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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59628 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. III.--NO. 151. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
+CENTS.
+
+Tuesday, September 19, 1882. Copyright, 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
+$1.50 per Year, in Advance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE STORY OF A GREAT MAMMOTH.
+
+BY ELIZABETH ABERCROMBIE.
+
+
+Long and long ago, before you or I were born, in the year 1799 in fact,
+a man by the name of Ossip Schumachoff threw away a golden opportunity.
+Having undertaken an expedition up to the Arctic Ocean in search of
+ivory, he started from home with his wife on a reindeer sledge, and was
+so far successful in his undertaking that he discovered on the banks of
+the river Lena a certain block of ice that would have set all the
+naturalists in the world in commotion if he had but known it. This
+block of ice was of untold value, for it contained the body of an
+enormous tusked animal in a perfect state of preservation.
+
+Owing to the impenetrable masses of ice surrounding the mammoth, Ossip
+did not at that time succeed in reaching it; but returning to the same
+spot some two years later, he found that the ice had so far melted that
+a portion of the huge creature was exposed to the air.
+
+And yet Chief Ossip was no nearer to his prize than he had been at
+first. It is true the Ice King smilingly placed it in his grasp, but a
+mightier power, Superstition, stepping in with her rod of iron, bade him
+touch it if he dared.
+
+All the old men of his tribe shook their heads discouragingly. All the
+old women told direful tales of what had happened long years before, how
+a certain Tungusian chief, having seen just such a monster as this, had
+immediately fallen ill and died, with all his family.
+
+And as good luck--or bad--would have it, Ossip Schumachoff too began to
+feel ill, so he slowly went back to his home again to dream by day and
+night for three years more of that magnificent pair of tusks going to
+waste up there in the North.
+
+At last he could stand it no longer. Making another expedition to the
+Lena, he found the monster now entirely melted out of the ice, and
+slipped down upon a sand-bank; but this time he sawed off the
+magnificent pair of tusks, and sold them for fifty good Russian rubles.
+
+It was not until two years later, in 1806, that the naturalist and
+traveller Adams heard of the affair in Jakutsk. In June of the same year
+he travelled thither to rescue what was still to be saved. Schumachoff
+accompanied him, together with ten Tunguses.
+
+They found the animal on the right bank of the Lena, near the Arctic
+Ocean, on a small peninsula called Tamud, but it was by this time in a
+bad condition. Polar bears, wolves, and foxes had eaten the flesh, and
+the people of that desolate region had fed their dogs upon it, although
+of the skeleton itself only one fore-foot was missing.
+
+You may think how the eyes of the naturalist sparkled when they fell
+upon this colossal ruin. A mammoth, you know, is what is called the
+elephant of the ages before the Flood. It has long, long ago disappeared
+from the living world, so long, indeed, that it would be hard telling,
+perhaps, just how many thousands of years the mammoth of which I have
+been writing had lain hidden away in his icy bed.
+
+Judging by this most perfect specimen ever discovered by man, the
+mammoth had the greatest likeness to the elephants of the present day,
+especially to those of India.
+
+The naturalist was able to discover that his specimen was a male. Its
+head weighed four hundred pounds. It had a long black mane, the hair
+measuring at least a foot and a half, and its whole body was covered
+with a thick coating of reddish wool five inches in length. The tail and
+the trunk were gone, but the eyes were still preserved; so also was the
+brain. Professor Adams had no difficulty in stripping off three-quarters
+of the skin, though this was found to be so heavy that when he attempted
+to take it away it required fully ten men to carry it.
+
+The hairs which the polar bears and other beasts of prey had trodden
+into the damp ground were collected, and amounted to some thirty pounds.
+Specimens of these were afterward shown in almost all the museums of
+Europe.
+
+The lucky naturalist, having no fear of death like poor old Ossip, had
+everything carefully packed together and carried up the Lena, then
+across the country for more than four thousand miles, to the distant
+city of St. Petersburg, where the skin and skeleton form to-day the most
+valuable specimen of its famous museum. He also brought home some of the
+flesh, which, in spite of its age, was still fresh enough to be eaten,
+and the St. Petersburg Academicians and other gentlemen tasted this
+remarkable roast. The Academy gave the naturalist eight thousand rubles
+for his travelling expenses, besides a professorship in Moscow.
+
+And this is the story of the great mammoth discovery that caused so much
+excitement in all the scientific circles of Europe. But how this ancient
+elephant strayed in the first place into so uncongenial a climate as
+that within the arctic circle, or what he could have found to eat when
+there, remains, I think, a mystery to the present day.
+
+There are many theories advanced, but who can tell which one of them all
+is right?
+
+We read that the tribes who live in the northern parts of Siberia, upon
+the thawing of the ice in summer, are constantly finding some immense
+skull, with its strongly bowed tusks in a perfect state of preservation,
+or some other skeleton remains (of the same animal apparently), with the
+red flesh still clinging to them.
+
+And indeed these discoveries seem to have been long a source of revenue
+to the poor wandering people of the north. As early as 1707 a certain
+gentleman named Isbeaud Ides, who made a journey to China as ambassador
+to that distant country, declared that the Tunguse carried on a
+considerable business with the tusks discovered from time to time in the
+melting ice.
+
+He further says that the animal known to us as the mammoth was called
+mammont by the wild tribes of Siberia, and that they believed it to be
+living still somewhere deep down in the ground, burrowing in the mud in
+the neighborhood of the river. According to their theory, if in the
+course of its dark wandering the animal by any possibility struck upon
+the sand, it immediately sank therein and died. So, too, it was
+inevitably lost when it came into the air of the upper world upon a bank
+of the river, because it could bear neither air nor light.
+
+But this was only a theory of ignorant people--one to make the wise men
+of the earth smile in scorn--and still the question remains unanswered,
+I think, how it is that the bones and remains of a tropical animal are
+found in such numbers throughout the region of ice and snow.
+
+
+
+
+THE BULLET-PROOF MAN.
+
+A STORY OF NORTHERN AFRICA.
+
+BY DAVID KER.
+
+
+A bright, burning summer day on the border of the Sahara Desert; the
+huge bare cliffs of the El Kantarah Pass hanging like a cloud on the
+northern horizon; a quivering film of intense heat along the line where
+the rich blue of the cloudless sky met the hot, lifeless, brassy yellow
+of the desert; and in the foreground a group of Arabs, encamped beside a
+tiny stream, in the shade of the clustering palms that overhung it.
+
+Some were munching handfuls of parched corn, others were lying fast
+asleep, while one dried-up old scarecrow with one eye, and a head like a
+worn-out scrubbing-brush, was droning out some interminable Eastern
+legend.
+
+The story did not appear to get on very fast, however, which was not
+surprising, inasmuch as the whole of it, from beginning to end (if it
+ever had any), was pretty much in this style:
+
+"Now when the Prince Selim (may his name be honored forever!) came up to
+the gate of the palace--a gate higher than the dome of the Kaabah [holy
+place] at Mecca, and built all of marble whiter than the whitest
+milk--lo! there stood before it a giant, mighty and exceeding terrible.
+Then was the Prince of Gulistan sore amazed, and said, 'Never since I,
+Selim, son of Mahmoud, son of Sayid, son of Ali, first wore a yataghan
+[sabre] have I beheld such a monster as this!'"
+
+And so on for another half-hour, keeping poor Prince Selim waiting at
+the gate of the palace.
+
+But on a sudden an exclamation of astonishment broke from one of the
+group, and all eyes were turned to stare at a spectacle quite as
+wonderful to them as any of the marvels to which they had just been
+listening.
+
+Sauntering leisurely over the burning plain, as composedly as if he
+were lounging along the boulevards of Paris or St. Petersburg, instead
+of traversing one of the most dangerous spots in the whole north of
+Africa, was a solitary man, coming slowly toward them. True, he wore the
+white mantle and huge many-folded turban of the East, but he was none
+the less a European, as his fair complexion, well-trimmed beard, and
+jauntily cut pants sufficiently showed.
+
+Instantly the universal listlessness changed to bustle and excitement.
+The sleepers woke up, the lunch party forsook their dates and corn, the
+story-teller and his hearers started to their feet together, and all
+alike hurried forward to meet their strange visitor.
+
+But to their unbounded amazement the strange visitor took no notice of
+them whatever beyond a slight bow and the usual "Peace be with you!"
+spoken in good Arabic, though with an unmistakably French accent.
+Stepping into the shade of the palms, he bent down to the stream, took a
+long draught of the cool clear water, and then seating himself upon the
+bank, took off his turban, and began to fan his hot face with a fallen
+palm leaf, as if wishing to show his coolness in a double sense.
+
+The Arabs were completely taken aback. They had seen men look pale, and
+try to run away from them; and they had seen men look fierce, and rush
+at them pistol in hand; but a man who paid no attention to them at all,
+and who hardly seemed to know whether they were there or not, was a
+thing which they had never seen before, and they did not know what to
+make of it. In fact, like most men of their class, the moment they
+encountered a man whom they could not frighten, they at once began to be
+frightened themselves.
+
+At length the chief, seeming to think himself bound to set an example of
+courage to his followers, walked right up to the stranger, while the
+rest approached more cautiously, very much as a man approaches a strange
+dog which may spring up and bite him at any moment.
+
+"Peace be with thee, my brother!" said the chief, in a voice not quite
+so steady as it might have been.
+
+"With thee be peace, oh, sheik [chief] of the children of the desert!"
+replied the unknown.
+
+"What seeks the Frank [European] chief among the warriors of the tribe
+of Ben-Asyr?"
+
+"I am a magician," answered the stranger, quietly.
+
+The Arabs looked at each other with undisguised trepidation. A magician
+among them, and a Frank magician at that! Who could tell what he might
+do to them? For every Arab had heard the fame of the mighty sorcerers
+who could make wagons run without horses, ships go without sails,
+messages fly along a wire through the air swifter than an arrow, little
+scraps of paper serve as money, and other scraps of paper, no bigger
+than a true believer's turban, show the whereabouts of all the wells,
+rivers, hills, and caravan tracks, over an area of thousands of miles.
+Evidently this unknown gentleman was not a man to be trifled with.
+
+"I am a magician," repeated the mysterious guest, before any one could
+speak in reply, "and I have come to see if in the tribe of Ben-Asyr
+there be another magician like myself, and to try my power against his."
