Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, February 1, 1881, by Various
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Title: Harper's Young People, February 1, 1881
An Illustrated Weekly
Author: Various
Release Date: January 25, 2014 [EBook #44753]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, FEB 1, 1881 ***
Produced by Annie R. McGuire
[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]
* * * * *
VOL. II.--NO. 66. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.
Tuesday, February 1, 1881. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
KITTY'S FIRST PIE.
Baked in a patty-pan,
Flaky and light,
Done to a turn,
And seasoned just right,
By a recipe taken
From mother's big book,
And some words of advice
Thrown in by the cook,
Is Kitty's first pie.
She made it herself,
Did little Miss Kit,
Without the least help,
Not one tiny bit.
But in eating it she'll have
Assistance enough;
For there's Bertha her sister,
And little dog Buff,
And dear Mrs. Purr
(Who's a cat, as you know),
And all the sweet dolls
Sitting up in a row,
Each waiting her turn
For a piece of the pie;
And all the young people
Besides you and I
Would, if asked, take a bit
Of Kitty's first pie.
Of course 'twill go round,
For it's round as a wheel,
Though I doubt if for all
It would make a full meal.
But I'm sure there's enough
For each one to taste,
And pass an opinion
On the mince and the paste
Of Kitty's first pie.
HAKON AND RAGON.
A TRUE INCIDENT OF THE ORCADES.
BY LILLIE E. BARR.
Oh, how the wild north winds stormed loud in the Pentland Firth,
Beating the shores of the Orcades Isles, all white with foam!
Oh, 'mid the shuddering cold and frost, was life aught worth?
Yes, for they saw through the blackness the lights of Home.
Hakon and Ragon alone were left of the gallant crew
That had sailed to the arctic seas more than a year ago.
Some had perished of hunger, and some where great winds blew:
Only they two on the ship, sinking so surely below.
But when the morning dawned, and the ship broke slowly apart,
They saw men launching the life-boat. Ah, would it come too late!
Naught was left but a three-foot spar. Each saw, with a sinking heart,
It would keep but one afloat. Then Hakon said, sadly: "My mate,
"Thou hast a wife and lasses and lads, and I am only one.
Good-by! I'll give thee a chance, Ragon. God bless thee, mate!
Good-by!"
And down he sank with a smiling face, his duty bravely done.
Little he cared for fame: he'd found a noble way to die.
Then, when the tide beat inland, and Hakon came to his place,
All the little Orcades town brought back the hero's clay,
And bore him to Ragon's cottage with loving tears and grace.
Many were there to weep for him, many were there to pray.
The dominie kissed his brave cold hand, and said, "Hakon, well done!
Mothers, I bid you tell your sons how Hakon lived and died.
Nay, do not weep; this sailor boy a noble crown has won:
He rests in God, and in our hearts his memory shall abide."
And in that "Court of Peace" that lies in Stromness old and gray
There is a spot where, spite of cold, the long green grasses wave,
Where youths and maidens wander, and little children play.
Ask them its charm, they'll answer you, "Why, this is Hakon's grave!"
THE RAISING OF THE OBELISK.
BY E. MASON.
It was a beautiful day, and ever since early morning people had been
pouring into the great square in front of St. Peter's, at Rome, and now
at noon the square was filled with a silent crowd, the neighboring
balconies with groups, silent too, and all gazing intently in the same
direction. Not at the Pope, who, in his robes, and attended by his
suite, was conspicuous in one of the balconies, nor at the strange sight
at the four corners of the square--four empty gibbets which rose
threateningly against the blue sky--but at the centre, where were a
number of workmen, with machinery, grouped about the obelisk.
This huge mass of stone had hitherto defied all efforts made by
different architects to raise it to its pedestal; many lives had been
lost in the attempts, much money and time wasted; and the Pope had at
last declared that the next architect who should volunteer for the task
would, if unsuccessful, be severely punished. There was one, however,
Fontana, who felt confident that he could raise the obelisk, and well
knew, if he did succeed, he should have an assured career before him;
so, carefully making his preparations, he applied to the Pope for
permission, only stipulating that, in order to insure success, there
must be perfect quiet during the operation. This was why the gibbets
stood at the corners, the Pope having officially announced that, as
unbroken stillness must be preserved, and the workmen not disturbed by
cries or acclamations from the excited spectators, any one who made a
noise or spoke during the time set apart for the raising should be
hanged; and with this wholesome terror before their eyes, it was
believed the crowd would not be tempted to disobey the order.
All were intent on the one thing, and watched anxiously the workmen, as
cautiously they heaved the ropes, and slowly the mighty obelisk began to
move, then gradually to assume a more erect position, and finally hung
suspended in mid-air, needing but one more effort, when it would stand
on its pedestal, its lofty spire pointing heavenward.
But, alas! the strained, overwrought ropes seemed able to bear no more;
already tense with the enormous weight, they were slowly beginning to
separate. It was a moment of breathless suspense; the mighty crowd stood
motionless, scarce daring to breathe, so great was their anxiety; and
the wretched Fontana, foreseeing the overthrow of all his hopes of fame
and wealth, and his destruction in the downfall, now imminent, of the
ponderous column, in his despair hid his face in his hands. Suddenly a
voice broke the death-like silence. It uttered but one word--"Aqua"
(water); but no word ever sounded sweeter or brought more hope than did
that to Fontana, whose energy revived. With a gesture he pointed to the
fountains in the square, and the crowd aiding the workmen, they dashed
the water over the smoking, quivering ropes; the final haul was given,
and the obelisk stood firm and straight on its pedestal.
One long, heart-felt acclamation broke from the throng, and the lately
wretched Fontana saw himself in one brief moment rescued from the depths
of despair. The acclamations ceased, and the Pope, commanding silence,
ordered the workman who had disobeyed the decree of silence to be
brought before him, and asked what reason he had to give why the
forewarned punishment should not be executed upon him. The poor fellow
pleaded the benefit which the pronouncing of the one word had caused,
and the Pope not only graciously admitted the plea, but bade him ask any
favor, and it should be granted.
With humility, the workman asked only for the privilege of selling palms
on Palm-Sunday in the great square of St. Peter's; and if we only knew
his name, which unfortunately was not thought worthy of being recorded,
we could tell, when in Rome on Palm-Sunday, if his descendants still
enjoy the grant given by the Pope.
[Begun in No. 58 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, December 7.]
TOBY TYLER;
OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS.
BY JAMES OTIS.
CHAPTER VIII.
CAPTURE OF THE MONKEYS.
The boy tried to rise to his feet, but his head whirled so, and he felt
so dizzy and sick from the effects of his fall, that he was obliged to
sit down again until he should feel able to stand. Meanwhile the crowd
around the wagon paid no attention to him, and he lay there quietly
enough, until he heard the hateful voice of Mr. Lord, asking if his boy
was hurt.
The sound of this voice affected Toby very much as the chills and fever
affect any one, and he shook so with fear, and his heart beat so loudly,
that he thought Mr. Lord must know where he was by the sound. Seeing
that his employer did not come directly toward him, the thought flashed
upon his mind that now would be a good chance for him to run away, and
he acted upon it at once. He rolled himself over in the mud until he
reached a low growth of fir-trees that skirted the road, and when once
he was beneath their friendly shade, he arose to his feet, and walked
swiftly toward the woods, following the same direction that the monkeys
had taken.
He no longer felt dizzy and sick; the fear of Mr. Lord had taken all
that from him, and made him as strong as he ever was in his life.
He had walked rapidly for some distance, and was nearly beyond the sound
of the voices in the road, when he was startled by seeing quite a
procession of men emerge from the trees, coming directly toward him.
He could not understand the meaning of this strange company, and it
frightened him so that he attempted to hide behind a tree, in the hope
that they might pass without seeing him. But no sooner had he secreted
himself than a strange, shrill chattering came from the foremost of the
group, and in an instant Toby was out from his place of concealment.
He had recognized the peculiar sound as that of the old monkey who had
left him a few moments previous, and he knew now what he did not know
before, owing to the darkness. The new-comers were the monkeys that had
escaped from the cage, and had been overtaken and compelled to come back
by the old monkey, who seemed to have the most perfect control over
them.
The old fellow was leading the band, and each one had clasped hands with
the others, which gave the whole crowd a most comical appearance, as
they came up to Toby, half hopping, half walking upright, and all
chattering and screaming like a crowd of children out on a holiday.
Toby stepped toward the noisy crowd, held out his hand gravely to the
old monkey, and said, in tones of heart-felt sorrow:
"I felt awful bad because I thought you had gone off an' left me, when
you only went off to find the other fellows. You're awful good, Mr.
Stubbs; an' now, instead of runnin' away as I was goin' to do, we'll all
go back together."
The old monkey had grasped Toby's extended hand with his disengaged paw,
and, clinging firmly to it, the entire crowd followed, without breaking
the line, chattering and scolding at the most furious rate, while every
now and then Mr. Stubbs would look back and scream something, which
would cause the confusion to cease for an instant.
It was really a comical sight, but Toby seemed to think it the most
natural thing in the world that they should follow him in this manner,
and he chattered to the old monkey quite as fast as any of the others
were doing. He told him very gravely all that he knew about the
accident, explained why it was that he conceived the idea of running
away, and really believed that Mr. Stubbs understood every word he was
saying.
Very shortly after Toby had started to run away, the proprietor of the
circus drove up to the scene of the disaster, and, after seeing that the
wagon was being rapidly fixed up so that it could be hauled to the next
town, he ordered that search should be made for the monkeys. It was very
important that they should be captured at once, and he appeared to think
more of the loss of the animals than of the damage done the wagon.
While the men were forming some plan for the search, so that in case of
a capture they could let each other know, the noise made by Toby and his
party was heard, and the men stood still to learn what it meant.
[Illustration: BRINGING BACK THE RUNAWAYS.]
The entire party, who were waiting to learn the reason of the confusion,
burst into shouts of laughter as Toby and his companions walked into the
circle of light formed by the glare of the lanterns, and the merriment
was by no means abated at Toby's serious demeanor. The wagon was now
standing upright, with the door open, and Toby led his companions
directly to it, gravely motioning them to enter.
The old monkey, instead of obeying, stepped back by Toby's side, and
screamed to the others in such a manner that they all entered the cage,
leaving him on the outside with the boy.
Toby motioned him to get in too, but he clung to his hand, and scolded
so furiously, that it was quite apparent he had no idea of leaving his
companion. One of the men stepped up, and was about to force him into
the wagon, when the proprietor ordered him to stop.
