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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58832 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. III.--NO. 143. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
+CENTS.
+
+Tuesday, July 25, 1882. Copyright, 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50 per
+Year, in Advance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ST. ELIZABETH OF THURINGIA.]
+
+ST. ELIZABETH OF THURINGIA.
+
+BY HELEN S. CONANT.
+
+
+On a beautiful hill near the town of Eisenach, Germany, there stands an
+ancient castle, famous in history for the many remarkable events which
+have taken place within its walls.
+
+It is called the Wartburg, and it was here, in 1521, that Martin Luther
+found shelter and protection after his return from the Diet of Worms.
+Within the secure walls of the old castle he spent a peaceful year,
+laboring on the translation of the Bible, which has brought light and
+joy to so many hearts. The room where he worked, with the table,
+book-case, and other furniture, is still carefully preserved.
+
+The Wartburg is one of the oldest castles in North Germany. It was built
+about the middle of the eleventh century, by Count Lewis, a very
+powerful lord in Thuringia. It is said that one day the Count was out
+hunting, when a deer that he was pursuing led him to the foot of a steep
+rocky hill, where it plunged up the cliffs, and disappeared in the thick
+forest. The Count stopped, surrounded by his followers, and declared
+that although the hill had robbed him of the desired game, it should, in
+its turn, become his fortress and stronghold. This was a bold
+declaration, for the hill was the property of another Count, and it was
+against the laws of the great German empire that a man should build on
+soil which was not his. But Count Lewis had thought of this. He had
+twelve trusty knights, and at his command they worked many hours in the
+darkness, carrying soil in baskets from the lands of their master to the
+top of the hill, until enough was collected upon which to build a
+castle. Then Count Lewis went boldly to work, and erected the fortress
+which still crowns the heights above Eisenach.
+
+The counts of Thuringia after this made the Wartburg their home, and it
+was here that St. Elizabeth passed her life in holy deeds. Her true
+history is that she was a daughter of a King of Hungary, and was born at
+Pressburg in 1207. When very young she was betrothed to Lewis, son of
+Count Hermann of Thuringia, and brought to the Wartburg to be educated.
+As she grew to womanhood she became remarkable for her charitable deeds,
+and the family of her young husband complained bitterly that she was
+wasting his property. Not long after her marriage her husband died while
+absent in the great army of the Crusaders, and Elizabeth with her three
+little children was driven away from the Wartburg, and compelled to beg
+for bread in the neighboring villages. But the people loved her so much
+that her husband's family were soon forced to restore her rights. The
+hardships she suffered, and the sacrifices she made, were too heavy for
+her to bear, and in 1231 she died, when only twenty-four years old. Four
+years after her death she was made a saint by Pope Gregory IX., and a
+multitude of beautiful legends were wreathed about her memory. Poets
+sung her praises, and the poor who had received food and clothing from
+her gentle hands remembered her loveliness and kindness through many
+generations.
+
+A German poet of the thirteenth century wrote a life of St. Elizabeth in
+verse, which contains some pretty legends about her birth and life. In
+1207 Count Hermann of Thuringia called a grand meeting of poets and
+minstrels at the Wartburg, and offered a prize to him who should compose
+the best poem. From far and near came poets to the competition, and a
+vast assemblage of noble lords and ladies were gathered to hear them
+sing the quaint ballads of that olden time. One evening the company were
+all in the great balcony of the castle, when, a poet, pointing with
+prophetic finger to the setting sun, declared that a daughter was at
+that moment born to the King of Hungary, who would become the wife of
+the son of Count Hermann, and whose wondrous virtue and charity would be
+remembered through all coming ages. Count Hermann at once dispatched
+messengers to the court of Hungary asking for the hand of the baby
+princess for his son, and the betrothal at once took place.
+
+Another beautiful legend is about St. Elizabeth and the roses. Soon
+after Elizabeth's marriage to Lewis, the son of Count Hermann, a
+terrible famine came upon Thuringia. There was no bread, and the poor
+people of the country were compelled to eat roots and wild herbs to keep
+from starving. Their sufferings touched the tender heart of Elizabeth,
+and she commanded that bread should be baked in the great kitchens of
+her castle, which she daily distributed to the poor with her own hands.
+It is said that the lives of many hundreds of people were saved by her
+bounty. Her husband's family begged him to put a stop to this waste, as
+they called it, and to forbid his wife from any longer feeding the poor.
+It is said that he yielded to the wishes of his mother and sisters, and
+declared that no more bread should be sent out from the castle. So far
+the story is true. Now comes the pretty legend which has ever since
+caused St. Elizabeth to be pictured with roses in her hands.
+
+Her kind heart could not rest while the poor people around her were
+dying of hunger. With a basket filled with bread she would go from the
+castle and distribute her bounty among the poor who crowded around her.
+One day when starting on this mission of charity, her basket on her arm,
+she met her husband, who stopped her, and sternly demanding what she
+carried in the basket, tore off the mantle which covered it. To the
+astonishment of both the basket appeared filled with fragrant roses, and
+on the forehead of Elizabeth, shone a glittering cross. Her husband was
+so overcome by what he recognized as a miracle that he gave orders that
+in future her noble charities should be done with perfect liberty, and
+he himself did all in his power to aid her in the generous task.
+
+
+
+
+UP THE CREEK.
+
+BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
+
+
+"It's a mighty good thing for us, Mort Hopkins, we took such an early
+start."
+
+"Say, Quill, what do we want of those rollers?"
+
+"Guess you'll find out 'fore we get the _Ark_ around the dam."
+
+"That's so. All ready? Shove her, now. Here we go. Don't she travel!"
+
+"Mort, what was that long word you went to the foot on yesterday?"
+
+"Me-an-der-ing."
+
+"And you called it 'mean-drying,' and spelled it wrong. Tell you what,
+we're just going to meandrew now 'fore we get back."
+
+"Guess Taponican Creek'll give us all the twists we want. It's as
+crooked as a ram's horn."
+
+"Tisn't much wider some places, but the _Ark_ will squeeze through 'most
+anywhere."
+
+It would not, indeed, have required much of a flood to float a skiff of
+that size; but she was a pretty one, and it was no work at all for two
+stout boys of from twelve to thirteen years of age to "pole her along."
+There was not enough water where they now were to encourage the use of
+oars, but a pair of them lay in the stern, beside the fishing-poles and
+the bait and luncheon.
+
+The day was one of those truly wonderful Saturdays that come to country
+boys in summer, and Mort Hopkins and Quill Sanders had all but slighted
+their breakfasts to get the early start they were now so pleased with.
+
+"Mort, if Taponican Creek runs out of Pawg Lake, we'll find the place
+where it does."
+
+"Guess we will. It's there, somewhere."
+
+"We won't stop to fish along."
+
+"No, sir! Not one of the boys knows where we're going."
+
+"If they'd ha' known, they'd all have come, and chucked the _Ark_
+jam-full."
+
+Mere passengers were not wanted on board of a ship that was clearly
+bound on a voyage of discovery. Extra cargo of any kind would have been
+bad for the fortunes of such a vessel.
+
+The boys did not pole their boat up stream for more than twenty minutes
+before they came to a place where the banks gave the Taponican room to
+spread itself. Of course the wider it spread what water it had, the
+thinner the water became.
+
+Right in the middle of a sparkling field of gurgling ripples the _Ark_
+ran suddenly aground.
+
+"Overboard, Quill!" shouted Mort. "Guess Columbus had to wade before he
+found much."
+
+"Noah didn't."
+
+"His ark had a roof on it."
+
+"Shove her, now. There she goes."
+
+Their trousers were rolled up about as high as they would go, and the
+water was not very cold. The _Ark_ drew less when its entire crew was
+out of it.
+
+"Ah! ugh! Crab."
+
+"Nipped you, did he? Oh, phew! what a clam shell! Stepped right down on
+it. Catch your crab?"
+
+"He let go. Can't see him. Didn't he give my heel a dig, though! They're
+the ugliest, sassiest--"
+
+"Jump in. She'll float now."
+
+"Shove, or she'll go back, and get aground again."
+
+"There's the dam. Now we've got a job on hand."
+
+The dam was not a high one, but no two boys of their size could have
+lifted the _Ark_ over it. Quill Sanders had thought of that, and the
+little craft was pulled ashore at a spot where farmers coming to the
+mill drove down to water their horses.
+
+"There's just a good road all around from here to the pond. Now for the
+rollers, Mort."
+
+Two bits of round poles, about three inches thick and four feet long,
+were a great help in getting the _Ark_ up the slope, but it was slow
+work for all that. No man in Corry Centre could have hired any two small
+boys to undertake it. Quill and Mort did it all the more eagerly because
+no living being would have given them a cent for doing it.
+
+The miller came out, indeed, to shout after them:
+
+"Hullo, boys, what're ye up to?"
+
+"Going to Pawg Lake," said Quill, proudly. "Your old dam's in the way,
+and we're a-dodgin' 'round it."
+
+"Pawg Lake! I declare! Do ye spect to ever git back agin?"
+
+"Guess we do," said Mort. "Bring you anything when we come?"
+
+"Ye-es. Fetch the lake right along. Bring me the upper eend of the
+creek. You'll find it lyin' right there."
+
+"Guess we will," said Mort. "Now, Quill, h'ist her. Shove!"
+
+How they did shove! But the old miller came out into the road and took
+the _Ark_ by the head, and after that about all the boys had to do was
+to change the rollers forward as the strong-armed fat old fellow dragged
+the light skiff along.
+
+"There, boys. You're a plucky brace of spring chickens. In with her,
+now. She's afloat agin."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Getty."
+
+"Don't forget to fetch me back Pawg Lake, when you find it. An' the
+crooked eend of the creek."
+
+"Crooked?" said Quill. "Tell you what, I guess we'll have to meandrew
+pretty much all the way."
+
+"Andrew what? Oh yes. Guess you will. Go it! Good-by."