+
+This challenge was followed by a gloomy and universal silence. But
+suddenly a cunning twinkle showed itself in the chief's small rat-like
+eye. Perhaps this strange man was only boasting in order to frighten
+them. At any rate, it might be worth while to see what he was made of,
+and how much he could really do. So the chief made a very polite bow,
+and said:
+
+"We are far from the tents of our tribe, and none of our great magicians
+are with us; but let the wise man of the Franks show us his power, that
+we may behold it, and honor him as he deserves."
+
+"That will I do willingly," answered the stranger, with a readiness
+which rather disconcerted the worthy chief. "Look all of you upon this
+coin"--and he held out a silver franc--"which I have marked with a
+circle, as ye see. Thinkest thou, O sheik of the Ben-Asyr, that thou
+canst hold it too firmly for me to take it away?"
+
+"With the blessing of Heaven and of the Prophet, I can," replied the
+chief, confidently.
+
+"Let us try, then," said the stranger, pressing the coin into the Arab's
+extended hand, which instantly closed upon it as if meaning never to let
+it go again.
+
+"Presto! pass!" shouted the magician, in a high, shrill voice; and the
+chief, opening his hand, found to his unfeigned dismay that it was
+empty.
+
+Amid the general silence and bewilderment, the stranger pointed to a
+huge overripe date that lay rotting on the ground at some distance,
+which one of the Arabs instantly handed to him. One stroke of a knife
+laid it open, and out tumbled the marked coin.
+
+There was a visible movement of surprise among the Arabs, and even the
+chief himself looked not a little discomfited.
+
+"For a warrior of the desert, thou art easily conquered," said the
+Frenchman, jeeringly; "but it is no wonder that ill fortune should come
+upon the tribe of Ben-Asyr, when their chief himself, a follower of the
+Prophet, carries with him the liquor which the Prophet forbade."
+
+"What mean you?" cried the chief, fiercely.
+
+"_This_," answered the other, as, thrusting his hand into the sheik's
+wallet, he held forth to the horrified eyes of the band a small flask of
+unmistakable French wine.
+
+"Dog of a Frank!" roared the sheik, losing all patience, "do you dare to
+try your magical tricks upon a true believer? Take that!"
+
+He snatched a pistol from his girdle, and aimed it full at the
+conjurer's face; but it only flashed in the pan, and as he dashed it
+furiously to the ground, his unmoved opponent laughed disdainfully.
+
+"Do you think, then, that _I_ am to be hurt by mortal weapons? Try it
+again, if you will; or rather let _me_ load a pistol for you, and you
+shall see whether I am bullet-proof or no."
+
+He drew a second pistol from the girdle of the sheik, who was too much
+astounded to object, and loaded it before the eyes of the whole band,
+marking the ball with his knife just before dropping it into the barrel.
+
+"Fire!" cried he, putting the weapon into the sheik's hand.
+
+The chief fired, and for a moment the smoke hid everything. When it
+cleared, the stranger, with a mocking smile on his face, was seen to
+_let fall the marked bullet from his mouth_ into his hand, and hold it
+up for every one to look at.
+
+The dark faces of the Arabs turned perfectly _green_ with terror; but
+before anybody had time to say a word a loud shout was heard from
+behind, and up dashed three mounted French officers with a score of
+light horsemen.
+
+Instantly the Arabs took to their heels with a howl of dismay, never
+waiting to see whether the new-comers were real men, or phantoms called
+up by the terrible magician. The spot was deserted in a moment, and far
+out on the plain might be seen a confused whirl of arms, limbs, and
+white mantles flying along like dust driven by the wind.
+
+"Really, M. Houdin, you must be more careful," cried the French Colonel,
+excitedly. "To think of your venturing alone among all those
+cut-throats! What a fright you've given us!"
+
+"And somebody else too, seemingly," said Robert Houdin--for it was
+indeed the famous sleight-of-hand artist--glancing slyly at the flying
+Arabs. "When I first came upon them I knew it was no use running, so I
+decided to face it out, and scare _them_ a little instead. The next time
+you make a raid through these parts, Colonel, take a few conjurers with
+you; they'll be worth a whole battalion of infantry, take my word for
+it."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+EDITH BAXTER.[1]
+
+[1] The circumstances attending the rescue from drowning of the baby
+Harry Lee by Miss Edith Baxter, aged twelve, in front of the Avon Beach
+Hotel, at Bath, Long Island, have already been related in the
+Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE, No. 149.
+
+BY MRS. MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
+
+
+  A beautiful day in summer,
+    At Bath, beside the sea,
+  Where a bevy of careless children
+    Were as gay as gay could be.
+
+  Some with their spades so tiny
+    Were turning over the sand,
+  Some were merrily racing
+    With the surf that dashed on the strand.
+
+  And others, bold and daring,
+    Plunged into the deep green wave,
+  At the touch of the grim old ocean
+    They felt so blithe and brave.
+
+  Laughing, leaping, and diving,
+    The sturdy, frolicsome crew
+  Had never a thought of danger
+    Under the sky's soft blue.
+
+  And nobody noticed Harry,
+    A dear little five-year-old,
+  With just a glimmer of sunshine
+    Tinting his curls of gold.
+
+  Till, after the rest, as swiftly
+    As a flash the darling went;
+  And a cry of sudden terror
+    The giddy gladness rent.
+
+  The billows have caught the baby,
+    They are bearing him far away;
+  Alas for Harry's mother
+    And her empty arms this day!
+
+  Some one has darted to save him,
+    Forth from an awe-struck throng,
+  A fearless heart to the rescue,
+    Steady and true and strong.
+
+  Buffeting surge and breaker,
+    Straight through the curdling foam,
+  On through the angry waters,
+    She is toiling to bring him home.
+
+  Only a child, with girlhood's
+    Clear light in her candid eyes;
+  Only a girl, but a woman
+    In her glory of sacrifice.
+
+  On the shore they watch and listen,
+    Spell-bound in a dumb despair.
+  Ah! hark to the shout of triumph,
+    That ends in a thankful prayer.
+
+  Edith has saved wee Harry.
+    'Twas a noble deed was done,
+  At Bath, that day, by the ocean,
+    In the light of the summer sun.
+
+
+
+
+THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB.[2]
+
+[2] Begun in No. 146, HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+BY W. L. ALDEN,
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE MORAL PIRATES," "THE CRUISE OF THE 'GHOST,'" ETC., ETC.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The early morning visitor was not a bear. He was a very welcome visitor,
+for as soon as he made himself visible he was seen to be the missing
+canoeist. Charley was very wet and cold, but he was soon furnished with
+dry clothes and a blanket, and warmed with a cup of hot coffee made with
+the help of Harry's spirit-lamp; and as he lay on the bank and waited
+for daylight, he told the story of his midnight run down the rapid.
+
+When the boys were crossing the river above the rapid Charley's canoe
+was close behind Joe's. The latter ran on a rock, and in order to avoid
+her Charley was compelled to pass below the rock. In so doing he found
+himself in great danger of running on another rock, and in his effort to
+avoid this he drifted still farther down the river. Before he was aware
+of his danger he was caught by the current at the head of the rapid. He
+had just time to turn his canoe so as to head her down stream, and to
+buckle his life-belt around him. In another second he was rushing down
+the rapid at a rate that, in view of the darkness, was really frightful.
+
+It was useless to attempt to guide the canoe. Charley could see so
+little in advance of him that he could not choose his channel nor avoid
+any rock that might lie in his path. He therefore sat still, trusting
+that the current would carry him into the deepest channel, and keep him
+clear of the rocks. The rapid seemed to be a very long one, but the
+_Midnight_ ran it without taking in a drop of water or striking a single
+rock.
+
+As soon as quiet water was reached, Charley paddled to the shore,
+intending to make his canoe fast and to sleep quietly in her until
+morning. He was in high spirits at having successfully run a rapid in
+the dark, and he paddled so carelessly that just as he was within a yard
+of the shore the canoe ran upon a sunken log, spilled her captain into
+the water, and then, floated off in the darkness, and disappeared.
+
+Charley had no difficulty in getting ashore, but he was wet to the skin,
+and his dry clothes and all his property, except his paddle, had gone on
+a cruise without him. There was nothing for him to do but to make his
+way back along the bank to the other boys. This proved to be a tiresome
+task. The woods were very thick, and full of underbrush and fallen
+trunks. Charley was terribly scratched, and his clothes badly torn, as
+he slowly forced his way through the bushes and among the trees. He was
+beginning to think that he would never reach the boys, when he
+fortunately heard their voices as they whispered together.
+
+When morning dawned, the canoeists, feeling extremely cramped and stiff,
+cast their canoes loose, and started down the river, intending, if
+possible, to find Charley's canoe, and then go ashore for breakfast and
+a good long sleep. The rapid had been run so easily by Charley in the
+night that they rightly imagined they would find no difficulty in
+running it by daylight. Tom took Charley in the _Twilight_, and the
+fleet, with Harry leading the way, passed through the rapid without
+accident. The boys could not but wonder how Charley had escaped the
+rocks in the darkness, for the rapid, which was much the roughest and
+swiftest they had yet seen, seemed to be full of rocks.
+
+Not very far below the rapid the missing canoe was discovered aground in
+an eddy. She was uninjured; and as there was a sandy beach and plenty of
+shade near at hand, the boys went ashore, made their breakfast, and
+lying down on their rubber blankets, slept until the afternoon.
+
+[Illustration: RUNNING THE RAPID.]
+
+It was time for dinner when the tired canoeists awoke, and by the time
+they had finished their meal and were once more afloat it was nearly
+three o'clock. They ran three more rapids without any trouble. Their
+canoes frequently struck on sunken rocks; but as they were loaded so as
+to draw more water aft than they did forward, they usually struck aft of
+midships, and did not swing around broadside to the current. When a
+canoe struck in this way, her captain unjointed his paddle, and taking a
+blade in each hand, generally succeeded in lifting her clear of the rock
+by pushing with both blades against the bottom of the river. In the next
+rapid Joe's canoe ran so high on a rock that was in the full force of
+the current that he could not get her afloat without getting out of her.
+He succeeded in getting into her again, however, without difficulty, by
+bringing her alongside of the rock on which he was standing, although he
+had to step in very quickly, as the current swept her away the moment he
+ceased to hold her.
+
+In running these rapids the canoes were kept at a safe distance apart,
+so that when one ran aground, the one following her had time to steer
+clear of her. At Charley's suggestion, the painter of each canoe was
+rove through the stern-post instead of the stem-post. By keeping the end
+of the painter in his hand the canoeist whose canoe ran aground could
+jump out and feel sure that the canoe could not run away from him, and
+that he could not turn her broadside to the stream by hauling on the
+painter, as would have been the case had the painter been rove through
+the stem-post.
