, and other matters +of importance to remember, through having found and committed to memory +certain rhymes containing them. I have seen several embodying the books +of the New Testament, but they all have been too difficult or long for +children to learn. I inclose an easy one, written for my own children +which may prove useful to your large family of young folks. + +W. + +BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + In the New Testament we find + Matthew and Mark leading, + With St. Luke and St. John + The books next succeeding. + Acts and Romans have place + Before Corinthians and Galatians; + In them we can trace + Good news for all nations. + Ephesians and Philippians + In order are next; + Colossians, Thessalonians, + With hard names and good text. + Timothy, Titus, and Philemon + Fill up some pages, + And with Hebrews continue + The lessons of ages. + James, Peter, and John + Finish then the good story + With Jude, and Revelations + To add to its glory. + + * * * * * + +Mount Desert. + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have seen a good many receipts for candy in the +"Letter-Box," but not one for chocolate creams. Here is one I have tried +a great many times, and it has always been successful: + +Two cups of sugar to half a cup of boiling water. Put on the stove, and +let it boil ten minutes. Grate a quarter of a square of Baker's +chocolate. Place this on the top of a steaming-kettle; leave it there +until soft. Meanwhile, take off the cream and beat it until perfectly +white. Roll into little round balls, and dip them in the chocolate. Put +the balls into a dish, and set them away to cool. + +Hoping you will print this receipt, I remain your devoted admirer, + +CAROLINE G. BLODGET. + +P. S.--The sugar must be powdered. + + * * * * * + +MOLLIE.--We do not know. One always has to make sure, too, that no speck +of envy lurks in the wish to have justice done. + + * * * * * + +A friend sends us the following Kindergarten song: + +THE TIME-TABLE. + +[Illustration: 4 lines of music.] + + + One, two, three! + Now please listen to me: + A minute is sixty seconds long; + Sixty minutes to an hour belong. + One, two, three! + Learning is easy, you see. + + Four, five, six! + 'Tis easy as picking up sticks. + Twenty-four hours make one long day; + Seven days in a week we say. + One, two, three! + Learning is easy, you see. + + Seven, eight, nine! + Never cry or whine. + The years are only twelve months long; + There is no time for doing wrong. + One, two, three! + Learning is easy, you see. + + Tick, tack, tock! + Only look at the clock. + He works away the whole day long, + And every hour he sings a song. + Ding, dong, ding! + So we'll work and sing. + + A. E. L. + + * * * * * + +Elizabeth, N. J. + +MY DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Would you please tell me something about the +Drawing Classes of the School of Design at the Cooper Institute; and +what forms have to be gone through before a pupil can enter; and how old +a pupil has to be? Good-by, dear ST. NICHOLAS.--Your faithful reader, + +SARAH D. O. + +The "Woman's Art School" of the Cooper Union, about which Sarah D. O. +makes inquiry, is for pupils between the ages of sixteen and +thirty-five. + +Applications for admission should be made, personally or in writing, to +the Principal, Mrs. Sarah N. Carter, giving a responsible written +reference as to character, fitness, etc. + +The free school holds session from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There is a "paying" +class that meets three times a week in the afternoon, under the charge +of the first assistant in drawing of the "Woman's Art School" and of the +clerk of the school, and the general superintendence of the principal. +But the "paying" class is only for those who wish to study art merely as +an accomplishment. + + * * * * * + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I thought you would like to hear about a little girl +who is very fond of you. She always