+
+Off they went, and now their time had come for actual rowing. The upper
+pond of Corry Centre was well known to be a deep one. It was
+wonderfully, perilously far from its smooth surface to the home of the
+eels on its weedy bottom in some places. It lay in a narrow valley,
+however, between the slopes of steep hills, and it was long rather than
+wide.
+
+"Isn't this a big thing, Mort? I was never out on any such voyage as
+this before. Were you?"
+
+"Don't believe anybody else ever was. Not around here. It's a new
+thing."
+
+"Wonder what the boys'll say? Mort, we might hold on here long enough to
+catch a fish or two."
+
+"No, sir-ree! We'll just meandrew till we get to Pawg Lake."
+
+They were pulling nicely along just then, quite a distance above the
+mill and near the eastern shore of the pond, when a clear, pleasant
+voice sang out to them:
+
+"Hey, boys! Put me across the pond, please?"
+
+The manner and the accent of that hail were offensively correct and
+polite, and there at the edge of the woody bank stood a young man of
+middle size. He carried a joint rod instead of a fish-pole; he had a
+sort of butterfly net on a stick, and everything about him was nice and
+expensive to that degree which always arouses the hostility of country
+village boys. Still, these two were on their good behavior that morning,
+and their hearts were a little warm over the conduct of Mr. Getty. The
+_Ark_ was pulled ashore and the stranger was taken on board.
+
+"Straight across, please. Nice boat you have. Capital fun for bright
+young fellows like you. Spending your day out of school on the water?
+Good idea."
+
+"Course it is," said Mort, but Quill Sanders added:
+
+"I say, mister, got any fish in your basket yet?"
+
+"Not one, my boy. No luck at all this morning."
+
+"Guess you won't catch any 'round here, with all that there fancy
+rigging."
+
+"Think not? Ah, here we are. Put me ashore. Will a dime apiece do?"
+
+He held out a couple of bits of shining silver as he spoke, but he had
+already stirred the pride of the crew of the _Ark_.
+
+"No, thank you," said Quill Sanders. "We're on a voyage of discovery. We
+won't take pay for any kindnesses we do to the natives we meet."
+
+"You don't say! Voyage of discovery. New World. All that sort of thing.
+Arctic circle. North Pole. Sandwich Islands."
+
+"No, sir-ree!" exclaimed Mort. "We're bound for Pawg Lake. All the way
+up the Taponican."
+
+"That's this mighty stream, I suppose, and Pawg Lake is at the
+mysterious end of it. Boys, it isn't of any manner of use. I'm not a
+native. Only stopping in the village for a week. You've got to take me
+on board the--the what's her name?"
+
+"The _Ark_," said Mort, with much dignity, "and we're not calling for
+passengers."
+
+"Passengers? Oh no, I'm one of the crew. I'd ship before the mast if
+there was one. Just let me take those oars and work my watch on deck.
+Then I'll go below while you take yours."
+
+He had again seated himself, even while he was speaking, and Mort
+Hopkins hardly knew why he didn't resist the sudden seizure of those
+oars.
+
+Then there came a surprise to both of them, for the stranger made the
+_Ark_ spin around, and get her head up stream, and glide away over the
+water, after a fashion to which she was entirely unaccustomed.
+
+"Quill," said Mort, "he can row."
+
+"Mister," said Quill, "did you bring any lunch with you?"
+
+"I did, my young friend. I am provisioned for the voyage. Is it a long
+one?"
+
+"All the way up Taponican Creek, and it just meandrews."
+
+"You don't say! Have to tack around the short corners, and all that
+sort of thing. Are the natives at all dangerous?"
+
+"Never been there," said Mort, "'cept once, when father and Uncle Hiram
+and the Dutch house-painter went to Pawg a-fishin', and took me along."
+
+"Did they catch anything?"
+
+"Guess they did; but they had things to catch 'em with. Something better
+than that there whip-stalk and a spool o' thread."
+
+"They were wise men. We will see what we can do when we get there. Nice
+boat this is. I can make her meandrew all the way. If we don't discover
+something, it won't be our fault."
+
+"He just can row," began Quill to Mort, but at that moment the stranger
+began to pull a little more slowly, and they could hardly believe their
+ears. He struck into a ringing, musical song that kept time with the
+oars. That was surprise enough, but what made it bad was that they could
+not understand one word he was singing.
+
+"Quill," whispered Mort, "I was pop sure he wasn't born in this country.
+He's a foreigner."
+
+They were out of the pond now, and there was no question whatever of the
+crookedness with which the creek wound its way in and out among the
+pastures and meadows. There was nowhere a very strong current, and the
+boys were a little surprised to find their favorite stream at once so
+deep and so narrow. Its character was very different from any it was
+able to earn below the pond and down through the village.
+
+"It's awful clean, though," said Quill, "and there's any amount of trees
+and bushes along the banks."
+
+"Boys," exclaimed the stranger at last, "I'm going to try one of these
+shady hollows for a trout. Quill, you take an oar, and paddle me along
+slowly into that black-looking cove up yonder. I'll show you something
+new. Mort, you get back into the stern."
+
+"He knows our names," muttered Mort.
+
+But it was no fault of theirs if he did not. He gave Quill a few more
+directions, and then he stood well forward, with the light graceful rod
+they had called a "whip-stalk" poised in his right hand. The wind was
+gently blowing up stream, and the stranger said, very quietly:
+
+"That'll do. Steady, now."
+
+And then they heard the faint hum of the reel on his rod, and a gossamer
+flight of fine line, with three little bits of fuzzy things at the end
+of it, each about the size of a small gray moth, dropped on the water as
+light as thistle-down.
+
+It was a beautiful cast, if the boys had but known it, and the flies
+alighted in a spot of dark water almost under the bank, where a little
+eddy made a faint ripple on the surface.
+
+[Illustration: "SOMETHING BRIGHT AND VIGOROUS SPRANG CLEAR OUT OF THE
+WATER."]
+
+Splash! Something bright and vigorous sprang clear out of the water!
+
+"Struck! I'll get him. Steady, Quill; don't pull a stroke. He's a heavy
+one this time. I must give him all the line he wants. He's off up
+stream."
+
+How that reel did buzz, and how the excited boys did watch the motions
+of their new acquaintance!
+
+"He'll run all the way to Pawg," said Mort.
+
+"Not with that hook in him," said Quill. "See! he's a-winding him up
+again."
+
+The reel was a "multiplier," and the line came in swiftly enough, for
+the fisherman had "snubbed" his victim, and turned him toward the boat.
+Out and in, again and again, went the line, but at last the boys had
+seen the prize, and knew it was a bigger speckled trout than they
+supposed Taponican contained.
+
+"Here he comes! Now for the net!"
+
+Both his young friends had long since decided that that machine was
+designed for "catching minnies," but now its round loop was skillfully
+thrust under the exhausted fish, as he allowed himself to be dragged
+alongside. No strain on the slender line. Only a quick, easy "lift," and
+then a beauty of a trout, more than a pound in weight, lay flopping on
+the bottom of the _Ark_.
+
+"Whoop! hurrah!"
+
+"Isn't he a buster?"
+
+"Just look at his spots, Quill."
+
+"We never catch 'em, 'cause they feed on flies, and you have to scoop
+'em in."
+
+"Now, boys, more fun."
+
+They were ready for it, and there was plenty of it all the way to Pawg.
+The trout were biting freely, and every eddy and circling pool on which
+the interesting stranger's flies alighted yielded up its share of
+glittering spoil.
+
+"This is your lake? Upon my word, it's a pretty one. There's an island
+right out in the middle. Boys, we must go and discover that island.
+It'll be a good place to eat our lunch in. Did you know it was about
+time for seamen like us to eat something? It hadn't occurred to me
+before, but I am as hungry as a bear!"
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+SEA-ANEMONES.
+
+BY SARAH COOPER.
+
+
+Many of you, no doubt, have learned, when at the sea-shore, the delight
+of climbing over wet rocks covered with slippery sea-weed, and peering
+into the little pools left between the stones to see if the great waves
+have dropped any treasures from the ocean. Those who have enjoyed this
+pleasure will gladly recall the sparkling pools, carpeted with
+rich-colored sea-weeds which half conceal the timid animals that live
+there.
+
+In such pools the rocks, the shells, and the sea-weeds all have richer
+tints from the bright water that covers them, and one who loves
+beautiful things will linger beside the pools as if gazing into
+enchanted gardens.
+
+On searching these rock pools we should find many curious animals. None
+would interest us more than the sea-anemone, though when we find it
+hiding in some dark corner, with its tentacles all drawn in, and looking
+like a soft brown lump, it may not promise much beauty.
+
+The sea-anemone adheres firmly to the rocks, so we will not pull it off.
+If we watch long enough we shall see it begin to rise in the middle, and
+from the summit will creep out, very slowly and softly, beautiful
+tentacles like a wreath around the top. It is now that this singular
+animal looks like a flower, and deserves the name that it possesses. I
+think, though, it is not so much like the anemone as it is like a
+chrysanthemum or some other flower with a great many petals. You would
+be charmed with the delicate light-colored tentacles waving gently in
+the water.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.--STOMACH AND CHAMBERS OF SEA-ANEMONE.]
+
+In the middle of the tentacles is the mouth, leading into a hollow sac,
+which is the stomach. The remainder of the body is divided by partitions
+from top to bottom into open chambers. In Fig. 1 you will see the
+stomach at _a_, and the chambers at _b_.
+
+There is an opening at the bottom of the stomach through which the food
+passes after being digested. Sea-water also enters the body through the
+stomach, and both the water and the nourishment circulate freely through
+the chambers. Each tentacle is a hollow tube connected at its base with
+one of the chambers, and readily filled with water. Here we have an
+explanation of the mysterious manner in which the sea-anemone swells
+itself out and then shrinks away again. The body and tentacles are
+enlarged by drawing in water to fill them, and when they are suddenly
+contracted the water is forced out through the mouth.
+
+The sea-anemone has no hard skeleton whatever; all parts of the body are
+soft, like a stiff jelly. It can draw its tentacles in out of sight, and
+it will do so upon the slightest alarm, rolling itself into an ugly lump
+like the one we found. Allow it to remain quiet for a while, however,
+and it will blossom out as gorgeously as ever.
