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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16560-h.zip b/16560-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5ed447 --- /dev/null +++ b/16560-h.zip diff --git a/16560-h/16560-h.htm b/16560-h/16560-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0e762e --- /dev/null +++ b/16560-h/16560-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2175 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Diving Bell, by Francis C. Woodworth. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; font-weight: bold;} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Diving Bell, by Francis C. Woodworth + +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: The Diving Bell + Or, Pearls to be Sought for + +Author: Francis C. Woodworth + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVING BELL *** + + + + +Produced by Geetu Melwani and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. Produced from +page scans provided by the Internet Archive and University +of Florida. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="front" id="front"/><img src="images/fox_crab_t.jpg" alt="THE FOX AND THE CRAB." /> +<span class="caption">The Fox and the Crab.</span> +</div> + +<h1>THE DIVING BELL;<br /> +OR,<br /> +PEARLS TO BE SOUGHT FOR.<br /></h1> + +<h4>With Tinted Illustrations.</h4> + +<h3>BY UNCLE FRANK,</h3> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF "A PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS," <br /> +"WILLOW LANE STORIES," <br /> +"THE DIVING BELL," ETC. ETC.</h5> + + +<h5>BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. PUBLISHERS.</h5> + +<div> +<div style="float: left; width: 49%; height: 100%;"><img src="images/cover_t.jpg" alt="BookCover" /></div> +<div style="float: right; width: 49%; height: 100%;"><img src="images/title_t.jpg" alt="title" /></div> +</div> + + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div><div class="center"> +<a href="#I"><b>I. THE NAME OF MY BOOK</b></a><br /> +<a href="#II"><b>II. THINKING AND LAUGHING</b></a><br /> +<a href="#III"><b>III. THE SCHEMING SPIDER</b></a><br /> +<a href="#IV"><b>IV. GENIUS IN THE BUD</b></a><br /> +<a href="#V"><b>V. PUTTING ON AIRS</b></a><br /> +<a href="#VI"><b>VI. "TRY THE OTHER END"</b></a><br /> +<a href="#VII"><b>VII. THE FOX AND THE CRAB</b></a><br /> +<a href="#VIII"><b>VIII. THE GREEDY FLY</b></a><br /> +<a href="#IX"><b>IX. CAROLINE AND HER KITTEN</b></a><br /> +<a href="#X"><b>X. "I DON'T KNOW"</b></a><br /> +<a href="#XI"><b>XI. THE LEARNED GEESE</b></a><br /> +<a href="#XII"><b>XII. THE WRONG WAY</b></a><br /> +<a href="#XIII"><b>XIII. THE RIGHT WAY</b></a><br /> +<a href="#XIV"><b>XIV. THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL</b></a><br /> +<a href="#XV"><b>XV. ON BARKING DOGS</b></a><br /> +<br /><br /></div></div> + + + +<h4>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h4> +<div><div class="center"> +<a href="#front">THE FOX AND THE CRAB (Frontispiece)</a><br /> +<a href="#spider1">THE SPIDER'S INVITATION</a><br /> +<a href="#spider2">THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH</a><br /> +<a href="#kate">KATE AND HER TUTOR</a><br /> +<a href="#kitten">MY PRETTY KITTEN</a><br /> +<a href="#geese">THE LEARNED GEESE</a><br /> +<a href="#goat">THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL</a><br /> +</div></div> + + + +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + +<h2>THE NAME OF MY BOOK.</h2> + +<p>The reader, perhaps, as he turns over the first pages of this volume, +is puzzled, right at the outset, with the meaning of my title, <i>The +Diving Bell</i>. It is plain enough to Uncle Frank, and possibly it is to +you; but it may not be; so I will tell you what a diving bell is, and +then, probably, you can guess the reason why I have given this name to +the following pages.</p> + +<p>If you will take a common glass tumbler, and plunge it into water, +with the mouth downwards, you will find that very little water will +rise into the tumbler. You can satisfy yourself better about this +matter, if, in the first place, you lay a cork upon the surface of the +water, and then put the tumbler over it.</p> + +<p>Did you ever try the experiment? Try it now, if you never have done +so, and if you have any doubt on the subject.</p> + +<p>You might suppose, that the cork would be carried down far below the +surface of the water. But it is not so. The upper side of the cork, +after you have pressed the tumbler down so low that the upper end of +it is even below the surface of the water—the upper side of the cork +is not wet at all.</p> + +<p>"And what is the reason of this, Uncle Frank?"</p> + +<p>I will tell you. There is air in the tumbler, when you plunge it into +the water. The air stays in the vessel, so that there is no room for +the water.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir; I see how that is. But I see that a little water finds +its way into the tumbler, every time I try the experiment. How is +that?"</p> + +<p>You can press air, the same as you can press wood, or paper, or cloth, +so that it will go into a smaller space than it occupied before yon +pressed it. Did you ever make a pop-gun?</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir, a hundred times."</p> + +<p>Well, when you send the wad out of the pop-gun, you do it by pressing +the air inside the tube. Now if your tumbler was a hundred or a +thousand times as large, the air would prevent the water from coming +in, just as it does in this instance. Suppose I had dropped a purse +full of gold into a very deep river, and it had sunk to the bottom. +Suppose I could not get it in any other way but by going down to the +bottom after it. I could go down to that depth, and live there for +some time, by means of a diving bell made large enough to hold me, +precisely in the same way that a bird might go down to the bottom of a +tub of water, in a tumbler, and stand there with the water hardly over +his feet. There is a good deal of machinery about a diving bell, it +is true. But I need not take up much time in describing it. It is +necessary for the man to breathe, of course, while he is in the diving +bell; and as the air it contains is soon rendered impure by breathing, +fresh air must be introduced into the bell by means of a pump, or in +some other way. I am not very familiar with the necessary machinery, +to tell the truth. I never explored the bottom of a river in this way, +and I think it will be a long time before I make such a voyage.</p> + +<p>The diving bell has been used for a good many useful purposes—to lay +the foundations of docks and the piers of bridges; to collect pearls +at Ceylon, and coral at other places.</p> + +<p>I am not sure but the diving bell is getting somewhat out of use now. +People have found out another way of groping along on the bottom of +rivers and seas. They do it frequently, I believe, by means of a kind +of armor made of India rubber. But so far as my book is concerned, it +is of no consequence whether the diving bell is out of use or not. I +shall use the title, at all events.</p> + +<p>If, after my account of the diving bell, you still ask why I choose +to give such a name to the budget I have prepared for you, I can +answer your question very easily.</p> + +<p>I think you will find something worth looking at in the budget—not +pearls, or pieces of coral, or lost treasures, exactly, but still +something which will please you, and something which, when you get +hold of it, will be worth keeping and laying up in some snug corner of +your memory box. I say <i>when you get hold of it</i>; for the valuable +things I have for you do not all lie on the surface. You will have to +<i>search</i> for them a little. That is, you will have to think. When you +have read one of my stories, or fables, you may find it necessary to +stop, and ask yourself "What does Uncle Frank mean by all this?" In +other words, you will have to use the diving bell, and see if you +can't hunt up something in the story or the fable, which will be +useful to you, and which will make you wiser and better. Now you see +why I have called my book <i>The Diving Bell</i>, don't you?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + +<h2>THINKING AND LAUGHING.</h2> + + +<p>It is Uncle Frank's notion, that it is a good thing to laugh, but a +better thing to think. A great many people, however, old as well as +young, and young as well as old, live and die without thinking much. +They lose three quarters of the benefit they ought to get from +reading, and from what they see and learn as they go through the +world, by never diving below the surface of things. I don't suppose +it is so with you. I hope not, at all events. If it is so, then you +had better shut up this book, and pass it over to some young friend of +yours, who has learned to think, and who loves to read books that will +help him about thinking. No, on the whole, you needn't do any such +thing. Just read the book—read it through. Perhaps you will get a +taste for such reading, while you are going through the book.</p> + +<p>I must tell you an anecdote just here. You will not refuse to read +that, at any rate.</p> + +<p>Not long ago I was in a book store, looking over some new books which +I saw on the counter, when a fine-looking boy, who appeared to be +about nine years old, came in. He had a shilling in his hand, and said +he wanted to buy a book.</p> + +<p>"But what book do you want?" one of the clerks asked.</p> + +<p>The boy could not tell what it was exactly. But it was a "funny +book"—he was sure of that—and it cost a shilling.</p> + +<p>Well, it finally turned out that the book which the little fellow +wanted was a comic almanac—a book filled with miserable +pictures—pictures of men and beasts twisted into all sorts of odd +shapes—and vulgar jokes, and scraps of low wit.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me look at it?" I asked the little boy as the clerk +handed the book to him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said he.</p> + +<p>I took the almanac, and turned over some of its leaves. There was not +a particle of information in the book, except what related to the sun, +and moon, and stars, and that formed but a small portion of the +volume. "My son," said I, pleasantly, "what do you buy this book +for?"</p> + +<p>"To make me laugh," said he.</p> + +<p>"But is <i>that</i> all you read books for—to find something to laugh at?" +I inquired.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," he replied, "but then this book is <i>so</i> funny. Giles Manly +has got one, and"—he hesitated.</p> + +<p>"He has a great time over it," I interrupted, to which the little boy +nodded, as much as to say,</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, that's it."</p> + +<p>"Did your father send you after this book?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Did your mother tell you to get it?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. But my mother gave me a shilling, and told me I might buy +just such a book as I liked."</p> + +<p>"Well, my son," said I, "look here. You have heard Giles read some of +the funny things in this almanac, have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"And you've seen some of the pictures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, all of them."</p> + +<p>"Then you know pretty well what the book is?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, all about it, and that's what makes me want to buy it."</p> + +<p>"Well, you have a right to buy just such a book as you want. But if I +were in your place, I would not buy that book; and I'll tell you why. +There's a good deal of fun in it, to be sure. No doubt you would laugh +over it, if you had it. But you can't learn anything from it. Come, +now, I'll make a bargain with you. Here's a book"—I handed him one of +the <i>Lucy</i> books, written by Mr. <i>Jacob Abbott</i>—"which is worth a +dozen of that. This will make you laugh some, as well as the other +book; and it will do much more and better than that. It will set you +to <i>thinking</i>. It will instruct, as well as amuse you. It will sow +some good seeds in your mind, and your heart, too. It will teach you +to be a <i>thinker</i> as well as a reader. It costs a little more than +that almanac, it is true. But never mind that. If you'll take this +book, and give the gentleman your shilling, I'll pay him the rest of +the money. Will you do it? Will you take the Lucy book, and leave the +funny almanac?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. He hardly knew whether he should make or lose by the +trade.</p> + +<p>"If you will do so," I continued, "and read the book, when you get +through with it, you may come to my office in Nassau street, and tell +me how you was pleased with it. Then, if you say that you did not like +Mr. Abbott's book so well as you think you would have liked the book +with the funny pictures, and tell me that you made a bad bargain, I'll +take back the Lucy book, and give you the almanac in the place of it."</p> + +<p>That pleased the little fellow. The bargain was struck. Mr. Abbott's +book was bought, and the boy left the store, and ran home.</p> + +<p>I think it was about a week after that, or it might have been a +little longer, that I heard my name spoken, as I was sitting at my +desk. I turned around, and, sure enough, there was the identical boy +with whom I had made the trade at the book store.</p> + +<p>"Well, my little fellow," I said, "you've got sick of your bargain, +eh?" "No, sir," he said, "I'm glad I made it;" and he proceeded to +tell me his errand. It seemed that he had been so pleased with the +book, that he "wanted a few more of the same sort," as the razor strop +man says; and his father had told him that he might come to me, ask +me to get all the Lucy books for him.</p> + +<p>Now you see how it was with that little fellow, before he read the +book I gave him. He had got the notion that a child's book could not +be amusing—could not be worth reading—unless it was filled with such +nonsense as there was in the "funny book" he called for. He had not +got a <i>taste</i> for reading anything else. As soon as he did get such a +taste, he liked that kind of reading the best; because, besides making +him laugh a little now and then, it put some thoughts into his +head—gave him some hints which would be worth something to him in +after life.</p> + +<p>Now, I presume there are a great many boys and girls, who love to read +such nonsense as one finds in comic almanacs, and books like +"Bluebeard," and "Jack the Giant Killer," but who, like the youth I +met in the book store, could very easily learn to like useful books +just as well, and better too, if they would only take them up, and +read them.</p> + +<p>Why, my little friends, a book need not be dull and dry, because it is +not all nonsense. Uncle Frank don't mean to have a long face on, when +he writes for young people. He believes in laughing. He likes to laugh +himself, and he likes to see his young friends laugh, too, sometimes.</p> + +<p>I hope, indeed, that you will find this little book amusing, as well +as useful; though I should be very sorry if it were not useful, as +well as amusing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="spider1" id="spider1"></a><img src="images/spider1_t.jpg" alt="THE SPIDER'S INVITATION." title="THE SPIDER'S INVITATION" /> +<span class="caption">The Spider's Invitation.</span> +</div> + +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + +<h2>THE SCHEMING SPIDER.</h2> + +<h4>A FABLE FOR MANY IN GENERAL, AND A FEW IN PARTICULAR.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A bee who had chased after pleasure all day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And homeward was lazily wending his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell in with a Spider, who called to the Bee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Good evening! I trust you are well," said he.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bee was quite happy to stop awhile there—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He always had leisure enough and to spare—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Good day, Mr. Spider," he said, with a bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I thank you, I feel rather poorly, just now."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Tis nothing but work, with all one's might—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis nothing but work, from morning till night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wish I were dead, Mr. Spider; you know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I might as well die as to drag along so."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">IV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Spider pretended to pity the Bee—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For a cunning old hypocrite spider was he—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I'm sorry to see you so poorly," he said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he whispered his wife, "He will have to be bled."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">V.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tis true sir,"—the knave! every word is a lie—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"That rather than live so, 'twere better to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twere better to finish the thing, as you say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than to live till you're old, and die every day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">VI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The life that you lead, it may do very well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the beaver's rude hut, or the honey bee's cell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But it never would suit a gay fellow like me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I love to be merry—I love to be free."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">VII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In hoarding up riches you're wasting your time;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And—pray, sir, excuse me—such waste is a crime.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then to be guilty of avarice, too!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas! how I pity such sinners as you!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">VIII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange, strange that the Bee was so stupid and blind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Amen!" he exclaimed, "you have spoken my mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've been very wicked, I know it, I feel it;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bees have no right to their honey—they steal it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">IX.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But how in the world shall I manage to live?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should I beg of my friends, not a mite would they give;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis easy enough to be idle and sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But living on air is a different thing."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">X.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our Spider was silent, and looked very grave—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas a habit he had, the cunning old knave!