took ST. NICHOLAS until last autumn, +then the times were so hard we were unable to get it for her; so she has +read and re-read the old ones. Mamma has been sick a great deal for two +years, and Agnes, who is ten years old and the oldest of the family, +has learned to do a great many things. She can make bread, biscuit, pies +and cake,--but her chief accomplishment is toast-making. Last fall, when +berries were ripe, she picked and dried some currants, raspberries and +blackberries, and put them carefully away. Ever since, when any one is +sick, she puts some of her berries in a cup and cooks them nicely; then +she makes such a nice piece of toast, so delicate, never scorched or +raw. She has no fruit-closet of delicacies to go to, but the common +things she has are so nicely prepared that they become luxurious, and +often make mamma think of Bayard Taylor's little rhymes about mush and +milk, a couplet of which reads: + + "And common things that seem most nigh, + Both purse and heart may satisfy." + +Her little brother, eighteen months old, claims much of her care, and in +return loves her as much as he does mamma. He calls her Tee, and misses +her sadly if she is out of sight an hour. + +When Agnes was three years old, she said one day: + +"Papa, how I love you!" + +"What makes you love him? See how homely he is," teasingly answered +mamma. + +The little one took a good look at papa, and throwing her arms around +his neck again, she said: + +"Well, he's pretty in his heart." + +Mamma thinks the little girl who can be so thoughtful for ever-tired +mamma, so kind to the sick, and so tender of little baby brother, must +be pretty in her heart. + +AGNES'S MOTHER. + + * * * * * + +Here is an enigma made by a little girl eight years of age: + +CROSS-WORD ENIGMA. + + My first is in spin, but not in weave; + My second in part, but not in leave; + My third is in rain, but not in storm; + My fourth in chilly, but not in warm; + My fifth in hen, but not in coop; + My whole is a country of Europe. + +Answer: Spain. + + * * * * * + +Easton, Md. + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Will you please tell me from which of Shakspeare's +plays the following quotation is taken? + +"Sweet are the uses of adversity, +Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, +Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." + +--Yours truly, + +MARY H. WILSON. + +The quotation is from "As You Like It," Act II., Scene 1.; and the whole +passage reads: + + "Sweet are the uses of adversity, + Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, + Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; + And this our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, + Sermons in stones, and good in everything." + +The beauty is marred, and the aptness of the illustration is lost sight +of, by omitting the second half of this admirable sentence; therefore we +quote it entire. + + * * * * * + +"Fairfax," San Rafael, Cal. + +DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have seen letters from San Francisco, Oakland, and +other places in California, but I do not think any one has written to +you from San Rafael, a beautiful little town near San Francisco. + +"Fairfax" is about three miles from the town. The ride here is very +pleasant, especially in winter and spring time, when the hills are green +and the wild flowers are in bloom. + +The house resembles the old Fairfax house in Virginia, called Greenway +Court, except that this is perhaps more rambling and the other lacks our +wide-spreading bay-trees. It faces the garden and orchard, and beyond +these is the hill, a mine of wonder and beauty. + +We all enjoy climbing that hill and looking for ferns. In some parts we +hardly dare step, for fear of crushing something beautiful. We look down +upon a bank of green moss, and find snowy, shell-like fungi, so delicate +that we hold our breath lest they should float away. Farther on are +orange-colored ones, and some shaped like callas, translucent, and