+
+"I want to see that Sherbrooke postmaster!" exclaimed Joe, after running
+what was the seventh rapid, counting from the dam at Magog. "He said
+there were only one or two little rapids in this river. Why, there isn't
+anything but rapids in it."
+
+"There's something else just ahead of us worse than rapids," said
+Charley. "Look at that smoke."
+
+Just a little distance below the fleet the river was completely hidden
+by a dense cloud of smoke that rested on the water, and rose like a
+heavy fog-bank above the tops of the highest trees. It was caused by a
+fire in the woods--probably the very fire which the boys had started on
+the previous night. How far down the river the smoke extended, and
+whether any one could breathe while in it, were questions of great
+importance to the canoeists.
+
+The fleet stopped just before reaching the smoke, and the boys backed
+water gently with their paddles while they discussed what they had
+better do. It was of no use to go ashore with the hope of finding how
+far the smoke extended, for it would have been as difficult to breathe
+on shore as on the water.
+
+"There's one good thing about it," said Charley; "the smoke blows right
+across the river, so the chances are that it does not extend very far
+down stream."
+
+"We can't hear the noise of any rapid," said Harry, "and that's another
+good thing. There can't be a rapid of any consequence within the next
+quarter of a mile."
+
+"Then I'll tell you what I'll do, with the Commodore's permission,"
+continued Charley. "There is no use in staying here all day, for that
+smoke may last for any length of time. I'll tie a wet handkerchief
+around my mouth and nose, and take the chances of paddling through the
+smoke. It isn't as thick close to the water as it looks to be, and I
+haven't the least doubt that I can run through it all right."
+
+"But suppose you get choked with smoke, or get into a dangerous rapid?"
+suggested Tom.
+
+"There isn't any rapid near us, or we would hear it, and I don't think
+the smoke will hurt me while I breathe through a wet handkerchief. At
+any rate, I'd rather try it than sit here and wait for the smoke to
+disappear."
+
+It was decided, after farther discussion, that Charley should attempt to
+paddle through the smoke if he really wished to do so; and that he
+should blow a whistle if he got through all right, and thought that the
+other boys could safely follow his example. Paddling a little way up
+stream, so as to have room to get up his fastest rate of speed before
+reaching the smoke, Charley started on his hazardous trip. He
+disappeared in the smoke, with his canoe rushing along at a tremendous
+rate, and in a few seconds his comrades heard him calling to them to
+come on without fear.
+
+They followed Charley's example in covering their mouths and noses with
+wet handkerchiefs, and in paddling at the top of their speed. They were
+agreeably surprised to find that the belt of smoke was only a few yards
+wide, and that almost before they had begun to find any difficulty in
+breathing they emerged into pure air and sunlight.
+
+"It was a risky business for you, Charley," said Harry, "for the smoke
+might have covered the river for the next quarter of a mile."
+
+"But then it didn't, you see," replied Charley. "How cheap we should
+have felt if we had waited till morning for the smoke to blow away, and
+then found that we could have run through it as easily as we have done!"
+
+"Still I say it was risky."
+
+"Well, admitting that it was, what then? We can't go canoeing unless we
+are ready to take risks occasionally. If nobody is ever to take a risk,
+there ought not to be any canoes, or ships, or railroads."
+
+"That Sherbrooke postmaster isn't afraid to take risks," observed Joe.
+"If he keeps on telling canoeists that there are no rapids in this
+river, some of these days he'll have an accident with a large canoeist
+and a heavy paddle. We've run seven rapids already, and have another one
+ahead of us. If we ever get to Sherbrooke, I think it will be our duty
+to consider whether that postmaster ought to be allowed to live any
+longer."
+
+Just before sunset the fleet reached Magog Lake--a placid sheet of water
+about four miles long, with three or four houses scattered along its
+eastern shore. At one of these houses eggs, milk, butter, bread, a
+chicken, and a raspberry pie were bought, and the boys went into camp
+near the lower end of the lake. After a magnificent supper they went to
+bed rather proud of their achievements during the last day and night.
+
+The next day the canoeists started in the cool of the morning, and as
+soon as they left the lake found themselves at the head of their eighth
+rapid. All that day they paddled down the river, running rapids every
+little while, jumping overboard when their canoes ran aground and
+refused to float, and occasionally slipping on the smooth rocky bottom
+of the stream and sitting down violently in the water. Once they came to
+a dam, over which the canoes had to be lowered, and on the brink of
+which Joe slipped and slid with awful swiftness into the pool below,
+from which he escaped with no other injury than torn trousers and wet
+clothes.
+
+"That postmaster said there were no dams in the Magog, didn't he?" asked
+Joe as he prepared to get into his canoe. "Well, I hope he hasn't any
+family."
+
+"Why, what about his family?" demanded Tom.
+
+"Nothing; only I'm going to try to get him to come down the Magog in a
+canoe, so he can see what a nice run it is. I suppose his body will be
+found some time, unless the bears get at him."
+
+"That's all rubbish, Joe," said Charley. "We wouldn't have had half the
+fun we've had if there hadn't been any rapids in the river. We're none
+the worse for getting a little wet."
+
+"We might have had less fun, but then I'd have had more trousers if it
+hadn't been for that dam. I like fun as well as anybody, but I can't
+land at Sherbrooke with these trousers."
+
+"I see Sherbrooke now," exclaimed Harry; "so you'd better change your
+clothes while you have a chance."
+
+Sherbrooke was coming rapidly into sight as the fleet paddled down the
+stream, and in the course of half an hour the boys landed in the
+village, near a dam which converted the swift Magog into a lazy little
+pond. While his comrades drew the canoes out of the water and made them
+ready to be carted to the St. Francis, Harry went to engage a cart. He
+soon returned with a big wagon large enough to take two canoes at once;
+and it was not long before the fleet was resting in the shade on the
+bank of the St. Francis, and surrounded by a crowd of inquisitive men,
+boys, and girls.
+
+It was difficult to convince the men that the canoes had actually come
+from Lake Memphremagog by the river, and the boys were made very proud
+of their success in running rapids which the men declared could only be
+run in skiffs during a freshet. Without an exception all the men agreed
+that there were rapids in the St. Francis which were really impassable,
+and that it would be foolish for the boys to think of descending that
+river. After making careful inquiries, and convincing themselves that
+the men were in earnest, the canoeists retired some distance from the
+crowd and held a council.
+
+"The question is," said Harry, "shall we try the St. Francis after what
+we have heard? The youngest officer present will give his opinion first.
+What do you say, Joe?"
+
+"I think I've had rapids and dams enough," replied Joe; "and I'd rather
+try some river where we can sail. I vote against the St. Francis."
+
+"What do you say, Tom?"
+
+"I'll do anything the rest of you like; but I think we'd better give the
+St. Francis up."
+
+"Now, Charley, how do you vote?"
+
+"For going down the St. Francis. I don't believe these men know much
+about the river, or anything about canoes. Let's stick to our original
+plan."
+
+"There are two votes against the St. Francis, and one for it," said
+Harry. "I don't want to make a tie, so I'll vote with the majority.
+Boys, we won't go down the St. Francis, but we'll go to the hotel, stay
+there over Sunday, and decide where we will cruise next."
+
+"All right," said Joe, going to his canoe, and taking a paddle blade in
+his hand.
+
+"What in the world are you going to take that paddle to the hotel for?"
+asked Harry.
+
+"I'm going to see the postmaster who said there were no rapids in the
+Magog or the St. Francis; that's all," replied Joe. "I've a painful duty
+to perform, and I'm going to perform it."
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+A SISTER WORTH HAVING.
+
+BY MRS. W. J. HAYS.
+
+
+It was a bright breezy day, clear sunshine after rain, and every one was
+full of energy. All the pleasure-seekers had gone off, some riding, some
+driving, and several walking parties had been made up.
+
+Two boys on the end of the piazza were discussing a proposed excursion,
+while the sister of one, a slight, bright-eyed girl of twelve, stood
+silently listening to their plans.
+
+"We can go and take our luncheon with us just as well as not," said Tom,
+the elder of the two.
+
+"But it will be an awful climb, and you don't know the path," replied
+Stanton. "Besides, Cassie can't go so far."
+
+"Leave her at home, then; girls are no good anyway," said Tom, rudely;
+then remembering himself, he added, "I beg your pardon, Miss Cassie, I
+didn't mean exactly that, but you know girls always give out on an
+expedition of this sort."
+
+"Just you try me," said Cassie, not in the least put out, for she was
+accustomed to boys.
+
+"Well," said Tom, reluctantly, "I suppose we must. But you will be
+fagged out in less than no time, and then you'll want one of us to go
+home with you."
+
+"If I do I'll promise not to go again all summer. What are you looking
+for, Stanton?"
+
+"My axe, to blaze the trees; you don't want to be lost, do you?"
+
+"No, of course I don't. Then you will take me? Good. I'll go after the
+basket, and my pressing-book for ferns. Shall I get anything to read?"
+
+"No. Who wants to read in the woods? There's always lots to do."
+
+Cassie thought differently, and slipped a little thin volume beside the
+bread and cake and fruit which the housekeeper gave her.
+
+The boys meanwhile had whittled three fresh sticks, and attached their
+knives and drinking cups. Their object was to explore a certain fastness
+of the woods which had no road through it, and to reach a mountain-top,
+the crags of which had seemed to look with scorn upon them all summer.
+
+Tom was very much vexed that Cassie had heard their desire and shared
+it, and he was not disposed to be at all gallant. Stanton, being fond of
+his sister, was more concerned lest she should be, as he phrased it,
+"fagged out." So for a while their walk was a silent one.
+
+Cassie did not care. She was not one of the pouting sort who shrug their
+shoulders and get huffy. She knew she was strong, and she hadn't time to
+waste on little humors and moods, and then she had so much to do. There
+was her collection of butterflies, her pressed flowers and ferns, her
+acorn work and her pine cones, frames to make for her sketches, and,
+besides all this, she was crocheting "Tam o' Shanters" for the boys.
+
+Their path first led them through pasture-lands and stubble, over fences
+and stone walls. Then they plunged into the thicket, which was dense and
+brambly, and very rough every way. And now Stanton's axe became of use.
+"For you know we will want to get home again," he said, as he gave a
+vigorous cut here and there on each prominent tree, "and this is the way
+hunters always do."