+
+When any little crab, or worm, or small fish brushes past the tentacles,
+the lasso-cells are darted out to paralyze it, and the tentacles seize
+the prey and pass it to the mouth. The bones or shells which remain
+after the meal are thrown out from the mouth. The tentacles hold the
+prey tightly, so that even cunning crabs can not escape, and you know it
+is not the easiest thing in the world to catch a crab and hold it.
+
+Sea-anemones are greedy creatures. It takes a great deal of food to
+satisfy their appetites, and their mouths can be extended to receive
+quite large animals. They eat mussels and cockles by sucking the body
+out of its shell. Great numbers of sea-anemones, in their turn, are
+devoured by other animals, their soft bodies offering little resistance.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.--CLUSTER OF ANEMONES.]
+
+The variety of color in these animals is almost endless. Some of them
+are rich olive and chocolate colors, or purple dotted with green. One
+beautiful species has violet tentacles pointed with white; another, red
+tentacles speckled with gray. This one spreads out its green arms edged
+with a circle of dead white, while that one opens a milk-white top
+circled with a border of pink. In Fig. 2 is a cluster, of beautiful
+anemones. The two small ones at the right show how these creatures look
+when closed.
+
+Some sea-anemones which live in exposed situations are of a dull, dusky
+brown, covered with rough warts, while animals of the same species,
+living in deep water, where there is less need of concealment, have
+smooth skins adorned with brilliant tints of rose, scarlet, or light
+green. This is a beautiful provision of Nature for protecting the little
+creatures by rendering them inconspicuous when left upon rocks by the
+retreating waves.
+
+The number of eggs produced by sea-anemones seems almost incredible. A
+single animal is said to throw out three hundred eggs in one day. The
+eggs are little jelly-like lumps which are formed on the inside of the
+partitions, and are thrown out from the mouth. After swimming about by
+means of hair-like appendages called cilia, they settle on some solid
+body and begin to grow. Sometimes the young ones remain within the body
+of the parent until their tentacles have grown. They are then ready to
+settle down soon after reaching the water.
+
+Sea-anemones increase by budding as well as by eggs. At the lower edge
+of the body little round knobs are sometimes formed, which separate from
+the parent and grow into perfect animals. If the tentacles or other
+parts of the body are removed, new tentacles soon grow in their places.
+If an individual is torn in pieces, each fragment has the power of
+forming for itself a mouth and throwing out tentacles, and becoming a
+new sea-anemone, perfect in all its parts.
+
+Most species live in holes among the rocks, attached to stones or
+shells, over which they slide in a clumsy manner. They are especially
+fond of deep dark grottoes, and when they have taken full possession of
+such a place, they may be found clinging to the sides and roof of the
+cave, and displaying their charms without reserve. Although they do not
+enjoy the glare of the bright sun, they expand best in mild, clear
+weather, and remain closed when the sea is rough and stormy.
+
+A few of these animals float on the ocean. One sea-anemone is fond of a
+roving life, and having no very good means of travelling about, it
+attaches itself to the back of a certain kind of crab, and accompanies
+the crab in all its wanderings. There seems to be an attraction between
+the two, and one is rarely seen without the other.
+
+Another species is mostly found clinging to the shell of a whelk, but
+for certain good reasons it never clings to a living one. The whelk
+burrows in the sand. This would be disagreeable and inconvenient to the
+anemone, so it prefers a dead shell which has been taken possession of
+by a hermit-crab, and henceforth travels about with the crab. We would
+scarcely look for affection in a crab, but it has been said that the
+hermit grows fond of its companion, and that when it has outgrown its
+shell and has selected a new one, it will carefully lift the anemone
+from the old home and place it on the new one, "giving it several little
+taps with its big claws to settle it."
+
+I hope that none of you will fail to hunt up these lovely rock pools
+when you have an opportunity. The pleasure of a visit to the sea-shore
+is greatly increased by an interest in the strange forms of animal life
+which we see there and nowhere else. A glass jar filled with sea-water
+is often a source of great delight. In it you may drop any
+strange-looking object that has excited your curiosity. Perhaps this
+strange object may prove to be some odd little animal which is not yet
+dead, but which will revive with the touch of the life-giving water.
+
+Most of these animals are timid, but they will expand when they are left
+perfectly still. In this way we may watch their habits and their hidden
+beauties. Sea-anemones do nicely in such an aquarium, and as they cling
+to the side of the jar, we can observe all parts while they are in
+action. By far the pleasantest way to learn about them is to let them
+tell their own story. The water must be changed frequently, for
+impurities are constantly passing from the bodies of even these delicate
+animals. They will soon die if placed in fresh-water.
+
+
+
+
+"THE MINUTE-HAND OF THE CLOCK."[1]
+
+[1] The great English Cathedral of St. Paul's is said to have witnessed
+a somewhat similar adventure.
+
+A GERMAN BOY'S ADVENTURE.
+
+BY DAVID KER.
+
+
+"Kaspar, thou little rogue, how often shall I tell thee not to meddle
+with that clock?"
+
+"I was only watching the wheels go round, father," said a sturdy little
+fellow in a soiled leathern jacket, starting up with a half-mischievous
+look in his blue eyes.
+
+"And what hast _thou_ to do with the wheels, eh? Suppose this clock is
+stopped or put wrong some day by one of thy tricks, what shall I, Hans
+Scheller, custodian of St. Martin's Church, say to the Town Council?
+Dost thou know what birch porridge is, thou rogue? Beware, or I'll give
+thee such a taste of it as shall make thee go round faster than the
+wheels."
+
+Poor Hans was indeed kept in constant terror by his inquiring son's
+uncontrollable habit of going wherever he ought not. The old Church of
+St. Martin was a famous play-ground for any boy, with its shadowy
+aisles, and countless pillars, and tall towers, and deep niches, and
+half-ruined battlements; and the worthy custodian, when he awoke from
+his after-dinner nap in his little room at the foot of the great clock
+tower, never knew whether he should find his hopeful boy hiding behind
+the altar-screen, trying to blow the organ bellows, playing
+hide-and-seek among the pinnacles of the roof, or sitting astride of a
+carved spout a hundred and sixty feet above the pavement.
+
+All this, however, might have been forgiven; for the old custodian was
+really as fond of his "little rogue" as the boy, with all his wildness,
+was of him. But the one thing that Hans could not pardon was the danger
+caused by his son's restless inquisitiveness to his beloved church
+clock. It was his pride and glory to be able to tell every one that
+during the whole forty years that he had been in charge of the "St.
+Martin's Kirche," the clock had never stopped or gone wrong; and nothing
+would convince him that it was not by far the finest clock in the whole
+world.
+
+"Don't tell _me_ of the big clock of Strasburg Cathedral," he would say,
+with an obstinate shake of his gray head. "Could _it_ go forty years on
+end, think you, without the slightest deviation? No, that it couldn't,
+nor any other clock on the face of the earth except this one."
+
+Mindful of Kaspar's inquiring turn of mind, his father, having to do
+some marketing in the town the day after our hero's stolen visit to the
+clock, locked the door of the tower, and took the key along with him.
+
+"No harm can happen now," he muttered; "and, in any case, I shall be
+back before he gets out of school."
+
+But, as ill-luck would have it, the teacher was called away by some
+business that afternoon, and the boys got out of school more than an
+hour earlier than usual. Kaspar, finding his father gone, went straight
+to the door of the clock tower, and looked rather blank on discovering
+that it was locked. But he was not one to be easily stopped when he had
+once made up his mind. Getting out upon the roof, and crawling along a
+cornice where only a cat or a school-boy could have found footing, he
+crept through an air-hole right into the clock-room.
+
+For some time he was as happy as a child in a toy shop, running from one
+marvel to another, until at length he discovered another hole, and
+thrusting his head through it, found himself looking down upon the
+market-place through the face of the clock itself. But when he tried to
+withdraw his head again, it would not come.
+
+It was such a queer scrape to be in that Kaspar was more inclined to
+laugh than to be frightened; but suddenly a thought struck him which
+scared him in earnest: his neck was in the track of the minute-hand,
+which, when it reached him, must inevitably tear his head off!
+
+Poor Kaspar! it was too late now to wish that he had left the clock
+alone. He tried to scream for help, but with his neck in that cramped
+position, the cry that he gave was scarcely louder than the chirp of a
+sparrow. He struggled desperately to writhe himself back through the
+hole; but a piece of the wood-work had slipped down upon the back of his
+neck, and held him like a vise.
+
+On came the destroyer, nearer and nearer still, marking off with its
+measured tick his few remaining moments of life. And all the while the
+sun was shining gayly, the tiny flags were fluttering on the booths of
+the market, and the merry voices of his school-fellows who were playing
+in the market-place came faintly to his ears, while he hung there
+helpless, with Death stealing upon him inch by inch. His head grew
+dizzy, and the measured beat of the ticking sounded like the roll of a
+muffled drum, while the coming hand of the clock looked like a monstrous
+arm outstretched to seize him, and the carved faces on the spouts seemed
+to grin and gibber at him in mockery. And still the terrible hand crept
+onward, nearer, nearer, nearer.
+
+"What _can_ that thing in the clock face be?" said a tourist below,
+pointing his spy-glass upward. "Why, I declare it looks like a boy's
+head!"
+
+"A boy's head!" cried a gray-haired watchmaker beside him (one of Hans
+Scheller's special friends), snatching hastily at the glass as he spoke.
+"Why, good gracious! it's little Kaspar. He'll be killed! he'll be
+killed!" And he rushed toward the church, shouting like a madman.
+
+The alarm spread like wild-fire, and before Klugmann, the watchmaker,
+had got half-way up the stairs leading to the tower, more than a score
+of excited men were scampering at his heels. But at the top of the stair
+they were suddenly brought to a stand-still by the locked door.
+
+"It's locked!" cried Klugmann in tones of horror, "and Hans must have
+taken the key with him, for it isn't here."
+
+"Never mind the key," roared a brawny smith behind him. "Pick up that
+beam, comrades, and run it against the lock. All together now!"