"What boy is that?" he asked.
"Job Lord's new boy," said some one in the crowd.
The man asked Toby how it was that he had succeeded in capturing all the
runaways, and the boy said, gravely:
"Mr. Stubbs an' I are good friends, an' when he saw the others runnin'
away, he just stopped 'em, an' brought 'em back to me. I wish you'd let
Mr. Stubbs ride with me; we like each other a good deal."
"You can do just what you please with Mr. Stubbs, as you call him. I
expected to lose half the monkeys in that cage, and you have brought
back every one. This monkey shall be yours, and you may put him in the
cage whenever you want to, or take him with you, just as you choose, for
he belongs entirely to you."
Toby's joy knew no bounds; he put his arm around the monkey's neck, and
the monkey clung firmly to him, until even Job Lord was touched at the
evidence of affection between the two.
While the wagon was being repaired, Toby and the monkey stood hand in
hand watching the work go on, and those in the cage scolded and raved
because they had been induced to return to captivity. After a while the
old monkey seated himself on Toby's arm, and cuddled close up to him,
uttering now and then a contented sort of a little squeak as the boy
talked to him.
That night Mr. Stubbs slept in Toby's arms in the band wagon, and both
boy and monkey appeared very well contented with their lot, which a
short time previous had seemed so hard.
When Toby awakened to his second day's work with the circus, his monkey
friend was seated by his side, gravely exploring his pockets, and all
the boy's treasures were spread out on the floor of the wagon by his
side. Toby tried to remonstrate with him on this breach of confidence,
but Mr. Stubbs was more in the mood for sport than for grave
conversation, and the more Toby talked, the more mischievous did he
become, until the boy gathered up his little store of treasures, took
the monkey by the paw, and walked him toward the cage from which he had
escaped on the previous night.
"Now, Mr. Stubbs," said Toby, speaking in an injured tone, "you must go
in here, and stay till I have got more time to fool with you."
He opened the door of the cage, and the monkey struggled as well as he
was able, until Toby was obliged to exert all his strength to put him
in.
When once the door was fastened upon him, Toby tried to impress upon his
monkey friend's mind the importance of being more sedate, and he was
convinced that the words had sunk deep into Mr. Stubbs's heart, for, by
the time he had concluded, the old monkey was seated in the corner of
the cage, looking up from under his shaggy eyebrows in the most
reproachful manner possible.
Toby felt sorry that he had spoken so harshly, and was about to make
amends for his severity, when Mr. Lord's gruff voice recalled him to a
realizing sense that his time was not his own, and he commenced his
day's work with a lighter heart than he had had since he stole away from
Uncle Daniel and Guilford.
This day was not very much different from the preceding one so far as
the manner of Mr. Lord and his partner toward the boy was concerned;
they seemed to have the same idea that he was doing only about half as
much work as he ought to, and both united in swearing at and cursing
him quite as much as possible.
So far as his relations with other members of the company were
concerned, Toby stood in a much better position than he did before.
Those who had witnessed the scene told the others how Toby had led in
the monkeys on the night previous, and nearly every member of the
company had a kind word for the little fellow, whose head could hardly
be seen above the counter of Messrs. Lord and Jacobs's booth.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
HOW TO BUILD A SAIL-BOAT.
BY F. S. C.
As a matter of course, your ice-boat has been built, rigged, and ironed;
and after a variety of mishaps you are fully able to manage her under
sail. A locomotive has been raced with, perhaps, and beaten; Bill B. and
Charlie A. have the marks still on their shins where the bowsprit stay
or runner plank ran against them. A heavy fall of snow or the ice-men
will spoil your sailing; no doubt it has come to pass, and you are left
out in the cold, with nothing to do but blow your fingers, and blame the
snow and the ice-men. After flying along at the rate of a mile a minute
in, you might say, unlimited space on a gigantic pair of skates, it is
rather a hard matter to be obliged to come down to an ordinary pair,
with but a small pond to skate on, at a speed of, say, six miles an
hour, and the wind in your favor, too.
But it won't do to brood over your troubles, and lay the blame on the
ice-men or the snow.
Why can't you build another boat for the next sailing season, and let
your ice-boat go for a little while? You are still on good terms with
your friend the carpenter? and you haven't bothered the life out of the
blacksmith with the iron-work of your ice-boat? You must call them to
your aid again, and also make friends with the painter.
With your experience in boat-building, you ought to make something nice
this time. Suppose you try to build a flat-bottomed sail-boat, large
enough to hold you and several of your friends. A sail-boat is much
harder to build than any that you have yet tried; but that is no reason
why you can't do it.
In the first place, you want two pine boards for the sides, twelve feet
long, twenty inches wide, and one inch thick, well seasoned, and free
from knots or checks. Cut as shown in Fig. 1, using divisions 1, 2, 3,
4, 5 to guide you. You must be careful about your measurements, or you
will have a leaky boat.
Get a piece of oak for the dead-wood, or stem, eighteen inches long,
four inches deep, and six inches thick. Follow the measurements
carefully, and take particular notice of the difference between the top
and bottom in Fig. 3. The keelson is made of white pine, nine feet long
by seven inches deep and five and a half inches wide. Get the curve of
the bottom from the side; it commences at the dotted line on Fig. 1,
thence aft to section marked 4. You must allow, however, for the
mortising in the back of the dead-wood, as shown in the side elevation,
Fig. 6. Cut four boards, following the patterns marked 1, 2, 3, 4, Fig.
5; these are intended to mould your boat on. No. 5 is the stern, which
is to be made of oak one inch thick, and is a fixture. The others are to
be removed just as soon as the bottom is nailed on. Fasten the sides to
the dead-wood with good-sized brass screws. Then put the moulds in their
respective positions, as marked in plan Fig. 2; bend and nail the sides
to them. Screw the stern-piece in place, and turn the boat over, and
with plane and straight-edge prepare for putting on the bottom. Use
white pine seven-eighths of an inch thick. Fasten with galvanized nails,
making the joints as tight as possible.
Cut an opening in the keelson for the centre-board trunk, as shown in
Figs. 2 and 4, then nail in position from the bottom. Saw through the
bottom board into the keelson, for your trunk comes through, and is
flush with the bottom of the boat. Be careful that the ends of the
boards are nailed to the keelson at the opening. Take out the moulds,
and put inside a ribbon of oak one by three inches. Screw to the sides
and bottom. This, you will find, stiffens the sides very much. Also put
in ribs of oak one inch square, mortised into the ribbon, and cut off
flush with the top of the side, twenty inches apart. These are not
absolutely necessary, but will give your craft additional strength. You
might get in a heavy storm, you know, or experience severe head-winds.
Thwarts of pine one and three-quarter inches thick are to be placed in
next, with the exception of the one amidships. These serve the place of
moulds, and keep the sides in place, to be held in position by oak
strips underneath them. Screw them to the sides, and the thwarts to
them. The forward one serves as mast step, and the after one as support
for the rudder-post. Your deck beams are made of oak one inch thick and
two inches deep, three forward and one aft. These beams must be cut with
curved tops so as to make a crown for your deck, that it may shed water.
The stern piece shows the height of the crown aft. Forward of the
cockpit it ought to be two inches above the side, then a gradual sweep
to the stern. The deck may now be put on, and planed flush with the
side. Put an oak ribbon one by three inches on the outside, flush with
the top of the deck. Fasten to the sides with brass screws. The lower
edge of the ribbon might have a bead cut on it. It makes a finish, you
know.
Make the centre-board trunk of pine twenty inches wide, one and
three-quarter inches thick, and five feet long; ends one and a half by
two inches, fastened in by brass screws; the trunk to be rabbeted, and
fitted into the keelson, and running through flush with the bottom. Make
the centre-board of yellow pine four feet six inches long, one and a
quarter inches thick, and two feet wide, dowelled with galvanized rods.
This will stiffen and weight it at the same time. Fasten in the trunk
with a pin at the lower end forward. Don't put your deck on before your
trunk is in, just because the deck is spoken of first. Speaking of that,
you must strengthen the narrow part of the deck with brackets, as shown
in Fig. 4.
[Illustration: PLANS OF A SAIL-BOAT.]
Now for the blacksmith. Make the rudder-post of iron three-quarters of
an inch in diameter, running through gas-pipe, and fastened to the deck
and the bottom with collars. (Fig. 7 gives details.) A steel pin through
the rudder-post keeps it from falling through. This rests on the collar.
The stay irons are screwed to the sides and inside of the oak ribbon;
the traveller is fastened to the inside of the stern. Don't forget to
put an iron ring on it before it is fastened down. That finishes the
iron-work.
Your hull is now done, with the exception of a few minor details. The
combing of the cockpit is to be made of half-inch oak three inches high.
Nail to the edge of the deck inside. The bitt for the bowsprit to be
stepped in runs through the deck and into the keelson. Calk the seams
with oakum and white lead, and give the hull a priming coat of paint.
Then go ahead and get out your spars. Take the measurements from the
side elevation at the bottom of the page. Make the spars of yellow pine.
Running rigging, three-eighth-inch Manila rope; standing rigging,
half-inch Manila rope. Brass rings on masts; smaller ones on jib-stay.
Sails of yacht drill. Two rows of reefing points. Jib-sheets to run
through eyelets, then aft to cleats near the stern. Make a spreader for
the topmast-stays three feet long; good stiff wire three-sixteenths of
an inch will do. Turn an eye at either end, and run stay through it.
Paint the hull black, inside drab, oak ribbon dark red, and beading
yellow. If you like, you may put on a water-line. Varnish spars,
combing, and deck. As for the latter, you had better paint that buff.
OUR NINE-POUNDER.
BY GEORGE H. COOMER.
While I belonged to the whaling bark _Hector_, cruising in the Gulf of
Guinea, and occasionally touching upon the coast, there would now and
then come to our knowledge some incident connected with the slave-trade,
and more than once our curiosity was excited by the sight of suspicious
vessels.
We learned, among other things, that the most notorious craft of the
slaver fleet was a Brazilian brig called the _Dom Pedro_, having a crew
of seventy men, with a pivot twenty-four-pounder and four carronades.
Time after time this brig had been chased by the English cruisers, yet
always escaped; and it was very evident that she must have poured golden
fortunes into the hands of a number of unscrupulous individuals at Rio
Janeiro.
Of such matters we often conversed in the forecastle, while the
proximity of the African coast tended to vivify our conceptions of the
secret and dreadful traffic of which we had heard and read so much.