+
+As he spoke he struck what appeared to be a decayed trunk, when
+instantly out flew a swarm of angry bees. A ringing laugh from his
+companions was soon followed by an ominous silence, for all found
+themselves surrounded by the disturbed insects. Cassie, thinking
+discretion the better part of valor, hurried away with her dress over
+her head, but the boys had a hard fight to get off; as it was, both were
+stung, and had to apply mud poultices. This did not increase their
+good-nature, and the sun was now adding to their discomfort.
+
+Cassie began a little song, but the way was so steep, and the rocks so
+precipitous and slippery with pine-needles and moss, that her notes died
+away for want of breath. She was getting very tired, when Stanton
+complained of hunger, and Tom espied a brook; so they all concluded to
+make a halt, and refresh themselves. After the rest and luncheon, with
+many a draught of the delicious spring water, on they again toiled; and
+now they seemed to have overcome the worst troubles of the way. The
+under-growth which had been so dense decreased; broad patches of
+huckleberry bushes offered their fruit; velvety mosses and nodding ferns
+made the way beautiful; and here and there through the trees came
+glimpses of the mountains stretching away in the blue distance. On the
+top of the crags which lay before them was an old leafless tree which
+had been scathed by lightning. Up this the boys proposed to climb, and
+fasten a little flag they had with them; so, hurrying on, they left
+Cassie to more slowly overtake them.
+
+The spot was so pretty that Cassie lingered, picking a leaf here and
+there, and listening to the soft whisper of the breeze. Suddenly a crash
+as of a falling bough arrested her attention; then a cry of alarm,
+succeeded by as sudden a silence. Hurrying forward, she found Tom
+bending over Stanton, who was lying all in a heap at the foot of the
+tree.
+
+"What is it--a fall? Is he dead?" she cried.
+
+Tom turned his white face to her, utterly speechless.
+
+"Get water--quick! But oh, look here!--he is bleeding!--he is cut!"
+
+"Yes, he fell with the axe in his hand. The limb must have been rotten;
+it gave way," said Tom at last.
+
+"But he will bleed to death, don't you see? What can we do?"
+
+"What, indeed?" muttered Tom, still with a dazed look in his eyes.
+
+The blood, warm and of a bright red, was gushing from the hand. It
+looked as if an artery had been severed. Cassie's heart sank as she saw
+Stanton white and immovable, and Tom transfixed with horror. She essayed
+to stanch the flow with her handkerchief, but it was useless. How could
+she let her darling brother die for want of help? Then a sudden
+inspiration came. She had heard of the tourniquet which surgeons use
+when amputation is necessary. She made Tom grasp Stanton's wrist, while
+she unbuttoned her cambric skirt and tore it into strips; with these she
+bandaged the boy's arm, tightening the knot by twisting a stick within
+it until there could be no longer any circulation between the hand and
+arm. Then she held it up and watched the success of her plan. Tom helped
+her as well as he could, but in a benumbed sort of way. He seemed to be
+in a dream, and the sight of the blood sickened him.
+
+"Now go for water--quick!--quick!" said Cassie, taking her brother's
+head in her lap, and gently fanning him.
+
+Tom obeyed. It seemed an age to Cassie before he returned, but her whole
+mind was absorbed in watching the wound. Already it had stopped that
+rapid flow, she was sure.
+
+And now there was a change in Stanton's face--a little quiver of the
+lips and nostrils, a sigh, a shudder, and--oh, joy!--the boy opened his
+eyes and asked, "What is the matter?--where am I?"
+
+"You have hurt yourself, dear. Lie still," whispered Cassie; "please
+keep still."
+
+"But what is this? why am I all tied up? I can't use my arm."
+
+"You have fallen, and been cut by the axe," explained Cassie, glad to
+have him conscious, but fearful lest any movement should start the
+bleeding again. "Do you think you are hurt anywhere else?"
+
+"I don't know. I guess I am only bruised."
+
+Tom now brought the two drinking cups full of water, and after his head
+was bathed, Stanton tried to get up and walk. But he was faint from loss
+of blood, and stiff and sore.
+
+"It's no use; you'll not be able to go home," said Cassie.
+
+"But what on earth will I do? I can't stay here."
+
+"We'll have to rig up an ambulance," said Tom, now a little more
+self-possessed.
+
+"You can not do that," answered Stanton, feebly, glad to again lay his
+head in his sister's lap.
+
+"Sha'n't I take you on my back?"
+
+"No; even if you were able to carry him all the long distance, he could
+not endure it. See how faint he is," Cassie whispered. "Besides, I am so
+afraid the cut may start again. Leave us both here, Tom, and go home as
+fast as you can; they will find some method for getting him back."
+
+"And let you be all alone with him perhaps half the night?
+Suppose--suppose--" He could not say the words, but his anxious glance
+at the pale face and ghastly spots of blood betrayed his fear.
+
+"It can not be helped. I see no other way."
+
+"Aren't you afraid?"
+
+Cassie smiled a little as she said: "Yes, I am. But there's no help for
+it."
+
+"Wouldn't you rather go, and have me stay?"
+
+"No, indeed; I could not leave Stanton. Only be as quick as you can, and
+tell them not to forget anything. Mother will think of everything,
+though, if you don't frighten her. Be sure and break the news gently."
+
+So Tom went off, and Cassie fanned her brother while he slept. Then she
+opened her little book and read a page or two of Longfellow. The
+afternoon stretched on its weary length; the chirp of crickets and the
+hum of insects were all that broke the stillness. Stanton moaned in his
+sleep, and the flush of fever succeeded his first pallor.
+
+The dusk came on, and stars began to twinkle. To Cassie's weary vision
+the woods became peopled with fantastic forms. She imagined she saw a
+snake glide stealthily past, and twist itself in and out the brake. A
+spider made her tremble. The hooting of an owl sent cold shivers down
+her spine; her limbs were cramped and stiff with sitting so long in one
+position; and when the men came with lanterns, blankets, brandy, and the
+village doctor, and carried Stanton to the nearest farm-house, Cassie
+was glad to throw herself in her mother's arms and have "a good cry."
+
+"That girl's presence of mind saved her brother's life," Tom heard the
+doctor say next day; and then remembering his own speech of "girls being
+no good anyway," he began to think he had made a mistake. Stanton soon
+recovered. The cut, though dangerous, readily healed, and there were no
+bones broken.
+
+Cassie did not have her surgical ability again tested, but the boys all
+avowed she was "plucky," and showed their appreciation by various gifts
+of caramels, popped corn, and green apples.
+
+As for Stanton, he had always loved Cassie, and said she was a sister
+worth having.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN AFTERNOON TEA.]
+
+
+
+
+EL BUCLE DE ESMERALDA Y ORO.
+
+BY ARTHUR LINDSLEY.
+
+
+Did you ever see a humming-bird? If you live in the country, or if you
+have been in the country during summer, very probably you may have done
+so, though in our Eastern and Middle States, and, in fact, in any part
+of the Atlantic States, they are not very abundant. Only one species,
+the ruby-throat, will you find east of the Mississippi, except that the
+Mango humming-bird comes over from Cuba into Florida, and then follows a
+little way further up the coast. But if you have ever seen one, you are
+not likely to forget it. There is no family of birds which attracts more
+attention, or which deserves more. Their size and their movements make
+them really objects of wonder. They are the smallest of all flying
+things, except insects, and in truth some of them are decidedly smaller
+than many of the large insects. And then, too, they come and go so like
+magic as always to astonish those who are not accustomed to watching
+them.
+
+You see one hovering over a flower, but you can not tell how he hovers,
+for he moves his wings so rapidly that you can not see them; there he
+hangs in the air, making all the time a low _hum_, from which he takes
+his name, and which is caused by the flapping of his wings. You are
+looking at him, and all at once he is not there; but you probably did
+not see him go, for he shot away so quickly that you failed to detect
+it, and perhaps in another second there he is again, hanging in the same
+place, over the same flower. That is what a humming-bird does, and it is
+not strange that they are counted so wonderful, especially when you add
+to it all the fact that their colors are almost always very brilliant.
+Even our own little ruby-throat, which comes so far to the north,
+flashes like a fiery coal when he brings his red throat to glance in the
+sunlight.
+
+[Illustration: HUMMING-BIRDS AND NEST.]
+
+I have said that humming-birds in general are marked with brilliant
+colors. This is strictly true; but among them all there is scarcely one
+more gorgeously elegant than the one whose picture you see here, and
+whose Spanish name I have placed at the head of this account. Perhaps
+you can not read it in Spanish, but you can in English; it means _the
+gold and emerald tuft or curl_; and when I tell you more about him, you
+will understand the reason for such a name. I do not think the name is a
+common one; perhaps it is called so only by the people who told it to
+me; but it struck me as being so beautiful, and fitting the bird so
+nicely, that I have always loved to remember it. In works on natural
+history it is called _Rhamphomicron microrhynchum_. What do you think of
+that? What a horrid long name to give to such a lovely little fellow! It
+is as long as the bird himself. I doubt if you can pronounce it. El
+Bucle (boo'-klay) de Esmeralda y Oro sounds to me like music in
+comparison with it. Shall I tell you where I first saw him?
+
+It was in a place almost as remarkable as the bird himself. The species
+is found only on the west coast of South America, and even there you do
+not see it until you reach the high valleys of the Andes.
+
+I had landed about two weeks before at Truxillo, which is a port in Peru
+a little more than three hundred miles north of Lima. Look on your map,
+and find it. You will see that it is about eight degrees south of the
+equator. The name is Spanish, and you must pronounce it Trooheel'-yo.
+Does that sound strange to you? It should not; you ought to be taught to
+pronounce it that way in school. The Spanish _x_ sounds like our letter
+_h_. Truxillo was founded by Pizarro nearly three hundred and fifty
+years ago, in 1535. But we must not stop here; we are looking for El
+Bucle.
+
+It was the third day after my leaving Truxillo, when I found myself in a
+deep valley filled with flowers, and over the first flowering bush a
+humming-bird was hovering. I saw at once not only that he was very
+beautiful, but that he was different from any one that I had seen. It
+was my custom there to keep one barrel of my gun prepared especially for
+humming-birds, that is, loaded with what is called dust-shot, thus
+enabling me to kill them without tearing their skins, as large shot
+would do. It was but a minute, and I had my new bird in my hand. The
+right-hand figure of the two in this plate represents him as I saw him
+then, excepting that here the colors are not given, but I will describe
+them to you.
+
+The top of his head and his back--his cap and mantle, so to speak--were
+of the most exquisite deep dark violet; his throat looked like polished
+gold, its long scaly feathers appearing to be gilded plates; while his
+sides and breast shone like emeralds, so bright was their green color.