+
+Crash went the door, in rushed the crowd, and Kaspar, now senseless from
+sheer fright, was dragged out of his strange prison just as the huge bar
+of the minute-hand actually touched his neck. And so it fell out that
+poor old Scheller, coming home for a quiet afternoon nap, found the door
+of the tower smashed in, his son lying in a swoon, and his little room
+crowded with strange men all talking at once.
+
+But from that day forth Kaspar Scheller never meddled with the church
+clock again.
+
+
+
+
+MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER.[2]
+
+[2] Begun in No. 127, HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+BY JAMES OTIS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "TOBY TYLER," "TIM AND TIP," ETC.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+DRIVING A MONKEY.
+
+
+For an hour this tantalizing work was continued, and the pursuers were
+nearly exhausted. Leander, who was naturally a very slow-moving boy, was
+more quickly tired than the others. When for at least the twentieth time
+they thought they had the monkey within their grasp, and he darted to
+the top of one of the tallest trees, Leander declared he could not take
+another step, even though the life of the monkey and the success of the
+circus depended upon it.
+
+Of course it was not to be thought of that they should leave their band
+there exhausted and alone, so Toby decided they should rest as long as
+Mr. Stubbs's brother remained in the tree, and it was determined to
+occupy the time by eating the luncheon Aunt Olive had prepared.
+
+During the last ten minutes of the chase Leander's face had worn a very
+gloomy expression; but it lightened wonderfully when the package of food
+was opened, and Toby helped him to a large slice of bread and meat.
+
+Nor was Leander the only one who looked with favor upon the food. Mr.
+Stubbs's brother had been a close observer of all that was going on at
+the foot of the tree in which he had taken refuge, and he showed every
+disposition to make one of the eating party.
+
+Seeing his evident hunger, Toby was sure it would be possible to capture
+the monkey by means of the food, and he walked around the trunk of the
+tree, holding a piece of gingerbread temptingly in his fingers.
+
+The monkey came down from branch to branch, as if he had decided to
+allow himself to be made a prisoner for the sake of the food; but just
+as Toby was about to seize him, he jumped back with a cry that sounded
+much as if he were laughing at the disappointment he had caused.
+
+Then Joe tried his skill, coming about as near success as Toby had done;
+and Leander was roused to action by the new phase the chase had assumed.
+He too held out some food in order to give Mr. Stubbs's brother the
+impression that all he had to do was to come and get it.
+
+In thus trying the coaxing plan, all three of the boys got on one side
+of the tree, while the greater part of their provisions was on the
+opposite side.
+
+The monkey descended again, first toward one boy and then toward
+another, as if it were his purpose to allow all three to catch him, and
+all were equally certain they were about to succeed, when Mr. Stubbs's
+brother suddenly ran along the branches toward the food. Before it was
+possible for any of the boys to intercept him, he had dropped to the
+ground, seized two of the very largest pieces of cake, and was up in the
+tree again so quickly that but for the cake he had in his paws it might
+have been doubted whether or not he had been on the ground at all.
+
+Now Mr. Stubbs's brother could laugh at his pursuers, if it is possible
+for a monkey to laugh; for, without any thanks to them, he had a trifle
+more than his share of the provisions, and was still at liberty.
+
+"It ain't any use," said Joe, in despair, as he threw himself on the
+ground, and attacked the luncheon savagely. "I don't believe we shall
+ever get him; an' if we don't, it won't be much use for us to have our
+show, for every real circus has a monkey."
+
+"We _must_ catch him," replied Toby, mournfully, looking up into the
+tree where his pet sat eating the stolen food with the greatest possible
+enjoyment. "I wouldn't go home an' leave him here if I had to stay all
+night."
+
+"One might watch here while the others went back to the village an' got
+every feller there to come out an' help," suggested Leander, who was
+famous for having ideas so brilliant that no one could carry them into
+execution.
+
+"We're goin' away from home all the time this way," said Toby, after he
+had studied the matter carefully, without paying any attention to the
+suggestion made by Leander; "now let's get a little ways the other side
+of the tree, an' when he comes down again he'll have to go toward home.
+Even if we can't catch him, perhaps we can drive him into the village."
+
+Even Leander could see the wisdom of this plan, and the party moved
+their luncheon and themselves to the side of the tree opposite to that
+on which they had approached it.
+
+Of course there was nothing to do but wait Mr. Stubbs's brother's
+pleasure in the matter, and he seemed to be in no haste to make a move.
+He ate his cake in the most leisurely fashion possible, and then
+appeared to be wonderfully interested in the leaves, for he would spend
+several minutes pulling one apart, probably to see how it was made.
+
+But he was obliged to come down at last, and he chose the time just as
+Leander had settled himself comfortably for a nap, which did not tend to
+make the band regard him with additional favor.
+
+As Toby had thought, the monkey started back in the direction they had
+come; and as he was going toward home, they did not make any effort to
+hurry him. If they could not catch him, they could at least drive him,
+and they were satisfied to let him go as slowly as he chose--a plan
+which met with hearty approval from Leander.
+
+For some time Mr. Stubbs's brother moved along as if it were his
+greatest desire to be back at Uncle Daniel's again, and then Toby saw
+him run along swiftly as if he had found something under a tree which
+interested him greatly.
+
+Afraid that the monkey had done this simply to avoid being driven, and
+that he might dart through the under-brush and get in the rear of them
+again, Toby ran forward quickly; but before he had taken more than a
+dozen steps he heard piercing shrieks, which evidently came from the
+monkey, while the commotion among the bushes indicated that a struggle
+of some kind was taking place there.
+
+With but one thought, and that for the safety of his pet, Toby ran ahead
+regardless of the bushes that tore his clothing and scratched his face.
+A struggle was going on, as he saw when he pulled the branches of the
+trees away, and Mr. Stubbs's brother was getting decidedly the worst of
+it.
+
+A small, prickly ball curled up at the foot of the tree, and the monkey
+striking at it savagely with his paws, while porcupine quills were
+sticking in his face and body, told the whole story.
+
+The monkey had seen the porcupine, and, much to his discomfort, had
+tried to make that animal's acquaintance. As every boy knows, when one
+of these animals is attacked it immediately rolls itself up into a ball,
+with the quills or spines sticking straight out, and the attacking party
+generally gets plentifully supplied with them in a very short time.
+
+It was some moments before Toby could persuade his pet to stop trying to
+inflict punishment when he was getting the greater part himself; but he
+pulled him away at last, and the porcupine, unrolling himself with a
+grunt of satisfaction, trotted away into the bushes.
+
+There was no disposition on the part of Mr. Stubbs's brother to run away
+again. He stood there looking as sad and discouraged as a monkey ought
+to look who had commenced his day's work by stealing ducks, and
+concluded it by fighting a porcupine.
+
+[Illustration: MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER AFTER HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE
+PORCUPINE.]
+
+The quills stood out from his face, making him look as if sadly in need
+of shaving, while on almost every inch of his body there was one of
+these natural weapons, giving him a decidedly comical appearance.
+
+As he stood there holding out his paws to Toby as if asking him to
+extract the spines, and squinting down now and then at those in his
+face, the boys did not try to restrain their laughter, which appeared to
+make the inquisitive monkey very angry.
+
+He screamed and scolded in the shrillest tones until Toby set about
+picking out the quills for him, and Joe took a firm hold of his collar
+to make sure he should not escape when he was relieved from the effects
+of his introduction to the porcupine.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PLAYING DOCTOR.]
+
+
+
+
+A RACE FOR LIFE.
+
+BY H. W.
+
+
+I dare say you have often seen Assam on the map, and have often tasted
+Assam tea. The tea gardens are a very pretty sight at certain seasons of
+the year. I would like to send you a photograph of my garden. From the
+high ground near we can see the far-off Himalayas, with their snow-clad
+summits gleaming brightly in the sun.
+
+  "Far off the old snows, ever new,
+  With silver edges cleft the blue--
+    Alone, aloft, divine."
+
+But I am quite sure you won't care to hear about snowy mountain-tops,
+and unspeakable sunsets, and other glories of the Himalayan Alps, but
+boy-like will want to know if I have had any adventures since I came
+out. This is a great country for wild beasts of all sorts. Not long ago
+I was walking in the garden with a friend of mine; we were moving along
+slowly and chatting, when suddenly my friend shouted out something which
+I could not understand, and vanished like--a lamp-lighter. I looked
+around to see if there was anything to account for such an unceremonious
+leave-taking, when, turning the corner, I too was aware of two great
+bears that barred the way. It was an awkward predicament, and I must
+confess I was somewhat taken aback, and did not quite know what to do.
+However, after a good stare, the bears relieved me of all further
+anxiety by taking themselves quietly off.
+
+Completely unarmed as I was, I was only too thankful to see them safely
+off the premises.
+
+The other day I had a still more unpleasant adventure; and this time, as
+before, among the principal actors in the scene was an angry bear. I
+went to see a friend of mine, a neighboring planter, who lived some
+miles away. I had a friend staying with me; we went in a small
+pony-cart; I drove, my friend sat alongside me, and behind was the syce,
+or native groom. The first part of our return journey was accomplished
+without any mishap. When, however, we came to the last part of the
+journey--the last mile or so, I should say, was simply a roadway cut
+through the jungle--we were surprised to hear a low grunting noise, and
+a rustling in the ditch that ran alongside the road--a noise as of some
+large beast forcing himself through the thick undergrowth.
+
+We in front took but little notice of it, under the impression that it
+was a pig or dog, or something of the kind. You can imagine my horror,
+and amazement when I felt myself convulsively grasped by the syce, and
+heard him whispering in agonized tones, "He'll have me off in a minute,
+sahib, if you don't drive on quickly." Turning round as I best could
+under the circumstances, I saw a huge bear lumbering along, now on his
+hind-legs, now on all fours, every now and then making ineffectual
+"scoops" at the frightened syce on the backseat with his ugly-looking
+fore-paws.