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No Spider, pursuing his labor of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had more of the serpent, or less of the dove.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At length, "I believe I have hit it," said he;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Walk into my palace, and tarry with me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We spiders know nothing of labor and care;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come in; you are welcome our bounty to share.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I live like a king, and my wife like a queen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We wander where flowers are blooming and green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then on the breast of the lily we lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And list to the stream running merrily by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XIII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"With us you shall mingle in scenes of delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All summer, all winter, from morn until night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when 'neath the hills sinks the sun in the west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your head on a pillow of roses shall rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XIV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When miserly bees shall return from their toils"—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He winked as he said it—"we'll feast on the spoils;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll lighten their loads"—said the Bee, "So will I."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Spider said, "Well, if you live, you may try."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Bee did not wait to be urged any more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nodded his thanks, as he entered the door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Aha!" said the Spider, "I have you at last!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he seized the poor fellow, and tied him up fast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XVI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Bee, when aware of his perilous state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Recovered his wit, though a moment too late.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O treacherous Spider! for shame!" said he.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Is it thus you betray a poor innocent Bee?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XVII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The cunning old rascal then laughed outright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"My friend!" he said, grinning, "you're in a sad plight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ha! ha! what a dunce you must be to suppose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the heart of a Spider could pity your woes!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XVIII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I never could boast of much honor or shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though slightly acquainted with both by name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I think if the Bees can a brother betray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We Spiders are quite as good people as they.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">XIX.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I guess you have lived long enough, little sinner,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, now, with your leave, I will eat you for dinner.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You'll make a good morsel, it must be confessed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the world, very likely, will pardon the rest."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">MORAL.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This lesson for every one, little and great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is taught in that vagabond's tragical fate:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Of him who is scheming your friend to ensnare,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Unless you've a passion for bleeding, beware</i>!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="spider2" id="spider2"></a><img src="images/spider2_t.jpg" alt="THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH." title="THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH" /><br /> +<span class="caption">The Spider's Triumph.</span><br /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + +<h2>GENIUS IN THE BUD.</h2> + + +<p>Genius, in its infancy, sometimes puts on a very funny face. The first +efforts of a painter are generally rude enough. So are those of a +poet, or any other artist. I have often wished I might see the first +picture that such a man as Titian, or Rubens, or Reynolds, or West, +ever drew. It would interest me much, and, I suspect, would provoke a +smile or two, at the expense of the young artists.</p> + +<p>History does not often transmit such sketches to the world. But I wish +it would. I wish the picture of the sheep that Giotto was sketching, +when Cimabue, one of the greatest painters of his age, came across +him, could be produced. I would go miles to see it. And I wish West's +mother had carefully preserved, for some public gallery, the picture +that her son Benjamin made of the little baby in the cradle. You have +heard that story, I dare say.</p> + +<p>Benjamin, you know, showed a taste for drawing and painting, when he +was a very little boy. His early advantages were but few. But he made +the most of these advantages; and the result was that he became one of +the first painters of his day, and before he died, he was chosen +President of the Royal Society in London. How do you think he made his +colors? You will smile when you hear that they were formed with +charcoal and chalk, with an occasional sprinkling of the juice of red +berries. His brush was rather a rude one. It was made of the hair he +pulled from the tail of Pussy, the family cat. Poor old cat! she lost +so much of her fur to supply the young artist with brushes, that the +family began to feel a good deal of anxiety for her pussyship. They +thought her hair fell off by disease, until Benjamin, who was an +honest boy, one day informed them of their mistake. What a pity that +the world could not have the benefit of one of the pictures that West +painted with his cat-tail brush.</p> + +<p>And then, what a treat it would be, to get hold of the first rhymes +that Watts and Pope ever made. I believe that Watts had been rhyming +some time when he got a fatherly flogging for this exercise of his +genius, and he sobbed out, between the blows,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dear father, do some pity take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will no more verses make."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That couplet was not his first one, by a good deal. The habit, it +would seem, had taken a pretty strong hold of him, when the whipping +drew that out of him.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that the childhood and early youth of a genius are more +interesting than any riper periods of his life; or rather, that they +become so, when time and circumstances have developed what there was +in the man, and when from the stand-point of his fame in manhood, we +look back upon his early history. What small beginnings there have +been to all the efforts of those who have made themselves masters of +the particular art to which they have directed their attention.</p> + +<p>I wonder what kind of a thing Washington Irving's first composition +was. There must have been a first one; and, without doubt, it was a +clumsy affair enough. If I were going to write his history, I would +find those who knew him when he was a mere child, and I would pump +from them as many anecdotes about his little scribblings as I possibly +could, and I would print them, lots of them. I hardly think I could do +the reader of his biography a better service.</p> + +<p>I wonder what his first experience was with the editors. These +editors, by the way, are often very troublesome to the young sprig of +genius. Placed, as they are, at the door of the temple of fame, they +often seem to the unfledged author the most disobliging, iron-hearted +men in the world. He could walk right into the temple, and make +himself perfectly at home there, if they would only open the door. So +he fancies; and he wonders why the barbarians don't see the genius +sticking out, when he comes along with his nicely-written verses, and +why they don't just give him, at once, a ticket of admission to the +honors of the world. "These editors are slow to perceive merit," he +says to himself.</p> + +<p>Your old friend Uncle Frank once set himself up for a genius. Don't +laugh—pray, don't laugh. I was young then, and as green as a juvenile +gosling. Age has branded into me a great many truths, which, somehow +or other, were very slow in finding their way to my young mind. The +notion that I am a genius does not haunt me now, and a great many +years have passed since such a vision flitted across my imagination. +But I will tell you how I was cooled off, once on a time, when I got +into a raging fever of authorship, and was burning up with a desire to +make an impression on the world. I had written some verses—written +them with great care, and with ever so many additions, subtractions, +and divisions. They were perfect, at last—that is, I could not make +them any more perfect—and off they were posted to the editor of the +village newspaper. I declare I don't remember what they were about. +But I dare say, they were "Lines" to somebody, or "Stanzas" to +something; and I remember they were signed "Theodore Thinker," in a +very large, and as I then thought, a very fair hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, did the editor print them, Uncle Frank?"</p> + +<p>Hold on, my dear fellow. You are quite too fast. As I said, when the +lines to somebody or something were sent to the editor, I was in a +perfect fever. I could hardly wait for Wednesday to come, the day on +which the paper was to be issued—the paper which was to be the medium +of the first acquaintance of my muse with "a discerning public."</p> + +<p>"Well, how did you feel when the lines were printed?"</p> + +<p>When they were printed! Alas, for my fame! they were not printed at +all. The editor rejected them. "Theodore's lines," said he—the great +clown! what did <i>he</i> know about poetry?—"Theodore's lines have gone +to the shades. They possessed some merit,"—<i>some</i> merit! that's all +he knows about poetry; the brute!—"but not enough to entitle them to +a place. Still, whenever age and experience have sufficiently +developed his genius,"—mark the smooth and oily manner in which the +savage knocks a poor fellow down, and treads on his neck—"whenever +age and experience have sufficiently developed his genius, we shall be +happy to hear from him again."</p> + +<p>If you can fancy how a man feels, when he is taken from an oven, +pretty nearly hot enough to bake corn bread, and plunged into a very +cold bath, indeed—say about forty degrees Fahrenheit—you can form +some idea of my feelings when I read that paragraph in the editorial +column, under the notice "To correspondents."</p> + +<p>I am inclined to think there are a great many little folks climbing up +the stairs of the stage of life, who verily believe that genius has +got them by the hand, leading them along, but who, in fact, are not a +little mistaken. It is rather important that one should know whether +he has any genius or not; and if he has, in what particular direction +he will be likely to distinguish himself.</p> + +<p>I don't believe in the old-fashioned notion that people all come into +the world with minds and tastes so unlike, that, if you educate one +ever so carefully, he never will make a poet, or a painter, or a +musician, as the case may be; while the other will be a master in one +of these branches, with scarcely any instruction. But I do believe +there is a great difference in natural capacities for a particular +art; and that some persons learn that art easily, while others learn +it with difficulty, and could, perhaps, never excel in it, if they +should drive at it for a life-time.</p> + +<p>Ralph Waldo, a boy who lived near our house, when I was a child, was +the sport of all the neighborhood, on account of the high estimate in +which he held his talent at drawing pictures. Now it so happened that +Ralph's pictures, to say the least, were rather poor specimens of the +art. Some of them, according to the best of my recollection, would +never have suggested the particular animal or thing for which they +were made, if they had not been labeled, or if Ralph had not called +them by name.</p> + +<p>Such dogs and cats, such horses and cows, such houses and trees, such +men and women, were never seen since the world began, as those which +figured on his slate. And yet he thought a great deal of his +pictures. How happy it used to make him, when some of the boys in the +neighborhood, perhaps purely out of sport, would say, "Come, Ralph, +let's see you make a horse now." With what zeal he used to set himself +about the task of making a horse. When it was done, and ready for +exhibition, though it was a perfect scare-crow of a thing, he used to +hold it up, with ever so much pride expressed in the rough features of +his face, as if it were an effort worthy of being hung up in the +Academy of Design, or the Gallery of Fine Arts.</p> + +<p>This state of things lasted for some years. But Ralph did not make +much progress in the art. His horses continued to be the same stiff, +awkward things that they were at first. So did his cows, and oxen, and +dogs, and cats, and men. It became pretty evident, at least to +everybody except the young artist himself, that he never would shine +in his favorite profession. He was not "cut out for it," apparently, +though it took a great while to beat the idea out of his head, that he +was going to make one of the greatest painters in the country. When he +became a young man, however, he had sense enough to choose the +carpenter's trade, instead of the painter's art. I think he showed a +great deal more judgment than many other people do, who imagine they +are destined to astonish two or three continents with their wonderful +productions in some department of the fine arts, but who, +unfortunately, are not much better fitted for either of them than a +goose or a sheep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + +<h2>PUTTING ON AIRS:</h2> + +<h3>OR, HOW I TRIED TO WIN RESPECT.</h3> + + +<p>Reader—young reader, for I take it for granted you <i>are</i> young, +though if you should not happen to be, it does not matter—I have +about three quarters of a mind to let you know what I think of the +practice of <i>putting on airs</i>. The best way to do the thing perhaps, +will be in the form of a story, and a story it shall be—a story +about a friend of mine who is sometimes called Aunt Kate, and who has +been known to call herself by that name.</p> + +<p>It is true that some of the incidents in this story are not much to my +friend's credit. But I am sure she cannot blame me for mentioning them +to you; for she gave me the whole story, and I shall tell it almost +exactly in her own words. Are you ready for it? Well, then, here it +is:</p> + +<p>Reader, have you ever been from home? Of course you have. Everybody +goes from home in these days; but in the days of my childhood such an +event was not a matter of course affair, as it now is. Most people +stayed at home then, more then they do now—the very aged, and the +very young, especially.</p> + +<p>When I was a child, my parents sometimes took me with them, when they +went to visit their city friends. These journeys used to excite the +envy of all my young companions, none of whom, if I recollect right, +had ever been to a city. But times have changed even in my native +village; and the juvenile portion of its inhabitants begin their +travels much earlier in life now, than they did then.</p> + +<p>But the first time I went from home alone—that was an event! Went +alone, did I say? I am too fast. My father saw me safely to the place +where I was to go, and left me to spend a few days and come home in +the <i>stage</i>.</p> + +<p>When he left me, he gave me a bright half dollar, for spending money. +Now would you give anything, my little friend, to know how I spent it? +If you had known me in those days, you could have easily guessed, even +if not much of a Yankee. I bought a book with it, of course. I +thought I could not purchase anything to be compared with that in +value. Since then I have learned there are other things in the world +besides books, although I must own that I still cling to not a little +of my old friendship for them. How long seemed the few days I was +absent from my father's house. I had seen a great deal of the world, I +thought, during that time. There seemed to be an illusion about it—a +feeling as if I had been from home for weeks; and when I returned, and +found some of the good things upon the table which were baked before I +left home, I thought they must be very old—very old indeed.</p> + +<p>"I should like to know how long you think you have been gone," said +some member of the family.</p> + +<p>Sure enough! How long had I been away? Not quite a week. But you need +not smile, for that week <i>was</i> a long one. We do not always measure +time by minutes and hours. That is not the only week of my life that +has appeared long. I have seen other weeks that seemed as long as some +months. We sometimes live very fast, and at other times, more slowly.</p> + +<p>But this is not <i>the</i> journey I am going to tell you about. I was +young then, and a little green, no doubt; but before I left home +again, I had got rid of my ignorance on some points. Miss Tompkins, a +maiden lady, who sometimes came to our house to sew, and who laid +claim to more personal experience in such matters than myself, had +received from some one a chapter of instructions about traveling—a +kind of traveler's guide—and as she did not wish to be so selfish as +to keep all her knowledge for her own use, she very freely gave away +some of it for my benefit.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a name="kate" id="kate"></a><img src="images/kate_t.jpg" alt="AUNT KATE AND HER TUTOR" title="AUNT KATE AND HER TUTOR" /> +<span class="caption">Aunt Kate and Her Tutor</span> +</div> + +<p>"When you travel," said my instructor, "you must not be too modest +and retiring. You must always help yourself to the best things that +come within your reach, as if you considered them yours, as a matter +of course. If you only act as if you think yourself a person of +consequence, you will be treated as such. But if you stand one side, +and seem to think that anything is good enough for you, every one will +be sure to think so too. It is as much as saying that you don't think +yourself of much importance. Others, of course, will conclude that you +ought to be the best judge, and that you are a sort of nobody, who +may be disposed of to suit anybody's convenience."