+You see that his under surface was thus all emerald and gold--_esmeralda
+y oro_--only that his delicate little feet, almost too small to be seen,
+were so white as to fairly sparkle. At the same time his wings and tail
+were of a rich purplish-black. Can you imagine anything more elegant? I
+sat down to admire him, turning him over and over in my hand, and while
+I was thus engaged I heard a step, and looking up, I saw that one of the
+native girls from a house just below was coming toward me. I spoke to
+her, and after the usual salutation I asked her, "Señorita, como se
+llama este pajarito hermoso?"--"What do you call this beautiful little
+bird?"--and then she told me its name, just as I have told it to you.
+She also told me that the skins were sometimes set to wear as a brooch
+or buckle, and I did not wonder at it, so very beautiful were the
+colors.
+
+These figures are of the natural size, and you can judge for yourself
+how small he is. Even with such a long tail as he has, his entire length
+is only three and a half inches, thus making him decidedly smaller than
+our ruby-throated humming-bird. As I went on down the valley I found
+them in abundance, and I found also that in that valley scarcely any
+other species was to be seen.
+
+I was constantly watching for their nests, and before very long I saw
+one, and you have it represented here, with the two birds sitting on its
+edge. It was a very difficult matter to distinguish the nest, either
+that one or the others which I afterward saw, for they looked almost
+precisely like little knots on the bark. I found the first from seeing
+the bird sitting on it, and having learned how they look, I was able to
+find others. I climbed up to examine a number of them, and they were
+really very charmingly built. They were made of fine twigs and mosses,
+the inside being lined with the soft down from plants, while the outside
+was covered over with lichens, evidently with the intention of hiding
+the nest by causing it to look only like a knot or lump on the bark, and
+it was so neatly done as to require close search before the nest could
+be found.
+
+You have seen from what I have said, even if you have not noticed it
+yourself, that humming-birds come about flowers of various kinds
+constantly, and evidently do it for some object. Perhaps you have been
+told that they get their food from the flowers. Do you know of what that
+food consists? It was formerly always said that they sucked the honey
+from the flowers, and that the honey constituted their food, and I have
+read many accounts in which the attempt was made to show how nicely
+their bills were fitted to draw up the honey from the bottom of the
+flower. We know now that this is not so. The humming-bird has nothing to
+do with the sweet fluid in the flowers, which by-the-way is not honey,
+though it is often called so; he cares nothing for it. Then why does he
+come to the flowers, you may ask, if he is not getting something from
+them. He is getting something; he is getting his food; but that food is
+insects, and nothing but insects. The sweet fluid of the flowers
+attracts great numbers of small flies of various sorts; you can scarcely
+look into any sort of flower without finding more or less of them, and
+sometimes the flower will be almost black with them. This the
+humming-bird knows, and he thrusts in his bill, and throwing out his
+slender sticky tongue, he picks up the flies one by one and swallows
+them, and that is the way he takes his meals; but the _honey_ is nothing
+to him. The next time you see a humming-bird, watch him carefully, and
+remember what it is he is gathering.
+
+
+
+
+RACE-BALL: A NEW GAME.
+
+
+Race-ball is a highly interesting game, combining the best points of
+lacrosse and chevy. The game is played with five men on a side, each
+armed with a lacrosse bat. The sides congregate in their respective
+dens, and the captains toss for innings. Let us suppose the captain of C
+den wins the toss, the D den side then range themselves in a row on the
+line E, and the first man in on the line F, the latter having a lacrosse
+ball on his bat, and with this, directly the umpire cries "play," he
+tears off in the direction of the "Home" A, and the D side give chase,
+the object of the man in being to drop the ball in his "Home" while part
+of his foot, at least, is over the "home line"; the object of the
+others, to deprive him of the ball and take it to their den. If he get
+home, he waits till all his side get their innings, and then starts
+again; if not, he is out. Each man home counts one point, and the inning
+lasts till all are out, when the total is made up, and the other side go
+in, the highest score, of course, winning. When a man finds he can not
+get home, he may get the ball back to his den, and then wait his next
+inning, but without counting anything for his "failed inning." None of
+the in side may help the man in; one minute is given to the out side to
+get ready between each man, and three minutes between each inning. The
+usual rules as to umpires, etc., will hold good, and the man in may not
+run into his opponents' ground or out of bounds, or he is out, and if he
+unintentionally run into his own den he counts a "failed inning" as
+above.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+"BARTLETT & ARNOLD."
+
+BY A. C. H. STODDARD.
+
+
+I'm Bartlett myself--R. F., and my partner's name is Guy. Anyhow, he was
+my partner once, but he isn't now, because we've gone out of business.
+We've been acquainted ever since we were real little, and always good
+friends, except once in a while we have a tiff or something.
+
+Last summer there was going to be a big celebration at New Holland. It's
+called New Holland because our State sent over for lots of Holland
+people to come and settle, and we'd give 'em land. So they came, and we
+gave 'em farms, and their town is called New Holland, and it's twelve
+miles away from Deerville. Deerville is _our_ town.
+
+Well, the Governor was coming, and more'n a dozen brass bands, and
+militionary companies, and folks from all over everywhere. And they were
+going to make speeches and sing and eat dinner. And I and Guy we were
+talking about it under a plum-tree in the garden.
+
+"Cal Pressy says his father's going to have a shanty and sell things out
+there--gingerbread, and pies, and pea-nuts, and such. And lemonade."
+
+'Twas before this that I and Guy we wanted a good lot of money for
+something very particular. I don't mind telling you about it now, for
+'tain't likely we'll ever get it, and I'd as lieves some other boy'd
+have the chance as not.
+
+'Twas to buy a pony we wanted it, like those the circus had. The circus
+men told us that they bought their ponies of a man named David Solomon,
+who lived in a county that sounded like "Jumpup," down to Texas. And he
+had one more pony to sell for ten dollars, which was cheap, but we'd
+have to pay for him to ride on the cars.
+
+The circus man winked a good deal and laughed when we thanked him, and
+said 'twasn't any trouble at all, and he hoped we'd get the pony.
+
+So that's what we wanted the lot of money for. And as soon as Guy said
+that about Cal Pressy's father, an idea popped into my head, and I
+popped it out of my mouth:
+
+"Let's we have a shanty too."
+
+Guy stopped to think a minute.
+
+"Well, say we do," said he, when the minute was up; "if the folks'll let
+us, which maybe they won't."
+
+But I said they would; for I knew my father always likes to have me do
+business on my own hook, because he says it learns a chap to think for
+himself; and mother's bound to say "yes" if father does; and Mrs. Arnold
+always says, "Do as Mrs. Bartlett tells you"; and of course Mr. Arnold
+wouldn't fly in the faces and eyes of all three of 'em, and he's a
+little man anyway.
+
+So it turned out just the way I said this time, though they chaffed us
+some, and father and Mr. Arnold made a good deal of talk about the new
+firm. But I and Guy we didn't care.
+
+We counted up our bank money, and I had five dollars and four cents and
+Guy had three dollars and seventy-nine cents. But his father lent him
+one and a quarter to make him even partner, and Guy gave his note.
+
+So that made ten, and ten dollars'll buy quite a lot of things. And the
+women-folks they said they'd make the pies and gingerbread and cake for
+nothing, but we must buy the flour, and so forth. So we did. The
+and-so-forth cost a good deal more'n the flour.
+
+So we had six left--six dollars--and we bought candy with it, and nuts,
+and twelve lemons, and some sugar. And we divided up so's if it came to
+eating we wouldn't get more'n belonged to us. And we painted a sign with
+black paint:
+
+"BARTLETT & ARNOLD."
+
+It looked real nice. And Captain Tilley said he'd lend us his
+camping-out tent if we'd be careful of it, and we said we would.
+
+So that's all until we came to go. We went the night before with the
+express wagon and Duke, because our old Duke he's pretty slow, and we
+wanted to be there before the procession did in the morning.
+
+Well, we got to New Holland, and we were going to set up our tent
+'long-side of the Capitol--that's their meeting-house and school-house
+and town-house all in a bunch. And I and Guy we were going to set up and
+get ready to sell things, when along comes a man, and says he, big as
+life,
+
+"Got a license?"
+
+"No, sir," said we.
+
+"Then you can't sell here," said he.
+
+"Why not?" said I.
+
+"My father's name is Mr. Arnold," said Guy, redding up, "and he keeps a
+store."
+
+"I don't care ef he keeps a dozen stores," said the man.
+
+Come to find out, that man had bought the right, if that's what you call
+it, of a mile square, with the Capitol in the middle, and folks had to
+give him money or they couldn't sell there.
+
+"How much is a license?" said I.
+
+"Five dollars," said he.
+
+"Will you trust us?" said Guy, bold as brass.
+
+"No," said the man, "I won't."
+
+Well, sir, we didn't know what to do, and all that gingerbread and pies
+and things just waiting to spoil. And we stood and thought.
+
+"Let's we go half a mile back on the Deerville road," said Guy, in a
+minute, throwing up his hat, with a hooray, "and then the procession'll
+go by us, and maybe the folks'll buy something."
+
+"Good!" said I.
+
+So we found out how far half a mile was, and we went a little more, so's
+to pitch right on the top of a long hill. And we hitched old Duke out to
+grass. And after a while we laid down in the tent, and said 'twas fun.
+But I thought, for my part, I'd rather be to home.
+
+In the night I dreamed I was in swimming, and the water was awful cold.
+And pretty soon I woke up, and there I was two inches deep in water, and
+'twas raining like sixty. So I woke up Guy, and we felt round and found
+that the things to sell weren't getting wet; and then we sat down on a
+board, and the next thing I remember of 'twas morning, and the sun was
+shining, and I and Guy we laid there in the tent wet as water.
+
+So we got up and combed each other's hair with our fingers, and then we
+ate a pie between us, and then we put out our sign. It was streaked some
+because it got rained on, but you could read it close to. Then we spread
+our pies an' things out on a board, and began to roll our lemons the way
+I'd seen mother do to make the juice come out easy. We rolled 'em slow,
+and before they were all done, after a long while, we heard music, away
+off and faint, but coming nearer every minute, the big drums and little
+drums and bugles and horns all pounding and tooting away at "The
+Star-spangled Banner."
+
+Oh, it was grand! I and Guy we ran out to the road. We couldn't see the
+procession so far away, because everything was so misty after the rain;
+but we could hear it coming nearer and nearer, and we wondered if our
+folks would come first, or last, or where. It did seem as if we hadn't
+seen our mothers for a month of Sundays.
+
+So we stood and cracked our feet together once in a while and waited.