in +color a pale pink carnelian. Wandering on, we enter a grove of +pine-trees, in the midst of which a spring is bubbling up, and the +ground is covered with a carpet of ferns, mosses, and wild flowers. By +the time we are ready to go home, our baskets are well filled; and then, +after we get home, we have the delight of arranging the flowers and +ferns, examining the fungi with the microscope, and preparing imposing +baskets of specimens to send to two delightful members of the Academy of +Science in San Francisco, who are making fungi a specialty in their +researches. + +One day last summer my brother came running into the house, saying, in +a very loud whisper, "There's a deer in the creek! There's a deer in the +creek!" We all rushed out in time to see Uncle George, up to his waist +in water, struggling with an immense buck. The dogs were there, too, +barking as loudly as they could. It was very exciting. My sympathies +were entirely with the deer, who made a noble fight before he was +conquered. Deer are plentiful around here. Often we are awakened by the +baying of the deer-hounds, and we can see the hunting parties on their +horses galloping over the hill, and the dogs running to and fro. + +The boys catch a good many large fish in our creek, and my uncle once +caught a ten-pound salmon-trout that was very pretty; it had two +delicate pink bands running along its sides. + +The hills are crimson, a little before Christmas, with a holly peculiar +to California; and we have many merry excursions in a wagon that we +children call our "chariot," in which we go to gather holly for our +Christmas festivities. + +I have written too much, and yet I would like to tell more, our days are +so full of pleasant change.--Your affectionate reader, + +MAY D. BIGELOW (fifteen years old). + + * * * * * + +Answers to Puzzles in the November Number were received, previous to +November 18, from Annie Longfellow, "Bess," "Isola," "Bessie and her +Cousin," "Helen of Troy," W. M. B., Nessie E. Stevens, "Winnie," +Florence L. Turrill, James J. Ormsbee, Annie Forbush and Emma Elliott, +Grace G. Chandler, Carrie Speiden and Mary F. Speiden, F. A. G. Cameron, +Fred M. Pease, Geo. J. Fiske, Geo. Herbert White, "Sidonie," Louise +Gilman, Clelia Duel Mosher, Mamie L. Holbrook, Ellie Hewitt, Fannie W., +"Croghan, Jr.," Anna E. Mathewson, Eddie Bryan, and Allie Bertram. + + * * * * * + +BOOKS RECEIVED. + +Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Vol. IV. (My Girls, etc.), published by Messrs. +Roberts Brothers, Boston, is the fourth book in this deservedly popular +series of short stories by Miss Louisa M. Alcott. The tales are full of +freshness, humor, and wholesome thought, with inimitable touches of +playful fancy and tenderness such as have established Miss Alcott's +loving rule over the hearts of her readers. Boys as well as girls will +find plenty to enjoy in these twelve delightful scraps from Aunt Jo's +bag, and,--but readers of ST. NICHOLAS need no recommendation to them +of anything that Miss Alcott has written. There are some pretty +illustrations to the book, and the price is one dollar. + +From the same publishers we have received also: TOM, A HOME-STORY, by +George L. Chaney, illustrated, $1.25; A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER +TALES, by Juliana Horatia Ewing, illustrated, $1.25; JOLLY GOOD TIMES AT +SCHOOL--ALSO SOME TIMES NOT QUITE SO JOLLY, by P. Thorne, illustrated, +$1.25. + +A new book by the author of "Helen's Babies" is now to be obtained. It +is called BUDGE AND TODDIE, THEIR HAPS AND MISHAPS, and is an +illustrated edition of "Other People's Children." The designs are by +Lucy G. Morse. + +Boys will be glad to hear of a good book, EVERY-DAY EXPERIENCES AT ETON, +by a present Eton boy, published by George R. Lockwood, of New York. It +is a hearty and amusing story, giving, with very slight exaggeration, a +faithful account of life in the English public-school at Eton. + +SPENSER FOR CHILDREN, published by Chatto & Windus, of London; Scribner, +Armstrong & Co., New York. A beautiful book, illustrated with several +fine colored plates, and relating in simple prose the chief incidents of +Spenser's great poem. + +From Messrs. Baker, Pratt & Co., New York, we have LILLIPUT LAND; OR, +THE CHILDREN'S PEEP-SHOW. This is a collection of serials, short +stories, poems, music, and pictures, adapted to interest and instruct +young folks. It is edited by the author of "Lilliput Levee." Price, +$1.25. + +Messrs. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, send us HAPPY DAYS, a very +pleasant book, full of pictures, tales and verses, for boys and girls. +Several of the articles are by well-known writers, and the contents, as +a whole, are bright, wholesome, and entertaining. + +From the American Tract Society, New York, we have received DOLLY'S NEW +SHOES, AND SOME OF THE PLACES THEY WENT TO, price 30 cents, postage 2 +cents; DAUGHTERS OF ARMENIA, by Mrs. S. A. Wheeler, Missionary in +Turkey, price 90 cents, postage 6 cents; ALMOST A MAN, by S. Annie +Frost, with illustrations by Arthur Burdett Frost, price $1, postage 8 +cents; GRACE ASHLEIGH'S LIFE-WORK, illustrated, price $1, postage 8 +cents; and DEAR OLD STORIES TOLD ONCE MORE, forty Bible stories, in +large type, and with illustrations by "Faith Latimer." + + +BOOKMARK + +THE RIDDLE-BOX. + + +=DOUBLE ACROSTIC.= + +The initials read downward and the finals upward will give the names of +two countries in Europe. + +1. A beam of light. 2. To join. 3. To pillage. 4. An article of food. 5. +What merchants write. 6. An insect. + +A. R. + + +=HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.= + +ACROSS: 1. Calls. 2. A number. 3. A consonant. 4. A river. 5. Wounds. +DIAGONALS: Sharpens and transmits. CENTRAL: Interior. + +CYRIL DEANE. + + +=DECAPITATIONS.= + +1. Behead a kind of nut, and leave a kind of grain. 2. Behead a small +stream, and leave a bird. 3. Behead another bird, and leave a gardener's +implement. 4. Behead a musical instrument, and leave another musical +instrument. 5. Behead a carpenter's tool, and leave a narrow passage. 6. +Behead part of a wagon, and leave a part of the body. 7. Behead another +part of the body, and leave a tree. 8. Behead an edible fish, and leave +the defeat of an army. 9. Behead a dried fruit, and leave an ancient +alphabetic letter. + +ISOLA. + + +=DIAGONAL PUZZLE.= + +Diagonals, from left to right, a part of the year. Seven words. Fill the +blanks in the sentence with appropriate words; and written under each +other in the order given, they will give the diagonal. + +As ---- is more abundant than ---- in this season when Love ---- her altar +fires anew, may this joy go through the ---- year, bearing you +constant ----; so that, looking back at its close, you can say: "1878 ---- +to have been one prolonged ----." + +J. P. + + +=DOUBLE-PUZZLE.= + +CENTRAL SYNCOPATIONS. + +1. Syncopate mad, and leave what soldiers often make. 2. Syncopate part +of a house, and leave to move. 3. Syncopate speed, and leave anger. 4. +Syncopate to soak, and leave a gait. 5. Syncopate a river, and leave a +rank. 6. Syncopate a particle, and leave a laugh. 7. Syncopate openings, +and leave farming implements. 8. Syncopate baked clay, and leave +fastenings. + +The letters that have been syncopated, read downward, will make two +words which you must find in the following + +CROSS-WORD ENIGMA. + + 1. In brook, but not in sea; + 2. In slave, but not in free; + 3. In lose, but not in find; + 4. In heed, but not in mind; + 5. In barn, but not in shed; + 6. In black, but not in red; + 7. In hill, but not in mound; + 8. In held, but not in bound. + What's the answer?--can you say? + 'Tis something boys much like to play. + +CYRIL DEANE. + + +=GEOGRAPHICAL TRANSPOSITIONS.= + +1. ---- ---- a good post at ----. 2. Did you notice the carved ---- in that +old cathedral door in ---- ? 3. ---- ---- with pleasure from Geneva, +for ----. 4. I took great ---- to witness these national games, when +in ----. 