</p> + +<p>Now as these items of advice were given as the result of the +experience of those who had seen a great deal of the world, and as I +was very ready to admit my own ignorance, I resolved to lay up these +hints for future service, when I should travel again.</p> + +<p>The time came, at length, for another journey. The stage, which passed +regularly through our village once a day, accommodating those who +wished to go north one day, and those who wished to go south the next, +picked me and my baggage up, at my father's door. A very young lady, +an acquaintance of mine, and two stranger gentlemen, were the only +passengers besides myself, until we reached the next town, five miles +distant, where we stopped to change horses. When we got into the coach +again, at this place, we found a new passenger safely stowed away in +one corner of the back seat.</p> + +<p>This passenger was an old lady, of a class sometimes found in our +country villages, who are aunts to everybody, and claim the greater +part of the younger portion of the community as sheer boys and girls. +It seems the driver was one of her boys, and, on account of his being +so nearly related, she claimed a free passage. She was already +<i>there</i>, and the driver had to choose between these two things—either +to admit her claim, or to turn her out. He wisely concluded to make a +virtue of necessity. It would not answer to be rude to Aunt Polly, he +thought. Some of the other nephews and nieces might think him cruel.</p> + +<p>But there was another question to be settled. She had possession of +the back seat. This would hardly do on the strength of a free ticket, +when it was claimed by those who had paid their passage.</p> + +<p>"You must get up, Aunt Polly," said the driver, "and let these ladies +have the back seat."</p> + +<p>But Aunt Polly, alas! declared, in the most positive manner, that she +<i>could not</i> ride on the middle seat.</p> + +<p>"Yes you <i>can</i>," said the driver, "and you <i>must</i>; so get up."</p> + +<p>But Aunt Polly was by no means easily moved. She still, to the no +small vexation of the driver, kept on saying that she could not ride +on the middle seat. In this state of things one of the gentlemen +undertook the task of settling matters, and, addressing me, inquired +which seat I preferred. All the instructions which I had received at +once rushed to my mind. Now was the time to put them in practice—to +let it be known that I was not going to give up my seat to any one, +certainly not to one who had no claim to it. So drawing myself up to +my full height—which was nothing to boast of, by the way—I answered +with becoming dignity, "I prefer the back seat, sir."</p> + +<p>He then turned to my companion, and said, "Which seat do you prefer?"</p> + +<p>"It makes no difference with me, sir," was the modest reply.</p> + +<p>A smile passed over the face of the gentleman—a smile which evidently +indicated one of two things; either that he thought my companion +showed her ignorance of the world, in making herself of so little +consequence, and seeming to say, "You may do what you please with me;" +or he thought my reply very old for one of my years. Which was it? Ah, +that was the question. I could not forget that peculiar smile. In +fact, you see I have not forgotten it yet. It seemed to mean +something; but what did it mean? Oh, how I wanted to know exactly +what it meant, and how carefully I watched, to see if I could not find +out.</p> + +<p>The matter of seats was soon arranged to the satisfaction of all +parties. The old lady and myself had the back seat, while my companion +took the middle seat. I observed that the above-named gentleman +passenger offered several polite attentions to my companion, while he +did not seem to notice me at all, although I had let him know that I +was a person of so much consequence. This might be accounted for by +the fact that she was seated very near him, while my seat was more +distant, or there might be some other cause for it.</p> + +<p>The opinion of a stranger whom I never expected again to meet, was not +in itself of any great importance; yet it certainly had a bearing on +the question whether or not my traveling instructions were of the +right kind. If they were, my answer was certainly the right one, and +calculated to make a favorable impression upon the minds of my fellow +passengers. But when I tried to look at the affair in this light, I +was disturbed by a secret thought that I should have had a more +comfortable feeling of self-respect, if I had given up the back +seat—for which, after all, I did not care a straw—to an aged female, +who really thought she could not ride on the middle seat.</p> + +<p>When I returned home, I related the incident to Miss Tompkins, the +seamstress whose directions I had undertaken to follow, and also +frankly owned that I was not quite sure which reply had caused that +peculiar smile. She assured me there could be no doubt on that point. +"The gentleman was amused at the ignorance of the world which that +other girl showed. He thought she was not much, or she would not so +readily step aside, and give up her <i>rights</i> to any one who might +choose to claim them."</p> + +<p>But I was by no means convinced of the truth of this statement of the +case; and when I was a little older, I came to such conclusions on the +subject that I believe I have never tried, since that time, to +establish my claim to be a person of consequence by similar means.</p> + +<p>Indeed, to tell the truth, I have not thought much of the wisdom of +these instructions, from that day to this; and I certainly would not +recommend to you, my young friend, that which I have turned out of my +own service, as useless lumber. Seriously, I do not think you will +ever suffer in the opinion of your fellow travelers, by being kind and +obliging, and showing that you do not think yourself of so much +consequence as to forget there is any one else in the world. When a +person takes pains to impress others with a sense of his importance, +it almost always excites a suspicion that he is trying to pass for +something more than he really is. It does not require all this show +and pretension to keep the place which really belongs to him, and to +attempt more than this, will only draw upon him neglect and contempt.</p> + +<p>To this chapter in the experience of Aunt Kate, I feel very much like +adding a word or two, "by way of improvement," as the ministers say. +But on second thought, I guess it will be as well to let you use the +diving bell, and see if you cannot bring out the improvement +yourselves.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + + +<h2>"TRY THE OTHER END."</h2> + + +<p>The other day I came across a man who was tugging with all his might +at the wrong end of a lever. That is, he had a great crowbar, almost +as large as he could lift, and was bearing down on one end of it, +while the block of wood which he had put under it for a <i>purchase</i>, +was at the same end. He was trying to pry up a large stone in that +way. But the stone would not be pryed up. It was a very obstinate +stone, the good old farmer thought. He had no notion of giving up the +project, however. So he pulled off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, +and went to work in right good earnest. Still the stone did not stir; +or if it did it was only just enough to aggravate the man.</p> + +<p>What could be the matter? The stone was not a very large one. It did +not look as if it could stand a great deal of prying. What was the +matter?</p> + +<p>There happened to be a school-boy passing that way at the time. He was +not much of a farmer, and still less of a mechanic, I should think; +but he thought he saw what the trouble was. It did not seem to be so +much the lever itself, or the farmer, or the stone to be moved, as in +the way the man went to work. The boy ventured to hint this idea to +the farmer:</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear sir," he said, "there is no use in your breaking your +neck in that style. You are at the wrong end of the lever. You haven't +<i>purchase</i> enough."</p> + +<p>The good-natured farmer (for he <i>was</i> good-natured, and did not get +into a passion because a mere boy, young enough to be his +grand-child, attempted to help him out of his difficulty) the +good-natured farmer stopped a moment, looked at the matter carefully, +and frankly acknowledged that he had gone the wrong way to work.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what on earth I was thinking of," said he, in his usual +blunt language. Of course he shifted his crow-bar immediately, so as +to get a good <i>purchase</i>. The trouble was all over then. The stone +came up easily enough, of course.</p> + +<p>It came into my mind while I was thinking about this farmer's mistake +in the use of his lever, that certain people—myself included, +perhaps—might profit by this blunder.</p> + +<p>A great many, for instance, use the lever of <i>truth</i>—a very good +crow-bar, the best to be had—in overturning moral evils. But they do +not accomplish anything, because they take hold of the wrong end of +the lever. They have no <i>purchase</i>.</p> + +<p>Here is a man, who, as I think, is in the habit of wrong doing every +day. Well, I settle it in my mind that I will talk to him, and see if +I cannot make a better man of him. I look him up, and go to prying at +his sin, like a man digging up pine stumps by the job. I call him hard +names. Why not? He deserves them. Everybody knows that. I do not mince +the matter with him at all. But what I say seems to have no good +effect upon him. It makes him angry, and he advises me to mind my own +business, assuring me, at the same time, that he shall take good care +to mind his.</p> + +<p>I see plainly enough that I have been working half an hour or more to +no purpose, and that very likely I have made matters worse. Yet what +was my error?</p> + +<p>Simply this: that I spent all my strength at the short arm of the +lever. If I had gone to work with a kind and tender spirit, something +as Nathan went to work at David, once on a time, and used the other +end of the lever, I should have got a good <i>purchase</i>, at least, and I +am not sure but the stone would have yielded. As it is, however, the +troublesome thing is there yet, and it seems to be settling into the +ground deeper than ever.</p> + +<p>I know some good people, among whom I can count half a score of +ministers, who try very hard to keep bad books and periodicals out of +the family circle.</p> + +<p>There is no end to their talk against these things. They tell their +children that they must never read such and such books, and that if +they ever catch one of them reading these books, they shall take good +care to punish them for it.</p> + +<p>But in spite of all the efforts of these people, they don't succeed in +keeping these bad books out of the family. In some way or other, they +are smuggled into the hands of a boy or girl, and they are read, while +the parent, perhaps, knows nothing of it. That is all wrong, of +course. I don't mean to say anything to excuse the boy or +girl—nothing of the kind. But why didn't these parents go another +way to work? Why, instead of preaching all those long sermons on bad +books, and threatening their children with punishment in case they +read these books, why did they not provide other books, equally +interesting, though innocent and useful? That would have been a wiser +course, methinks. That would have been the right end of the crow-bar +to work at. The way to get rid of an evil is to find something else to +put in its place. So I think.</p> + +<p>But some of these very fathers and mothers, though they cry out so +loudly against immoral books and periodicals, say they cannot afford +to buy books for their children. It was only last week that I heard +one of them tell a friend, who asked him to subscribe for a magazine +for his daughter, that he was poor, and could not afford it. Poor! he +gave one party last winter, on this same daughter's account, which +cost him more than a hundred dollars. He cannot afford it! Well, if he +does not afford to furnish reading for those children, I am afraid +they will afford it themselves.</p> + +<p>I have seen a little girl, when her sister had been doing something +wrong, run straight to her mother, and tell her of it. But it only +made the little mischief-maker worse. She went the wrong way to work. +She labored hard enough to come at her sister's fault; but her labor +was all thrown away. She was at the wrong end of the crow-bar. If, +instead of posting off, as fast as she could run, to her mother, every +time that sister did wrong, as if she really <i>liked</i> to be a +tell-tale, she had said, as kindly as she could, "Susy, don't do so; +that's naughty," or something of the kind, I presume it would all have +been well enough.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + +<h2>THE FOX AND THE CRAB;</h2> + +<h3>OR, A GOOD RULE, WITH A FLAW IN IT.</h3> + +<h3>A FABLE.</h3> + + +<p>A crab boasted that he was very cunning in setting traps. He used to +bury himself in the mud, just under a nice morsel of a clam or an +oyster; and when the silly fish came to make a dinner of this dainty +morsel, he would catch him in his claws, and eat him.</p> + +<p>He pretended to have a good deal of honor, though. He was quite a +pious crab, according to his own account of himself. When he had +caught a fish by his cunning, he used to say, "Poor fellow! it is his +own fault, not mine. He ought to have kept out of the trap. If one +does not know enough to keep away from my claws, he <i>ought</i> to be +caught. Poor fellow! I'm sorry for him; but it can't be helped."</p> + +<p>That is the way he took to quiet his own conscience, and to excuse +himself to others, when they complained of his deceitful conduct.</p> + +<p>An old fox, having heard of our crab's mode of catching fish, and +what he said about it, determined to set a trap for the crab. He did +so. He went down to the sea shore, and thrust his long, bushy tail +into the water. The crab, thinking he had got another dinner by his +wit, seized the fox's tail with his claws. But the fox, giving a +sudden spring, brought the crab out of the water, and prepared to make +a meal of him at his leisure.</p> + +<p>The crab complained, and accused the fox of being a deceitful fellow, +and a murderer to boot.</p> + +<p>"But," said Reynard, "I have only acted according to your own rule. If +one does not know enough to keep away from a fox's tail, he <i>ought</i> +to be caught. It is the same thing as if he caught himself."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the crab, with a sigh, "I made that rule for others, and +not for myself. I see now that <i>there is a flaw in it</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + +<h2>THE GREEDY FLY.</h2> + +<h3>A FABLE.</h3> + + +<p>A fly, who was a great lover of sweet things, came across a cup full +of molasses. He alighted on the edge of the cup, and commenced sipping +the molasses. It pleased him very much. He thought he had never tasted +anything so good before. At length, beginning to be surfeited with his +dinner, instead of flying away, and going about his business, until +he should be hungry again, he plunged into the molasses, so as to +enjoy as much of it as he could.</p> + +<p>Mistaken fly! He fared very much as you might suppose he would. He +lost his life in the molasses.</p> + + +<p>MORAL.</p> + +<p>That is just the way with thousands, who have fewer legs and ought to +have more brains than this fly. They are not content with a right and +proper use of the good things which God has given them. They plunge +into a sea of pleasure, so as to enjoy as much of it as they possibly +can. But such a surfeit, instead of increasing the enjoyment, makes +them miserable. They are drowned in the midst of their pleasures.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + +<h2>CAROLINE AND HER KITTEN;</h2> + +<h3>OR, THE PRETTY FACE, WITH A SCAR ON IT.</h3> + + +<p>Caroline Rose was as happy a girl as ever you saw in your life—"as +happy as the days are long"—so her schoolmaster used to say. There +were a great many good points in Caroline's character besides this, +that she was so generally cheerful—for I consider that a good point +in any one's character. She was kind to her companions, obedient, +respectful, and affectionate to her parents; and she seldom got into a +fit of anger, or made a fool of herself by being sulky. One might have +met her frequently, and have supposed that he was well acquainted with +her, and still have loved her very much. Yet there was one thing in +her character which every one, as soon as he saw it, must dislike, and +which sometimes, where she was well known, made her appear exceedingly +unlovely. Shall I tell you what that was? I will do so, so as to put +you on your guard in that particular point. That trait in her +character was <i>selfishness</i>. If she ever got anything that she liked, +she used to act as if she were not willing that any one else should +enjoy it with her. Indeed, she appeared to be displeased, if one of +her playmates, as was sometimes the case, did take a great deal of +pleasure in her pretty things.</p> + +<p>Her father once brought her home a fine set of tea things, when she +was quite young. Now, should you not suppose that she would like to +have all the girls in the neighborhood come and take tea with her, and +use her pretty new cups and saucers, and spoons and plates? Well, so +should I. But she showed a great deal of selfishness in this +matter—so much, in fact, that she made herself appear ridiculous, as +well as unlovely. She was glad to have the girls come and look at the +tea things, and hear them say that they were very pretty. But that was +as far as her generosity went. She did not ask the girls to sit down +and drink tea with her. Indeed, she did not want her playmates to +handle the cups and saucers. "I'm so afraid you will break them!" said +she. What a foolish and unreasonable girl!</p> + +<p>It got to be a sort of proverb in the little village where Caroline +resided, when any one was not very generous, "She's almost as selfish +as Carrie Rose," I don't know whether she knew how she was regarded +among boys and girls of her own age; and I don't know how much she +cared for their good will, if she did hear what they thought of her. +But this I know, that I could not bear to have such a character. I +would rather give away half of all I am worth than to give any reason +to people to think I was mean and selfish. How I should dislike to +have folks say to themselves, and perhaps to others, when they meet me +in the streets, "There goes a selfish man—a man who is about as +good as people will average, in other respects, but who is as small as +the little end of nothing, in his dealings." I think I would rather +live on a crust of dry bread than to get money by being close, and +small, and mean, and selfish.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<a name="kitten" id="kitten"></a><img src="images/kitty_t.jpg" alt="MY PRETTY KITTEN." title="MY PRETTY KITTEN." /> +<span class="caption">My Pretty Kitten.