+
+With a smart cut across the back and a word of encouragement, I started
+the pony off at his best pace. On he galloped, as fast as ever he could
+lay his little legs to the ground; but Bruin was not to be denied, and
+we could not, do what we would, shake him off.
+
+It was a most exciting race. I had to keep cool, for on me, the driver,
+all depended, and the least mistake on my part might have cost us our
+lives.
+
+After racing along for some distance in this way, with the bear now
+alongside us, now close behind us, by some fortunate accident one of our
+coats fell out on to the road. Bruin instantly halted to have a sniff,
+but after a moment's pause he was under way again, and before long had
+overhauled us. Once more "ding, dong, ding, dong, we galloped along,"
+racing for very life. Every turn of the wheels was bringing us nearer
+home, and if our pony could only last the distance, there was still a
+good chance for us. As we thus raced along, with the bear hustling after
+us, so close that we could hear his heavy breathing, my "solah topee"
+(hat) fell off, and Bruin once more stopped to have a sniff.
+
+All honor to that hat! Had its brim been less broad, the wind would not
+have taken it off. Had the wind not taken it off, who can tell what our
+fate would have been? The pony was nearly exhausted; his speed was
+slackening, and in a moment the bear would have had us in his clutches.
+
+But that moment's delay in Bruin's frantic chase saved us. Heavily I
+plied the whip upon our unfortunate pony's back. A few leaps carried us
+forward another hundred yards, and our bungalow came in sight. The bear
+realized that he was beaten, and slunk off into the jungle, leaving us
+to go home in peace. We were very thankful to get out of it so well.
+When our friends were told that we had been chased by a bear they could
+hardly believe it, but the story is true for all that. Three lives were
+saved by the puff of wind that blew away my hat.
+
+
+
+
+TRAPPING TORUPS.
+
+BY ALLAN FORMAN.
+
+
+"Say, boys, I have an idea," Charlie Swan announced one morning as he
+was sitting on the porch of the farm-house where he and his cousins were
+spending the summer.
+
+"Let's have it," said Jack, one of the cousins.
+
+"Well, it's just this. You know the pond is full of torups. I believe we
+boys can have some fun catching them."
+
+"Pooh!" interrupted Jack, "we've had that idea for a long time. How are
+you going to do it?"
+
+"With a trap," answered Charlie, looking very wise.
+
+"Who ever heard of trapping terrapin?"
+
+"I don't see why it can't be done."
+
+"What kind of a trap would you use?"
+
+"Come out to the shop, and I'll show you," replied Charlie.
+
+While the boys are in the shop I will explain, for the benefit of my
+readers who do not live near the water, what a torup is. It is a member
+of the turtle family, and closely resembles the far-famed terrapin of
+Chesapeake Bay, but it differs from the terrapin in that it lives in
+either fresh or salt water, rather preferring the fresh, and burying
+itself in the mud for a greater part of the time. Consequently its flesh
+acquires a muddy flavor that many people do not like. The torup has all
+the ferocity of the snapping-turtle, and when aroused will display
+wonderful agility in jumping at its enemies. In common with the rest of
+the turtle family, it has the peculiarity, as the Irishman expressed it,
+of "living a long time after it's dead." I have seen one bite through a
+lead-pencil six hours after the head had been separated from the body.
+Another trait of the torup, which Charlie meant to take advantage of in
+making his trap, is that he will crawl into anything or under any log
+beneath which he can possibly force himself, resistance only seeming to
+make him more obstinate in the accomplishment of his purpose.
+
+Before long Charlie and his cousins came out of the shop, carrying with
+them the trap. It was only a box about three feet long, two feet high,
+and eighteen inches wide. He had taken out one end, and fastened it to
+the top by two strong hinges, so that it opened inward. About half-way
+down each side he had driven two pegs, so that the door could be pushed
+in, but not out. On the bottom were nailed several strips of old iron.
+
+"I don't see how you are going to work it," said Walter, as he followed
+Charlie toward the pond.
+
+"Well, I'll explain," replied Charlie. "You see that this door is so
+hung that the torup can push it in and go in, but can't push it out
+after he gets in."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now I shall put a few old bones, with some meat on them, in the box for
+bait. The torup will smell them, will push up the door, and crawl into
+the box; then when he tries to get out again, he finds that he can't."
+
+"All right," replied the boys, and in a few minutes Charlie was with
+them at the edge of the pond, putting the bones in the further end of
+the box. They sunk it carefully, and Charlie drove a stick on each side,
+so that it could not be tipped over or dislodged from its place. Nothing
+now remained to be done but to wait until the next morning.
+
+When the morning came they rushed to the pond, Charlie full of
+confidence, and his cousins rather disposed to make fun of his trap.
+When they tried to lift it into the boat they found it quite heavy, and
+Charlie exclaimed, joyfully, "Its full!"
+
+"Yes, full of water," replied Jack, scornfully.
+
+"We will see," replied Charlie, as he lifted the box into the boat. In a
+moment more he pulled out the two pegs, and the door swung outward. Out
+tumbled four large torups.
+
+"Well, I never!" exclaimed Jack, in surprise. The torups manifested
+their dissatisfaction by snapping viciously as the boys came near them.
+
+After that the box was set several times with varying results, and the
+boys did a good work in destroying a large number of torups; for not
+only do they make it almost impossible for fish to live in a pond, but
+they will also destroy young ducks by catching them by the feet and
+dragging them beneath the water, where they devour them alive.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THEY HELPED THE DEACON.
+
+BY ADA CARLETON STODDARD.
+
+
+"Cherries? I should say so! There's no end to 'em--trees are loaded, and
+red's a burning-bush. I was by there to-day."
+
+It was an intensely eager voice, and Davy Kent, the speaker, ended his
+little speech with an expressive smack of the lips.
+
+"He'd never miss the few we'd take, would he, boys?" That was Ned
+Rogers. It was upon a straw pile behind Mr. Rogers's barn that the boys
+were holding an earnest consultation.
+
+"Miss 'em? No, not if we took twice as many as we will."
+
+"A bushel will be enough to treat the whole crowd, won't it?"
+
+"Oh, any amount."
+
+"Now see here, boys"--and Clem Goodrich lifted himself into a sitting
+posture and knit his brows thoughtfully as he spoke--"I think--isn't
+this--doesn't it seem a little bit like stealing? Don't you suppose he'd
+give us a few if we were to ask him? It looks to me--"
+
+But right here Clem's mild voice was drowned in a roaring, boisterous
+chorus.
+
+"It's not staling, me boy," said Con O'Brien, with the faintest brogue
+in the world; "it's only helping ourselves to a few cherries, that
+otherwise might spoil for want o' the picking, and so be wasted
+intirely. And if Deacon Gammon don't know it, he'll be none the wiser,
+for he's got piles and hapes more'n he can take care of. Ten to one
+he'll be obliged to us for helping him out a little--he isn't a bad old
+gintleman at heart, you know. And it's for the fun of it as well as the
+ating we take 'em, and that's the truth."
+
+"So 'tis," echoed a good many of the boys.
+
+As for Clem, he gazed into Con's serious face doubtfully, yet, it must
+be confessed, very willing to be convinced.
+
+"I suppose you know best," said he--"you fellows that have lived here
+all your lives."
+
+"Of course," laughed Jerry Parker. "Why, my father says he always plants
+an extra melon seed for us boys as well as for the bugs."
+
+So they reasoned away their doubts and made their plans; and somehow,
+before the little party broke up, each boy had pretty nearly succeeded
+in persuading himself that he would be doing the Deacon a favor by
+helping him make away with a small portion of his fruit. All the same,
+Ned Rogers couldn't resist a little feeling of guilt, not unmingled with
+dread, when his father said at the tea table that evening: "I wonder
+what Deacon Gammon thought of that mow of early-cut timothy? He was up
+to look at it this afternoon."
+
+Nobody could tell what the Deacon thought of the hay, for nobody had
+seen him. But Ned was thinking that he would give something to know just
+at what time in the afternoon the Deacon came to look at that haymow.
+
+That was what he said to his friends when they met next night all ready
+for the proposed raid on the Deacon's cherries. There were not a few
+blank faces in the little crowd when he told his story.
+
+"He might have heard us if he was there when we were talking," said Ned,
+beating a lively tattoo on the bottom of his basket. "I don't say he
+did, but he might."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Con O'Brien. "The Deacon's deaf a little, and I
+don't believe he could hear what we were a-saying. Why didn't you go
+round, me boy, to the straw hape, and see if you could hear yourself
+into the bar-rn?"
+
+A shout went up at that, which, to be sure, was exactly what Con wanted,
+since there is nothing better than a jolly-sounding laugh to put a boy
+on good terms with himself and everybody else.
+
+"It's all right," said he. "Come on, now, and don't you be afraid o'
+nothin'."
+
+Not a boy among them was afraid; but a good many of them couldn't keep
+their hearts from fluttering in a very queer way when they came, with
+their baskets and bags, to the gap in Deacon Gammon's orchard wall. The
+orchard was near the house, and the cherry-trees were scattered about
+among the apple-trees in a hap-hazard fashion. The house looked dark and
+still.
+
+"It's just as I told you," whispered Con O'Brien, triumphantly. "The
+Deacon and his wife have gone to prayer-mating, and the coast is clear.
+'Rah for we! Look at 'em, me boys!"
+
+They did more than look at the great, delicious, clustering cherries,
+hanging from boughs which bent low down with their weight. They pulled
+them by handfuls, and bags and baskets were rapidly filled.
+
+"But there don't look to be any less 'n there was when we begun," said
+Con, with a merry chuckle. "Now, boys, isn't this a big help to the old
+gintleman? He'd niver get away with 'em alone, sure."
+
+There was no sound except the voices of the frogs in the marsh under the
+hill while the work went briskly on. It was when the boys were nearly
+ready to leave that they heard a voice in the direction of the Deacon's
+domicile:
+
+"I don't know, but I'll walk out and see."
+
+"It's ould Mrs. Gammon herself!" sounded Con's excited whisper. "Go for
+the gap, me boys, and don't spill your cherries over. Go, now!"