Among our foremast hands were two colored men, both hailing from the New
England sea-port where the bark belonged, and as well known there as the
captain himself, although they had originally been slaves at the South.
Recognized as "Black Abe" and "Yellow Jack," they ranked with the best
of the _Hector_'s crew; able, willing, and full of jollity. The idiom of
the plantation still clung to them, but for years they had followed the
sea, and each had a wife and family in our village.
It was with a marked abhorrence that the two blacks would advert to the
villainous business of the coast, as if dreaming of some possible but
very improbable contingency by which they themselves might yet be
consigned to the ghastly hold of a slaver. Of course they could
entertain no serious apprehension of the kind, yet the passing thought
was natural; and more than once, under the shadow of some sultry African
headland, or in view of a vessel of mysterious character, the simple
fellows were teased by their white shipmates with good-natured jokes in
this direction.
But how little did any of the bark's company imagine the episode which
was in reality at hand!
The _Hector_ having made a somewhat fortunate cruise wanted at length
but one or two whales. In quest of these she ran up the Bight of Benin;
and here, close in with the coast, we presently raised a large school.
Our three boats were lowered, and we commenced a long and weary chase,
the wildness of the game making it almost impossible to arrive within
striking distance.
The general direction of the pursuit being to windward, the bark could
follow us only by short tacks, so that, after a time, her topmasts alone
were visible above the horizon; and at sunset, the atmosphere having
become somewhat hazy, she was wholly out of sight. Nor from the mate's
boat, in which I was, could we discern either of the two others, so
widely had the chase scattered the three consorts.
About five miles off, however, was a vessel of some kind, nearly or
quite becalmed, which might be a merchantman, a whaler, a man-of-war, or
perhaps something of more questionable character.
"I guess," said Mr. Gale, the mate, "that the old man and Mr. Orne have
pulled back to the bark. At all events, we may as well give it up first
as last, for it's--"
"There she blows!" called Yellow Jack, looking off to starboard. And
"There she blows!" said Black Abe, as a second spout ascended, close to
the first; for the two colored men were both of our boat's crew.
The whales, three in number, which had come to the surface not a quarter
of a mile off, may have made a portion of the dispersed school we had
pursued. This time they appeared unsuspicious, and we approached very
near them. Our oars had been laid aside, and we had taken silently to
our paddles, all of us standing carefully up, and each plying his
noiseless implement.
Suddenly there was a rushing sound close beside us, a cataract of water
tumbled against the boat, and a fourth whale, shooting his square head
twenty feet high, "breached," as the sailors call the movement, not ten
yards from our gunwale. Impelled toward us by his momentum, he fell with
his under-jaw just grazing the side of our poor little craft.
Confused, or, as whalemen call it, "galleyed," by the accident of his
position, the monster, instead of turning away from us, started straight
on, overturning and crushing the boat, and leaving us in the water, his
three hitherto motionless companions gliding off almost as rapidly as
himself.
It was one of those accidents to which whalemen are always liable, and
which no watchfulness can avert.
Six in number, we clung to the wreck of the boat, confident that the
_Hector_ would pick us up in the morning, should not the unknown vessel,
which was still in sight, anticipate her in so doing.
As it grew dark, however, the stranger, who seemed to have scarcely any
wind, and so but very gradually neared us, was lost to view. Presently a
very faint concussion broke the evening air, and we knew that the
_Hector_, perhaps some twelve or fifteen miles off, had fired her
nine-pounder to make us aware of her position. Probably Captain
Phillips, our commander, and Mr. Orne, the second mate, had long since
returned to the vessel, where our own absence must cause some anxiety.
Twice after this during the night the signal was repeated. At length the
day broke, and not more than a mile off we saw the becalmed stranger of
the previous evening, with a light breeze just beginning to fill his
sails.
As he came up within a cable's length of us, we were surprised at the
number of his crew; and it was with a kind of startled curiosity that,
as his vessel--a large, rakish, full-rigged brig--rolled lazily in the
groundswell, we caught glimpses of a heavy cannon mounted amidships on
her deck, so high that it could be fired over her low bulwarks.
She might have run directly for us, and taken us on board by means of
lines, but her captain preferred rather to lower a boat. None of us
liked the appearance of things, and all glanced instinctively at Black
Abe and Yellow Jack.
From the mingled tongues upon the brig's deck, in several of which we
were hailed, we judged her crew to be composed chiefly of Spaniards and
Portuguese, with a sprinkling of English or Americans.
The boat was manned with armed sailors, and as she came up to us, one of
her hands, who acted as spokesman in English for the others, commanded
Jack and Abe to get on board of her. The poor terrified fellows refused;
but the ruffians pricked them with their bayonets, and threatened them
with instant death in case of further hesitation.
"We want nothing of the rest of you," said the hard-featured villain who
had first spoken; "your ship will pick you up by-and-by, and we can't be
bothered with saving a parcel of blubber-hunters; but we take _wool and
ivory_ wherever we can find them."
The feeble resistance of the two colored men was speedily overcome, and,
wounded and bleeding, they were dragged into the boat, Mr. Gale and the
rest of us expostulating vainly as we lay helpless on the floating
boards.
Poor Abe! poor Jack! we saw them forced up the gangway of the sharp,
saucy brig, and driven upon her deck. It was a spectacle at which Mr.
Gale shed tears of grief and rage, while the indignation of his
remaining crew equalled his own. We thought of the families of the
kidnapped men--the simple wives and the little dark children who would
be looking for the two stout colored tars when the _Hector_ should get
home.
"That brig," said the mate, "I think, is the _Dom Pedro_. I would rather
have lost all I shall make on this voyage than have had such a thing
happen. The miserable, cowardly villains!"
A few hours later a boat from the _Hector_ picked us up; but when we
reached our vessel, the slaver was out of sight. With a freshening
breeze, she had stood along the coast, the tall tree-tops of which were
barely discernible from aloft, and would doubtless enter some
neighboring inlet or river's mouth, where her living freight might be in
waiting.
For three days on board the _Hector_ little was talked of but our two
hapless shipmates and their wretched fate. In the mean while, however,
remaining upon the same cruising ground, we secured the amount of oil
required to fill the vessel.
The last of our blubber was boiled out in the night; and at daybreak
next morning we heard the report of guns, as if some vessel were pursued
and fired upon by another.
As the sky lighted up, we made out a brig under full sail, standing
directly toward us, and presently saw that she was chased by a ship. The
firing, however, had now ceased; probably from the fact that the
fugitive had widened the distance between herself and her pursuer. We
were standing easily along under short sail, and the two strangers were
rapidly coming up astern of us, each crowding all his canvas in the
exciting trial of speed.
"That's the villain," cried Mr. Gale, looking steadily through his
glass--"the very scoundrel that stole my men. But he'll get away, after
all. That British sloop of war can't sail with him--he's run her out of
gunshot already!"
All who had been in the mate's boat saw that the coming brig was indeed
the kidnapper of poor Jack and Abe. Her low black hull and symmetrical
spars were not to be mistaken.
Again the pursuing ship essayed two or three shots from her bow guns,
but the distance was evidently too great, and once more she ceased
firing. There could be no doubt that the piratical slaver would escape
her, and the excitement and chagrin of our own crew became intense.
The fleeing vessel passed within a furlong of us, and was soon ahead.
What a tempting mark she presented, with those long and tapering yards
and jaunty topmasts!
Captain Phillips was a man of quick impulses and determined resolution.
The scoundrels who had insulted him by stealing his men were close under
his eyes, and almost within pistol-shot. The ship of war in chase could
not cripple the brig by her distant fire. He glanced about the
_Hector_'s decks, and a bare possibility suggested itself.
"Get ready that nine-pounder!" he cried. "Mr. Orne, have up the powder.
You'll find three or four cannon-balls down there too. And now bear a
hand, for there's no time to lose."
Mr. Orne, taking with him a couple of the crew, ran below, and five
minutes later, the long nine--an old but somewhat handsome gun--stood
grimly ready for action, having within it a heavy charge of powder and
two well-fitting balls.
The _Hector_'s course was altered for the occasion, so that the gun
could be brought to bear on the brig from what is called a "swing port,"
and then all save the captain stepped back while he arranged his aim.
"When I give the word," he said to Mr. Gale, who held the match, "don't
lose a fraction of an instant--let her go at once."
How keenly he squinted along that trusty old gun! How carefully he
raised or depressed its breech! Now it was an inch too high, now an inch
too low.
"Ah! there! there!" he muttered; "no!--yes!--that's it!--just a
little!--just a frac-- _Let her go!_"
The gun almost parted its breech tackles with the recoil, as the charge
burst from the muzzle, tearing our nerves with its noise.
"I haven't hit her!" cried the captain, springing to the side, and
gazing almost wildly at the brig--"haven't touched her. Load up again!
Where's your powder? Load up, load up!"
"Hold on, sir!" exclaimed Mr. Gale. "Look! look! What's the matter with
her foretopmast? It's going, sir--it's going."
As he spoke, the foretopmast of the slaver leaned heavily to leeward;
then, like a falling tree by a river's brink, went swashing into the
water.
The game was up with the fast-sailing brig. Confounded by the disaster,
her crew attempted no revenge upon us, as they might have done, with
their pivot cannon; and in less than half an hour the _Dom Pedro_, as
she proved to be, was a prize to the pursuing sloop of war. Both our
nine-pound balls had taken effect aloft.
It was found that the Brazilian brig had on board no less than five
hundred slaves, among whom, to our great joy, were discovered Black Abe
and Yellow Jack. The captain of the British cruiser delivered over to us
our two shipmates; while with the rest of the blacks, the prisoners, and
the prize, he prepared to bear away for Sierra Leone, where the wretched
Africans would once more breathe the air of freedom.
How happy were Abe and Jack! How they laughed and cried, danced and
wept! And oh! the tales they told us of the miserable slave brig!
In two months thereafter we arrived home with a full ship; and when the
_Hector_ had been hauled in at the pier head, it did us all good to see
four little colored children, followed by their mothers, come running
down to the water-side to be folded in the arms of the warm-hearted
fellows who so short a time before must utterly have despaired of such a
meeting.
"Dar's de ole gun dat saved us," said Abe, to his little family,
indicating the nine-pounder.
"An' dar's de man dat aimed it," responded Jack, with a grateful look
toward Captain Phillips.
And so they went up the wharf.
THE NEWSBOYS' HOME,
AND HOW IT HELPED JOE.
BY F. E. FRYATT.