</span> +</div> + +<p>Caroline had a kitten given her, by her uncle, when she had grown up +to be quite a large girl. It was a beautiful creature. I think they +called it a Maltese kitten. Nothing of the kind had been seen in the +place where Caroline lived, before Tommy, as she called her new pet, +was brought there. Well, of course she told all the little folks what +a fine present her uncle had made to her, and they were invited to +come over and see the "dear little creature." She talked about her +kitten as if it were one of the wonders of the world, and as if she +thought she was a young queen, with the wealth of Cleopatra or +Elizabeth, and that half the inhabitants of the globe would certainly +come and bow before her and her wonderful kitten.</p> + +<p>When she met her young friends, she talked of nothing hardly but "my +pretty Maltese kitten."</p> + +<p>That is the way with selfish folks. They think and talk a great deal +of what concerns <i>them</i>, and you seldom hear them praise anything that +belongs to their neighbors.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget—if you will allow me to go a step or two out of +my way for an illustration—I shall never forget how, when I was a +little school-boy, Mother Budd, a rather selfish old lady, used to +call us into her kitchen, to see the nice honey she had been taking +out of her bee-hives. "Isn't that fine?" she would ask; "eh, isn't +that fine honey, boys?" Of course it was fine, and we said so. "Well, +you can go now," she would say, after that. As for letting us taste of +her fine honey, that she never thought of doing.</p> + +<p>I don't know but we should almost have served her right, if we had +done something as a good old minister I have heard of, once did in +very similar circumstances. He was making a call upon one of the +ladies of his parish—upon Aunt Katy, who was noted all over the +neighborhood for being close-fisted. Almost as soon as the good man +had got into the house, she invited him to go into the buttery, and +look at her nice cheeses. He went in, the old lady acting as a guide. +"There," said she, pointing to a mammoth cheese which she had just +made for the fair, and which she was particularly proud of, "there's a +cheese for you." "Thank you, Aunt Katy," said the minister, "my wife +was saying only this morning that we should have to get a new cheese +pretty soon." And he took the cheese down from the shelf, carried it +out to his wagon, bade the astonished lady of the house a good +morning, and drove off to visit some of the rest of his flock.</p> + +<p>Selfishness has the same face, look at it where you will. It made +quite a scar in the features of Caroline's character. Without that, +they would have been beautiful—with it, they were ugly enough.</p> + +<p>But about that kitten. Clara Goodsell was as full of fun as a hickory +nut is of meat. She heard of Caroline's kitten, and she, too, was +invited to call and see it. She did not go, though, and, indeed, the +girls very generally failed to comply with the invitation. They knew +well enough that, if they went to see the kitten, they would not be +allowed to take it, and that all they could do would be to stand a +little way off, and look at it, and remark how beautiful it was.</p> + +<p>One day, when the girls at school were required to write compositions, +Clara thought she would write something which would make Carrie +ashamed of her selfishness. The teacher read all the compositions +aloud. When he came to Clara's, the girls had as much as they could do +to keep from laughing, for they knew, before it was read, what it was +about. The schoolmaster had to bite his lips to keep from smiling a +little, too.</p> + +<p>Clara did not call any names. But she wrote such a composition about +"<i>My Pretty Kitten</i>" that anybody could see it was meant for +Caroline. The selfish girl saw it, as well as the rest, and before +school was out, she burst into tears, she felt so badly. But the +composition did her good. She improved wonderfully after that.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2> + +<h2>"I DON'T KNOW."</h2> + + +<p>How difficult it is for many people to say these words. They don't +like to own that they are ignorant of anything. They want to make you +think that they know everything. When you ask them a hard question, +instead of saying right out, plumply and honestly, "I don't know," +they will try to trump up some answer that will not expose their +ignorance. And oh, what wretched work they sometimes make with their +answers. They make perfect fools of themselves.</p> + +<p>People never appear well, among those of good sense, who attempt to +pass themselves off as knowing more than they do. It is not to be +expected that any one person can know everything; and why should you, +or anybody else, be ashamed to own that you can't tell all about this +thing, or that thing? Why it is often one part of wisdom to see that +you can't understand a particular subject, and another part of wisdom +to confess that you can't understand it.</p> + +<p>I think that the dog, who figures with a certain vain, self-conceited +monkey, in the fable, showed a good deal of wisdom in his remarks.</p> + +<p>The monkey, you must know, belonged to a very learned astronomer. The +animal often watched his master, while he was looking through his +telescope. "There must be something delightful in that," he thought, +and one day, when the astronomer was absent, the monkey looked through +the instrument for a long time. But he saw nothing strange or +wonderful; and so he concluded that his master was a fool, and that +the telescope was all nonsense. Not long after that, he met Rover, +the family dog, and he told him what he thought of his master. "And +what do <i>you</i> think of the matter, friend Rover?" he added.</p> + +<p>"I don't know the use of the telescope," said the dog, "and I don't +know how wise our master may be. But I am satisfied of two things."</p> + +<p>"What are they?" the monkey asked.</p> + +<p>"First," said the dog, "that telescopes were not made for monkeys to +look through; and second, that monkeys were not made to look through +telescopes."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="geese" id="geese"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/geese_t.jpg" alt="THE LEARNED GEESE." title="THE LEARNED GEESE." /> +<span class="caption">The Learned Geese.</span> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2> + +<h2>THE LEARNED GEESE.</h2> + +<h3>A FABLE.</h3> + + +<p>A company of geese used to meet together very often, to talk about the +affairs of the nation, and to contrive ways and means to do the public +good. They were full of learning; had read all the valuable books that +ever were printed in the goose language; and had got the notion into +their heads that when they died, wisdom would perish in the earth. +They looked down upon the great mass of goosehood about them with +feelings of pity—almost of contempt. At their public meetings—which +were held pretty often, for they had much more public than private +business to attend to—they occupied a great share of their time in +discussing questions which were so deep and muddy, that nobody but +they ever saw to the bottom of them. Indeed, many very sensible geese, +who made few pretensions to learning, have doubted whether they saw +very clearly into these questions themselves. I, too, have my doubts +on the subject, as well as these sensible geese; and I go farther +than they in my doubts. I doubt whether, in case any learned goose +could see to the bottom of very many of these muddy subjects, his +knowledge would be worth much to him. I will give you a specimen of +some of the questions they used to debate upon, and leave you to judge +of their value for yourselves. They were such as these:</p> + +<p>"How <i>thick</i> is the shadow of a goose in the moonlight?"</p> + +<p>"How much would the shadow of a tolerably learned gander weigh, if it +could be weighed?"</p> + +<p>"How early do goslings begin to know a great many things, if not +more?"</p> + +<p>"When a fox starts off after a goose, is it because he loves himself, +or because he loves his wife and the little foxes?"</p> + +<p>"Whether geese ought not to be willing to die, for the sake of +affording a good dinner to Christians on Christmas and Thanksgiving +days?"</p> + +<p>"Whether there would be such a thing as a good, pious goose, who was +not willing to die for such a purpose?"</p> + +<p>One day, our learned geese were holding a meeting in the barn yard, +according to their custom, and were, if possible, more earnest and +noisy than ever in their discussions. This time they were considering +what it was best to do to prevent foxes from making such havoc in the +neighborhood. The question was submitted, whether it would not be +safer and better for geese to sleep with their heads up, instead of +placing them under their wings, after the old fashion.</p> + +<p>But right in the midst of the debate, while one of the speakers was +astonishing himself as well as the rest of the company, with his +reasoning and his eloquence, a fox, who had been slily listening to +the debate, stepped into their ranks, and seized the orator, cutting +short his neck and his speech at the same instant.</p> + + +<p>MORAL.</p> + +<p>There are several things to be learned by this fable. But I shall +content myself with simply pointing out one of them, presuming your +good sense will discover the rest: <i>Before you attempt to take care of +others, learn to take care of yourselves</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2> + +<h2>THE WRONG WAY.</h2> + + +<p>Edward was rather a rude, headstrong boy. Like a great many young +people of his age, he needed to be punished sometimes, and sometimes +his parents did deal pretty sternly with him. Edward had a sister, +older than himself, by some years. Fanny—for this was the name of the +girl—tried one day, to tame little Eddy, when, according to her +notion, he was inclined to be too wild. Fanny was grieved to see her +brother act so rudely. They were visiting that day, at Aunt Sally's, +and it was natural enough that Fanny should wish to have her brother +behave as well as he could.</p> + +<p>"Eddy," said she, in the hearing of her aunt and some of her cousins, +"you act like a young colt."</p> + +<p>"Well, what if I do?" said Eddy, rather tartly.</p> + +<p>"Why, you will need breaking, if you go on so, that's all."</p> + +<p>"And suppose I should need breaking, I'd like to know who'll break +me."</p> + +<p>"May be I'd try my hand at it, if there's nobody else to do it."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see you try it."</p> + +<p>"Hush, Edward! I'm ashamed of you."</p> + +<p>"You had better hush yourself, if you want me to hush."</p> + +<p>At this point in the dispute between the brother and sister, Aunt +Sally thought it was best to put a stop to it. She saw that Fanny +could do no good to Edward, while he was in that mood, and so she said +a word or two which turned the thoughts of both the brother and sister +into another channel.</p> + +<p>I suppose it can hardly be necessary to say to you, that, whatever +may have been the right way to manage Edward, that which his sister +tried at this time was certainly the wrong.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2> + +<h2>THE RIGHT WAY.</h2> + + +<p>Edward still behaved rather rudely—still "acted like a young colt." +"What a pity!" Fanny said to herself. "Mamma will be mortified, if she +ever hears about it. Well, I must try again, and see what I can do +with the little fellow this time."</p> + +<p>So she called Eddy out into the yard in front of the house, and there, +where nobody else but him could hear her, she said,</p> + +<p>"Eddy, I want to tell you a little story."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Edward, "I want to hear a little story."</p> + +<p>"Once there was a little boy," the sister said, commencing her story, +"that had a sister who was kind to him. His sister took good care of +her brother. She tried to do so, at any rate. When this little boy was +abroad, playing with his cousins, he was rude. He would not mind his +sister. He was a good deal younger than she was, and one would +suppose that he ought to have listened to her, when she talked to +him. But he did not. He was just as rude as ever; and his sister was +afraid that, when his mamma heard of his conduct, she would feel +ashamed of her son. What do you think of that boy, Eddy?"</p> + +<p>"Sister," said the little fellow, "I am a very naughty boy. But I am +sorry I behaved so. I will try to do better, if you will forgive me."</p> + +<p>And so, you see, the wild, rattle-headed boy, who was so full of fun, +that he could hardly hold in, and who was so wild that Fanny thought +it was best to check him with a curb bit, something as she would a +young colt, was completely tamed by this soft, gentle language. My +young friend, don't you think there's great power in such words? I do, +and I advise you, when you are dealing with such a "young colt" as +Eddy was, to try the plan that Fanny tried last, and see if it don't +succeed better than anything else?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Use gentle words, for who can tell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The blessings they impart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How oft they fall as manna fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On some nigh-fainting heart!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In lonely wilds by light-winged birds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rare seeds have oft been sown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hope has sprung from gentle words,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where only grief had grown."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2> + +<h2>THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL.</h2> +<h3>A FABLE.</h3> + + +<p>A spruce young goat tried very hard to make himself appear like a +sheep. He endeavored to talk and act like a sheep. Half his time was +spent in putting on airs. He went so far as to cut off his beard, so +that he might bear a more striking resemblance to the sheep family; +and he was once heard to say that he would give anything if he +could either get rid of his horns altogether, or have them twisted as +the horns were worn by some of the old fathers whom he so much +admired. The little simpleton, however, lost more than he gained by +his singular manners. Instead of his being more respected and beloved, +as he expected to be, he was despised by everybody.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="goat" id="goat"></a><img src="images/goat_t.jpg" alt="THE GOAT AND HIS PUPIL." title="THE GOAT AND HIS PUPIL." /> +<span class="caption">The Goat and his Pupil.</span> +</div> + + +<p>One day, after being ridiculed and abused by some of his young +neighbors, he went to his schoolmaster with a great budget full of +troubles. This schoolmaster was an old goat, with a long beard, and a +long head, too, as it would seem from the character he had.</p> + +<p>"O dear!" said the little simpleton, "everybody hates me. I wish I +were dead. I'm sure I don't know what it means. The more I try to be +good, the less they all like me."</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Mr. Longbeard, "I am sorry for you. But I can +do nothing to help you. It will always be so, until you do better."</p> + +<p>"Why, I do as well as I can now," replied the young goat.</p> + +<p>"You ape the sheep too much."</p> + +<p>"Well, the farmer thinks more of his sheep than he does of his +goats—a great deal more."</p> + +<p>"And what of it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, if he likes the sheep best, he will like me best when I act as +the sheep do."</p> + +<p>"That's your mistake. He will not like you half as well."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"For the same reason that nobody else likes you so well—because you +don't act like yourself. Take my advice, now. <i>Be yourself</i>. Don't try +to be anybody else. Depend upon it, if you ever come across a person +that likes you, he will like you as a goat, and not as a sheep. A +sheep you could never be, though you should practice all your +life-time. Be a goat, then—be a goat, and nothing else."</p> + +<p>This advice, I believe, proved of some service to the juvenile goat; +and by the way, reader, perhaps it may be worth something to you.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2> + +<h2>ON BARKING DOGS.</h2> + + +<p>It is an old saying—and there is a good deal of truth in it—that +"barking dogs never bite." I say there is a good deal of truth in it. +It is not strictly true. Scarcely any proverb will bear picking to +pieces, and analyzing, as a botanist would pick to pieces and analyze +a rose or a tulip. Almost all dogs bark a little, now and then. Still +I believe those dogs bark the most that bite the least, and the dogs +that make a practice of biting the hardest and the oftenest, make very +little noise about it.</p> + +<p>Have you never been passing by a house, and seen a little pocket +edition of a cur run out of the front door yard, to meet you, with +ever so much bravery and heroism, as if he intended to eat you at two +or three mouthfuls? What a barking he set up. The meaning of his <i>bow, +wow, wow</i>, every time he repeated the words, was, "I'll bite you! I'll +bite you!" But the very moment you turned round and faced him, he ran +back into the yard, as if forty tigers were after him. You see he was +all bark, and no bite.</p> + +<p>Well, it is about the same with men and women, and boys and girls, as +it is with dogs. Those who bark most bite least, the world over.</p> + +<p>Show me a boy who talks about being as bold as a lion, and I will show +you one with the heart of a young rabbit, just learning to eat +cabbage. I do dislike to see boys and girls boasting of what they can +do. It always gives me a low opinion of their merits.</p> + +<p>There is Tom Thrasher. You don't know Tom, do you? Well, he is one of +your barking dogs. He is all the time boasting of the great things he +is able to do. Nobody ever saw him do any such things. Still he keeps +on boasting, right in the midst of the young people who know him +through and through, a great deal better than he knows himself. It is +strange that he should brag at that rate where everybody knows him. +But he has fallen into the habit of bragging, and I suppose he hardly +thinks of the absurd and foolish language he is using. According to +his account of himself, he can run a mile in a minute, jump over a +fence ten rails high, shoot an arrow from his bow twenty rods, and +hit an apple at that distance half a dozen times running.</p> + +<p>I must tell you a story about this Tom Thrasher. Poor Tom! he got +"come up with," not long ago, by some fun-loving boys that lived in +his neighborhood. Tom had been boasting of his great feats in jumping. +He could jump higher than any boy on Blue Hill. In fact, he had just +jumped over the fence around Captain Corning's goat pasture, which, as +everybody knows, was eight rails high, and verily believed he could +have cleared it just as easily, if it had been two rails higher. That +was the kind of language he used to this company of boys. They did not +believe a word he said.</p> + +<p>"Let's try Tom," one whispered to another, "let's try the fellow, and +see how high he can jump."</p> + +<p>"Say, Tom," said one of the boys, "will you go down to the captain's +goat pasture with us, and try that thing over again?"