+And all of a sudden we heard a thundering racket a good deal nearer than
+the procession--a dreadful rattling and humping and thumping, and
+somebody away behind singing out "Whoa!"
+
+"It's Mr. Pressy's old roan!" yelled Guy, all on fire in a minute. "He's
+running away with the gingerbread 'n' stuff, I do believe."
+
+Then we heard a screech--a regular ear-splitter. And a girl ran out of a
+little Hollander house across the road and down a ways. And she put her
+hands over her eyes, and tumbled right on her knees, and screeched and
+screeched. And it all happened in a heap, though you have to tell it one
+to time; so about as soon as we saw Mr. Pressy's old roan and the woman
+we saw two little Hollander babies, with their yellow hair braided in
+wispy pigtails, and white dresses on, playing right square in the middle
+of the road.
+
+[Illustration: "IT WAS ALL IN A MINUTE."]
+
+It seems to me as if I looked at Guy a long, long time, and Guy looked
+at me. And I thought about my mother, and my dog Ponto, and that we
+hadn't rolled all of the lemons; and then I felt as if something gave me
+a push. And it was all in a minute, and I and Guy we ran. And Guy was a
+little first, and he grabbed the nearest one, and I grabbed the other,
+and felt the horse right over me. And I jumped sideways, and threw the
+little Hollander, and something hit me.
+
+So that's all I knew till I heard a roar in my ears that grew louder and
+louder, and pretty soon I knew 'twas folks talking, and I opened my
+eyes, and there I was in a little low room, with two funny brass
+candlesticks on the mantel-shelf; and my mother was there, and Guy, and
+Mrs. Arnold, and father, and Mr. Arnold, and Dr. Henry. They looked
+funny to me, and there was a queer smell in the room, and my head was
+tied up with a wet rag; the wet was what smelled so funny.
+
+"Hullo!" said I, first thing.
+
+"Oh, my boy!" said my mother, and then she began to cry like a good one.
+
+"Pulse is pretty well," said the doctor, feeling of my wrist.
+
+Then I looked at Guy, and Guy looked at me, and we both began to laugh.
+
+"All right," said Dr. Henry, rubbing his glasses up; "he's all right,
+Mrs. Bartlett."
+
+And so I was, only dizzy a little, and headachy where the hub of one of
+Mr. Pressy's wagon wheels had hit me.
+
+Well, when we went out of the little Hollander house, there was the
+Governor's carriage stopped right in front, only I and Guy we didn't
+know 'twas the Governor's then. And the whole procession had stopped;
+and when we went out, you never heard such a cheer as the folks gave,
+just as if we'd done something big. They swung their hats--and the
+Governor did too--and hurrahed like all possessed for "Bartlett &
+Arnold." Because, you see, that Hollander woman she told the
+Commissioner what the fuss was all about, and he got up on a wagon and
+told it in English to the crowd, and the ones that could hear told the
+ones that couldn't, and my mother said when it came to her she thought
+she must faint. But she didn't; she wouldn't be so foolish.
+
+So the folks cheered, and laughed a little, when they looked at our
+sign. And something swelled up big and hard in my throat, till I almost
+cried; but not because I was sorry. Guy almost did too. And my mother
+kept tight hold of my hand, and choked, and said:
+
+"Now you'll come with me, Roy; I can't leave you here again."
+
+Mrs. Arnold said so too. But I and Guy we said we'd got to sell our
+things, because we couldn't afford to lose ten dollars, could we? And
+there was the pony, too.
+
+So we went over to the tent, and our mothers with us. And it seems as if
+everybody understood, for they came in and bought things until we had
+more than fifteen dollars, and not a gingerbread or anything left.
+
+So then we said we'd go. And I suppose you won't believe that the
+Governor sung out "let the little young gentlemen ride with me, if you
+please, madam."
+
+So we did; we rode with the Governor. And he talked to us, and looked
+just the same as other folks, only not so handsome as some. We sat side
+of him at dinner, too, because he said for us to; and after dinner some
+of the folks put us in their speeches. And I hope we didn't feel too
+stuck up about it, though my father he said 'twas enough to turn any
+boy's head.
+
+So we made something out of it after all; and Guy said, what a good
+thing it was we didn't have a license, and had to go back just to where
+the babies would be in the road, or else they'd have been run over. And
+most all of Mr. Pressy's gingerbread and things bounced out along the
+way, so he didn't have much to sell; but he whipped the horse to pay for
+it. And that man that wouldn't let us have any license stood around all
+day and looked as if he thought somebody ought to give him a dollar. And
+we is satisfied, I and Guy are, because we made quite a lot besides what
+we ate, and the babies didn't get run over to boot. But don't you
+believe that the Hollander woman shook the two poor little chaps up like
+a breeze because they got their frocks muddy. That's what the folks
+said, anyhow, and it's just like what some women would do, _I_ think.
+
+'Tisn't likely we'll ever get the pony the way I said at first, because
+the circus man didn't tell us the town where Mr. David Solomon lives,
+and we don't know. And I don't know as I ought to tell this story,
+because it's about myself so much; but maybe you needn't print my name
+to it, and then folks won't know it's me.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Six little goslings without any shoes,
+  But to make them the shoemaker has to refuse;
+  For he has no last that will fit their queer feet,
+  And in great disappointment they'll have to retreat.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  And now, Baby Curlyhead, what shall we do
+  With six little goslings without any shoe?
+  We take their soft down to make Baby a bed
+  On which he can pillow his soft little head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  It's very naughty of the bees
+  My little boy to scare and tease,
+  And eat his bread and honey up;
+  They can breakfast out of a buttercup.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  See the jolly, jolly baker,
+    He who makes the cakes so nice;
+  How he kneads them, kneads them, kneads them,
+    Out of sugar, flour, and spice.
+  To the oven then he takes them,
+  In the great hot oven bakes them,
+  Thinking all the time, it may be,
+  Of my cunning little baby,
+  Who will eat the sugar-cakes
+  That the jolly baker makes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Awake, awake, my baby,
+    The morning sun is up
+  And waiting for my baby
+    To find a buttercup.
+  Buttercups and daisies
+    Are growing all around,
+  And here are baby's little shoes
+    To caper o'er the ground.
+  Soon he'll bring me pretty flowers
+  Gathered in the morning hours.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+KISSING THROUGH THE GATE.
+
+
+  Golden-rod and asters;
+    Pears and purple grapes,
+  Just the prettiest colors,
+    And the finest shapes.
+
+  Through the dear old orchard,
+    Down the dear old lane,
+  After fruit and flowers
+    They will go with Jane.
+
+  First, a kiss from Kittie
+    Through the meadow gate.
+  "Hurry, sister Elsie,
+    We will be too late."
+
+  This from Master Freddie,
+    Who would hate to miss
+  Golden pears and apples
+    Just to get a kiss.
+
+  Do not fear, the flowers
+    And the fruit will wait
+  Till a little maiden
+    Kisses through the gate.
+
+
+
+
+OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.
+
+
+  "WOODLAWN," JENKINTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     DEAR YOUNG FOLKS,--You have read so often in your charming paper of
+     the wonderful intelligence and strange fancies of animals that I am
+     tempted to write you of a "Happy Family" in which we are all
+     greatly interested.
+
+     About four weeks ago I went down to the stable and found a mother
+     cat and three little ones on a bed of straw in a half-hogshead. A
+     few days later another cat had three snowy little kittens in the
+     same place. They were the prettiest creatures you ever saw, and the
+     happy mammas seemed to enjoy my admiration of their babies.
+
+     The next morning, on visiting my pets, the cats were away, and to
+     my astonishment I found a speckled hen sitting on four of the
+     kittens. I drove her off, but she went most unwillingly. The next
+     day she was there again, and the next, but two of the kittens had
+     been carried out on the floor, and as I was afraid the cats would
+     hide them, I removed the two families, putting them on some straw
+     behind their former home. In a few moments the hen found them, and
+     has never left them day or night except for her food. The little
+     ones are growing finely; they creep under and around her, play with
+     her feathers, and do the funniest things imaginable, all of which I
+     am sure she enjoys.
+
+     It is a strange and beautiful sight--the two mothers, the six
+     babies, and the demure old hen making herself as large as possible,
+     often spreading her wings to accommodate one of the old cats.
+
+     A friend said to me, "I wish you would write this out for
+     publication, but I fear you will not be believed; I should have
+     doubted the story myself." So I have written a mere outline of the
+     pretty scenes enacted down in the stable entry of my country house;
+     no day has repeated itself, and as I write, the foster-mother,
+     nurse, friend of the family, or whatever she may be called, is
+     faithfully brooding over her charge, crooning low, as if to a brood
+     of little sleepy chicks.
+
+     I wonder how all this will end? When the children go out into the
+     world to seek their fortunes, will their devoted nurse stay with
+     the "old folks"? I know not. But this I know: that the fate of
+     barn-yard fowls shall not be hers. She shall be marked with our
+     approval, and shall live out all her days in her own way, and
+     according to her "own sweet will."
+
+     Hoping I have won your interest in my little family, I am very
+     truly yours,
+
+  F. T. C.
+
+The Postmistress thanks you in behalf of all the children for this very
+entertaining account of your pets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  PARIS, FRANCE.
+
+     My auntie, living in Washington, sends YOUNG PEOPLE to me. I like
+     it very much. I can hardly wait a week for it to come, because the
+     continued stories all leave off in such interesting places. All the
+     little boys and girls who write letters tell about their pets. I
+     have not any. I have neither brother nor sister. I am eleven years
+     old. I go to a French college, where there are twelve hundred boys.
+     It is a government school, and we wear a uniform. Blue pantaloons
+     with red stripes up the side, a jacket and vest with brass buttons,
+     and a little cap trimmed with gold tape. The name of my school is
+     College Rollin. Each boy has his own room. We go to bed at eight
+     o'clock, and get up at six. Papa comes for me Saturday evening at
+     seven o'clock. I spend Sunday at home, and return to the college at
+     nine in the evening.
+
+     I am taking my vacation now. I went with my uncle to the sea-shore
+     at Dieppe. There is a very old fort there, and also old churches
+     about falling to pieces. I went to Dinan, and saw a large
+     fortification. I went to St. Malo, and then to Granville. Both of
+     these places are on the sea-shore, and both have old forts and
+     churches which interest visitors. I gathered some pretty shells and
+     pebbles. I had a very nice time playing in the sand. I also went to
+     the Isle of Jersey, which belongs to England. We went to take a
+     drive, and I saw some large caves.