[Illustration]
"Here's yer five o'clock e-dishun, _Post_, _Express_, an'
_Commercial_--full account of Gen-er-ull Garfield on the tow-path!"
shouted three urchins, planting themselves directly before a portly old
gentleman who was slowly puffing up stairs to the elevated railway.
"Clear out, you little scamps!" grumbled the besieged, adding, more
amiably, as he caught sight of the youngest of the three, "give me a
_Post_, sonny, and change this quarter."
"Thankee, sur," said Joe Brown, the lucky competitor, diving into the
deepest of pockets for the needful coppers, then dashing pell-mell after
his comrades in pursuit of a probable customer.
"_Post_, _Express_, an' _Commercial_--full account of Gen-er-ull
Garfield!" still rang the cry an hour later, while in and out, up and
down and across the streets, darted the lithe, eager little fellows,
until the crowd began to thin out, the papers were nearly all sold, and
a distant bell reminded them that if they wanted their six-cent supper,
it was high time to be off for the Lodging-House.
Let us follow them as they hasten to the lofty brick building which
stands on the triangle formed by the meeting of New Chambers, Duane, and
North William streets. The great doors are wide open; we pass in with
Joe, his two comrades, and half a score of bustling, laughing lads,
mount two long flights of stone steps, and enter the large lecture or
school room on the second story, with its rows of desks and benches, and
the convenient lockers or closets against the walls.
[Illustration: BEING REGISTERED.]
One by one, in orderly fashion, the boys step within the iron railing,
state their names, ages, and parentage to the clerk, receive numbered
keys to their lockers, and pass on.
Here a lad locks up his bundle of unsold papers until after supper,
another his blacking-box and brushes, a third his hat and jacket; then
away for the lavatory, with its long ranges of foot and plunge baths,
and its shining basins under the bright copper faucets.
Business must be unusually brisk, or the demands of the "inner man"
unusually lively, if one may judge by the celerity with which the boys
appear, brushed and combed and ruddy-faced, for supper.
"Hurry up, Bill, and get yer ticket," cried Joe, passing up to the desk,
and depositing twelve cents for bed and supper, then taking his place at
the end of the line that was already on the move.
"Sixty, sixty-one, two, three, four," calls the Superintendent as the
boys file past, and the tramp of descending feet comes to us through the
open doorway.
[Illustration: AT SUPPER.]
By the time we reach the dining-room, with its expanse of polished
floors and high column-supported ceiling, seventy or eighty boys are
seated at long tables, which present an inviting appearance with their
white enamelled cloths, platters piled high with bread, and rows of
capacious bowls steaming with fragrant tea.
What a busy scene it is for the time! the bread mountains diminish like
snow before the sun, the tea fountains vanish like rain on thirsty soil,
and the young women attendants, in their neat dresses and aprons, pass
to and fro continually with their renewing bread trays and flagons of
tea and syrup.
The majority of the boys laugh and chatter like magpies, but here and
there sits a silent little news merchant, whose mind, absorbed with
visions of "extras," hurries him on to the wished-for future.
See, there they go, half a dozen of them, with quick steps and anxious
faces; they will notify the watchmen that they must keep late hours, and
pay the required trifle for retaining their locker keys beyond time. Up
to midnight their shrill cries will ring through the gas-lighted
thoroughfares of the great city, while many--or, indeed, most--of the
young readers of this paper are dreaming happy dreams in bed.
It is now nearly eight o'clock, supper is over, and the boys disperse
for the short evening left them before bed-time; for all must be
within-doors at half past nine, or pay a fine.
[Illustration: THE GYMNASIUM.]
Some of the boys go out for a walk, others, I am sorry to say, to spend
their earnings at the cheap theatres and shows of the city; but the
sensible ones drop their spare pennies or silver coins into the
odd-looking savings-bank near the door, and hasten up stairs to the
reading-room or the gymnasium. Let us follow some of them to the latter.
What a jolly place it is! One could have no end of fun with its
horizontal and parallel bars, its rings, ladders, and flying trapeze: it
is better than a circus.
There's a race for you already on that long ladder rising from one side
of the room, crossing over, and coming down on the other slantwise.
Johnnie Wilson has started at the north end, Billy Jones at the south
end. There they go, hand over hand! Now they meet overhead in the
middle. I declare, Billy's feet touch the floor first: he has beaten by
three rounds.
"Hurrah for Billy! three cheers for Billy Jones!" shout the boys who are
watching them.
Yonder three lads are trying their strength lifting iron weights in the
corner. Tough work they find it, and soon leave to take a look at a
comrade who hangs by his feet from a horizontal bar.
Now he swings back and forth before the little group, who are eager to
risk their necks in the wonderful experiment.
See! he lets go, and with a dexterous swing catches by his hands, and
drops safe and sound before his admirers.
This is nothing to what is going on yonder, where two boys are
performing prodigious feats on the flying trapeze, squirming and
twisting, and turning somersaults, hanging by their chins, then by their
toes, and then by each other, until the looker-on trembles and grows
dizzy.
Let us look for wee Joe Brown; he is not here, neither is he in the
reading-room below-stairs, where a dozen or more youngsters are amusing
themselves quietly, some reading story-books and illustrated papers,
others playing checkers or dominos.
I'll tell you where Joe is. He is one of the early birds. Since four
o'clock in the morning, when he went out for his daily papers, only when
he ate his simple meals, his busy little feet have paddled about the
great city, his childish voice has shrilled forth the familiar cry,
"_Sun_, _Herald_, an' _Tri-bune_, _Post_, '_Xpress_, an' _Commercial_,"
until, too sleepy to read, too weary for even the fascination of
watching the flying "trapezeists," he sought the solid comfort of the
dormitory.
[Illustration: THE DORMITORY.]
Look in at the long tiers of beds one above another, like berths in a
steam-boat. In number 69 you will find Joe sleeping the sleep of the
innocent and weary.
Would not the young people like to hear how Joe happens to be in the
Newsboys' Home? I'll tell you. It all came about through Lenny Williams,
who is a "call-boy" at one of the small theatres up town, and lives at
the Duane Street Lodging-House.
Very late one stormy night in midwinter, as he was coming home from his
work, he fancied he heard a child sobbing, and stopping, he discovered
by the feeble flickering light of a gas lamp a small figure crouching in
the low doorway of one of the old-fashioned shops of that quarter.
His heart gave a great bound of pity and sympathy for the poor homeless
little creature so tattered and forlorn. His own jacket was wet without,
but within it was dry and warm. To pull it off and place it around the
shoulders of the shivering child was but the work of an instant.
"Get up on your pins, little 'un, an' come along with me," said Lenny,
assisting him, and buttoning the jacket close under his throat.
With difficulty the poor child, whom you must have guessed before this
was Joe Brown, rose and limped along, for he was stiff with cold and
weak with hunger.
Before they reached the Lodging-House, Lenny won from him his pitiful
story--how, driven from home by the cruelty of his drunken father and
step-mother, he had wandered the streets from day to day, managing by
dint of begging and running errands, and sleeping in dark corners known
only to the wretched and homeless, to keep soul and body together while
the fine weather lasted.
A kind old apple woman only yesterday had given him a basket, and some
matches to sell; but then came the cold, pitiless rain, and nobody
wanted to buy anything; so he had strayed from street to street, until
he had lost his way in the dark, and sat down, utterly worn out and
famished, where Lenny found him.
"Yes, chicken," said Lenny, as he finished his sad story, "you'd hev
froze to death as sure as a gun. But cheer up; here we're home at last."
Never will Joe forget the glow and warmth of the "drying-room" into
which he was led. There were three other boys there hanging up their wet
clothes to dry.
And wasn't the bath warm and delightful into which they plunged him!
For a long time Joe could not understand why there should be a clean,
whole shirt, a jacket and trousers, socks and shoes, all ready for such
a poor miserable little stranger.
And the bowl of hot bread and milk, what a luxury it was!--surely he
must be in heaven, the place where all good, unhappy boys go when they
die. Perhaps he had really died, out in that pitiless storm, and was
there? He rubbed his eyes, and expected to see wings, and was
disappointed at not finding them.
The books of the institution tell how the seven-year-old child, deserted
by his inhuman parents, was taken within the sheltering doors of the
Lodging-House; but in another book the recording angel has written how a
simple "call-boy" on that dark night did the will of his heavenly
Master.
That night Joe had a blessed sleep in his little bed with its nice
sheets and downy "comfortables," so that when he woke the next morning
he was a new little man; but after breakfast he was happier than a king,
for the Superintendent loaned him a small sum of money to buy some
newspapers.
Two or three of the boys volunteered to teach him "lots" about selling
them; and they did, for before night he had sold two sets of morning and
evening papers.
A prouder, more independent little fellow than Joe can not be found
anywhere, because he not only earns his meals and lodging, and helps a
comrade occasionally, but every night drops pennies or nickels into
savings-box No. 90.
This he has been doing for some months; at the end of each he receives
ten per cent. interest.
Joe, being studious and ambitious, faithfully attends the evening
schools; he does not mean to grow up to be an ignorant, useless man;
besides, he must make the most of his time, for he indulges in the dream
of a happy home in the country, and though he hasn't told me, I am sure
he is saving up that money to buy a good stock of books to take with
him.
LITTLE BIDDY'S BIRTHDAY.
BY CHARA B. CONANT.
"Mother, can I have a birthday?"
"A birthday?" asked Mrs. Keaney, pausing in the midst of her washing,
and looking down, half bewildered, half amused, at her little daughter.
"Yes, mother. I _have_ birthdays, don't I, just the same as Mabel Ray?"
"Shure there's no mistake about that, darlint," laughed her mother,
resuming her work. "Eight years ago next week you came into this
throublesome world. That's two things we have in common wid the rich,
innyhow--the day of our birth, an' the day of our death."
"But, mother," persisted Biddy, her big blue eyes rounder still with
eagerness, "can't I have a party on my birthday? Mabel Ray had one last
week; Eliza told me so. An' she had ice-crame, an' cake wid raisins in
it, an' a wax doll what opens its eyes, an' lots o' children come to
play wid her. An', oh, mother--"
"Sakes alive, Biddy! what's got into you?" said her mother, gazing down
at her with a mingling of pride, amusement, and regret. No bonnier child
than Biddy could you find anywhere. Her complexion was a pure red and
white, her hair chestnut, falling in natural curls over her shoulders,
her mouth as sweet a rose-bud as Mabel Ray's.