+
+They were all only too ready to obey. Away they skurried, with long
+leaps, like frightened rabbits, through the orchard grass to the break
+in the wall. But they did not go beyond it. Up rose the Deacon on the
+other side, as cool--so Jerry Barker afterward said--as a frozen
+cucumber.
+
+"Good-evening, boys," said he. He took off his hat as he spoke, and by
+the light of the moon the boys could see that he was making a desperate
+effort to keep his face straight. "Now I'm-- Hold on there! _Stop!_"
+
+For Con and Ike Harris had started to run. They stopped, however. There
+was nothing else to do when the Deacon spoke in that way, and they knew
+it.
+
+"Let's see," said the Deacon, reaching toward Ned Rogers's basket,
+which was forthwith handed over to him with great alacrity--"let's see
+how many you've got."
+
+He examined every boy's load in turn carefully and in silence, and all
+the while the boys looked into each other's faces without speaking. Oh!
+if the moon would but go under a cloud!
+
+When the Deacon had finished his inspection, he spoke again, kindly, and
+with a pleasant smile:
+
+"Now, boys, I'm much obliged to ye. I've laid out to go to town with a
+load o' truck to-morrow, an' I was wonderin' how I'd get my cherries
+picked. I'm reely obliged to ye, and I'll be more so if ye'll carry 'em
+to the house for me."
+
+Not a boy felt like disobeying. Not one but silently picked up his
+burden of cherries and marched along before the Deacon to the house and
+into the porch.
+
+"Set 'em right down here," directed Deacon Gammon, cheerily, "an' I'll
+see to 'em 'fore long. Now, boys, ye've worked consider'ble hard, an'
+you want some supper. Come in an' have some cherry pie an' cheese."
+
+Every boy's face said he would rather die, and there was a sound of
+murmured negatives.
+
+"Yes, you will," said the Deacon; "you've worked well, an' deserve your
+supper. Right in to the kitchen now, right in! Mother's a-waitin' for
+ye."
+
+So she was--kind, motherly Mrs. Gammon. And there was a table loaded
+with goodies waiting for them too--sandwiches, and plum-cake, and cherry
+pie, and cherry tarts, and cherries--cherries everywhere.
+
+"Good-evening," said Mrs. Gammon, beaming upon the boys.
+
+"Take some chairs," ordered the Deacon, behind them; "and set right up
+and have some cherry pie and sech."
+
+The boys wondered whether they were awake or dreaming as they filed
+shamefacedly past Mrs. Gammon, hats in hand, and took seats at the
+well-spread table.
+
+"Now help yourselves," said the Deacon's wife. And each boy in his heart
+wondered if she knew, and hoped she didn't. But they helped themselves
+readily enough; and at length, between the Deacon's funny stories and
+the delicious cherry pie, they came as near to enjoying themselves as
+was possible under the circumstances.
+
+"You ain't eat scarcely anything," said the Deacon, when the boys
+finished their meal. "Have some cherries? No cherries? Ho! ho! ho!"
+
+"Now, father!" expostulated his wife, mildly, and then the boys _knew_
+she knew.
+
+"I don't s'pose I'd ought to," said the Deacon; and he walked to the
+head of the table, and stood there looking down at his young guests with
+a queer little smile. "I ain't much of a speechifier," said he, "but I
+want to ask you boys a question. Which would ye rather be, when ye get
+ready to take your fathers' places, honest men or rogues?"
+
+Every boy caught his breath. The old eight-day clock in the corner
+ticked painfully loud.
+
+"The man'll be nigh about the same as the boy," went on the Deacon. "Now
+which'll you be, boys, rogues or honest men?"
+
+"Hon--honest men," cried Con O'Brien.
+
+Later on he said he couldn't help it, with the Deacon looking at him,
+and the Deacon's wife wiping her glasses in that anxious way; but he
+meant it all the same. And they all followed his lead, as they ever did,
+every boy.
+
+"That's right," said Deacon Gammon--"that's just right; and we won't say
+another word about it."
+
+"No, don't," said his wife.
+
+But, after all, it was Con O'Brien who said the right thing in the right
+place, as he picked up his basket, which wasn't entirely empty, in the
+porch.
+
+"Whenever you want any help about picking your cherries, Deacon Gammon,
+call on us," said he. "We'll be sure to come when you sind for us, and
+we won't come before, honest Injun!"
+
+"That's right," said the Deacon--"that's right."
+
+Then his eyes twinkled, as the boys filed out into the night. "Edward,"
+said he to Ned Rogers, "tell your father that's the best mow of timothy
+I ever saw."
+
+"It's just the way I thought," cried the boys, when they got out of the
+Deacon's hearing, "just exactly."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.
+
+"I'll 'tend to you in a moment, Mr. Hornet."]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A Midsummer Song.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
+
+
+  MIDDLETOWN, VIRGINIA.
+
+     A very dear friend of mamma's sent YOUNG PEOPLE to me as a
+     Christmas present. I enjoy the stories so much! and am now very
+     much interested in "Mr. Stubbs's Brother." I think the pictures
+     lovely. I am saving every number carefully. Mamma intends having
+     them bound. I see the little girls have been writing about their
+     pets. We have a German canary; he sings by lamp-light. His name is
+     Paul Pry. I am a minister's daughter, and live in the beautiful
+     Valley of Virginia. This is my first attempt at letter-writing. I
+     am ten years old, and would love to see my letter in Our
+     Post-office Box.
+
+  M. BLANCHE M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA.
+
+     I have no pets to write about, but I will tell you of my nice trip.
+     I went to Nashville and Columbia to play in the Huntsville Amateur
+     Opera Company. I appeared as one of the little Dragoon Guards. The
+     name of the play is _Patience_. Sir. G. is the director, and my
+     papa is Bunthorne. Let me thank Mr. Otis for his nice story of "Mr.
+     Stubbs's Brother." I grow so impatient for the paper each week. I
+     am nine years old.
+
+  EDWIN L. W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     On the 6th of June my papa, mamma, and I went on the State Editors'
+     Excursion to Washington and Mount Vernon. We arrived at Washington
+     at half past one, and at the depot we were met by our friend Mr.
+     Read, of the Patent-office. After resting awhile, we went around
+     the city to see the sights until dinner-time, which was half past
+     four. At nine o'clock that evening I went with my papa and mamma to
+     the formal reception which the President gave the editors. Being a
+     little girl, I felt shy, and almost slipped past him, but he said,
+     "I don't want this little miss to pass me." So the secretary of the
+     association took me, and told him who I was. He then shook hands
+     with me very pleasantly, so I'm no more shy of the President.
+
+     The next morning we took the steamboat _Corcoran_ to go to Mount
+     Vernon. I liked the ride very much; it was very pleasant down the
+     river. On entering the grounds the first thing visited was the tomb
+     of Washington, and there we stood and looked and looked at the
+     marble caskets that hold the bodies of George and Martha
+     Washington. Mamma reached through the iron bars and got some
+     pebbles that were put there for visitors to take. The next place we
+     came to was the old tomb of Washington. We went down into it, and
+     there we chipped some splinters off the old door frame. The mansion
+     we came to next, and entered the hall, and there we saw the key of
+     the Bastile (which is a very large key) in a glass case. The first
+     room we entered was the state dining-room, and there a gentleman
+     explained the different interesting things that were in the house.
+     In this room, in a glass case, is a stone model of the Bastile. We
+     then came into the east parlor; in it was what I thought was an
+     old-fashioned piano, but I was told that it was a harpsichord. We
+     next entered the west parlor; then the dining-room, in which was a
+     large fire-place. From there we went into the kitchen, where there
+     was a table spread, with old-fashioned dishes, knives, and forks.
+     We then went upstairs, and entered the room where Washington died.
+     The bed was very wide. We also saw the room of Martha Washington,
+     and that of Eleanor Custis. Her bed was so high that she had to
+     have three steps to go up to it. Lafayette's room and the
+     guest-chamber were the two prettiest rooms in the house. All the
+     rooms have the same furniture that they had in Washington's day. We
+     went to the attic, and up into the cupola, and had a good view of
+     the beautiful Potomac and the country around. A gentleman took a
+     hen's egg out of a nest in the old brick barn. I gathered a bunch
+     of clover heads and daisies from the yard.
+
+     What I like best at Mount Vernon are the grounds and the
+     river-bank, where I would so much enjoy running and playing. I used
+     to think that Washington was a very plain man, but since I have
+     been at his home I have changed my mind, and now think that he
+     liked fine things too. We started back to Washington city about two
+     o'clock, and reached there in time for our dinner, which we enjoyed
+     very much after our day of sight-seeing.
+
+     Next day we went into the Patent-office, the Treasury Department,
+     the Smithsonian Institution, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
+     the Agricultural Building, the Post-office, and the Capitol. All
+     these buildings are very large and handsome, and contain many
+     interesting and wonderful things. In the Dead-letter Office we met
+     an old gentleman who was very kind to me. He said:
+
+     "Little girl, are you a Sunday-school girl, and what school do you
+     go to?"
+
+     My answer was, "To the Second Presbyterian, of Carlisle."
+
+     The next morning we started for home. I was glad to get there, for
+     I was tired, though I enjoyed Washington very much.
+
+  MAUD Z.
+
+This is a very charming letter to have been written by a little
+sight-seer who is not yet eight years old. The description of your
+pleasant day at Mount Vernon, little Maud, will please hundreds of other
+girls, and boys too, who have not yet been there, but hope some day to
+go and see the place which was once the home of the Father of his
+Country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BLANCHARD, ONTARIO.