+
+     I am now staying in the country by the side of a little lake, and
+     in about five minutes' walk you are in the woods. I have a little
+     boat in which I sail on the lake. I have a friend who has a donkey.
+     I go nearly every day to ride with him.
+
+     This is the first letter I have written to YOUNG PEOPLE. I hope it
+     is not too long to be published. My auntie is very much interested
+     in the Post-office Box.
+
+  HARRY J. B.
+
+Your letter pleased me very much, Harry, for it was almost as easy to
+read as print, so very carefully had you formed each character. Your
+uniform is a very pretty one. I hope all the boys who wear it behave
+always like little gentlemen. I am glad you had so pleasant a vacation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BEECHLAND, KENTUCKY.
+
+     I have been wishing to write to you for some time, but as my oldest
+     brother had written, mamma said it would be better for me to wait
+     awhile. Friday was my birthday; I was seven years old. Brother is
+     almost nine, and we have a fat little brother just five. Our baby
+     sister is almost two years old, and she is so cute and sweet! We
+     all like the paper very much indeed, and think the pictures
+     beautiful. We have an aunt eight years old, two little cousins, and
+     brother Willie and myself who take it, so we have a nice time
+     talking about the pieces when we are all together. Our papa has a
+     new hay-press. We love to watch them bale the hay. I think we boys
+     who live in the country have fine times, there is so much to see
+     and to do, and we have so much nice fruit. Mamma says it would be
+     better to live in the city in winter, so that we could go to
+     school. As it is, she teaches us at home. There are so many of us
+     to play together that we do not care much for pets. Our dog Tip is
+     one year old now. He was named for Tip in YOUNG PEOPLE. He is a
+     real smart dog, although he is so small. He wants to go with us
+     wherever we go, but mamma wants him to stay at home, so now
+     whenever the "Jersey" is hitched up he hides himself under the back
+     seat so that we will not notice him. We have a great many things I
+     would love to tell you about, but I have not time now. My little
+     brother Charlie will want to write before long.
+
+  LUDDIE M. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.
+
+     I am a little girl eleven years old, and have taken HARPER'S YOUNG
+     PEOPLE from the first number. I am just recovering from a severe
+     attack of diphtheria, which has left me with both limbs paralyzed.
+     I have a little sister five years old, and her name is Mamie. We
+     have no pets except a little canary-bird whose name is Dickey; he
+     is the sweetest little fellow you ever saw. If you wake him up in
+     the night he will get very angry, and spread out his wings, and
+     open his mouth wide at you. Has the dear Postmistress ever read the
+     "Elsie Series"? I have, and think they are very interesting.
+     Good-by, dear YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+  JESSIE S.
+
+I hope, dear Jessie, that you will in time recover your strength, and be
+able to walk again. I hope that YOUNG PEOPLE helps to amuse you and pass
+the time that might be weary without it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND.
+
+     I am ten years old, and have taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE ever since
+     the first number came out. I have every one except No. 142, and
+     that papa left in the ferry-boat. In winter we live in Brooklyn,
+     but in summer we come to my grandpa's farm. It is very pleasant
+     here; it is thirty-six miles from Brooklyn. I have two sisters and
+     one brother, all younger than myself. One of my sisters is a baby,
+     and I am her godmother. She is so cunning! We had four squirrels,
+     but my brother's and baby sister's died, and I gave mine to
+     brother, so that I have no pets now. We have four cats. The largest
+     one is Solomon Isaac Moses Levy Marcus Antonio, the next is Lizzie,
+     the next is Fannie Smith, and the fourth is Jumbo Peter.
+
+  AIMEE H.
+
+Did you not have a headache, dear, after giving Puss No. 1 that
+remarkable name? I hope you do not forget to set every day the very best
+example you can to the little one whose godmother you are.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  HOOD RIVER, OREGON.
+
+     I have never seen a letter in the Post-office Box from this place,
+     so I thought I would write. I have taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
+     since November, and like to read it very much. We are spending our
+     vacation here, but our home is in Portland, Oregon. We are only
+     about fifteen miles from Mount Hood, and we can also see Mount
+     Adams very plainly from here. Most of our trees are pine, but there
+     are a great many oaks too. We have lots of fun swinging on their
+     long branches. My brother and another man killed a rattlesnake with
+     six rattles the other day. We eat out-of-doors, in a dining-room
+     made of small pine-trees and boughs. We have a horse whose name is
+     Silly. There are five girls in our family and two boys. My baby
+     brother is three months old, and we think he is the dearest baby in
+     the world. He laughs right out loud sometimes. I have been trying
+     to learn something else besides what I find in my books at school,
+     but all that I have yet learned to do well is to darn stockings and
+     make biscuits.
+
+  DORA D. E.
+
+If you can make good biscuits, light and sweet, and darn stockings well,
+you are quite a little housekeeper already.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  GALLIPOLIS, OHIO.
+
+     I have not been taking YOUNG PEOPLE very long. But my father bought
+     a few copies when he was at Richmond, Virginia, about two or three
+     months ago, and I liked them so much that he gave me a subscription
+     for a birthday present. I have not many pets, but my grandmother,
+     who lives next door to us, has a fountain about eighteen feet
+     round, and she has some gold-fish. They are the largest that were
+     ever seen in this city. They are about ten or twelve inches long,
+     and they will jump out of the water for something to eat if you
+     hold it in your fingers. They have two little ones, which appeared
+     in the spring. At first they were quite dark, very nearly black,
+     and then they turned a pale yellow on their sides, and finally
+     became a golden color. The four fish came all the way from
+     Cincinnati in a quart bucket, and now you could not get one of them
+     into a bucket so small. They lived all through the cold winter, and
+     many and many a morning the thermometer was down below zero, and
+     the fountain was frozen over. They would not eat our food through
+     the winter, and they must have lived on insects or on air.
+
+  EDWARD S. A., JUN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SILVERTON, COLORADO.
+
+     As I have not seen a letter from the Gem of the Rockies, as our
+     pretty town is called, I thought I would write one. While I am
+     writing, it is snowing quite hard, this last day of August. When I
+     got up this morning, as soon as the fog had disappeared, the
+     mountains looked beautiful. I have a nice pair of snow-shoes all
+     ready for winter. It is great fun snow-shoeing for my sister and I.
+     I have a big sister, who is helping me to make clothes for my doll.
+     Her name is Saidie. I am a little girl eleven years old. I am
+     always so delighted when I see papa coming home with my HARPER'S.
+     Much love to the dear Postmistress.
+
+  FLORENCE F.
+
+Snow in August, Florence! No wonder you need snow-shoes for winter at
+that rate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  The apples, O! the apples, O!
+    See they come tumbling
+          Down below.
+  Climb the ladder,
+    And shake the tree!
+  One for baby,
+    And one for me,
+  And one for Dick,
+    Who climbs the tree
+  And shakes the apples,
+    And that makes three.
+
+  The apples, O! the apples, O!
+    Into the basket
+          See them go.
+  Pippins and Baldwins
+    All in a row;
+  One for baby,
+    And one for me,
+  And one for Dick,
+    Who climbs the tree
+  And shakes the apples,
+    And that makes three.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HOW THEY MAKE INDIGO.
+
+BY A. E. T.
+
+There are some amusing features connected with the process of making the
+very useful article we call indigo. You all know that it is a plant. The
+leaves, which are green, are first placed under heavy pressure, and then
+steeped from ten to fifteen hours in immense vats, so large that they
+contain 2000 cubic feet of water. In very hot weather this water swells
+until the surface becomes a frothing liquid, and should a match be
+applied, it would cause a loud report, and the flames would leap from
+vat to vat, like the will-o'-wisp flitting over marshes. These vats are
+filled from immense reservoirs, into which the water has been previously
+pumped. They have a time-keeper, who is called "gunta-paree"; he watches
+the process closely, and at the proper moment lets the steeped liquor
+run into another vessel, called the beating vat. And now comes the
+funniest part of it. They put a gang of coolies into the vats, each one
+having a long stick with a disk at the end. The coolies immediately
+plant themselves in two rows, facing each other; then they commence
+throwing up the liquor, which, meeting in mid-air, the two jets fall
+confusedly together. This they continue until the excitement grows
+intense. Such a screeching and yelling, with splashing of water and
+beating of sticks, until their naked bodies fairly glisten with the blue
+liquor. Oh, how they twist and contort themselves, until they look like
+imps or queer blue demons!
+
+To see eight or ten vats full of these frightful creatures will unnerve
+a stranger, but to the planter it is a pleasant sight. As the blue
+deepens the coolie's exertions increase. Every muscle is strained, his
+head is thrown back, his chest expanded, and his long black hair drips
+with the white foam, still he keeps up the measured beat, and his cries
+pierce the morning air. Such scenes as I have described continue for
+about three hours, after which the coolies are exhausted, and require
+rest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although the following curious puzzle, kindly sent by our correspondent
+E. L. W., is not new, it may amuse many of our little readers who have
+never seen it before. Those who are successful in discovering the
+answers will have their names included among the solvers of puzzles in
+No. 154:
+
+BISHOP OF OXFORD'S PUZZLE.
+
+  I have a trunk with--
+   1. Two lids.
+   2. Two caps.
+   3. Two musical instruments.
+   4. Two established measures.
+   5. A great number of things a carpenter can not dispense with.
+   6. I have always about me a couple of good fish.
+   7. A great number of smaller ones.
+   8. Two lofty trees.
+   9. Fine flowers.
+  10. The fruit of an indigenous plant.
+  11. Two playful animals.
+  12. A number of smaller and less tame breed.
+  13. A fine stag.
+  14. A great number of whips without handles.
+  15. Some weapons of warfare.
+  16. A number of weather-cocks.
+  17. The steps of a hotel.
+  18. The House of Commons on the eve of a division.
+  19. Two students, and a number of Spanish grandees to wait upon them.
+  20. A wooden box.
+  21. Two fine buildings.
+  22. The product of a camphor and caoutchouc tree.
+  23. Two beautiful phenomena.
+  24. A piece of money.
+  25. An article used by Titian.
+  26. A kind of boat in which balls are held.
+  27. An article used crossing rivers.
+  28. A fine pair of blades without handles.
+  20. Part of a carpenter's implement.
+  30. A letter finished off with bows.
+  31. Secure fastenings for the whole.
+  All these are in the human body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Exchangers are requested to state definitely what they wish, as well as
+what they have to exchange. Do not say that you have certain articles
+for "offers," but name the things you prefer to receive, whether coins,
+books, stamps, or curiosities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C. Y. P. R. U.