"She's as pretty as inny lady's child of them all," thought her mother;
"an' as gintle an' good." But aloud she said, decidedly:
"Honey, you're talkin' nonsinse. I've hard work enough to kape us both
in bread an' mate, let alone clothes, widout givin' parties for you.
Ice-crame an' cake, indade! It's a nigger waiter you'll be wantin' nixt,
to be openin' the door for your stylish frinds," she went on, chuckling,
as she wrung out one of Mrs. Ray's embroidered white skirts.
"Oh, mother, I know you couldn't give me _such_ a party. But I thought I
might have just a few little frinds in to play wid me, an' we'd have
some crackers, an' some ginger cookies maybe; and thim two pinnies you
gave me would buy candy an' nuts. An' if--"
"An' who do you want to invite, may I ax?" said the mother, trying not
to laugh.
"Oh, mother, if I could ask poor little Jim Swaney, the boy what lives
acrost the way--he's lame, you know; an' little Annie his sister.
They're so poor, an' the father gets drunk, an' bates thim awful. I'd
like thim to have a good time for onst."
"Bliss your little heart!" said the mother; "you shall have thim in an'
wilcome, an' I'll buy some cookies to trate thim wid, and maybe
something besides. But don't you ask another child in this neighborhood;
they're a bould, bad set, as you know, and it's sorry I am we have to
live in the midst of thim."
"No, mother, I won't; but I do wish I could ax some of the girls I go to
school wid. There's Sally Flynn, and Jenny Dean, an' Mary Connor, and
Ann Gormly, an' Kitty Fay, an'--"
"Saints presarve us!" cried Mrs. Keaney. "Do you want to bring all New
York in on me? No, no, honey, I can't affoord such a party as that. Be
off to school now, like a good child, and don't bother me no more."
But the pleading face of her little girl, the only child she had,
haunted Mary Keaney, and when, later in the day, some unexpected work
arrived from a lady to whom Mrs. Ray had recommended her, she resolved
at once to gratify her darling.
"It comes only onst a year," she said, "an' she's the only child I've
got. I'll buy 'em some cookies an' gingerbread, an' a half-dozen limons
to make some limonade wid; an' I hope they'll be satisfied, for I can't
do no more."
So Biddy, to her great joy, was allowed to invite half a dozen little
girls, her most "intimate" friends, to her "party," which would take
place Thursday afternoon of the following week.
When Mrs. Keaney took Mrs. Ray's clothes home Thursday afternoon, she
told Eliza, the chamber-maid, as a good joke, about her little girl's
"party" and the expected guests.
Thursday afternoon came, and about four o'clock "Lame Jim" and his
sister arrived, and were received by Biddy, fresh and sweet as a pink in
her clean cambric frock, with a rose-colored ribbon tied above her
shining hair. Mrs. Keaney had but two little rooms in the third story of
a tenement-house, but though poor and scantily furnished, they were kept
as clean and sweet as broom and scrubbing-brush could make them.
How happy little Jim was! How his sweet wan face brightened like a pale
flower brought into the sunshine! Mrs. Keaney placed him in her one
rocking-chair, and gave him and little Annie a drink of milk and a
goodly slice of bread and butter straightway, for she knew how little
they had to eat at home.
And soon arrived the six girls all together; and what a merry clatter of
tongues there was in that little kitchen! They were just as happy as if
they had worn silk dresses and kid slippers--happier, perhaps. Soon all
were engaged in a merry game of "hide the thimble," Jim as active as any
one, hopping nimbly about on his crutches. At last they found the
thimble snugly hid in his pocket, where Kitty Fay had cunningly slipped
it, unknown even to the boy himself.
Game followed game in quick succession, until Mrs. Keaney, who had been
looking on smiling, ordered them into the bedroom.
"Guess she's settin' the table," said Mary Connor: "I hear the dishes
rattlin';" and hereupon they all fell a-chuckling. A few moments after,
they were called into the next room.
"Ain't it jist illegant?" whispered Ann Gormly to Sally Flynn. "Look at
the sugar-cookies! and, oh my! there's limonade. I smell it."
"Can't you behave?" said Sally, reprovingly. "One 'ud think you'd niver
been to a party before."
"No more I haven't," said Ann, quite above concealment. "Oh, goody,
Sally, there's slices of mate atween the bread an' butter!"
"Ain't she a greedy?" whispered Sally to Jenny.
"Poor thing! they say she's most starved at home," said kindly little
Jenny. "Her father's been out of work these three months."
Mary Keaney, hospitable-hearted soul, had not been able to content
herself with the bill of fare she at first meditated. The table was
bountifully spread with sandwiches, cookies, molasses-cake, rosy-cheeked
apples, and a plate of gay-colored candy in the centre.
Biddy's cheeks were like roses, and her eyes like stars. Was there ever
such a mother, and such a "party"? The good cheer soon set all the
little tongues going, while Mrs. Keaney watched the "fun," well pleased,
and kept the plates and glasses filled.
In the midst of their festivity Mrs. Keaney was called down stairs. She
came up in a few moments with something wrapped up in her apron.
The children were too absorbed to notice her, but when in a few moments
she appeared bearing a big earthen platter exultingly aloft, what a
shout went up from all the little throats!
"Ice-crame! ice-crame!" Even demure Sally joined in the cry; and Ann
Gormly nearly fell out of her chair in her joyful excitement.
"Oh, mother! mother! have you given _all_ your money for my party?"
cried Biddy, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and feeling a pang of
self-reproach amid her transports.
"My lamb, who sent it I don't know, but I mistrust Mrs. Ray. An' look at
the illegant cake wid the dape white frostin', an' the Charlotte-Russys
too!" she added, setting two other dishes on the table. The children sat
a moment dumb with admiration, then set up another shout.
"The man said he'd a horrible job to find the place, an' I reckon it's
the first time ice-crame an' Charlotte-Russys found their way to Rid
Lane!" said Mrs. Keaney, who scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry
herself.
"Oh, mother, wasn't it lovely in Mrs. Ray?"
"Troth it was, darlint. It must be Eliza tould her, and--"
"Scarcely were the words out of her mouth, when a loud rap at the door
made her start.
"Sakes alive! I hope nobody's come to say the ice-crame wint to the
wrong place!" She opened the door; there stood John, Mrs. Ray's colored
man.
"Good-evenin', Mrs. Keaney," surveying her with a condescending smile.
"Here's a package for Biddy, with Miss Mabel's love. Sorry to be so
late, but I had a number of other errands, and it was hard to find the
place. Good-evenin'," and before Mrs. Keaney could speak, he was gone,
anxious to escape a reproof from his mistress for his delay.
With trembling fingers Mrs. Keaney undid the strings, while the little
group looked breathlessly on. But when at last she brought out a doll--a
lovely wax doll, with golden hair and large brown eyes--a cry of
admiration broke from all but Biddy. She stood speechless, with flushed
cheeks and dilated eyes, gazing up at the doll.
"Och, darlin', where's your tongue?" cried Mrs. Keaney. "Such a swate
doll, dressed up so illegant, an' she can open an' shut her eyes! Look,
honey, look! Why, what _are_ you crying for?"
"It's too beautiful!" sobbed little Biddy. "Everythin's so beautiful, I
don't know what to do.'"
* * * * *
That night, as Biddy lay in her bed, while her mother was tucking her
in, she said, with a long sigh, "Oh, mother! mother! I'm so glad I've
had a birthday! I'll niver forget it as long as I live! Oh, mother,
wasn't it jist beautiful?"
"Yes, dear," said Mrs. Keaney. But a little jealous pang gnawing at her
heart made her add, "I couldn't give you ice-crame, darlin', nor wax
dolls, but--"
Biddy threw both her arms round her mother's neck. "Oh, mother! dear,
darlin' mother! what you did was most of all. Oh, there niver was a
mother like mine!"
A tear rolled down the mother's cheek. What reward could be sweeter than
those loving words, the clasp of those little arms about her neck? And
so ended Biddy's happy birthday.
PHIL'S FAIRIES.
BY MRS. W. J. HAYS,
AUTHOR OF "PRINCESS IDLEWAYS," ETC.
CHAPTER I.
THE WIND HARP.
"Oh, Lisa, how many stars there are to-night! and how long it takes to
count just a few!" said a weak voice from a little bed in a garret room.
"You will tire yourself, dear, if you try to do that; just shut your
eyes up tight, and try to sleep."
"Will you put my harp in the window? there may be a breeze after a
while, and I want to know very much if there is any music in those
strings."
"Where did you get them, my darling?"
"From Joe."
"Joe, the fiddler?"
"Yes, he brought me a handful of old catgut; he says he does not play
any more at dances; he is so old and lame that they like a younger darky
who knows more fancy figures, and can be livelier. He _is_ very black,
Lisa, and I am almost afraid of him; but he is so kind, and he tells me
stories about his young days, and all the gay people he used to see.
Hark! that is my harp; oh, Lisa, is it not heavenly?"
"I don't know," said poor tired Lisa, half asleep, after her long day's
work of standing in a shop.
Phil's harp was a shallow box, across which he had fastened some violin
strings rather loosely; and Phil himself was an invalid boy who had
never known what it was to be strong and hardy, able to romp and run, or
leap and shout. He had neither father nor mother, but no one could have
loved him more or have been any gentler or more considerate than was
Lisa--poor, plain Lisa--who worked early and late to pay for Phil's
lodging in the top of the old house where they lived, and whose whole
earthly happiness consisted in making Phil happy and comfortable. It was
not always easy to do this, for Phil was a strange child: aside from the
pain that he suffered, he had odd fancies and strange likings, the
result of his illness, and being so much alone. And Lisa could not
always understand him, for she lived amongst other people; rough, plain,
careless people, for whom she toiled, and who had no such thoughts as
Phil had.
From the large closet that served as her bedroom, Lisa often heard Phil
talking, talking, talking, now to this thing, now to that, as if it were
real, and had a personality; sometimes his words were addressed to a
rose-bush she had brought him, or the pictures of an old volume she had
found on a stall of cheap books at a street corner, or the little
plaster cast that an image-seller had coaxed her to purchase. Then,
again, he would converse with his knife and fork or plate, ask them
where they came from, how they were made, and of what material. No
answer coming, he would invent all sorts of answers, making them reply
in his own words.
Lisa was so used to these imaginary conversations that they did not seem
strange to her.
Phil had, too, a passion for music, and would listen intently to the
commonest strains of a hand-organ, and Lisa had given him a little toy
harmonica, from which he would draw long, sweet tones and chords with
much satisfaction.