</p> + +<p>Tom did not seem to be very fierce for going. But all the boys urged +him so hard, that he finally consented and went. When he got to the +goat pasture, he measured the fence with his eye; and from the manner +in which he shrugged his shoulders, it was pretty clear that he +considered the fence a very high one indeed. He was not at all in a +hurry about performing the feat. But the roguish boys would not let +him off.</p> + +<p>"Come, Tom," said one.</p> + +<p>"Now for it," said another.</p> + +<p>"No backing out," said a third.</p> + +<p>"It's only eight rails high," said a fourth.</p> + +<p>Still, somehow or other, Tom could not get his courage quite up to the +point. The best thing he could have done, in my way of thinking, when +he found himself so completely cornered was to have said, "Well, +boys, there's no use in mincing the matter at all. I am a little +dunce. I can no more jump over that fence than I can build a steamboat +or catch a streak of lightning." But that was not his way of getting +out of the scrape.</p> + +<p>"Let me give the word now," said one of the lads. "I'll say 'one, two, +three,' and when I come to 'three,' you shall run and jump."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," said Tom.</p> + +<p>And the other boy began: "<i>One—two—three</i>"—</p> + +<p>Tom started, and ran. I'm not sure but he had boasted so much about +his jumping, that he had almost made himself believe he really could +jump over that fence. At any rate, he tried it, and—failed, of +course. His feet struck the fence about three quarters of the distance +from the ground, and over he went, head foremost, into the goat +pasture. It was fortunate for him that he did not break his neck. As +it was, his <i>spirit</i> was broken, and that was about all. He went home +a much humbler boy than he was when he came to the goat pasture; and a +somewhat wiser one, too. After that unfortunate leap, if Tom ever +boasted largely of what he could do and what he had done, it was a +very common thing for his playmates to say, "Take care, Tom; remember +that famous leap."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> + + +<h2>Woodworth's Juvenile Works.</h2> + +<h3>Phillips, Sampson & Co.</h3> +<h3>Publish the Following Juvenile Works, By</h3> +<h2>Francis C. Woodworth,</h2> + +<h5>EDITOR OF "WOODWORTH'S YOUTH'S CABINET,"<br /> +AUTHOR OF "THE WILLOW LANE BUDGET," "THE STRAWBERRY GIRL,"<br /> +"THE MILLER OF OUR VILLAGE," "THEODORE THINKER'S TALES," ETC., ETC.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>UNCLE FRANK'S BOYS' AND GIRLS' LIBRARY.</h3> + +<h4>A Beautiful Series, comprising six volumes, square 12 mo., with eight +Tinted Engravings in each volume. <br /> +The following are their titles respectively:</h4> + +<div><b> +I. THE PEDDLER'S BOY, or I'll Be Somebody.<br /> +II. THE DIVING BELL, or Pearls to be Sought For<br /> +III. THE POOR ORGAN-GRINDER, and other stories.<br /> +IV. LOSS AND GAIN, or Susy Lee's Motto.<br /> +V. MIKE MARBLE; His Crotchets and Oddities.<br /> +VI. THE WONDERFUL LETTER-BAG OF KIT CURIOUS.<br /> +</b></div> + +<p>"Of those who have the gift to write for children, Mr. Woodworth +stands among the first; and what is best of all, with the ability to +adapt himself to the wants and comprehension of children, he has that +high moral principle, which will permit nothing to leave his pen that +can do harm."—<i>Arthur's Home Gaz</i>.</p> + +<p>"We never pen a notice with more pleasure than when any work of oar +friend Mr. Woodworth is the subject. Whatever he does is well done, +and in a sweet and gentle spirit"—<i>Christ. Inquirer</i>.</p> + +<p>"The author is a man of fine abilities and refined taste, and does his +work in a spirit of vivacious but most truthful earnestness." +—<i>Ladies Repos.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>WOODWORTH'S STORIES ABOUT ANIMALS. 12mo., <br /> +with Illuminated Title, and upwards of <br /> + Fifty Beautiful Engravings; pp. 336.</h3> + +<h3>WOODWORTH'S STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. <br /> +Uniform with the above. <br /> +With Sixty Splendid Engravings.</h3> + +<div><b>These two volumes, containing characteristic anecdotes, told in a +brief and pleasing vein, are among the most entertaining books of the +kind to be found in the English language.</b></div> + +<p>"Attractive stories, told in a style of great liveliness and +beauty."—<i>N.Y. Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>"A <i>melange</i> of most agreeable reading."—<i>Presbyterian</i>.</p> + +<p>"They cannot fail to be intensely interesting."—<i>Ch. Register</i>.</p> + +<p>"Charming stories, told with that felicitous simplicity and eloquence +of diction which characterize all Mr. Woodworth's efforts for the +young."—<i>N.Y. Commercial Advertiser</i>.</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be more interesting than the stories and pictorial +illustrations of these works."—<i>Brattleborough Dem</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>UNCLE FRANK'S PEEP AT THE BEASTS. <br /> +Square 12mo. Profusely Illustrated; pp. 160.</h3> + +<h3>UNCLE FRANKS PEEP AT THE BIRDS. <br /> +Uniform with the above.</h3> + +<div><b>These two volumes are written in the simplest style, and with words, +for the most part, of two or three syllables. They are exceedingly +popular among children.</b></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Diving Bell, by Francis C. 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Woodworth + +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: The Diving Bell + Or, Pearls to be Sought for + +Author: Francis C. Woodworth + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16560] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVING BELL *** + + + + +Produced by Geetu Melwani and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. Produced from +page scans provided by the Internet Archive and University +of Florida. + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE FOX AND THE CRAB.] + + +UNCLE FRANK'S BOYS' & GIRLS' LIBRARY, + +BY + +FRANCIS C. WOODWORTH, +EDITOR OF WOODWORTH'S YOUTH'S CABINET. + +[Illustration] + + +THE DIVING BELL; + +OR, + +PEARLS TO BE SOUGHT FOR. + +With Tinted Illustrations. + +BY UNCLE FRANK, + +AUTHOR OF "A PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS," "WILLOW LANE STORIES," +"THE DIVING BELL," ETC. ETC. + + +BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. PUBLISHERS. + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by +PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO., + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +THE NAME OF MY BOOK 7 +THINKING AND LAUGHING 16 +THE SCHEMING SPIDER 31 +GENIUS IN THE BUD 46 +PUTTING ON AIRS 64 +"TRY THE OTHER END" 80 +THE FOX AND THE CRAB 97 +THE GREEDY FLY 101 +CAROLINE AND HER KITTEN 104 +"I DON'T KNOW" 119 +THE LEARNED GEESE 125 +THE WRONG WAY 131 +THE RIGHT WAY 135 +THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL 140 +ON BARKING DOGS 147 + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +THE FOX AND THE CRAB (Frontispiece) +VIGNETTE TITLE-PAGE 1 +THE SPIDER'S INVITATION 30 +THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH 41 +KATE AND HER TUTOR 72 +MY PRETTY KITTEN 109 +THE LEARNED GEESE 124 +THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL 141 + + + +I. + + +THE NAME OF MY BOOK. + +[Illustration] + +The reader, perhaps, as he turns over the first pages of this volume, +is puzzled, right at the outset, with the meaning of my title, _The +Diving Bell_. It is plain enough to Uncle Frank, and possibly it is to +you; but it may not be; so I will tell you what a diving bell is, and +then, probably, you can guess the reason why I have given this name to +the following pages. + +If you will take a common glass tumbler, and plunge it into water, +with the mouth downwards, you will find that very little water will +rise into the tumbler. You can satisfy yourself better about this +matter, if, in the first place, you lay a cork upon the surface of the +water, and then put the tumbler over it. + +Did you ever try the experiment? Try it now, if you never have done +so, and if you have any doubt on the subject. + +You might suppose, that the cork would be carried down far below the +surface of the water. But it is not so. The upper side of the cork, +after you have pressed the tumbler down so low that the upper end of +it is even below the surface of the water--the upper side of the cork +is not wet at all. + +"And what is the reason of this, Uncle Frank?" + +I will tell you. There is air in the tumbler, when you plunge it into +the water. The air stays in the vessel, so that there is no room for +the water. + +"Oh, yes, sir; I see how that is. But I see that a little water finds +its way into the tumbler, every time I try the experiment. How is +that?" + +You can press air, the same as you can press wood, or paper, or cloth, +so that it will go into a smaller space than it occupied before you +pressed it. Did you ever make a pop-gun? + +"Oh, yes, sir, a hundred times." + +Well, when you send the wad out of the pop-gun, you do it by pressing +the air inside the tube. Now if your tumbler was a hundred or a +thousand times as large, the air would prevent the water from coming +in, just as it does in this instance. Suppose I had dropped a purse +full of gold into a very deep river, and it had sunk to the bottom. +Suppose I could not get it in any other way but by going down to the +bottom after it. I could go down to that depth, and live there for +some time, by means of a diving bell made large enough to hold me, +precisely in the same way that a bird might go down to the bottom of a +tub of water, in a tumbler, and stand there with the water hardly over +his feet. There is a good deal of machinery about a diving bell, it +is true. But I need not take up much time in describing it. It is +necessary for the man to breathe, of course, while he is in the diving +bell; and as the air it contains is soon rendered impure by breathing, +fresh air must be introduced into the bell by means of a pump, or in +some other way. I am not very familiar with the necessary machinery, +to tell the truth. I never explored the bottom of a river in this way, +and I think it will be a long time before I make such a voyage. + +The diving bell has been used for a good many useful purposes--to lay +the foundations of docks and the piers of bridges; to collect pearls +at Ceylon, and coral at other places. + +I am not sure but the diving bell is getting somewhat out of use now. +People have found out another way of groping along on the bottom of +rivers and seas. They do it frequently, I believe, by means of a kind +of armor made of India rubber. But so far as my book is concerned, it +is of no consequence whether the diving bell is out of use or not. I +shall use the title, at all events. + +If, after my account of the diving bell, you still ask why I choose +to give such a name to the budget I have prepared for you, I can +answer your question very easily. + +I think you will find something worth looking at in the budget--not +pearls, or pieces of coral, or lost treasures, exactly, but still +something which will please you, and something which, when you get +hold of it, will be worth keeping and laying up in some snug corner of +your memory box. I say _when you get hold of it_; for the valuable +things I have for you do not all lie on the surface. You will have to +_search_ for them a little. That is, you will have to think. When you +have read one of my stories, or fables, you may find it necessary to +stop, and ask yourself "What does Uncle Frank mean by all this?" In +other words, you will have to use the diving bell, and see if you +can't hunt up something in the story or the fable, which will be +useful to you, and which will make you wiser and better. Now you see +why I have called my book _The Diving Bell_, don't you? + + + + +II. + +THINKING AND LAUGHING. + + +It is Uncle Frank's notion, that it is a good thing to laugh, but a +better thing to think. A great many people, however, old as well as +young, and young as well as old, live and die without thinking much. +They lose three quarters of the benefit they ought to get from +reading, and from what they see and learn as they go through the +world, by never diving below the surface of things. I don't suppose +it is so with you. I hope not, at all events. If it is so, then you +had better shut up this book, and pass it over to some young friend of +yours, who has learned to think, and who loves to read books that will +help him about thinking. No, on the whole, you needn't do any such +thing. Just read the book--read it through. Perhaps you will get a +taste for such reading, while you are going through the book. + +I must tell you an anecdote just here. You will not refuse to read +that, at any rate. + +Not long ago I was in a book store, looking over some new books which +I saw on the counter, when a fine-looking boy, who appeared to be +about nine years old, came in. He had a shilling in his hand, and said +he wanted to buy a book. + +"But what book do you want?" one of the clerks asked. + +The boy could not tell what it was exactly. But it was a "funny +book"--he was sure of that--and it cost a shilling. + +Well, it finally turned out that the book which the little fellow +wanted was a comic almanac--a book filled with miserable +pictures--pictures of men and beasts twisted into all sorts of odd +shapes--and vulgar jokes, and scraps of low wit. + +"Will you let me look at it?" I asked the little boy as the clerk +handed the book to him. + +"Yes, sir," said he. + +I took the almanac, and turned over some of its leaves. There was not +a particle of information in the book, except what related to the sun, +and moon, and stars, and that formed but a small portion of the +volume. "My son," said I, pleasantly, "what do you buy this book +for?" + +"To make me laugh," said he. + +"But is _that_ all you read books for--to find something to laugh at?" +I inquired. + +"No, sir," he replied, "but then this book is _so_ funny. Giles Manly +has got one, and"--he hesitated. + +"He has a great time over it," I interrupted, to which the little boy +nodded, as much as to say, + +"Yes, sir, that's it." + +"Did your father send you after this book?" I asked. + +"No, sir." + +"Did your mother tell you to get it?" + +"No, sir. But my mother gave me a shilling, and told me I might buy +just such a book as I liked." + +"Well, my son," said I, "look here. You have heard Giles read some of +the funny things in this almanac, have you not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And you've seen some of the pictures?" + +"Yes, sir, all of them." + +"Then you know pretty well what the book is?" + +"Yes, sir, all about it, and that's what makes me want to buy it." + +"Well, you have a right to buy just such a book as you want. But if I +were in your place, I would not buy that book; and I'll tell you why. +There's a good deal of fun in it, to be sure. No doubt you would laugh +over it, if you had it. But you can't learn anything from it. Come, +now, I'll make a bargain with you. Here's a book"--I handed him one of +the _Lucy_ books, written by Mr. _Jacob Abbott_--"which is worth a +dozen of that. This will make you laugh some, as well as the other +book; and it will do much more and better than that. It will set you +to _thinking_. It will instruct, as well as amuse you. It will sow +some good seeds in your mind, and your heart, too. It will teach you +to be a _thinker_ as well as a reader. It costs a little more than +that almanac, it is true. But never mind that. If you'll take this +book, and give the gentleman your shilling, I'll pay him the rest of +the money. Will you do it? Will you take the Lucy book, and leave the +funny almanac?" + +He hesitated. He hardly knew whether he should make or lose by the +trade. + +"If you will do so," I continued, "and read the book, when you get +through with it, you may come to my office in Nassau street, and tell +me how you was pleased with it. Then, if you say that you did not like +Mr. Abbott's book so well as you think you would have liked the book +with the funny pictures, and tell me that you made a bad bargain, I'll +take back the Lucy book, and give you the almanac in the place of it." + +That pleased the little fellow. The bargain was struck. Mr. Abbott's +book was bought, and the boy left the store, and ran home. + +I think it was about a week after that, or it might have been a +little longer, that I heard my name spoken, as I was sitting at my +desk. I turned around, and, sure enough, there was the identical boy +with whom I had made the trade at the book store. + +"Well, my little fellow," I said, "you've got sick of your bargain, +eh?" "No, sir," he said, "I'm glad I made it;" and he proceeded to +tell me his errand. It seemed that he had been so pleased with the +book, that he "wanted a few more of the same sort," as the razor strop +man says; and his father had told him that he might come to me, ask +me to get all the Lucy books for him. + +Now you see how it was with that little fellow, before he read the +book I gave him. He had got the notion that a child's book could not +be amusing--could not be worth reading--unless it was filled with such +nonsense as there was in the "funny book" he called for. He had not +got a _taste_ for reading anything else. As soon as he did get such a +taste, he liked that kind of reading the best; because, besides making +him laugh a little now and then, it put some thoughts into his +head--gave him some hints which would be worth something to him in +after life. + +Now, I presume there are a great many boys and girls, who love to read +such nonsense as one finds in comic almanacs, and books like +"Bluebeard," and "Jack the Giant Killer," but who, like the youth I +met in the book store, could very easily learn to like useful books +just as well, and better too, if they would only take them up, and +read them. + +Why, my little friends, a book need not be dull and dry, because it is +not all nonsense. Uncle Frank don't mean to have a long face on, when +he writes for young people. He believes in laughing. He likes to laugh +himself, and he likes to see his young friends laugh, too, sometimes. + +I hope, indeed, that you will find this little book amusing, as well +as useful; though I should be very sorry if it were not useful, as +well as amusing. + + + + +[Illustration: THE SPIDER'S INVITATION.] + + + + +III. + +THE SCHEMING SPIDER. + +A FABLE FOR MANY IN GENERAL, AND A FEW IN PARTICULAR. + + + I. + + A bee who had chased after pleasure all day, + And homeward was lazily wending his way, + Fell in with a Spider, who called to the Bee: + "Good evening! I trust you are well," said he. + + + II. + + The bee was quite happy to stop awhile there-- + He always had leisure enough and to spare-- + "Good day, Mr. Spider," he said, with a bow, + "I thank you, I feel rather poorly, just now." + + + III. + + "'Tis nothing but work, with all one's might-- + 'Tis nothing but work, from morning till night. + I wish I were dead, Mr. Spider; you know + I might as well die as to drag along so." + + + IV. + + The Spider pretended to pity the Bee-- + For a cunning old hypocrite spider was he-- + "I'm sorry to see you so poorly," he said; + And he whispered his wife, "He will have to be bled." + + + V. + + "'Tis true sir,"--the knave! every word is a lie-- + "That rather than live so, 'twere better to die. + 'Twere better to finish the thing, as you say, + Than to live till you're old, and die every day. + + + VI. + + "The life that you lead, it may do very well + For the beaver's rude hut, or the honey bee's cell; + But it never