+
+Many of the boys and girls who read this column have derived a great
+deal of pleasure and profit too from the stories and histories of Jacob
+Abbott. His "Rollo Books" and "Franconia Stories" contain a great deal
+of information about every-day things, and his graver works are as
+entertaining as stories, so that any C. Y. who wishes to be both amused
+and instructed is always perfectly safe in choosing from the library a
+volume by Jacob Abbott.
+
+I wanted, however, to tell you of something else about this good man
+which may give you a helpful hint this autumn, when you have play to
+manage as well as work. Even in the best-behaved and happiest group of
+young people, little quarrels arise if each wants his or her own way,
+and if there is no rule by which to decide questions of whose right or
+whose turn it is. Mr. Abbott loved children so dearly that he took a
+great deal of trouble to give them a really good time when they were
+visiting him. His biographer says: "His summers were enlivened always by
+the visits of the families of one or more of his sons, the grandchildren
+filling the house with their welcome noise, and his heart and life with
+the pleasure of doing more good than ever."
+
+He took an interest in everything they did, and in all their plays. In
+one room there was a large boat-swing, and that there might never be any
+contention with regard to its use, he wrote in a bold hand on a large
+sheet of paper and posted up the following:
+
+GENERAL ORDER.
+
+     This rocking-boat was made for girls; girls, accordingly, have
+     preference over boys in the use of it. Whenever, therefore, any
+     girls come into the swing-room, any boys that may be in the boat
+     must leave it at once, to give the girls the opportunity to occupy
+     it. If they do not occupy it, the boys may return; if, on the other
+     hand, they do occupy it, no boy must get into it or touch it,
+     except by invitation from the oldest girl in the boat, who is the
+     queen; and while they remain in the boat, or by the side of it,
+     they must be entirely under the direction of the queen or her
+     delegates. It is supposed that every gentlemanly boy will readily
+     and cordially comply with this rule; but should there be any
+     infraction of it, the case is to be immediately reported at
+     headquarters.
+
+The later years of Mr. Abbott's life were spent at Farmington, Maine.
+Here, at his pleasant home called Fewacres, many things were arranged
+for the enjoyment of the young. His tools for gardening were always kept
+in complete order, and he made a number of curious little play-wagons to
+lighten the labor of bringing in wood. When these were not in use they
+were lent to the village children, who were made quite welcome to the
+pretty grounds.
+
+The walks and avenues at Fewacres had names given them by their owner in
+memory of happy days spent there by himself and friends. "The Great
+Terrace," "The Zigzag," "The Long Level," "The Coos Road," "Little Mite
+o' Blue," "The Fan Elm," "Willie's Seat," "The Picnic Ground," and "The
+Barberry Hedge" were some of these.
+
+When Mr. Abbott had finished reading his weekly illustrated papers, they
+were carefully stitched into strong brown paper covers, and passed from
+hand to hand among his humbler neighbors or the men who worked for him.
+His principle through life was to make everybody near him as happy as he
+possibly could.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We would call the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. to "The Story of a
+Great Mammoth," as told by Elizabeth Abercrombie, and to Mr. Arthur
+Lindsley's account of the ways and habits of that charming little
+inhabitant of the bird-world so fancifully called "El Bucle de Esmeralda
+y Oro."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+No. 1.
+
+ENIGMA.
+
+  My first is in Thames, but not in Rhine.
+  My second in Po, but not in Tyne.
+  My third is in Hebrew, but not in Greek.
+  My fourth is in river, but not in creek.
+  My fifth is in think, but not in thought.
+  My sixth is in expect, but not in sought.
+  My whole is a puzzle most profound;
+  In fable and story quite renowned.
+
+  WALTER W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+PROGRESSIVE HALE-SQUARE.
+
+1. A letter. 2. Father. 3. Part of a gun. 4. To palpitate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 3.
+
+HIDDEN RIVERS.
+
+1. Fred is to have a pony. 2. Is Pettengil a good fellow? 3. I know of
+one use for slates. 4. I say a zoology class will be nice. 5. Is this
+sweeter honey than yours? 6. I do not know. 7. This heat will crack
+Etta's vase. 8. See the sheep, Ollie. 9. Go range the forests wide. 10.
+We have had unanimity to-day. 11. He always uses whole nails. 12. O
+Bill, return quickly. 13. You should see the mob I left. 14. I am not in
+a mood for it. 15. John could win a race. 16. I went, but lo! I return.
+17. I sent Seth Ames to tell you. 18. That is my pet choral. 19. I'll
+see that I berate him well. 20. He is both obedient and industrious. 21.
+The garden's made I rather think. 22. How can you rally your forces? 23.
+How can I let Margaret go? 24. What quantities of lint and dust! 25. Is
+Adelbert coming home? 26. I should call that flinty, shouldn't you?
+
+  W. L. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 4.
+
+NUMERICAL ENIGMA.
+
+  I am composed of 10 letters.
+  My 1, 5, 6 is warm.
+  My 7, 5, 9, 10 is used on a ship.
+  My 3, 8, 6 is a chance.
+  My 9, 5, 6 is a cooking utensil.
+  My 9, 8, 7, 6 is a harbor.
+  My 1, 5, 9, 2 is a quality.
+  My 6, 7, 4, 9 is to stumble.
+  My 3, 10, 9, 2, 7 is a dreadfully afflicted person.
+  My 1, 8, 9 is to leap.
+  My whole is a beautiful flower.
+
+  S. K. M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 147.
+
+No. 1.
+
+  N I G H T    F I F E
+  I D L E R    I D O L
+  G L A D E    F O I L
+  H E D G E    E L L A
+  T R E E S
+
+  O G R E    W I N D
+  G H I N    I D E A
+  R I N D    N E A R
+  E N D S    D A R E
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+  W  or  M
+  A lkal I
+  T  el  L
+  E  the L
+  R  at  S
+
+No. 3.
+
+      P            G
+    L E A        A R E
+  P E A C H    G R E E N
+    A C E        E E L
+      H            N
+
+      I            I            V
+    I N N        A D D        L E T
+  I N C U R    I D I O M    V E N U S
+    N U T        D O T        T U B
+      R            M            S
+
+No. 4.
+
+Light-house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The answer to the Rebus on page 704 of No. 148 is "Which is the tallest
+of these six boys in pairs?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Correct answers to puzzles have been received from William Chester,
+Mamie and Mattie Knox, Arthur Payson, Tom Fales, "Eureka," Harry
+Johnston, Emma Shaffer, "Jer Z. Man," Fay, Helen M., Flo. Hanington,
+Mary Hanington, Charlie Schilling, "Hoppergrass," Edith Wilcox, Augusta
+Low Parke, "Old Putnam's Pet," Tucker Ward, Frank Best, L. F. C. P.,
+Mark Hamilton, Edith Cragg, Bertie Cook, "Ed. U. Cation," and Frank
+Lomas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[_For Exchanges, see 2d and 3d pages of cover._]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OLD NIPPER AND THE COBBLER.
+
+BY RUTH LAMB.
+
+Old Nipper was, for a time, my grandfather's dog, an accomplished
+mastiff, and rather too good a watch-dog, for he sometimes got his owner
+into trouble. Leave him in the house with the injunction, "Look out,
+Nipper, and don't stir," and the dwelling was as safe as if guarded by a
+detachment of policemen.
+
+One individual was so ill advised as to persist in entering the house
+when Nipper objected, and he recrossed the threshold minus a large piece
+of garment and a smaller piece of leg. This affair resulted in so much
+unpleasantness that there were serious deliberations as to what must be
+done with Nipper. He was evidently too good a watch-dog for a town
+residence, but would be invaluable at a certain lone farm-house
+inhabited by a friend who knew his good qualities. In time Nipper grew
+reconciled to the change, and attached to his new owner's family.
+
+In my grandfather's time there were many simple domestic institutions
+which are now things of the past. Amongst these were itinerant
+cobblers--not shoe-makers, but shoe-menders--who used to travel from
+place to place with their tools on their backs.
+
+Some little time after Nipper was settled in his country home, old Isaac
+Firth, an itinerant cobbler known to all the country-side, made his
+appearance at the kitchen door of the farm. The dog was sole
+housekeeper, and was stretched full length just within the threshold.
+
+Nipper and Isaac Firth were old acquaintances, so the old dog welcomed
+the cobbler with a wag of his tail, and permitted him to enter. The day
+was warm. A walk of half a dozen miles in the hot sun had disposed Isaac
+for a rest; so he unstrapped his kit and sat down, expecting to see the
+mistress or a servant at any minute.
+
+But time passed on, and Isaac, being thirsty as well as tired, looked
+round for something drinkable. He took up a mug, and was going to the
+pump for some water, when an ominous growl from Nipper compelled him to
+put down the article.
+
+"So I mustn't touch anything left in your care, old fellow," said he.
+"All right. This is my own, anyway, and I may as well go on to another
+place and be earning something in the mean while." Thus saying, he
+strapped up his kit of tools, and was about to lift it to his back, when
+Nipper gave another low growl, and looked so dangerous that he was fain
+to desist. Nipper's look had become a glare. It was contrary to that
+worthy animal's principles to allow anything to be taken _out_ of the
+house so long as he guarded it. You might bring _in_ what you liked, but
+once across the threshold, it must stay, and you too, until the return
+of the domestic authorities.
+
+Isaac tried patting, soft words, all the blandishments he could think
+of, which were kindly received. But a movement toward the kit, and all
+was changed.
+
+How stout Mr. Hatton laughed when he returned and found the cobbler
+afraid to stir, and Nipper on guard! He patted the old dog, declared he
+would not part with him for his weight in gold, and then he made up to
+old Isaac by immediate hospitality for the long two hours of dreary
+waiting.
+
+The cobbler always enjoyed telling the story, though it was against
+himself, and often had to answer inquiries about Nipper's health.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GREAT PEACH PUZZLE.[3]
+
+[3] From _New Games for Parlor and Lawn_. By GEORGE B. BARTLETT. New
+York: Harper & Brothers. (_In Press._)
+
+Jack, Tom, and Ned sold peaches on the same day at precisely the same
+rate, and each received the same amount of money; but Tom sold three
+times and Ned five times as many as Jack. The reason of this was that
+peaches rose immensely in the course of the day, and Jack had kept the
+larger portion of his until the afternoon. As each boy sold at the same
+morning and afternoon market values, the puzzle is to find out what
+those rates were, how much money each boy received, and how many peaches
+each boy sold.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: "LOOK OUT FOR THE CARS!"]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's Young People, September 19,
+1882, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59628 ***