Old Joe, who blackened boots for some of the lodgers, had heard the
child's attempts at music, and had brought his violin, and played for
him. One day, happening to leave it for a while on the window-ledge,
Phil's quick ear had detected a low vibration from the instrument. This
circumstance, and something he had read about a wind harp, had given
him the wish to make one--with what success he was anxious to find out,
when Lisa laid it in the open window for him.
A soft south wind was blowing, and as Phil spoke, it had stirred the
loose strings of the rude Æolian harp, and a slight melodious sound had
arisen, which Phil had thought so beautiful. He drew his breath even
more softly, lest he should lose the least tone, and finding that Lisa
was really asleep, propped himself up higher on his pillows, and gazed
out at the star-lit heavens.
He often talked to the stars, but very softly and wonderingly, and
somehow he could never find any answers that suited him; but to-night,
as the breeze made a low soft music come from his wind harp, filling him
with delight, it seemed to him that a voice was accompanying the melody,
and that the stars had something to do with it; for, as he gazed, he saw
a troop of little beings with gauzy wings fluttering over the
window-ledge, and upon the brow of each twinkled a tiny star, and the
leading one of all this bevy of wee people sang:
"Come from afar,
Here we are! here we are!
From yon Silver Star,
Fays of the Wind,
To children kind."
[Illustration: "'HOW LOVELY THEY ARE!' THOUGHT PHIL."]
"How lovely they are!" thought Phil; "and so these really are fairies. I
never saw any before. They have wings like little white butterflies, and
how tiny their hands and feet, and what graceful motions they have as
they dance over my harp! They seem to be examining it to find out where
the music comes from; but no, of course they know all about it. I wonder
if they would talk to me?"
"Of course we will be very glad to," said a soft little voice in reply
to his thoughts.
"I was afraid I would frighten you away if I spoke," said Phil, gently.
"Oh no," replied the fairy who had addressed him; "we are in the habit
of talking to children, though they do not always know it."
"And what do you tell them?" asked Phil, eagerly.
"All sorts of nice things."
"Do you tell them all they want to know?"
"Oh no," laughed the fairy, with a silvery little voice like a
canary-bird's. "We can not do that, for we do not know enough to be able
to: some children are much wiser than we. I dare say you are."
"Indeed I am not," said Phil, a little sadly; "there are so many things
that puzzle me. I thought that perhaps, as you came from the stars, you
knew something of astronomy."
"What a long, long word that is!" laughed the fairy again. "But we are
wind fairies; and yet the Father of the Winds is called Astræus--that
sounds something like your long word, does it not?"
"It sounds more like Astrea, and that means a star."
"Why, where did you learn so much?"
"I saw it in a big book called a dictionary."
"Another long word. Doesn't your head ache?"
"Sometimes, not now. I have not any books now, except picture-books."
"Did you ever have?"
"Oh yes; when papa was living we had books, and pictures, and many
beautiful things; but there was a great fire, and all sorts of trouble,
and now I have only Lisa. But Lisa does not understand as papa did; it
was he showed me that word in the dictionary."
"Oh, don't say that great ugly word again! Shall I tell my friends to
make some more music?"
"Yes, please."
The wind fairy struck her little hands together, and waved her wings. In
a moment the little white troop danced over the strings of the harp, and
brought out sweet, wild strains, that made Phil nearly cry for joy. They
seemed to be dancing as they did it, for they would join hands and sway
to and fro; then, parting, they wound in and out in graceful,
wreath-like motions, and the tiny stars on their foreheads flashed like
diamonds. Up and down they went, the length of the strings, then across,
then back again; and all the time the sweet wild music kept vibrating.
"How lovely! how lovely!" said Phil, when there was a pause.
"I am so glad you like it!--we often make music for people, and they
hardly hear it," said the fairy.
"I do not see how they can help hearing," said Phil.
"Why, I'll tell you how: we frequently are in the tree-tops, or whirling
about low bushes; every soft breeze that blows has some of our music in
it, for there are many of us: and yet very few people pay any attention
to these sounds."
"When the wind screams and roars in winter, is it you, then, who does
that too?" asked Phil.
[Illustration: FAST ASLEEP.]
"Oh no," said the fairy, rustling her wings in some displeasure. "We are
of the South Wind only, and have no such rude doings: I hope I may never
have any work to do for the North Wind, he is so blustery. Now it is
time you went to sleep, and we can not stay longer, for if the moon
rises we can not see our star-beams, and might lose our way. We will
just fan you a little, and you will soon be in dreamland."
As she spoke, Phil saw her beckon to her troupe, and they all flocked
about him, dazzling him so with their starry coronets that he was forced
to shut his eyes, and, as he closed them, he felt a gentle wafting as of
a hundred little wings about his forehead, and in another moment he was
asleep.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
ROUND LAKE, HALIBURTON.
I and my brother used to have such good times fishing on these
lakes in our canoes, and hunting deer in the woods, but now I am so
lonely, for my only brother is dead. He went out in the woods to
hunt deer, and got lost, and froze to death. He was sixteen years
old, two years older than I am. It has been a very cold winter
here, and he froze to death on the 19th of November. As our
neighbors all live many miles away, there were only father and I to
hunt for him, and I found him dead the third day. He forgot to take
matches, and it snowed so much he could not see his tracks to get
back. It seems very hard for me to live here without my brother.
My sisters and I have received a good many requests for loons' and
gulls' eggs and for moss, and we will attend to them all, next
summer, as soon as we can gather them, for there is any amount of
those things here.
I received some pretty Christmas and New-Year's cards and books,
and my sister has received some presents and a doll from some
readers of YOUNG PEOPLE, and we have sent a set of deer horns and
what eggs we had in return, and in the spring we will be sure to
send other eggs we have been asked for.
ERASTUS W. LOCKMAN,
Dorset P. O., Muskoka District, Ontario, Canada.
* * * * *
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS.
I am going to write, so that some little girl may see what a nice
time a friend of mine and myself have been having. We dressed two
dolls, and saved up our money until, with what was given to us and
what we had saved ourselves, we had five dollars. Then we carried
the dolls and the money to the Children's Hospital, and gave them
to some sick children. It made the children very happy.
M. LOULOU C.
* * * * *
WINDSOR, VERMONT.
I have three Cotswold lambs, named Fanny, Nora, and Cora. They are
very tame, and will eat out of my hand.
I am eleven years old. I take HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE all myself.
Last summer I had a very fine sage bed. I cut the green leaves,
and dried them, and when they were sold, they brought more than
enough to pay for my YOUNG PEOPLE.
We have a piano. I have taken fourteen lessons, and can play a few
pieces.
NELLIE J. J.
* * * * *
SARANAC, MICHIGAN.
I am eight years old. I have a brother ten years old and a sister
two years old. My brother takes YOUNG PEOPLE, and he lets me read
it sometimes. I think it is very nice. My brother said he was going
to write a letter to the Post-office Box, but I am going to
surprise him, and send one first.
ALLIE S.
* * * * *
DAYTON, OHIO.
I am a subscriber to YOUNG PEOPLE, and although I am not one of the
"little folks," I find the Post-office Box very interesting, as I
am very fond of children and of pets. I have a bright, intelligent
pony, a Mexican dog four years old that does not weigh more than
two pounds, a mocking-bird, canaries, and a lot of fancy pigeons,
and two aquaria filled with fish. I must add my cat also, although
it is a poor stray waif that came to the house only a short time
ago. I had it carried away several times in the evening, as I had
determined it must go, on account of my birds. But as soon as the
door was opened in the morning, Cattie would be there, and after
giving one glad little mew, she would begin rubbing around my feet
and purring in such a cunning way, as though asking if she might
not stay. One day I heard Cattie calling in such a peculiar way
that I opened the door. There she was, with a mouse in her mouth,
and she began purring and rubbing around me. I stooped down and
petted her, and she seemed very proud, and ran away to eat her
mouse, casting a backward glance, as much as to say, That settles
it; I shall stay. And so she shall and welcome, if she will be
contented to make her home in the stable, with only an occasional
visit to the house.
Will Mary R., of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, please oblige me by giving
her method of cultivating heliotrope, as it is one of my
favorites, and I can never succeed in raising it. I have over two
hundred plants in my parlor and sitting-room windows, and not one
heliotrope.
SALLIE E. L.
* * * * *
NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.
There are four of us little folks here. Mamma or papa reads YOUNG
PEOPLE to us every week. We have all the numbers from the first.
Papa is having them bound in a book, and we expect it every day. We
all like the Post-office Box very much, and the stories too,
although some of them are too old for us; but we will have the
book, and will understand them better when we are older.
We have a big dog, Rover. When he stands up on his hind-legs, he
can put his fore-paws on papa's shoulder. He is awfully afraid of
a gun, and runs and hides when one is fired off. We have five
Seabright bantams; they are no larger than quails, and are very
pretty.
I was eight years old Christmas-day. Walter is six and a half,
Ollie is three and a half, and Robbie is four months.
Papa writes this for me, because it is my first letter to YOUNG
PEOPLE, but Walter and I go to school, and will soon be able to
write for ourselves. We both go to Sunday-school at nine o'clock
every Sunday morning.
ELLA R. W.
* * * * *
LANSINGBURG, NEW YORK.
I have a beautiful black goat named Dan, and a complete set of
silver-plated harness. I have a wagon; I drive out with it in
summer; and for winter I have an elegant red box cutter, and a
string of silver bells, and a beautiful robe. I have a nice house
for my goat, and in one corner of it I have a harness box. Dan will
not allow any boy to come near him, but he loves me dearly, and I
love him. I am eleven years old. I have no brother or sister, but I
have a cat that I think the world of, and a pet turtle about as
large as a silver dollar.
HARRY C. H.
* * * * *
SAGINAW CITY, MICHIGAN.
I am eleven years old, and I have always lived in Saginaw. A year
ago last Christmas my papa gave me a pony, and on my last birthday
I had a present of a saddle.
We have a club called the Saginaw City Horse Guards. There are
about ten boys belonging to it. Last summer we used to go to the
woods to play "follow my leader," and we had lots of fun. And we
went to the fair dressed in uniform.
It is very cold weather here. The other day we boys flooded the
back part of our yard, and made a skating rink twenty-seven feet
wide and forty-one feet long, and now we have a nice place to
skate. It is very good sleighing here, and I am having a splendid
time sleigh-riding.
FRED H. J.
* * * * *
MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA.
I am eight years old. Papa gave me YOUNG PEOPLE for my Christmas
present.