would suit a gay fellow like me. + I love to be merry--I love to be free." + + + VII. + + "In hoarding up riches you're wasting your time; + And--pray, sir, excuse me--such waste is a crime. + And then to be guilty of avarice, too! + Alas! how I pity such sinners as you!" + + + VIII. + + Strange, strange that the Bee was so stupid and blind; + "Amen!" he exclaimed, "you have spoken my mind; + I've been very wicked, I know it, I feel it; + The bees have no right to their honey--they steal it. + + + IX. + + "But how in the world shall I manage to live? + Should I beg of my friends, not a mite would they give; + 'Tis easy enough to be idle and sing, + But living on air is a different thing." + + + X. + + Our Spider was silent, and looked very grave-- + 'Twas a habit he had, the cunning old knave! + No Spider, pursuing his labor of love, + Had more of the serpent, or less of the dove. + + XI. + + At length, "I believe I have hit it," said he; + "Walk into my palace, and tarry with me. + We spiders know nothing of labor and care; + Come in; you are welcome our bounty to share. + + + XII. + + "I live like a king, and my wife like a queen; + We wander where flowers are blooming and green, + And then on the breast of the lily we lie, + And list to the stream running merrily by. + + + XIII. + + "With us you shall mingle in scenes of delight, + All summer, all winter, from morn until night, + And when 'neath the hills sinks the sun in the west, + Your head on a pillow of roses shall rest. + + + XIV. + + "When miserly bees shall return from their toils"-- + He winked as he said it--"we'll feast on the spoils; + I'll lighten their loads"--said the Bee, "So will I." + And the Spider said, "Well, if you live, you may try." + + + XV. + + The Bee did not wait to be urged any more, + But nodded his thanks, as he entered the door. + "Aha!" said the Spider, "I have you at last!" + And he seized the poor fellow, and tied him up fast. + + + XVI. + + The Bee, when aware of his perilous state, + Recovered his wit, though a moment too late. + "O treacherous Spider! for shame!" said he. + "Is it thus you betray a poor innocent Bee?" + + + XVII. + + The cunning old rascal then laughed outright. + "My friend!" he said, grinning, "you're in a sad plight. + Ha! ha! what a dunce you must be to suppose + That the heart of a Spider could pity your woes! + + + XVIII. + + "I never could boast of much honor or shame, + Though slightly acquainted with both by name; + But I think if the Bees can a brother betray, + We Spiders are quite as good people as they. + + + XIX. + + "I guess you have lived long enough, little sinner, + And, now, with your leave, I will eat you for dinner. + You'll make a good morsel, it must be confessed; + And the world, very likely, will pardon the rest." + + + [Illustration: THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH.] + + MORAL. + + This lesson for every one, little and great, + Is taught in that vagabond's tragical fate: + _Of him who is scheming your friend to ensnare, + Unless you've a passion for bleeding, beware_! + + + + +IV. + +GENIUS IN THE BUD. + + +Genius, in its infancy, sometimes puts on a very funny face. The first +efforts of a painter are generally rude enough. So are those of a +poet, or any other artist. I have often wished I might see the first +picture that such a man as Titian, or Rubens, or Reynolds, or West, +ever drew. It would interest me much, and, I suspect, would provoke a +smile or two, at the expense of the young artists. + +History does not often transmit such sketches to the world. But I wish +it would. I wish the picture of the sheep that Giotto was sketching, +when Cimabue, one of the greatest painters of his age, came across +him, could be produced. I would go miles to see it. And I wish West's +mother had carefully preserved, for some public gallery, the picture +that her son Benjamin made of the little baby in the cradle. You have +heard that story, I dare say. + +Benjamin, you know, showed a taste for drawing and painting, when he +was a very little boy. His early advantages were but few. But he made +the most of these advantages; and the result was that he became one of +the first painters of his day, and before he died, he was chosen +President of the Royal Society in London. How do you think he made his +colors? You will smile when you hear that they were formed with +charcoal and chalk, with an occasional sprinkling of the juice of red +berries. His brush was rather a rude one. It was made of the hair he +pulled from the tail of Pussy, the family cat. Poor old cat! she lost +so much of her fur to supply the young artist with brushes, that the +family began to feel a good deal of anxiety for her pussyship. They +thought her hair fell off by disease, until Benjamin, who was an +honest boy, one day informed them of their mistake. What a pity that +the world could not have the benefit of one of the pictures that West +painted with his cat-tail brush. + +And then, what a treat it would be, to get hold of the first rhymes +that Watts and Pope ever made. I believe that Watts had been rhyming +some time when he got a fatherly flogging for this exercise of his +genius, and he sobbed out, between the blows, + + "Dear father, do some pity take, + And I will no more verses make." + +That couplet was not his first one, by a good deal. The habit, it +would seem, had taken a pretty strong hold of him, when the whipping +drew that out of him. + +It seems to me that the childhood and early youth of a genius are more +interesting than any riper periods of his life; or rather, that they +become so, when time and circumstances have developed what there was +in the man, and when from the stand-point of his fame in manhood, we +look back upon his early history. What small beginnings there have +been to all the efforts of those who have made themselves masters of +the particular art to which they have directed their attention. + +I wonder what kind of a thing Washington Irving's first composition +was. There must have been a first one; and, without doubt, it was a +clumsy affair enough. If I were going to write his history, I would +find those who knew him when he was a mere child, and I would pump +from them as many anecdotes about his little scribblings as I possibly +could, and I would print them, lots of them. I hardly think I could do +the reader of his biography a better service. + +I wonder what his first experience was with the editors. These +editors, by the way, are often very troublesome to the young sprig of +genius. Placed, as they are, at the door of the temple of fame, they +often seem to the unfledged author the most disobliging, iron-hearted +men in the world. He could walk right into the temple, and make +himself perfectly at home there, if they would only open the door. So +he fancies; and he wonders why the barbarians don't see the genius +sticking out, when he comes along with his nicely-written verses, and +why they don't just give him, at once, a ticket of admission to the +honors of the world. "These editors are slow to perceive merit," he +says to himself. + +Your old friend Uncle Frank once set himself up for a genius. Don't +laugh--pray, don't laugh. I was young then, and as green as a juvenile +gosling. Age has branded into me a great many truths, which, somehow +or other, were very slow in finding their way to my young mind. The +notion that I am a genius does not haunt me now, and a great many +years have passed since such a vision flitted across my imagination. +But I will tell you how I was cooled off, once on a time, when I got +into a raging fever of authorship, and was burning up with a desire to +make an impression on the world. I had written some verses--written +them with great care, and with ever so many additions, subtractions, +and divisions. They were perfect, at last--that is, I could not make +them any more perfect--and off they were posted to the editor of the +village newspaper. I declare I don't remember what they were about. +But I dare say, they were "Lines" to somebody, or "Stanzas" to +something; and I remember they were signed "Theodore Thinker," in a +very large, and as I then thought, a very fair hand. + +"Well, did the editor print them, Uncle Frank?" + +Hold on, my dear fellow. You are quite too fast. As I said, when the +lines to somebody or something were sent to the editor, I was in a +perfect fever. I could hardly wait for Wednesday to come, the day on +which the paper was to be issued--the paper which was to be the medium +of the first acquaintance of my muse with "a discerning public." + +"Well, how did you feel when the lines were printed?" + +When they were printed! Alas, for my fame! they were not printed at +all. The editor rejected them. "Theodore's lines," said he--the great +clown! what did _he_ know about poetry?--"Theodore's lines have gone +to the shades. They possessed some merit,"--_some_ merit! that's all +he knows about poetry; the brute!--"but not enough to entitle them to +a place. Still, whenever age and experience have sufficiently +developed his genius,"--mark the smooth and oily manner in which the +savage knocks a poor fellow down, and treads on his neck--"whenever +age and experience have sufficiently developed his genius, we shall be +happy to hear from him again." + +If you can fancy how a man feels, when he is taken from an oven, +pretty nearly hot enough to bake corn bread, and plunged into a very +cold bath, indeed--say about forty degrees Fahrenheit--you can form +some idea of my feelings when I read that paragraph in the editorial +column, under the notice "To correspondents." + +I am inclined to think there are a great many little folks climbing up +the stairs of the stage of life, who verily believe that genius has +got them by the hand, leading them along, but who, in fact, are not a +little mistaken. It is rather important that one should know whether +he has any genius or not; and if he has, in what particular direction +he will be likely to distinguish himself. + +I don't believe in the old-fashioned notion that people all come into +the world with minds and tastes so unlike, that, if you educate one +ever so carefully, he never will make a poet, or a painter, or a +musician, as the case may be; while the other will be a master in one +of these branches, with scarcely any instruction. But I do believe +there is a great difference in natural capacities for a particular +art; and that some persons learn that art easily, while others learn +it with difficulty, and could, perhaps, never excel in it, if they +should drive at it for a life-time. + +Ralph Waldo, a boy who lived near our house, when I was a child, was +the sport of all the neighborhood, on account of the high estimate in +which he held his talent at drawing pictures. Now it so happened that +Ralph's pictures, to say the least, were rather poor specimens of the +art. Some of them, according to the best of my recollection, would +never have suggested the particular animal or thing for which they +were made, if they had not been labeled, or if Ralph had not called +them by name. + +Such dogs and cats, such horses and cows, such houses and trees, such +men and women, were never seen since the world began, as those which +figured on his slate. And yet he thought a great deal of his +pictures. How happy it used to make him, when some of the boys in the +neighborhood, perhaps purely out of sport, would say, "Come, Ralph, +let's see you make a horse now." With what zeal he used to set himself +about the task of making a horse. When it was done, and ready for +exhibition, though it was a perfect scare-crow of a thing, he used to +hold it up, with ever so much pride expressed in the rough features of +his face, as if it were an effort worthy of being hung up in the +Academy of Design, or the Gallery of Fine Arts. + +This state of things lasted for some years. But Ralph did not make +much progress in the art. His horses continued to be the same stiff, +awkward things that they were at first. So did his cows, and oxen, and +dogs, and cats, and men. It became pretty evident, at least to +everybody except the young artist himself, that he never would shine +in his favorite profession. He was not "cut out for it," apparently, +though it took a great while to beat the idea out of his head, that he +was going to make one of the greatest painters in the country. When he +became a young man, however, he had sense enough to choose the +carpenter's trade, instead of the painter's art. I think he showed a +great deal more judgment than many other people do, who imagine they +are destined to astonish two or three continents with their wonderful +productions in some department of the fine arts, but who, +unfortunately, are not much better fitted for either of them than a +goose or a sheep. + + + + +V. + +PUTTING ON AIRS: + +OR, HOW I TRIED TO WIN RESPECT. + + +Reader--young reader, for I take it for granted you _are_ young, +though if you should not happen to be, it does not matter--I have +about three quarters of a mind to let you know what I think of the +practice of _putting on airs_. The best way to do the thing perhaps, +will be in the form of a story, and a story it shall be--a story +about a friend of mine who is sometimes called Aunt Kate, and who has +been known to call herself by that name. + +It is true that some of the incidents in this story are not much to my +friend's credit. But I am sure she cannot blame me for mentioning them +to you; for she gave me the whole story, and I shall tell it almost +exactly in her own words. Are you ready for it? Well, then, here it +is: + +Reader, have you ever been from home? Of course you have. Everybody +goes from home in these days; but in the days of my childhood such an +event was not a matter of course affair, as it now is. Most people +stayed at home then, more then they do now--the very aged, and the +very young, especially. + +When I was a child, my parents sometimes took me with them, when they +went to visit their city friends. These journeys used to excite the +envy of all my young companions, none of whom, if I recollect right, +had ever been to a city. But times have changed even in my native +village; and the juvenile portion of its inhabitants begin their +travels much earlier in life now, than they did then. + +But the first time I went from home alone--that was an event! Went +alone, did I say? I am too fast. My father saw me safely to the place +where I was to go, and left me to spend a few days and come home in +the _stage_. + +When he left me, he gave me a bright half dollar, for spending money. +Now would you give anything, my little friend, to know how I spent it? +If you had known me in those days, you could have easily guessed, even +if not much of a Yankee. I bought a book with it, of course. I +thought I could not purchase anything to be compared with that in +value. Since then I have learned there are other things in the world +besides books, although I must own that I still cling to not a little +of my old friendship for them. How long seemed the few days I was +absent from my father's house. I had seen a great deal of the world, I +thought, during that time. There seemed to be an illusion about it--a +feeling as if I had been from home for weeks; and when I returned, and +found some of the good things upon the table which were baked before I +left home, I thought they must be very old--very old indeed. + +"I should like to know how long you think you have been gone," said +some member of the family. + +Sure enough! How long had I been away? Not quite a week. But you need +not smile, for that week _was_ a long one. We do not always measure +time by minutes and hours. That is not the only week of my life that +has appeared long. I have seen other weeks that seemed as long as some +months. We sometimes live very fast, and at other times, more slowly. + +But this is not _the_ journey I am going to tell you about. I was +young then, and a little green, no doubt; but before I left home +again, I had got rid of my ignorance on some points. Miss Tompkins, a +maiden lady, who sometimes came to our house to sew, and who laid +claim to more personal experience in such matters than myself, had +received from some one a chapter of instructions about traveling--a +kind of traveler's guide--and as she did not wish to be so selfish as +to keep all her knowledge for her own use, she very freely gave away +some of it for my benefit. + +[Illustration: AUNT KATE AND HER TUTOR] + +"When you travel," said my instructor, "you must not be too modest +and retiring. You must always help yourself to the best things that +come within your reach, as if you considered them yours, as a matter +of course. If you only act as if you think yourself a person of +consequence, you will be treated as such. But if you stand one side, +and seem to think that anything is good enough for you, every one will +be sure to think so too. It is as much as saying that you don't think +yourself of much importance. Others, of course, will conclude that you +ought to be the best judge, and that you are a sort of nobody, who +may be disposed of to suit anybody's convenience." + +Now as these items of advice were given as the result of the +experience of those who had seen a great deal of the world, and as I +was very ready to admit my own ignorance, I resolved to lay up these +hints for future service, when I should travel again. + +The time came, at length, for another journey. The stage, which passed +regularly through our village once a day, accommodating those who +wished to go north one day, and those who wished to go south the next, +picked me and my baggage up, at my father's door. A very young lady, +an acquaintance of mine, and two stranger gentlemen, were the only +passengers besides myself, until we reached the next town, five miles +distant, where we stopped to change horses. When we got into the coach +again, at this place, we found a new passenger safely stowed away in +one corner of the back seat. + +This passenger was an old lady, of a class sometimes found in our +country villages, who are aunts to everybody, and claim the greater +part of the younger portion of the community as sheer boys and girls. +It seems the driver was one of her boys, and, on account of his being +so nearly related, she claimed a free passage. She was already +_there_, and the driver had to choose between these two things--either +to admit her claim, or to turn her out. He wisely concluded to make a +virtue of necessity. It would not answer to be rude to Aunt Polly, he +thought. Some of the other nephews and nieces might think him cruel. + +But there was another question to be settled. She had possession of +the back seat. This would hardly do on the strength of a free ticket, +when it was claimed by those who had paid their passage. + +"You must get up, Aunt Polly," said the driver, "and let these ladies +have the back seat." + +But Aunt Polly, alas! declared, in the most positive manner, that she +_could not_ ride on the middle seat. + +"Yes you _can_," said the driver, "and you _must_; so get up." + +But Aunt Polly was by no means easily moved. She still, to the no +small vexation of the driver, kept on saying that she could not ride +on the middle seat. In this state of things one of the gentlemen +undertook the task of settling matters, and, addressing me, inquired +which seat I preferred. All the instructions which I had received at +once rushed to my mind. Now was the time to put them in practice--to +let it be known that I was not going to give up my