5. I found ---- gold in a mine in ----. 6. I could stand ---- in +the entrance to the cave in ----. 7. I have ---- interest in ---- than in +any other foreign city. + +B. + + +=OMNIBUS WORD.= + +In a word of five letters find: 1st. An hour-glass puzzle, the central +letters of which, read downward, signify to perform again; horizontally, +a symbol often used in writing, a beverage, a vowel, a performance, to +provide. 2d. A word-square containing a unit, a vehicle, an epoch. 3d. +Words to each of which one letter may be prefixed so as to form another +word: a preposition, an animal; a verb, a weed; a study, a vehicle; a +part of the body, a sign of sorrow. 4th. Words to fill appropriately the +blanks in each stanza below, by prefixing a letter to the first word, +when found to form the second, and by prefixing a letter to the second +to form the third: + + I would not heed so small an ----, + When dealing with one of his ----, + Or of my temper leave a ----. + + We asked him in; he sat and ---- + Of the ripe fruit at such a ----, + He lowered well the heaped up ----. + +H. H. D. + + +=ACCIDENTAL HIDINGS.= + +In these quotations find five girls' names, without transposing any +letters. + + "Of such as wandering near her secret bower, + Molest her ancient solitary reign."--_Gray._ + + "Where olive-leaves were twinkling in every wind that blew, + There sat beneath the pleasant shade a damsel of Peru."_Bryant._ + + "Slowly she raised her form of grace; + Her eyes no ray conceptive flung."--_Hogg._ + + "Stainless worth, + Such as the sternest age of virtue saw."--_Bryant._ + + +=PERSPECTIVE-CROSS PUZZLE.= + + ____1____ + | |\ + | | 19 + | | \ + 10 11 | + | | 12 + | | | + _____2_____| |__|__3_____ + | |\ + | | 20 + 13 14 \ + | | | + |_____4_____ _____5_____| | + \ | |\ \ 15 + 25 | | 22 21 | + \____6____| | \_____7_____\| + | | | + | | | + | | | + | | | + 16 17 | + | | 18 + | | | + | | | + | | | + | | | + |____8____| | + \ \ | + 24 23 | + \____9____\| + + +Each of the horizontal words is formed of five letters, excepting No. 6, +which has but three. Of the perpendiculars, Nos. 16, 17 and 18 have ten +letters each; No. 12 has three letters; and each of the other +perpendiculars has five letters. The slanting words have each three +letters. Each corner letter serves for every word that radiates from or +to its corner. + +MEANINGS OF THE DIFFERENT WORDS.--_Horizontals_: 1, Sublime; 2, an +engraving; 3, to trench; 4, occurrence; 5, a certain form of glass; 6, a +kind of fish; 7, large; 8, a yard; 9, concise. _Perpendiculars_: 10, An +article of dress; 11, solemn; 12, hitherto; 13, to make sure; 14, a +Turkish institution; 15, to establish; 16, magical; 17, advancement; 18, +tractable. _Diagonals_: 19, Sarcastic; 20, to jump; 21, did meet; 22, a +wooden fastening; 23, a part of the body; 24, a hammock; 25, a girl's +name. + +H. H. D. + + +=EASY SQUARE WORD.= + +1. An instrument for measuring time. 2. A title among the ancient +Peruvians. 3. Sour. 4. To load. + +PLUTO. + + +=NUMERICAL ENIGMA.= + +When we went to the 123456 789, the others had contrived to 123456789 us +in picking nuts. + +CYRIL DEANE. + + +=FRAME PUZZLE.= + + + - - + - - + - - o - - - o - - + - - + - - + - - + - - o - - - o - - + - - + - - + + + +Make the frame of four words of nine letters each, so that there shall +be the same letter of the alphabet at each of the four corners where the +words intersect. That letter being indicated (o, in this puzzle), gives +the clue. + +Upper horizontal line, a pigeon; lower horizontal line, a kind of grain. +Left perpendicular line, without a name; right perpendicular line, +without fragrance. + +B. + + +=CHARADE.