In September we visited Le Grand, where the Iowa marble quarries
are, and I saw the men getting marble, and I brought home some
pretty specimens.
There are two tribes of Indians not far from us, and some of them
are in town almost every day. They are lazy and dirty, and the
ladies here will not let the squaws into their houses; for if they
do, the squaws will not go away again until they are made to.
LUTIE B. R.
* * * * *
KEYESVILLE, VIRGINIA.
I began taking YOUNG PEOPLE in November, and I am very much
interested in "Toby Tyler" and "Mildred's Bargain."
We have a missionary society in the village, called "The
Children's Baptist Missionary Society." We meet once every month,
and at each meeting two of the members are required to read
something. I had to read at our first meeting, and I read "Out of
the Woods," from YOUNG PEOPLE No. 53, which pleased everybody very
much.
I am eleven years old, and I have three sisters. I came here in
May to stay with my grandpapa and grandmamma, but I am going to
Brooklyn in February.
We have an old horse here that is nearly twenty-six years old. His
name is Joe, and every one thinks there is no horse like him.
JULIA M. C.
* * * * *
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA.
My uncle sends me YOUNG PEOPLE, and I enjoy it very much. Santa
Claus brought me a knife, a football, a book, and a pair of gold
cuff buttons. I have a little sister named Lizzie. She can talk and
walk.
CHARLIE H. R.
* * * * *
COLFAX, CALIFORNIA.
We have read with interest and pleasure the entertaining stories in
YOUNG PEOPLE, and we think the children in the United States ought
to give a vote of thanks to this nice little paper, which provides
such pleasant reading for them.
Colfax, where we live, is a pleasant place, and the climate here
is delightful. Some time ago we had a small snow-storm, but now
(January 5) the green grass is springing up all about.
We have a wiggle club here, and send you a few which we have made.
We wish all possible success to YOUNG PEOPLE.
GRACE and JEANNIE.
The wiggles from this California club came too late to be printed with
the others, but we acknowledge them with thanks. The same
acknowledgments are due to George Arthur, Helen A. Searing, and other
correspondents whose wiggles arrived behind time.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
I have three pet turtles, but they all buried themselves under the
flower bed before the ground was frozen.
I spent one summer at Cape May, and there I found a turtle that
was so tame it would eat out of my hand, and drink out of a
tea-spoon. I fed it on raw meat, soaked bread, and worms, but it
ran away. I am twelve years old.
ELSIE B.
* * * * *
I wish to exchange postage stamps with readers of YOUNG PEOPLE. I
have also a large piece of wood, full of worm-holes, that came out
of the bottom of a large vessel that went over three thousand miles
on her first voyage, and was eaten by worms. If any boy would like
a piece of this wood, I will send it in return for some good
foreign stamps.
GEORGE H. ELDER,
Care of Kelsey & Suydam,
99 Broadway, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.
* * * * *
I am nine years old. I would like to exchange postage stamps or
iron ore, for minerals, ocean curiosities, or Indian relics, with
any readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.
G. C. WARNER,
Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn.
* * * * *
I have a collection of birds' eggs, and would like to exchange with
other collectors. I have also a collection of postmarks, and I will
give twenty (all different) for any egg not already in my
collection.
DE WITT AYRES, Penn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y.
* * * * *
I want to tell you what mamma gave me for my Christmas present. A
little while before Christmas she said she was tired of moving my
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE round from one place to another, so she
gathered them all up and put them away, as I thought. But
Christmas-eve they came back to me handsomely bound, and I find
them a great deal nicer to read. In looking through the book I find
a great many pieces I never noticed before. Mamma says I can take
it until I am fifteen, and have it bound every year. I am eleven
years old now, so then I will have five nice volumes.
I am beginning a collection of curiosities, and would like to
exchange small sea-shells or stones with any little boy or girl
for any curiosity, or for different kinds of moss.
JESSA PEARSON,
Xenia, Greene County, Ohio.
* * * * *
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.
I have received so many letters in answer to my request for
exchange that I can not possibly supply all demands immediately,
but will do so as soon as possible. I hope those who have been so
kind as to write to me will not think I have forgotten them.
ANNIE P. CARRIER.
* * * * *
I wish to inform correspondents who desire to exchange with me that
I have changed my address from New York to Brooklyn, as given
below. I will now exchange foreign and United States revenue stamps
and postmarks, for Indian curiosities.
GEORGE B. DONNELLY, 331 Hicks Street,
Corner of Atlantic Av., Brooklyn, L. I.
* * * * *
I have about one thousand postmarks, and a large collection of
minerals, coins, stamps, and curiosities, which I will exchange for
birds' eggs. All eggs must be in good condition and unbroken, as I
use fine steel borers to make the holes. I wish nothing but eggs in
exchange.
J. N. KRIEGSHABER, 490 Fifth Street,
Between Breckinridge and Kentucky,
Louisville, Ky.
* * * * *
In my letter printed in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 62 I intended to say that
I would exchange postmarks, not for other postmarks, but for stamps
and minerals. I regret that I made the mistake.
TEDDY SMITH, 641 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Mich.
* * * * *
JACKSON, MICHIGAN.
I am a little girl ten years old. I have never been to school, but
I can read, and I could write till I got too nervous. I have been
sick for six years, and can not run around like other little girls,
but I am very happy, because everybody is very good to me. My uncle
John sends me YOUNG PEOPLE, and I have had it since the first
number.
I have three canary-birds, and two of them that are in one cage
are trying to build a nest. I have a lot of books and dolls. I did
have a kitten, but it had fits, and we sent it away. My papa wrote
this for me, because I have to lie in bed, and can not guide a
pen.
MAGGIE B.
* * * * *
The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:
Postage and revenue stamps.
J. E. JOHNSON, JUN.,
Longdale, Alleghany County, Va.
* * * * *
Stones of Maryland, for stones of any other State.
T. MORRIS BROWN,
199 Hoffman Street, Baltimore, Md.
* * * * *
Indian arrow-heads, flint rock, and petrified wood, for postage
stamps and silver ore.
WALTER BUCHANAN,
Butteville, Marion County, Oregon.
* * * * *
A specimen of petrified cedar, for one of zinc ore.
WILLIAM E. CHASE,
Franklin, Essex County, N. J.
* * * * *
Foreign and rare United States postage stamps.
LEWIS G. PARK,
24 Arlington Street, Cambridge, Mass.
* * * * *
Peacock coal, for minerals, shells, or curiosities.
ANNA C. BRASTOW, Wilkesbarre, Penn.
* * * * *
Postmarks, for foreign and United States postage stamps (except
one, two, and three cent United States stamps), coins, birds' eggs,
or minerals.
LOUIS A. OSBORNE,
237 West Thirty-fourth Street, New York City.
* * * * *
Norwegian postage stamps, for other foreign stamps.
ANTON HIRSTENDAHL,
Stoughton, Dane County, Wis.
* * * * *
Ocean curiosities, stones from Ireland, or Indian arrow-heads, for
foreign coins.
WINTER D. HUBER,
Westminster, Carroll County, Md.
* * * * *
Foreign stamps and curiosities, for the same or for autographs.
FRANK OSBORN,
Care of Mrs. C. L. Osborn,
471 East Toun Street, Columbus, Ohio.
* * * * *
Stamps for shells, or for autographs of renowned men and women.
S. D. G.,
P. O. Box 1221, Plainfield, N. J.
* * * * *
Foreign and United States postage stamps.
WILLIE S. SMITH, P. O. Box 50,
Westminster, Carroll County, Md.
* * * * *
Soil from Massachusetts, for soil of New York or Pennsylvania.
Camilla W. Mansur,
74 Columbia Street, Cambridgeport, Mass.
* * * * *
Twenty-five postmarks (no duplicates), for five foreign stamps.
Those of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island
especially desired.
KITTY REED,
3024 Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wis.
* * * * *
Birds collected in Vermont, for foreign or old issues of United
States postage stamps.
CLAYTON J. KINSLEY,
P. O. Box 225, Burlington, Vt.
* * * * *
Ohio and other Western postmarks, for postmarks from the South; or
Italian and Bavarian stamps, for other foreign stamps.
MAURICE A. MCMILLAN,
Washington C. H., Fayette County, Ohio.
* * * * *
Postage stamps, for curiosities.
EDWARD H. DILLON,
217 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, L. I.
* * * * *
Birds' eggs, stamps, or minerals, for birds' eggs, sea-shells, or
curiosities, especially with correspondents in the Southern States
or west of the Mississippi. Lists of curiosities exchanged.
HARRY SPAULDING,
Albion, Orleans County, N. Y.
* * * * *
Five varieties of Turkish postage stamps, for any other rare
stamps.
NED PRATT,
2431 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill.
* * * * *
Specimens of wood from Ohio, showing the bark of the tree, for
similar specimens from any other State.
EDDIE WILLIAMS, P. O. Box 135,
Loveland, Clermont County, Ohio.
* * * * *
Postage stamps, for pieces of rare wood. Specimens should be
three-fourths of an inch thick, two inches wide, and two inches
long.
L. H. NELSON,
3804 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
* * * * *
Postage stamps and postmarks, for insects or curiosities.
EDDIE A. JONES,
29 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, Conn.
* * * * *
Indian arrow-heads, for cotton or rice as taken from the field, or
other curiosities.
WILLIE WILLIAMS,
Economy, Wayne County, Indiana.
* * * * *
Postmarks from the eastern portion of the United States, for others
from the West.
WILLIE F. DIX,
444 High Street, Newark, New Jersey.
* * * * *
A small specimen of copper ore, for an Indian arrow-head, or some
other Indian relic.
HARRY E. DIXON,
111 East Fifty-first Street, New York City.
* * * * *
A self-inking printing-press and one font of type, for a collection
of birds' eggs.
FRED CHENEY, 51 Fort Avenue,
Boston Highlands, Boston, Mass.
* * * * *
A triangular Cape of Good Hope stamp and other rare stamps, for
stamps, Indian relics, or minerals.
RUFUS L. SEWALL,
26 Brimmer Street, Boston, Mass.
* * * * *
Twenty-five postmarks of New Jersey and New York, for twenty-five
of any other State.
A. M. WOODRUFF,
645 High Street, Newark, N. J.
* * * * *
Stones and curiosities from Hot Springs, Arkansas, for Indian
relics, sea-weeds, or shells, stones from any State except
Tennessee and Arkansas, or curiosities of any kind.