seat to any one, +certainly not to one who had no claim to it. So drawing myself up to +my full height--which was nothing to boast of, by the way--I answered +with becoming dignity, "I prefer the back seat, sir." + +He then turned to my companion, and said, "Which seat do you prefer?" + +"It makes no difference with me, sir," was the modest reply. + +A smile passed over the face of the gentleman--a smile which evidently +indicated one of two things; either that he thought my companion +showed her ignorance of the world, in making herself of so little +consequence, and seeming to say, "You may do what you please with me;" +or he thought my reply very old for one of my years. Which was it? Ah, +that was the question. I could not forget that peculiar smile. In +fact, you see I have not forgotten it yet. It seemed to mean +something; but what did it mean? Oh, how I wanted to know exactly +what it meant, and how carefully I watched, to see if I could not find +out. + +The matter of seats was soon arranged to the satisfaction of all +parties. The old lady and myself had the back seat, while my companion +took the middle seat. I observed that the above-named gentleman +passenger offered several polite attentions to my companion, while he +did not seem to notice me at all, although I had let him know that I +was a person of so much consequence. This might be accounted for by +the fact that she was seated very near him, while my seat was more +distant, or there might be some other cause for it. + +The opinion of a stranger whom I never expected again to meet, was not +in itself of any great importance; yet it certainly had a bearing on +the question whether or not my traveling instructions were of the +right kind. If they were, my answer was certainly the right one, and +calculated to make a favorable impression upon the minds of my fellow +passengers. But when I tried to look at the affair in this light, I +was disturbed by a secret thought that I should have had a more +comfortable feeling of self-respect, if I had given up the back +seat--for which, after all, I did not care a straw--to an aged female, +who really thought she could not ride on the middle seat. + +When I returned home, I related the incident to Miss Tompkins, the +seamstress whose directions I had undertaken to follow, and also +frankly owned that I was not quite sure which reply had caused that +peculiar smile. She assured me there could be no doubt on that point. +"The gentleman was amused at the ignorance of the world which that +other girl showed. He thought she was not much, or she would not so +readily step aside, and give up her _rights_ to any one who might +choose to claim them." + +But I was by no means convinced of the truth of this statement of the +case; and when I was a little older, I came to such conclusions on the +subject that I believe I have never tried, since that time, to +establish my claim to be a person of consequence by similar means. + +Indeed, to tell the truth, I have not thought much of the wisdom of +these instructions, from that day to this; and I certainly would not +recommend to you, my young friend, that which I have turned out of my +own service, as useless lumber. Seriously, I do not think you will +ever suffer in the opinion of your fellow travelers, by being kind and +obliging, and showing that you do not think yourself of so much +consequence as to forget there is any one else in the world. When a +person takes pains to impress others with a sense of his importance, +it almost always excites a suspicion that he is trying to pass for +something more than he really is. It does not require all this show +and pretension to keep the place which really belongs to him, and to +attempt more than this, will only draw upon him neglect and contempt. + +To this chapter in the experience of Aunt Kate, I feel very much like +adding a word or two, "by way of improvement," as the ministers say. +But on second thought, I guess it will be as well to let you use the +diving bell, and see if you cannot bring out the improvement +yourselves. + + + + +VI. + + +"TRY THE OTHER END." + + +The other day I came across a man who was tugging with all his might +at the wrong end of a lever. That is, he had a great crowbar, almost +as large as he could lift, and was bearing down on one end of it, +while the block of wood which he had put under it for a _purchase_, +was at the same end. He was trying to pry up a large stone in that +way. But the stone would not be pryed up. It was a very obstinate +stone, the good old farmer thought. He had no notion of giving up the +project, however. So he pulled off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, +and went to work in right good earnest. Still the stone did not stir; +or if it did it was only just enough to aggravate the man. + +What could be the matter? The stone was not a very large one. It did +not look as if it could stand a great deal of prying. What was the +matter? + +There happened to be a school-boy passing that way at the time. He was +not much of a farmer, and still less of a mechanic, I should think; +but he thought he saw what the trouble was. It did not seem to be so +much the lever itself, or the farmer, or the stone to be moved, as in +the way the man went to work. The boy ventured to hint this idea to +the farmer: + +"Why, my dear sir," he said, "there is no use in your breaking your +neck in that style. You are at the wrong end of the lever. You haven't +_purchase_ enough." + +The good-natured farmer (for he _was_ good-natured, and did not get +into a passion because a mere boy, young enough to be his +grand-child, attempted to help him out of his difficulty) the +good-natured farmer stopped a moment, looked at the matter carefully, +and frankly acknowledged that he had gone the wrong way to work. + +"I wonder what on earth I was thinking of," said he, in his usual +blunt language. Of course he shifted his crow-bar immediately, so as +to get a good _purchase_. The trouble was all over then. The stone +came up easily enough, of course. + +It came into my mind while I was thinking about this farmer's mistake +in the use of his lever, that certain people--myself included, +perhaps--might profit by this blunder. + +A great many, for instance, use the lever of _truth_--a very good +crow-bar, the best to be had--in overturning moral evils. But they do +not accomplish anything, because they take hold of the wrong end of +the lever. They have no _purchase_. + +Here is a man, who, as I think, is in the habit of wrong doing every +day. Well, I settle it in my mind that I will talk to him, and see if +I cannot make a better man of him. I look him up, and go to prying at +his sin, like a man digging up pine stumps by the job. I call him hard +names. Why not? He deserves them. Everybody knows that. I do not mince +the matter with him at all. But what I say seems to have no good +effect upon him. It makes him angry, and he advises me to mind my own +business, assuring me, at the same time, that he shall take good care +to mind his. + +I see plainly enough that I have been working half an hour or more to +no purpose, and that very likely I have made matters worse. Yet what +was my error? + +Simply this: that I spent all my strength at the short arm of the +lever. If I had gone to work with a kind and tender spirit, something +as Nathan went to work at David, once on a time, and used the other +end of the lever, I should have got a good _purchase_, at least, and I +am not sure but the stone would have yielded. As it is, however, the +troublesome thing is there yet, and it seems to be settling into the +ground deeper than ever. + +I know some good people, among whom I can count half a score of +ministers, who try very hard to keep bad books and periodicals out of +the family circle. + +There is no end to their talk against these things. They tell their +children that they must never read such and such books, and that if +they ever catch one of them reading these books, they shall take good +care to punish them for it. + +But in spite of all the efforts of these people, they don't succeed in +keeping these bad books out of the family. In some way or other, they +are smuggled into the hands of a boy or girl, and they are read, while +the parent, perhaps, knows nothing of it. That is all wrong, of +course. I don't mean to say anything to excuse the boy or +girl--nothing of the kind. But why didn't these parents go another +way to work? Why, instead of preaching all those long sermons on bad +books, and threatening their children with punishment in case they +read these books, why did they not provide other books, equally +interesting, though innocent and useful? That would have been a wiser +course, methinks. That would have been the right end of the crow-bar +to work at. The way to get rid of an evil is to find something else to +put in its place. So I think. + +But some of these very fathers and mothers, though they cry out so +loudly against immoral books and periodicals, say they cannot afford +to buy books for their children. It was only last week that I heard +one of them tell a friend, who asked him to subscribe for a magazine +for his daughter, that he was poor, and could not afford it. Poor! he +gave one party last winter, on this same daughter's account, which +cost him more than a hundred dollars. He cannot afford it! Well, if he +does not afford to furnish reading for those children, I am afraid +they will afford it themselves. + +I have seen a little girl, when her sister had been doing something +wrong, run straight to her mother, and tell her of it. But it only +made the little mischief-maker worse. She went the wrong way to work. +She labored hard enough to come at her sister's fault; but her labor +was all thrown away. She was at the wrong end of the crow-bar. If, +instead of posting off, as fast as she could run, to her mother, every +time that sister did wrong, as if she really _liked_ to be a +tell-tale, she had said, as kindly as she could, "Susy, don't do so; +that's naughty," or something of the kind, I presume it would all have +been well enough. + + + + +VII. + +THE FOX AND THE CRAB; + +OR, A GOOD RULE, WITH A FLAW IN IT. + +A FABLE. + + +A crab boasted that he was very cunning in setting traps. He used to +bury himself in the mud, just under a nice morsel of a clam or an +oyster; and when the silly fish came to make a dinner of this dainty +morsel, he would catch him in his claws, and eat him. + +He pretended to have a good deal of honor, though. He was quite a +pious crab, according to his own account of himself. When he had +caught a fish by his cunning, he used to say, "Poor fellow! it is his +own fault, not mine. He ought to have kept out of the trap. If one +does not know enough to keep away from my claws, he _ought_ to be +caught. Poor fellow! I'm sorry for him; but it can't be helped." + +That is the way he took to quiet his own conscience, and to excuse +himself to others, when they complained of his deceitful conduct. + +An old fox, having heard of our crab's mode of catching fish, and +what he said about it, determined to set a trap for the crab. He did +so. He went down to the sea shore, and thrust his long, bushy tail +into the water. The crab, thinking he had got another dinner by his +wit, seized the fox's tail with his claws. But the fox, giving a +sudden spring, brought the crab out of the water, and prepared to make +a meal of him at his leisure. + +The crab complained, and accused the fox of being a deceitful fellow, +and a murderer to boot. + +"But," said Reynard, "I have only acted according to your own rule. If +one does not know enough to keep away from a fox's tail, he _ought_ +to be caught. It is the same thing as if he caught himself." + +"Ah!" said the crab, with a sigh, "I made that rule for others, and +not for myself. I see now that _there is a flaw in it_." + + + + +VIII. + +THE GREEDY FLY. + +A FABLE. + + +A fly, who was a great lover of sweet things, came across a cup full +of molasses. He alighted on the edge of the cup, and commenced sipping +the molasses. It pleased him very much. He thought he had never tasted +anything so good before. At length, beginning to be surfeited with his +dinner, instead of flying away, and going about his business, until +he should be hungry again, he plunged into the molasses, so as to +enjoy as much of it as he could. + +Mistaken fly! He fared very much as you might suppose he would. He +lost his life in the molasses. + + +MORAL. + +That is just the way with thousands, who have fewer legs and ought to +have more brains than this fly. They are not content with a right and +proper use of the good things which God has given them. They plunge +into a sea of pleasure, so as to enjoy as much of it as they possibly +can. But such a surfeit, instead of increasing the enjoyment, makes +them miserable. They are drowned in the midst of their pleasures. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IX. + +CAROLINE AND HER KITTEN; + +OR, THE PRETTY FACE, WITH A SCAR ON IT. + + +Caroline Rose was as happy a girl as ever you saw in your life--"as +happy as the days are long"--so her schoolmaster used to say. There +were a great many good points in Caroline's character besides this, +that she was so generally cheerful--for I consider that a good point +in any one's character. She was kind to her companions, obedient, +respectful, and affectionate to her parents; and she seldom got into a +fit of anger, or made a fool of herself by being sulky. One might have +met her frequently, and have supposed that he was well acquainted with +her, and still have loved her very much. Yet there was one thing in +her character which every one, as soon as he saw it, must dislike, and +which sometimes, where she was well known, made her appear exceedingly +unlovely. Shall I tell you what that was? I will do so, so as to put +you on your guard in that particular point. That trait in her +character was _selfishness_. If she ever got anything that she liked, +she used to act as if she were not willing that any one else should +enjoy it with her. Indeed, she appeared to be displeased, if one of +her playmates, as was sometimes the case, did take a great deal of +pleasure in her pretty things. + +Her father once brought her home a fine set of tea things, when she +was quite young. Now, should you not suppose that she would like to +have all the girls in the neighborhood come and take tea with her, and +use her pretty new cups and saucers, and spoons and plates? Well, so +should I. But she showed a great deal of selfishness in this +matter--so much, in fact, that she made herself appear ridiculous, as +well as unlovely. She was glad to have the girls come and look at the +tea things, and hear them say that they were very pretty. But that was +as far as her generosity went. She did not ask the girls to sit down +and drink tea with her. Indeed, she did not want her playmates to +handle the cups and saucers. "I'm so afraid you will break them!" said +she. What a foolish and unreasonable girl! + +It got to be a sort of proverb in the little village where Caroline +resided, when any one was not very generous, "She's almost as selfish +as Carrie Rose," I don't know whether she knew how she was regarded +among boys and girls of her own age; and I don't know how much she +cared for their good will, if she did hear what they thought of her. +But this I know, that I could not bear to have such a character. I +would rather give away half of all I am worth than to give any reason +to people to think I was mean and selfish. How I should dislike to +have folks say to themselves, and perhaps to others, when they meet me +in the streets, "There goes a selfish man--a man who is about as +good as people will average, in other respects, but who is as small as +the little end of nothing, in his dealings." I think I would rather +live on a crust of dry bread than to get money by being close, and +small, and mean, and selfish. + +[Illustration: MY PRETTY KITTEN.] + +Caroline had a kitten given her, by her uncle, when she had grown up +to be quite a large girl. It was a beautiful creature. I think they +called it a Maltese kitten. Nothing of the kind had been seen in the +place where Caroline lived, before Tommy, as she called her new pet, +was brought there. Well, of course she told all the little folks what +a fine present her uncle had made to her, and they were invited to +come over and see the "dear little creature." She talked about her +kitten as if it were one of the wonders of the world, and as if she +thought she was a young queen, with the wealth of Cleopatra or +Elizabeth, and that half the inhabitants of the globe would certainly +come and bow before her and her wonderful kitten. + +When she met her young friends, she talked of nothing hardly but "my +pretty Maltese kitten." + +That is the way with selfish folks. They think and talk a great deal +of what concerns _them_, and you seldom hear them praise anything that +belongs to their neighbors. + +I shall never forget--if you will allow me to go a step or two out of +my way for an illustration--I shall never forget how, when I was a +little school-boy, Mother Budd, a rather selfish old lady, used to +call us into her kitchen, to see the nice honey she had been taking +out of her bee-hives. "Isn't that fine?" she would ask; "eh, isn't +that fine honey, boys?" Of course it was fine, and we said so. "Well, +you can go now," she would say, after that. As for letting us taste of +her fine honey, that she never thought of doing. + +I don't know but we should almost have served her right, if we had +done something as a good old minister I have heard of, once did in +very similar circumstances. He was making a call upon one of the +ladies of his parish--upon Aunt Katy, who was noted all over the +neighborhood for being close-fisted. Almost as soon as the good man +had got into the house, she invited him to go into the buttery, and +look at her nice cheeses. He went in, the old lady acting as a guide. +"There," said she, pointing to a mammoth cheese which she had just +made for the fair, and which she was particularly proud of, "there's a +cheese for you." "Thank you, Aunt Katy," said the minister, "my wife +was saying only this morning that we should have to get a new cheese +pretty soon." And he took the cheese down from the shelf, carried it +out to his wagon, bade the astonished lady of the house a good +morning, and drove off to visit some of the rest of his flock. + +Selfishness has the same face, look at it where you will. It made +quite a scar in the features of Caroline's character. Without that, +they would have been beautiful--with it, they were ugly enough. + +But about that kitten. Clara Goodsell was as full of fun as a hickory +nut is of meat. She heard of Caroline's kitten, and she, too, was +invited to call and see it. She did not go, though, and, indeed, the +girls very generally failed to comply with the invitation. They knew +well enough that, if they went to see the kitten, they would not be +allowed to take it, and that all they could do would be to stand a +little way off, and look at it, and remark how beautiful it was. + +One day, when the girls at school were required to write compositions, +Clara thought she would write something which would make Carrie +ashamed of her selfishness. The teacher read all the compositions +aloud. When he came to Clara's, the girls had as much as they could do +to keep from laughing, for they knew, before it was read, what it was +about. The schoolmaster had to