+
+     I am the eldest of six. I was thirteen years old on Midsummer-day,
+     so I thought I would write to the Post-office Box of HARPER'S YOUNG
+     PEOPLE. I have taken it since March, 1882. A lady teacher from
+     Chicago spent her vacation with us last summer, and while here her
+     little sisters sent her several numbers of YOUNG PEOPLE. I thought
+     them just splendid. After going home she sent me a number now and
+     again, but I wanted one every week, so my little cousin and I
+     together sent for it. I have never been out of Canada, but my
+     grandpa has been twice round the world, and I listen with much
+     interest when he speaks of the various countries he has visited. We
+     have a pretty school, and a nice walk to it through a wood by the
+     side of a creek. There are wild flowers in the bush, and you may
+     think what nice bouquets we gather. We all go to school. My papa is
+     a farmer, and we have lots of cattle and horses and many feathered
+     fowls. I must not forget to tell you the nice little present I got
+     from Chicago on my birthday. The same dear friend sent me a pretty
+     needle-book made by one of the Sisters of Charity in Chicago. I
+     prize it highly. They tell me Ontario is very much like the State
+     of New York. Have you ever, dear Postmistress, been in Ontario?
+     Everything is lovely here; all nature seems alive. I have quite a
+     number of pets: three cats (Bessie, Tom Barney, and Jennie), two
+     pet lambs (Jack and Tom), and a shaggy little dog named Tip, the
+     best of all. I think I will now close my letter by sending kind
+     wishes to you and to my little cousins over the line.
+
+  M. BLANCHE D.
+
+No, dear Blanche, I have never visited your pleasant home, but your
+description is so vivid that I can see with my eyes shut the pretty
+school-house, the walk by the creek, and the grove where the wild
+flowers bloom. What a number of pets you have to care for!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  MAINHOUSE, KELSO, ROXBURGHSHIRE, SCOTLAND.
+
+     I am a little boy eight and a half years old, and I have a little
+     brother nearly six. Our father and mother are in India, and we live
+     with our grandpapa in the country. We have two Belgian rabbits, and
+     I call mine Bunny, and John's Brownie. We have a pony named Sambo.
+     There is a large retriever dog whose name is Don. We receive
+     HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE every week from our uncle and aunt who live
+     in America, and we like it very much. I like "The Talking Leaves."
+     We have a canary, and he sings all day long. We have each a garden,
+     and there are pretty flowers, and we like working in them after
+     lessons are over. We do not go to school; auntie gives us our
+     lessons. I write this letter myself, and John writes his name after
+     mine.
+
+  ROBERT B. P. and JOHN D. P.
+
+Papa and mamma in India must be very much pleased with the letters they
+receive from their little sons if they are written as plainly and as
+well expressed as this one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I am thirteen years old, and love HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. We have
+     great fun with a bear that lives near us; he is a young cub. We had
+     a little rabbit and a pet canary, but a wicked old cat killed them
+     both. I have a small but elegant stamp book, with 135 stamps in it;
+     I would like offers for it. I am soon going to learn telegraphy.
+     Could you tell me how all the people got their names?
+
+  HARRY B. WILSON,
+  77 Pearl St., Chelsea, Mass.
+
+Some names were given, in the first place, because of the occupation of
+the person with whom the family began. In all ages smiths have been very
+useful, and society would not have known what to do without them; so it
+comes to pass that a great many people bear the name of Smith. Wilson
+was originally Will's son, Johnson John's son, and so on. Sometimes a
+number of soldiers and retainers took the name of their chief, in the
+old warlike days, when a castle was defended by a great many warriors,
+and the lord of the castle in his turn protected whole villages of women
+and children. Some names are in memory of places, of rivers, or
+mountains where battles took place. Some are called after favorite
+colors. The history of surnames is very curious, and you will be
+interested if you look into it carefully.
+
+I am glad you are about to study telegraphy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BROOKHAVEN, MISSISSIPPI.
+
+     I was much pleased with the letter from the little girl in Germany,
+     for I want to know all about music. I am thirteen years old, and
+     have been taking lessons five years. I play Jael's _Faust_,
+     _Sonnambula_, _Rigoletto_, etc., and I am very anxious to go to
+     Germany, the father-land of music. I am studying German and French,
+     and taking lessons on the violin. My papa says I may go there some
+     day if I study hard. I think our country is the grandest one on the
+     globe, but still I would like to cross the ocean and study under
+     such professors and composers as Joachim Raff, Frau Clara Schumann,
+     and the violinist Hermann. I am sure they would inspire me to do
+     more. "M. W." has certainly heard of our Edison and his wonderful
+     electric light. I have been to Spanish Fort, in New Orleans, and
+     seen the light; it is so brilliant that one almost imagines it is a
+     smaller sun in the sky. Then, too, we have here the telephone and
+     the audiphone, and these are only a few of the modern inventions.
+
+  KATIE B. J.
+
+You are certainly a very busy little woman, Katie. I hope your desire to
+go to Germany may be gratified. But do not forget health in your wish
+for improvement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA.
+
+     I am a little girl eight years old. I have two dolls, and I love
+     them very much. This is the first letter I have ever written. I
+     have a canary-bird, and it is a beautiful singer. It is very tame.
+     Once I was leaning over the cage, and before I noticed it birdie
+     was pulling my hair. I have two sisters, Bessie and Florrie. My
+     grandpa has a dog named Ben. He is very much afraid of
+     fire-crackers. He spent Fourth of July behind the pantry door. We
+     could not coax him out, even to feed him.
+
+  LILLIE J. F.
+
+No wonder the poor dog did not know what to make of such a fuss as the
+fire-crackers made. Your birdie is very cunning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  COLUMBUS, OHIO.
+
+     I am eleven years old. My uncle gave me your paper for my birthday
+     present, and I think it was a nice present. I have always read the
+     letters in Our Post-office Box, and I thought I would write one
+     too. I notice that all the little girls tell about their pets. I
+     have a little turtle for my pet. It likes to eat flies; it will
+     take them in its mouth, and eat them fast. My turtle is very small.
+     Mamma said that I must take it back to the river, because it might
+     die. Our schools are all out now, and I passed for the C. Grammar.
+     We have a great many canaries, and I have a beautiful Java finch:
+     it has a bright red bill, and it says tat, tat, all the day long.
+     Good-by.
+
+  WINNIE S.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     I am very fond of pets, and have nine canaries, six of which I
+     raised myself. Any little girl or boy may do the same, with care
+     and patience. Mamma has two goldfinches. One of them she brought
+     from Europe last summer. I don't like Europe as well as I do
+     America. I was very homesick while I was in those countries where
+     no English is spoken. I could not even find out what I wanted to
+     eat by looking at the bills of fare. We are going soon to my
+     grandma's beautiful country home near Niagara Falls, where I expect
+     to be very happy.
+
+  KATHARINE H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CONWAY, MASSACHUSETTS.
+
+     I am a little girl six years old. I live in a house where my
+     great-grandpapa lived. There are high hills here, and a pretty
+     little brook, and it has speckled trout in it; and we live in the
+     shadow of big trees that my great-uncles planted when they were
+     little boys. The birds come and sing in the trees, and little red
+     squirrels chase each other through them, and bring nuts and eat
+     them in the trees. My uncle says, when he was a little boy, and
+     lived here, a red squirrel with a bushy white tail lived in these
+     same trees, and he tried to catch it in a trap, but could not. I
+     hope I will see one some time. I have two little kittens and a pet
+     lamb. The lamb goes to the pasture now, but at night comes and
+     bleats for us to feed him. And when it is almost dark, a
+     whip-poor-will comes and sings to us. The laurel is now in bloom on
+     the hills, and is both pink and white, and is very pretty. We sent
+     some of it in a box to Chicago. I went a mile to school, and
+     studied reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic, but the school
+     is closed now. My uncle sends me HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. It comes on
+     Tuesdays, and I like it very much. I am glad when Tuesday comes. I
+     enjoy the Toby Tyler stories, and read them the first thing. I like
+     to read about Jimmy Brown. He is a naughty boy but very funny. My
+     mamma says I must not like the naughty boys, and I will try not to,
+     but I read about them.
+
+  FLORENCE R. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  OXFORD, INDIANA.
+
+     I am a little girl eleven years old. My birthday was on the 23d of
+     May; I received several nice presents. I have two little brothers.
+     Johnnie, the oldest, is five years, and Norman is eleven months
+     old, the dearest and sweetest little baby, I think, that ever was.
+     I go to school in the winter, but we do not have summer school. I
+     am sorry, for I love to go to school. We have Sunday-school half a
+     mile from here. I think we live in a very nice place. A small grove
+     is north of the house and barn, and Big Pine Creek is on the east.
+     I often go fishing. The creek has been pretty high several times
+     this spring and summer, almost a quarter of a mile wide just east
+     of the house. My grandma gave me a little canary. His name is
+     Billy; he is a great pet, and a very sweet singer, and also a great
+     fighter. He will bite our fingers, and look very savage; and when
+     he sings he nearly always gets under his swing, and makes it go
+     with his head, and thus keeps time with it.
+
+  ZUA E. T.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     I am a little girl of thirteen, and my brother and I take HARPER'S
+     YOUNG PEOPLE, and have done so for nearly two years. I think "Mr.
+     Stubbs's Brother" is very nice, but I think "Toby Tyler" was
+     better. I am now staying at my cousin's, and we thought it would be
+     very nice to write to you. I have lived in America for only six
+     years, as I was born on the island of St. Thomas, in the West
+     Indies, where we had no winter, and I never saw snow until I came
+     here. I thought it came down in great lumps, and I was very much
+     surprised to see it falling in flakes. I have a dear little sister
+     six years old whose name is Annie, but we call her Pansy, Nannie,
+     or any other pet name we choose. She had a kitten, which she named
+     Tabby, and when we moved, papa put him in a bag and sent him to the
+     other house, but the next day he ran away. I am having the volume
+     of 1881 bound, so as not to lose any of the numbers.
+
+  ELIZA M. S.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A quart of pins, hair-pins, and needles was lately found in the nest of
+a mouse when some workmen tore down the piazza of an old hotel in
+Massachusetts. So that accounts for some of the pins which are always
+disappearing. They were taken away by a foolish little mouse, and could
+not have made a very soft bed for her family.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LOUIE LE B.--We will lay your little friend's pretty poem aside until
+cold weather comes round again. Thank you for sending it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C. Y. P. R. U.