= + + My first of Roman origin you see, + Whose purport illustrates the century; + Means light for blind men; restless as a sprite; + The sailor's trust; the prelate's dear delight. + + My second heads a small but mighty band, + Whose power pervades and elevates the land: + Indefinite enough, yet, once defined, + It is a thing no language leaves behind. + + My third consoles, and cheers in anguish deep, + And oft, like great Macbeth, hath "murdered sleep." + Dear to the maiden's heart when dry and dead, + Its beauty and its bloom forever fled. + Yet even then what lips its charm rehearse! + What poets chant it in their genial verse! + + My whole how soft, how silent and how fleet! + Female, yet masculine, its aspect sweet. + Tinted as fair as clouds that deck the sky, + Or stainless as the snows that round us lie; + Bright as the saffron tints of dawning light, + Or darker than the stormy depths of night. + A prince's bride; the treasure of a lad; + And yet biographer it never had. + For he who writes its life must ever use + Volumes to celebrate each separate muse. + Fierce, fond, and treacherous, full of songs and wails, + The hero of a thousand fights and tales; + The love of ladies and the scorn of men; + The shame of England's arms. Oh guess me then! + +ROSE TERRY COOKE. + + +=WORDS ENIGMATICALLY EXPRESSED.= + +These are a source of great amusement, whether written or acted. To +illustrate the latter, you will, for instance, throw your muff under the +table, and ask, "What word does that represent?" Perhaps some one will +suggest "Muffin." "No--'fur-below.'" Tie your handkerchief tightly +around the neck of some statuette--"Artichoke"--etc. In writing or +speaking a sentence to illustrate a word, the most ridiculous will +sometimes provoke the most mirth. We will give an illustration of one +pretty far-fetched, but allowable: "Mister, please come here and make +this shell stand up on edge"--"Circumstantial (Sir-come-stan'-shell)." +"I encountered the doctor to-day"--("Metaphysician"). With this +introduction, I propose a few words for your consideration. + +1. Put an extremity into a jar. 2. Young ladies from Missouri. 3. A +cow's tail in fly-time. 4. That young sow cost twenty-one shillings +sterling. 5. A sham head-dress. 6. Victims to corns. 7. Oxidized iron on +a weapon. 8. "Where's the prisoner, Pat?" "Sure, your honor, he's taking +his breakfast." 9. "Come and cut our hair." 10. Deviate, fish. 11. A +goat. 12. Four. + +AUNT SUE. + + +=PICTORIAL CHRISTMAS PUZZLE.= + +[Illustration: Pictorial Puzzle.] + +The puzzle is an Anagram Enigma, rather difficult, and meant for +experienced puzzle-workers. The answer is the first line of a well-known +couplet relating to Christmas. + +Each of the numerals underneath the pictures represents a letter +belonging to that word of the answer indicated by the numeral,--(thus, 3 +indicates a letter of the third word; 7, a letter of the seventh word, +etc.),--and each collection of numerals represents a word which will +describe the picture above it. + +To solve the puzzle, find a word to describe each picture containing as +many letters as there are numerals beneath the picture. After all the +seven words have been thus found, select from them and group together +all the letters that in the numbering beneath the pictures are +designated by the same numeral (for, as already stated, all the letters +bearing the same numeral belong to that word of the answer which is +indicated by the numeral), and each group of these letters must be +transposed to form the word of the answer which corresponds with the +numeral of the group. + +Thus, the word "hay" has three letters and will describe the first +picture. After words have been found to describe the other pictures, the +selection must begin, and "h," the first letter of "hay," should be +placed in a group with all the other letters bearing the numeral 7 in +the numbering beneath the pictures; "a" should be grouped with all the +other letters designated by 2, and "y" with all those designated by 3; +and so on. + +When all the letters have been properly separated and grouped, transpose +all those letters belonging to group No. 1 into a word to form the first +word of the answer; those belonging to group No. 2 into the second word +of the answer, etc. + + + + +ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN DECEMBER NUMBER. + + +CHESS PUZZLE.