bite his lips to keep from smiling a +little, too. + +Clara did not call any names. But she wrote such a composition about +"_My Pretty Kitten_" that anybody could see it was meant for +Caroline. The selfish girl saw it, as well as the rest, and before +school was out, she burst into tears, she felt so badly. But the +composition did her good. She improved wonderfully after that. + + + + +X. + +"I DON'T KNOW." + + +How difficult it is for many people to say these words. They don't +like to own that they are ignorant of anything. They want to make you +think that they know everything. When you ask them a hard question, +instead of saying right out, plumply and honestly, "I don't know," +they will try to trump up some answer that will not expose their +ignorance. And oh, what wretched work they sometimes make with their +answers. They make perfect fools of themselves. + +People never appear well, among those of good sense, who attempt to +pass themselves off as knowing more than they do. It is not to be +expected that any one person can know everything; and why should you, +or anybody else, be ashamed to own that you can't tell all about this +thing, or that thing? Why it is often one part of wisdom to see that +you can't understand a particular subject, and another part of wisdom +to confess that you can't understand it. + +I think that the dog, who figures with a certain vain, self-conceited +monkey, in the fable, showed a good deal of wisdom in his remarks. + +The monkey, you must know, belonged to a very learned astronomer. The +animal often watched his master, while he was looking through his +telescope. "There must be something delightful in that," he thought, +and one day, when the astronomer was absent, the monkey looked through +the instrument for a long time. But he saw nothing strange or +wonderful; and so he concluded that his master was a fool, and that +the telescope was all nonsense. Not long after that, he met Rover, +the family dog, and he told him what he thought of his master. "And +what do _you_ think of the matter, friend Rover?" he added. + +"I don't know the use of the telescope," said the dog, "and I don't +know how wise our master may be. But I am satisfied of two things." + +"What are they?" the monkey asked. + +"First," said the dog, "that telescopes were not made for monkeys to +look through; and second, that monkeys were not made to look through +telescopes." + + + + +[Illustration: THE LEARNED GEESE.] + + +XI. + +THE LEARNED GEESE. + +A FABLE. + + +A company of geese used to meet together very often, to talk about the +affairs of the nation, and to contrive ways and means to do the public +good. They were full of learning; had read all the valuable books that +ever were printed in the goose language; and had got the notion into +their heads that when they died, wisdom would perish in the earth. +They looked down upon the great mass of goosehood about them with +feelings of pity--almost of contempt. At their public meetings--which +were held pretty often, for they had much more public than private +business to attend to--they occupied a great share of their time in +discussing questions which were so deep and muddy, that nobody but +they ever saw to the bottom of them. Indeed, many very sensible geese, +who made few pretensions to learning, have doubted whether they saw +very clearly into these questions themselves. I, too, have my doubts +on the subject, as well as these sensible geese; and I go farther +than they in my doubts. I doubt whether, in case any learned goose +could see to the bottom of very many of these muddy subjects, his +knowledge would be worth much to him. I will give you a specimen of +some of the questions they used to debate upon, and leave you to judge +of their value for yourselves. They were such as these: + +"How _thick_ is the shadow of a goose in the moonlight?" + +"How much would the shadow of a tolerably learned gander weigh, if it +could be weighed?" + +"How early do goslings begin to know a great many things, if not +more?" + +"When a fox starts off after a goose, is it because he loves himself, +or because he loves his wife and the little foxes?" + +"Whether geese ought not to be willing to die, for the sake of +affording a good dinner to Christians on Christmas and Thanksgiving +days?" + +"Whether there would be such a thing as a good, pious goose, who was +not willing to die for such a purpose?" + +One day, our learned geese were holding a meeting in the barn yard, +according to their custom, and were, if possible, more earnest and +noisy than ever in their discussions. This time they were considering +what it was best to do to prevent foxes from making such havoc in the +neighborhood. The question was submitted, whether it would not be +safer and better for geese to sleep with their heads up, instead of +placing them under their wings, after the old fashion. + +But right in the midst of the debate, while one of the speakers was +astonishing himself as well as the rest of the company, with his +reasoning and his eloquence, a fox, who had been slily listening to +the debate, stepped into their ranks, and seized the orator, cutting +short his neck and his speech at the same instant. + + +MORAL. + +There are several things to be learned by this fable. But I shall +content myself with simply pointing out one of them, presuming your +good sense will discover the rest: _Before you attempt to take care of +others, learn to take care of yourselves_. + + + + +XII. + +THE WRONG WAY. + + +Edward was rather a rude, headstrong boy. Like a great many young +people of his age, he needed to be punished sometimes, and sometimes +his parents did deal pretty sternly with him. Edward had a sister, +older than himself, by some years. Fanny--for this was the name of the +girl--tried one day, to tame little Eddy, when, according to her +notion, he was inclined to be too wild. Fanny was grieved to see her +brother act so rudely. They were visiting that day, at Aunt Sally's, +and it was natural enough that Fanny should wish to have her brother +behave as well as he could. + +"Eddy," said she, in the hearing of her aunt and some of her cousins, +"you act like a young colt." + +"Well, what if I do?" said Eddy, rather tartly. + +"Why, you will need breaking, if you go on so, that's all." + +"And suppose I should need breaking, I'd like to know who'll break +me." + +"May be I'd try my hand at it, if there's nobody else to do it." + +"I'd like to see you try it." + +"Hush, Edward! I'm ashamed of you." + +"You had better hush yourself, if you want me to hush." + +At this point in the dispute between the brother and sister, Aunt +Sally thought it was best to put a stop to it. She saw that Fanny +could do no good to Edward, while he was in that mood, and so she said +a word or two which turned the thoughts of both the brother and sister +into another channel. + +I suppose it can hardly be necessary to say to you, that, whatever +may have been the right way to manage Edward, that which his sister +tried at this time was certainly the wrong. + + + + +XIII. + +THE RIGHT WAY. + + +Edward still behaved rather rudely--still "acted like a young colt." +"What a pity!" Fanny said to herself. "Mamma will be mortified, if she +ever hears about it. Well, I must try again, and see what I can do +with the little fellow this time." + +So she called Eddy out into the yard in front of the house, and there, +where nobody else but him could hear her, she said, + +"Eddy, I want to tell you a little story." + +"Well," said Edward, "I want to hear a little story." + +"Once there was a little boy," the sister said, commencing her story, +"that had a sister who was kind to him. His sister took good care of +her brother. She tried to do so, at any rate. When this little boy was +abroad, playing with his cousins, he was rude. He would not mind his +sister. He was a good deal younger than she was, and one would +suppose that he ought to have listened to her, when she talked to +him. But he did not. He was just as rude as ever; and his sister was +afraid that, when his mamma heard of his conduct, she would feel +ashamed of her son. What do you think of that boy, Eddy?" + +"Sister," said the little fellow, "I am a very naughty boy. But I am +sorry I behaved so. I will try to do better, if you will forgive me." + +And so, you see, the wild, rattle-headed boy, who was so full of fun, +that he could hardly hold in, and who was so wild that Fanny thought +it was best to check him with a curb bit, something as she would a +young colt, was completely tamed by this soft, gentle language. My +young friend, don't you think there's great power in such words? I do, +and I advise you, when you are dealing with such a "young colt" as +Eddy was, to try the plan that Fanny tried last, and see if it don't +succeed better than anything else? + + Use gentle words, for who can tell + The blessings they impart! + How oft they fall as manna fell, + On some nigh-fainting heart! + + "In lonely wilds by light-winged birds + Rare seeds have oft been sown; + And hope has sprung from gentle words, + Where only grief had grown." + + + + +XIV. + +THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL. + +A FABLE. + + +A spruce young goat tried very hard to make himself appear like a +sheep. He endeavored to talk and act like a sheep. Half his time was +spent in putting on airs. He went so far as to cut off his beard, so +that he might bear a more striking resemblance to the sheep family; +and he was once heard to say that he would give anything if he +could either get rid of his horns altogether, or have them twisted as +the horns were worn by some of the old fathers whom he so much +admired. The little simpleton, however, lost more than he gained by +his singular manners. Instead of his being more respected and beloved, +as he expected to be, he was despised by everybody. + + +[Illustration: THE GOAT AND HIS PUPIL.] + + +One day, after being ridiculed and abused by some of his young +neighbors, he went to his schoolmaster with a great budget full of +troubles. This schoolmaster was an old goat, with a long beard, and a +long head, too, as it would seem from the character he had. + +"O dear!" said the little simpleton, "everybody hates me. I wish I +were dead. I'm sure I don't know what it means. The more I try to be +good, the less they all like me." + +"My dear fellow," said Mr. Longbeard, "I am sorry for you. But I can +do nothing to help you. It will always be so, until you do better." + +"Why, I do as well as I can now," replied the young goat. + +"You ape the sheep too much." + +"Well, the farmer thinks more of his sheep than he does of his +goats--a great deal more." + +"And what of it?" + +"Why, if he likes the sheep best, he will like me best when I act as +the sheep do." + +"That's your mistake. He will not like you half as well." + +"Why not?" + +"For the same reason that nobody else likes you so well--because you +don't act like yourself. Take my advice, now. _Be yourself_. Don't try +to be anybody else. Depend upon it, if you ever come across a person +that likes you, he will like you as a goat, and not as a sheep. A +sheep you could never be, though you should practice all your +life-time. Be a goat, then--be a goat, and nothing else." + +This advice, I believe, proved of some service to the juvenile goat; +and by the way, reader, perhaps it may be worth something to you. + + + + +XV. + +ON BARKING DOGS. + + +It is an old saying--and there is a good deal of truth in it--that +"barking dogs never bite." I say there is a good deal of truth in it. +It is not strictly true. Scarcely any proverb will bear picking to +pieces, and analyzing, as a botanist would pick to pieces and analyze +a rose or a tulip. Almost all dogs bark a little, now and then. Still +I believe those dogs bark the most that bite the least, and the dogs +that make a practice of biting the hardest and the oftenest, make very +little noise about it. + +Have you never been passing by a house, and seen a little pocket +edition of a cur run out of the front door yard, to meet you, with +ever so much bravery and heroism, as if he intended to eat you at two +or three mouthfuls? What a barking he set up. The meaning of his _bow, +wow, wow_, every time he repeated the words, was, "I'll bite you! I'll +bite you!" But the very moment you turned round and faced him, he ran +back into the yard, as if forty tigers were after him. You see he was +all bark, and no bite. + +Well, it is about the same with men and women, and boys and girls, as +it is with dogs. Those who bark most bite least, the world over. + +Show me a boy who talks about being as bold as a lion, and I will show +you one with the heart of a young rabbit, just learning to eat +cabbage. I do dislike to see boys and girls boasting of what they can +do. It always gives me a low opinion of their merits. + +There is Tom Thrasher. You don't know Tom, do you? Well, he is one of +your barking dogs. He is all the time boasting of the great things he +is able to do. Nobody ever saw him do any such things. Still he keeps +on boasting, right in the midst of the young people who know him +through and through, a great deal better than he knows himself. It is +strange that he should brag at that rate where everybody knows him. +But he has fallen into the habit of bragging, and I suppose he hardly +thinks of the absurd and foolish language he is using. According to +his account of himself, he can run a mile in a minute, jump over a +fence ten rails high, shoot an arrow from his bow twenty rods, and +hit an apple at that distance half a dozen times running. + +I must tell you a story about this Tom Thrasher. Poor Tom! he got +"come up with," not long ago, by some fun-loving boys that lived in +his neighborhood. Tom had been boasting of his great feats in jumping. +He could jump higher than any boy on Blue Hill. In fact, he had just +jumped over the fence around Captain Corning's goat pasture, which, as +everybody knows, was eight rails high, and verily believed he could +have cleared it just as easily, if it had been two rails higher. That +was the kind of language he used to this company of boys. They did not +believe a word he said. + +"Let's try Tom," one whispered to another, "let's try the fellow, and +see how high he can jump." + +"Say, Tom," said one of the boys, "will you go down to the captain's +goat pasture with us, and try that thing over again?" + +Tom did not seem to be very fierce for going. But all the boys urged +him so hard, that he finally consented and went. When he got to the +goat pasture, he measured the fence with his eye; and from the manner +in which he shrugged his shoulders, it was pretty clear that he +considered the fence a very high one indeed. He was not at all in a +hurry about performing the feat. But the roguish boys would not let +him off. + +"Come, Tom," said one. + +"Now for it," said another. + +"No backing out," said a third. + +"It's only eight rails high," said a fourth. + +Still, somehow or other, Tom could not get his courage quite up to the +point. The best thing he could have done, in my way of thinking, when +he found himself so completely cornered was to have said, "Well, +boys, there's no use in mincing the matter at all. I am a little +dunce. I can no more jump over that fence than I can build a steamboat +or catch a streak of lightning." But that was not his way of getting +out of the scrape. + +"Let me give the word now," said one of the lads. "I'll say 'one, two, +three,' and when I come to 'three,' you shall run and jump." + +"Go ahead," said Tom. + +And the other boy began: "_One--two--three_"-- + +Tom started, and ran. I'm not sure but he had boasted so much about +his jumping, that he had almost made himself believe he really could +jump over that fence. At any rate, he tried it, and--failed, of +course. His feet struck the fence about three quarters of the distance +from the ground, and over he went, head foremost, into the goat +pasture. It was fortunate for him that he did not break his neck. As +it was, his _spirit_ was broken, and that was about all. He went home +a much humbler boy than he was when he came to the goat pasture; and a +somewhat wiser one, too. After that unfortunate leap, if Tom ever +boasted largely of what he could do and what he had done, it was a +very common thing for his playmates to say, "Take care, Tom; remember +that famous leap." + + + + * * * * * + + + +_Woodworth's Juvenile Works_. + +PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. + +PUBLISH THE FOLLOWING JUVENILE WORKS, By Francis C. Woodworth, + +EDITOR OF "WOODWORTH'S YOUTH'S CABINET," AUTHOR OF "THE WILLOW LANE +BUDGET," "THE STRAWBERRY GIRL," "THE MILLER OF OUR VILLAGE," "THEODORE +THINKER'S TALES," ETC., ETC. + + +UNCLE FRANK'S BOYS' AND GIRLS' LIBRARY. + +A Beautiful Series, comprising six volumes, square 12 mo., with eight +Tinted Engravings in each volume. The following are their titles +respectively: + +I. THE PEDDLER'S BOY, or I'll Be Somebody. +II. THE DIVING BELL, or Pearls to be Sought For +III. THE POOR ORGAN-GRINDER, and other stories. +IV. LOSS AND GAIN, or Susy Lee's Motto. +V. MIKE MARBLE; His Crotchets and Oddities. +VI. THE WONDERFUL LETTER-BAG OF KIT CURIOUS. + +"Of those who have the gift to write for children, Mr. Woodworth +stands among the first; and what is best of all, with the ability to +adapt himself to the wants and comprehension of children, he has that +high moral principle, which will permit nothing to leave his pen that +can do harm."--_Arthur's Home Gaz_. + +"We never pen a notice with more pleasure than when any work of our +friend Mr. Woodworth is the subject. Whatever he does is well done, +and in a sweet and gentle spirit"--_Christ. Inquirer_. + +"The author is a man of fine abilities and refined taste, and does his +work in a spirit of vivacious but most truthful earnestness." +--_Ladies Repos._ + + +WOODWORTH'S STORIES ABOUT ANIMALS. 12mo., with Illuminated Title, and +upwards of Fifty Beautiful Engravings; pp. 336. + +WOODWORTH'S STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. Uniform with the above. With Sixty +Splendid Engravings. + +These two volumes, containing characteristic anecdotes, told in a +brief and pleasing vein, are among the most entertaining books of the +kind to be found in the English language. + +"Attractive stories, told in a style of great liveliness and +beauty."--_N.Y. Tribune._ + +"A _melange_ of most agreeable reading."--_Presbyterian_. + +"They cannot fail to be intensely interesting."--_Ch. Register_. + +"Charming stories, told with that felicitous simplicity and eloquence +of diction which characterize all Mr. Woodworth's efforts for the +young."--_N.Y. Commercial Advertiser_. + +"Nothing can be more interesting than the stories and pictorial +illustrations of these works."--_Brattleborough Dem_. + + * * * * * + +UNCLE FRANK'S PEEP AT THE BEASTS. Square 12mo. Profusely Illustrated; +pp. 160. + +UNCLE FRANKS PEEP AT THE BIRDS. Uniform with the above. + +These two volumes are written in the simplest style, and with words, +for the most part, of two or three syllables. They are exceedingly +popular among children. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Diving Bell, by Francis C. Woodworth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVING BELL *** + +***** This file should be named 16560.txt or 16560.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/6/16560/ + +Produced by Geetu Melwani and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. 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