WILLIAM H. HOWLAND,
140 Adams Street, Memphis, Tenn.
* * * * *
A piece of pure white coral, for minerals, ocean curiosities, lava
from a volcano, or choice shells; or some yellow and white sand
arranged in bottles, for a star-fish or a sea-horse.
SALLIE KELLEY,
Kleine St., East Walnut Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio.
* * * * *
Postage stamps and postmarks, for Indian relics, minerals, fossils,
or California curiosities.
JOE F. FOLSOM,
Bloomfield, Essex County, N. J.
* * * * *
Ten Michigan postmarks, for ten postmarks from other States.
HARRY W. QUIMBY,
777 Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Mich.
* * * * *
Postage stamps. Jamaica stamps a specialty.
CHARLES H. ISRAELS,
Irving Institute, Tarrytown, N. Y.
* * * * *
Stamps and postmarks.
FRANK B. MYERS,
Ishpeming, Mich.
* * * * *
Minerals, for good foreign postage stamps.
CLINTON C. ANDREWS,
Kirkwood, St. Louis County, Missouri.
* * * * *
HARRY J.--Any mineral or any package containing minerals, shells, or
similar matter, not exceeding four pounds in weight, may be sent by mail
at the rate of one cent for each ounce. In exchanging stones from
different States, it would always be better to send some specimen of
interest in itself, and one which represents the character of some mine
or of celebrated ledges or quarries within the State limits. For
example, it would be much more interesting to have a specimen in your
collection labelled, "Marble from Vermont" or "Iron Ore from
Connecticut," than to have the same specimen simply labelled a stone
from either of those States. From Iowa, where you live, a specimen of
galenite from the lead mines would be interesting, or any mineral found
in abundance near your home.
* * * * *
A. J. GIBBS.--The first canal in the United States is supposed to have
been built in the Connecticut Valley to allow boats to pass around the
falls at South Hadley and around Turner's Falls at Montague. In
February, 1792, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act
incorporating a company for the building of this canal, and operations
were soon after commenced at South Hadley. The engineer was Benjamin
Prescott, of Northampton. The Middlesex Canal, from Boston to Lowell,
was built a few years later, and also a portion of the Mohawk Valley
Canal. In 1797 six miles of the latter were completed, making a passage
around rapids on the Mohawk River for boats of fifteen tons.
The first canals were built by the ancients for purposes of irrigation,
but at a very early period they were also used as navigable channels.
The royal canal of Babylon, built about 600 B.C., is one of the earliest
mentioned in history. The Grand Canal of China, which is about 650 miles
long, was built during the eighth century. At the changes of level the
boats were dragged up inclined planes, and it was not until about 1480
that locks were invented by two Italian engineers. After this invention,
by which one of the greatest impediments to canal navigation was
removed, the construction of canals became general throughout Europe.
One of the largest enterprises of the kind was that undertaken by Peter
the Great during the first years of the eighteenth century: 1434 miles
of canals were built, connecting St. Petersburg with the Caspian Sea and
with inland districts.
The first canal was built in England in 1760, and at the present time
there are about 47,000 miles of canals in Great Britain.
* * * * *
Favors are acknowledged from Frankie L. Garbutt, F. M. Elliot, Albert H.
Hopkins, Josie Chesley, N. D. Sugden, A. H. Patterson, Gracie Mathews,
May Arnold, Willie Derr, Florence E. Lewis, Calvin Colton W., Henry J.
Nuhn.
* * * * *
Correct answers to puzzles have been sent by Harry H. Dickinson, Rebecca
Hedges, Martie H., Thomas M. Armstrong, Allie Maxwell, Hugh Pitcairn,
Will B. Shober, Grace B., William Harris, Walter P. Hiles, C. Wieland.
* * * * *
PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
No. 1.
GEOGRAPHICAL HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.
A lake in Louisiana. A city in Northern Europe. A river in Mexico. A
city in Japan. A city in Germany. In Montreal. A river in Europe. A
river in Italy. A capital of one of the United States. A river in the
western part of North America. A river near the east coast of British
America. Centrals read downward spell the name of one of the divisions
of Germany.
FANNIE E. S.
* * * * *
No. 2.
ENIGMA.
First in ham, not in beef.
Second in rock, not in reef.
Third in fortune, not in fate.
Fourth in fish, not in bait.
Fifth in bed, not in cot.
The whole an animal never shot.
F. V.
* * * * *
No. 3.
NUMERICAL CHARADES.
1. I am composed of 12 letters.
My 1, 2, 3 is part of the body.
My 4, 5 is a river in Europe.
My 6, 7, 8 is a cooking utensil.
My 9 is a vowel.
My 10, 11, 12 is the generic name of certain animals.
My whole is an animal.
WILLIE L. K.
2. I am composed of 6 letters.
My 1, 2, 3 is a part of the head.
My 4,5,6 is something John Gilpin lost.
My whole is an insect.
3. I am composed of 9 letters.
I am an English bird, and may often be seen in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
seeking my simple 6, 7, 8, 9.
4. I am composed of 7 letters.
My 1, 2, 3, 4 is part of a shoe.
My 5, 6, 7 is wrath.
My whole is a creature found in South America.
BEATRICE.
* * * * *
No. 4.
WORD SQUARES.
1. First, a beautiful mineral. Second, a tree. Third, a girl's name.
Fourth, a metal.
FRANK.
2. First, a girl's name. Second, to rend. Third, to accept. Fourth, a
character in mythology.
HALLA.
* * * * *
No. 5.
ENIGMA.
In corn, not in ear.
In horse, not in deer.
In stay, not in go.
In spry, not in slow.
In inn, not in house.
In rat, not in mouse.
In fly, not in dove.
My whole the synonym of love.
JAMES E. H.
* * * * *
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 63.
No. 1.
P E T A R D P E S T E R
E L I N O R E N E R V E
T I N G L E S E Q U I N
A N G O L A T R U A N T
R O L L E R E V I N C E
D R E A R Y R E N T E D
No. 2.
J
C U P
C A B I N
J U B I L E E
P I L O T
N E T
E
No. 3.
F la G
A lonz O
M arve L
E nde D
Fame, Gold.
No. 4.
Vulture.
No. 5.
I llinois
N ebraska
D elaware
I owa
A labama
N ew York
A rizona
NOTICE.
HARPER & BROTHERS _beg leave to state, in answer to numerous inquiries,
that the Bound Volume of_ HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE _for 1880 is entirely
out of stock, and will not be reprinted at present_.
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
SINGLE COPIES, 4 cents; ONE SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $1.50; FIVE
SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $7.00--_payable in advance, postage free_.
The Volumes of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE commence with the first Number in
November of each year.
Subscriptions may begin with any Number. When no time is specified, it
will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the
Number issued after the receipt of the order.
Remittances should be made by POST-OFFICE MONEY-ORDER OR DRAFT, to avoid
risk of loss.
HARPER & BROTHERS,
Franklin Square, N. Y.
[Illustration]
THE TUMBLER TRICK.
This trick consists in balancing a match on the edge of a tumbler
containing water, in the position represented in our picture, and then
drinking the water without dropping the match.
Solution in our next.
IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.
"To sleep! to sleep!" called December,
To the cheery young strawberry vines.
"Not a green leaf is left on the maple,
Nor the creeper that round it entwines;
And the song-birds have gone to the South-land,
And the last of the flowers is dead,
And it's time that all good little strawberry plants
Were fast, fast asleep in their bed."
"Who cares?" said they, saucily; "we don't,
Though all that you tell us be true.
We're as wide, wide awake as we can be,
And we won't go to bed, sir, for you."
"Oh, you won't!" and he summoned a snow-storm,
While he laughed with a merry "Ho! ho!"
And in spite of themselves soon those saucy young plants
Were under a blanket of snow.
MIRTHFUL MAGIC
BY G. B. BARTLETT
HOW TO PLACE AN EGG SO IT CAN NOT BE BROKEN WITH A TIN PAN.
Show a large, tin pan and a common egg, and allow the spectators to
handle and examine both to see that there is no deception about either.
Then let any one take the pan, and be ready to strike with all his
might. When he has tried in vain to guess how you can place the egg
where it can not be broken with the pan, stand it up in the corner of
the room, and of course it will be impossible for any one to hit it.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT WORK.
Draw several lines radiating from a central point, and let each player
choose a line and be sure to remember which it is. Each then places a
piece of money on his line, and you say, "Take particular notice of your
line and money, so that you will not forget either." Then move the
pieces of money about, taking care that not one piece remains on its
original line. Ask each one in turn, "Is that your line?" and of course
every one will say, "Yes." Afterward say to each, in the same order, "Is
that your money?" touching the piece that is now on the line belonging
to the person addressed. When all have answered these questions in the
negative, you calmly collect and pretend to pocket all the money, with
the quiet remark, "As you have all said that that was not _your_ money,
I think it must be mine."
* * * * *
Say to any person, "I will lay a wager to any amount that I have more
money in my pocket than you have." After an animated debate, and
exhibition of the contents of pockets, you say, "I have more money in my
pocket than any one, for none of you have any money in my pocket."
* * * * *
Say to the ladies, "A man can marry any woman he pleases." After the
long and indignant protest, calmly reply, "A man may marry any woman he
pleases, but the trouble is to find the woman that he does please."
* * * * *
=The Point of a Diamond.=--Some time ago a Mr. Tarrants executed some
writing on a small piece of glass with a diamond the point of which had
been ground a million times finer than that of a pin. This writing was
the Lord's Prayer, and the lines were so fine that they were quite
invisible to the naked eye. If the whole of the Old Testament were
written the same size, it would only occupy a space equal to that of a
thumb-nail. The magnifying power of the microscope necessary to enable
us to read this minute writing is so great that if it were possible to
put a small boy under the glass, he would look ten times taller than
Bunker Hill Monument, and his head would be the size of the dome of the
Capitol at Washington.
PUSSY AND THE SNOW.
Pussy:--born last summer--
Never saw the snow
Till this winter morning
Just an hour ago.
"Oh! what pretty lamb's-wool!"
Said she; when it began
To fall; "I'll go and play with it."
And out-of-doors she ran.
But back again, astonished,
In greatest haste came she.
"That is the queerest, coldest wool
That ever I did see!"
[Illustration: OUTSIDERS.
SMALL BOY (_who has been waked up by the music at an evening party_).
"They are just going down to Supper. Don't you smell the Ice-Cream and
Cake and things."]
[Illustration: UNNECESSARY REQUEST.
BROTHER ON SLED. "Don't push too quickly, Alice."]
End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, February 1, 1881, by Various
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