+
+A FEAST IN TAHITI.--We are sometimes ready to imagine that we know
+better how to decorate our houses and dinner tables than the people do
+who live in the far-off East. But Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming, who was
+invited to a feast in Tahiti, has given a very beautiful description of
+the style of entertainment. It would be hard to find anything prettier:
+
+     "Good Queen Pomare had lately died, and the islanders were in
+     mourning for her. At the same time they were welcoming her
+     successor, King Ariiane, with demonstrations of joy. He was making
+     a royal progress over his domains, and stopping at Paea, he and his
+     suite dined in the town-hall. Dinner was laid for three hundred
+     guests. At one end was a table where the chiefs had prepared to
+     entertain the royal party, and other tables had been spread by the
+     families of the neighborhood for themselves and their friends. The
+     building was decorated with palms and tree-ferns, and festooned all
+     over with deep fringe made of hybiscus fibre dyed either yellow or
+     white. There must have been miles of this fringe wreathed about the
+     hall.
+
+     "On sitting down, the table seemed to have a series of white marble
+     vases arranged along the centre. On looking closely, these vases
+     turned out to be lumps of the thick, fleshy stalk of the banana
+     near the root. They were of the purest white. In them were stuck
+     branches of the thorny wild lemon-tree, and on each thorn were
+     fastened bunches of gay artificial flowers, either made of colored
+     leaves, or of the silken white fibre of the arrow-root, or of
+     bamboo fibre. From some of the banana vases floated silvery plumes
+     of aerial film like fairy ribbons. This was the snowy reva-reva,
+     extracted from young cocoa-palm leaves. The worker who produces
+     this lovely gossamer keeps a split stick stuck in the ground at her
+     side; into its cleft she fastens one end of each ribbon as she
+     peels it. It is so very light and soft that but for this precaution
+     the first faint puff of air would blow it away.
+
+     "When the feast was at an end, the guests adorned their hats with
+     these graceful plumes, and with the pretty, fanciful flowers. Then
+     everybody adjourned to the grassy shore, and seated there, they
+     watched the golden moon rising above the calm sea, while companies
+     of glee-singers filled the air with soft, sweet music."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We would call the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. this week to the
+article on "St. Elizabeth of Thuringia," by Mrs. Helen S. Conant, and to
+"Sea-Anemones," by Miss Sarah Cooper. The boys will learn how to help
+the ducks and fishes to an easier life in shady ponds by reading Mr.
+Allan Forman's article entitled "Trapping Torups."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Correct answers to puzzles have been received from Louis H. Hirsh, Max
+L., Helen Gardner, Mary Smith, Leonie Foster, Arthur and Freddie, A. E.
+Cressingham, Cortland F. Bishop, John P. Todd, Lina Sparks, "North
+Star," Lucy Meade, Carl Buckner, William Dick, "Eureka," Carrie B.
+Kunkel, Russel B. Beals, E. L. Barnes, Edgar Seeman, Bessie Hyde, Emma
+Nusbaum, F. Harris, William F. Harris, Blanche Foster, Kitty C.,
+E. N. H., L. R. S., Lucy A. Morse, Harry Beck, Beryl Abbott, Ethel Cox,
+Florence Cox, Mamie England, Marion, Addie Goodnow, "Fidelis," L. D. and
+F. G., Kate Marshall, and Charlie Lamprey.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+No. 1.
+
+RHOMBOID.
+
+Across.--1. A girl's name. 2. A receptacle for oil. 3. A sort of cloth.
+4. A crime. 5. A Spanish title.
+
+Down.--1. A letter. 2. To proceed. 3. To pinch. 4. A girl's name. 5.
+Withers. 6. To ascend. 7. A Spanish title. 8. A negative. 9. A letter.
+
+  EDGAR SEEMAN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+DOUBLE ACROSTIC.
+
+1. Part of a door. 2. Not fit. 3. A sort of engraving. 4. A soft sound.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 3.
+
+THREE ENIGMAS.
+
+1.
+
+  My first is in slate, but not in book.
+  My second is in cry, but not in crook.
+  My third is in man, but not in lady.
+  My fourth is in fade, but not in die.
+  My fifth is in Maggie, but not in Sadie.
+  My sixth is in crow, but not in cry.
+  My seventh is in crag, but not in rock.
+  My eighth is in plug, but not in sock.
+  My ninth is in rent, also in lease.
+  My whole is a place of peace.
+
+  S. BIRDIE DORMAN.
+
+2.
+
+  First is in left, but not in right.
+  Second is in quarrel, but not in fight.
+  Third is in whip, but not in flog.
+  Fourth is in haze, but not in fog.
+  Fifth is in fair, but not in just.
+  Sixth is in blast, but not in gust.
+  Seventh is in grieve, but not in pain.
+  Eighth is in profit, but not in gain.
+  Ninth is in sharp, but not in keen.
+  Whole is a famous English Queen.
+
+  EMPIRE CITY.
+
+3.
+
+  My first is in mica, but not in stone.
+  My second is in meat, but not in bone.
+  My third is in mice, but not in rats.
+  My fourth is in rugs, but not in mats.
+  My fifth is in might, but not in power.
+  My sixth is in lilac, but not in flower.
+  My seventh is in wrapped, but not in furled.
+  My whole belongs to the great New World.
+
+  R. B. BEALES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 140.
+
+No. 1.
+
+Ice-cream. Needle-work. Dough-nut. Eglantine. Pot-pourri. Elf. Nubia.
+Dimples. Easy-chair. Narcotic. Caramel. Eyrie. Dogstar. Albatross.
+Youth. Independence-day.
+
+No. 2.
+
+Croquet. Denmark. Locust. Strawberry.
+
+No. 3.
+
+      C           Y           S
+    A H A       B O A       A P T
+  C H A R M   Y O U N G   S P A I N
+    A R T       A N N       T I E
+      M           G           N
+
+No. 4.
+
+Washington.
+
+No. 5.
+
+  S I G N
+  I L L E
+  G L E E
+  N E E D
+
+No. 6.
+
+  S E G A R
+  E V E R Y
+  G E L I D
+  A R I S E
+  R Y D E R
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[_For Exchanges, see 2d and 3d pages of cover._]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Music: HOLD UP THE RIGHT HAND!]
+
+The words generally will indicate the suitable action. (1) Clap hands
+smartly. (2) Strike right arm and elbow downwards, with fist clenched.
+(3) Tap with right hand from the elbow. (4) Pull hand over hand, as on a
+rope. (5) Strike with both hands from the right shoulder obliquely, as
+if cutting down a tree.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "SUCH A LOT OF US, AND WE'RE SO CLEAN!"]
+
+
+
+
+THE SPARROW AND THE BEETLE.
+
+
+The sparrow and the beetle met one day in the summer, when the
+strawberries and raspberries were ripe, and the kitchen-garden was full
+of flourishing vegetables.
+
+"Good-morning. You are early abroad," said the sparrow. "Pray where may
+you have been?"
+
+"I have been where I advise you to go," answered the beetle--"into the
+kitchen-garden, where I found all manner of delicious leaves just suited
+to my taste, and where I saw red, white, and black currants, fine
+raspberries, pease, and strawberries."
+
+"Oh!" said the sparrow, with a severe look; "then you take me to be as
+great a thief as the snail and yourself. I wonder you are not ashamed of
+plundering the master's garden, and injuring his plants and vegetables."
+
+"I don't do much injury," said the beetle. "Creatures must live. I take
+little."
+
+"Perhaps not," returned the sparrow, "if there were only yourself to
+consider; but just count up your children, and your grandchildren, and
+your great-grandchildren, to say nothing of the innumerable beetles of
+your own generation. I wonder you dare to confess your pillaging
+propensities."
+
+The beetle began to feel nervous; he looked right and left, but the
+sparrow's eye was upon him.
+
+"I must do my duty," said the sparrow, sternly. "I am here to protect my
+master's plants. As it happens, I can serve him and my little ones also,
+who are waiting for their breakfast."
+
+So saying, he seized upon the hapless beetle, and put an end to him. But
+as he was about to fly home, a cat, who had been watching from the
+boughs of a neighboring plum-tree, appeared in sight. The sparrow
+dropped his prey, and remained fascinated to the spot, his eyes fixed on
+the cat, who came nearer and nearer.
+
+"Is it for you," said she, "to deprive an innocent insect of his life,
+and to accuse him of robbery, when I have seen you and the blackbirds
+eating away at the cherries in this very orchard? It is of no use to
+deny the fact," she added, as the sparrow feebly attempted to speak. "I
+know my duty, and it is to rid my master of thieves."
+
+So saying, she pounced upon the unfortunate sparrow, and was carrying
+him home to her kitten, when the gamekeeper, who had his eye upon her on
+account of the numerous hares and rabbits that she had made away with,
+levelled his gun at her, and fired with such good effect that she fell
+dead.
+
+Now the moral of this tale is that those who would punish the faults of
+others should be careful to see whether they themselves are blameless,
+or they may find that retribution awaits them even in the moment when
+they think they are going to triumph.
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MAID FOR ME.
+
+BY A. L. A. SMITH.
+
+
+                I know a little maiden,
+                Whom I always see arrayed in
+  Silks and ribbons, but she is a spoiled and petted little elf;
+  For she never helps her mother, or her sister, or her brother,
+  But, forgetting all around her, lives entirely for herself:
+                So she simpers, and she sighs,
+                And she mopes, and she cries,
+  And knows not where the happy hours flee.
+  Now let me tell you privately, my darling little friends,
+            She's as miserable as miserable can be,
+            And I fear she's not the little maid for me.
+
+                But I know another maiden,
+                Whom I've often seen arrayed in
+  Silks and ribbons, but not always: she's a prudent little elf;
+  And she always helps her mother, and her sister, and her brother,
+  And lives for all around her, quite regardless of herself:
+                So she laughs and she sings,
+                And the hours on happy wings,
+  Shower gladness round her pathway as they flee.
+  Now need I tell you privately, my darling little friends,
+            She's as happy as a little maid can be?
+            This is surely just the little maid for me.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ONE,]
+
+[Illustration: TWO,]
+
+[Illustration: THREE,]
+
+[Illustration: DOWN GOES SHE!]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, July 25, 1882, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58832 ***