--Begin at the word "Bind." The stanza reads: + + "Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines; + Curl me about, ye gadding vines; + And oh, so close your circles lace, + That I may never leave this place; + But lest your fetters prove too weak, + Ere I your silken bondage break, + Do you, O brambles, chain me too, + And, courteous briars, nail me through."--MARVELL. + +(Quoted by Elia in essay entitled "Blakesmoor in H---- shire.") + +EASY NUMERICAL ENIGMA.--Lowell. L, lo, low, owe, we, well, ell. + +A PLEA FOR SANTA CLAUS.--Merry Christmas. Take the third letter from the +beginning of each line, and read downward. + +MAGIC DOMINO SQUARE.--The diagram shows one method of arranging the +dominoes. But the puzzle can be solved by two or three other +arrangements. + + +-------+-------+-------+-------+ + | O O | O O | O O | O | + | O | O | | | + | O O | O O | O O | O | + +-------+-------+-------+-------+ + | O | O | O O | O O | + | O | O | | O O | + | O | O | O O | O O | + +-------+-------+-------+-------+ + | O O | O O O | O | O | + | | | O | O | + | O O | O O O | O | O | + +-------+-------+-------+-------+ + | O O | O | O O | O O | + | | | O | O | + | O O | O | O O | O O | + +-------+-------+-------+-------+ + + +BROKEN WORDS.--1. Inquires--in quires. 2. Western--we stern. 3. +Ashantee--a shanty. + +PICTORIAL QUADRUPLE ACROSTIC.--Stalagmites, Stalactites, Natural Cave, +Underground, 1. SNUfferS. 2. TANgenT. 3. ATDA. 3. LaUrEL. 4. AuRoRA. 5. +GGAC. 6. MeaL RaT. 7. IOdide CuprI. 8. TrUAnT. 9 ENVelopE. 10. SpaDES. +CHRISTMAS ENIGMA.--"He has more business than an English oven at +Christmas." + +AUTHORS' NAMES.--1. Mulock (mew, loch). 2. Edgeworth (edge worth). 3. +Thackeray (T hack ray). 4. Carlyle (Carl isle). 5. Charles Reade +(Charles read). 6. Ruskin (rusk inn). 7. Gaskell (gas K ell). 8. Hale. +9. Macaulay (Mac awl ay). 10. Victor Hugo (victor hug O). 11. Prescott +(press cot). 12. Whitney (whit neigh). 13. Braddon (brad don). 14. +Alcott (Al cot). 15. Disraeli (D Israel I). 16. Rossetti (Rose Ettie). + +A RIMLESS WHEEL..-1. Parapet. 2. Manakin. 3. Fanatic. 4. Rubadub. 1_a_, +par; 1_b_, pet; 2_a_, man; 2_b_, kin; 3_a_, fan; 3_b_, tic; 4_a_, rub; +4_b_, dub. + +DIAGONAL PUZZLE.--Santa Claus. St. Nicholas, pAtronizes, coNfidence, +conTribute, compArable, reconCiles, immacuLate, legitimAte, miraculoUs, +schoolboyS. + +PROVERB PUZZLE.--"Christmas comes but once a year." Car, sabots, +chimney, mouse, trace. + +SEXTUPLE ACROSTIC.--Mopes, Abaft, Larva, Enter. + +EASY DIAMOND PUZZLE.--R, Dog, Robin, Gig, N. + +NUMERICAL ENIGMAS.--1. Winsome--win some. 2. Sailor--sail or. 3. +Wind-flowers--wind flowers. 4. Whip-poor-will--whip poor Will. 5. +Parents--Pa rents. 6. To-morrow--Tom or row. 7. Wellfare--Well! +farewell. + + + /|\ + / | \ + / | \ + / | \ + / | \ + / | \ + / | \ + / | \ + ________________/________|________\________________ + \'-. / | \ .-'/ + \ '-. / | \ .-' / + \ '-. / | \ .-' / + \ '-/ | .-' / + \ / '-. | .-' \ / + \ / '-. | .-' \ / + \ / '-. | .-' \ / + \/ '-.|.-' \/ + /\ .-'|'-. /\ + / \ .-' | '-. / \ + / \ .-' | '-. / \ + / \ .-' | '-. / \ + / .-\ | /-. \ + / .-' \ | / '-. \ + / .-' \ | / '-. \ + /.-'___________\_________|_________/___________'-.\ + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \|/ + + +ANSWER TO TREE PUZZLE IN JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.--The above diagram shows +one way of arranging nineteen trees in nine straight rows and yet have +five trees in each row. The lines show the rows. + +For names of solvers of November puzzles, see "Letter-Box," page 236. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and +Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 19399.txt or 19399.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/9/19399/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Paul Ereaut and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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