Produced by Annie R. McGuire
[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE]
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VOL. III.--NO. 127. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.
Tuesday, April 4, 1882. Copyright, 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50 per
Year, in Advance.
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[Illustration]
MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER
BY JAMES OTIS,
AUTHOR OF "TOBY TYLER," "TIM AND TIP," ETC.
CHAPTER I.
THE SCHEME.
"Why, we could start a circus jest as easy as a wink, Toby, 'cause you
know all about one; an' all you'd have to do would be to tell us fellers
what to do, an' we'd 'tend to the rest."
"Yes; but you see we hain't got a tent, or hosses, or wagons, or
nothin', an' I don't see how you could get a circus up that way;" and
the speaker hugged his knees as he rocked himself to and fro in a musing
way on the rather sharp point of a large rock, on which he had seated
himself in order to hear what his companion had to say that was so
important.
"Will you come down with me to Bob Atwood's, an' see what he says about
it?"
"Yes, I'll do that if you'll come out afterward for a game of I-spy
round the meetin'-house."
"All right; if we can find enough of the other fellers, I will."
Then the boys slipped down from the rocks, found the cows, and drove
them home as the preface to their visit to Bob Atwood's.
The boy who was so anxious to start a circus was a little fellow with
such a wonderful amount of remarkably red hair that he was seldom called
anything but Reddy, although his name was known--by his parents, at
least--to be Walter Grant. His companion was Toby Tyler, a boy who, a
year before, had thought it would be a very pleasant thing to run away
from his uncle Daniel and the town of Guilford in order to be with a
circus, and who, in ten weeks, was only too glad to run back home as
rapidly as possible.
During the first few months after his return many brilliant offers had
been made Toby by his companions to induce him to aid them in starting
an amateur circus; but he had refused to have anything to do with the
schemes, and for several reasons. During the ten weeks he had been away
he had seen quite as much of a circus life as he cared to see, without
even such a mild dose as this amateur show would be; and again, whenever
he thought of the matter, the remembrance of the death of his monkey,
Mr. Stubbs, would come upon him so vividly, and cause him so much
sorrow, that he resolutely put the matter from his mind.
Now, however, it had been a year since the monkey was killed; school had
closed during the summer season; and he was rather more disposed to
listen to the requests of his friends. On this particular night Reddy
Grant had offered to go with him for the cows--an act of generosity
which Toby accounted for only on the theory that Reddy wanted some of
the strawberries which grew so plentifully in Uncle Daniel's pasture.
But when they arrived there the strawberries were neglected for the
circus question; and Toby then showed he was at least willing to talk
about it.
There was no doubt that Bob Atwood knew Reddy was going to try to induce
Toby to help start a circus, and Bob knew also that Reddy and Toby would
visit him, although he appeared very much surprised when he saw them
coming up the hill toward his house. He was at home, evidently waiting
for something, at an hour when all the other boys were out playing; and
that in itself would have made Toby suspicious if he had paid much
attention to the matter.
Bob was perfectly willing to talk about a circus--so willing, that,
almost before Toby was aware of it, he was laying plans with the others
for such a show as could be given with the material at hand.
"You see, we'd have to get a tent the first thing," said Toby, as he
seated himself on the saw-horse as a sort of place of honor, and
proceeded to give his companions the benefit of his experience in the
circus line. "I s'pose we could get along without a fat woman or a
skeleton; but we'd have to have the tent anyway, so's folks couldn't
look right in an' see the show for nothin'."
Reddy had decided some time before how that trifling matter could be
arranged. In fact, he had spent several sleepless nights thinking it
over, and as he went industriously to work making shavings out of a
portion of a shingle he said:
"I've got all that settled, Toby; an' when you say you're willin' to go
ahead an' fix up the show, I'll be on hand with a tent that'll make your
eyes stick out over a foot."
Bob nodded his head to show he was convinced Reddy could do just as he
had promised; but Toby was anxious for more particulars, and insisted on
knowing where this very necessary portion of a circus was coming from.
"You see, a tent is a big thing," he said, seriously, "an' it would cost
more money than the fellers in this town could raise if they should pick
all the strawberries in Uncle Dan'l's pasture."
"Oh, I don't say as the tent Reddy's got his eye on is a reg'lar one
like a real circus has," said Bob, slowly and candidly, as he began to
draw on the side of the wood-shed a picture of what he probably intended
should represent a horse; "but he knows how he can rig one up that'll be
big enough, an' look stavin'."
With this information Toby was obliged to be satisfied, and with the
view of learning more of the details, in case his companions had
arranged for them, he asked:
"Where you goin' to get the company--the folks that ride, an' turn
hand-springs, an' all them things?"
"Ben Cushing can turn twice as many hand-springs as any feller you ever
saw, an' he can walk on his hands twice round the engine-house. I guess
you couldn't find many circuses that could beat him, an' he's been
practicing in his barn all the chance he could get for more'n a week."
Without intending to do so, Bob had thus let the secret out that the
scheme had already been talked up before Toby was consulted, and then
there was no longer any reason for concealment.
"You see, we thought we'd kinder get things fixed," said Reddy, quickly,
anxious to explain away the seeming deception he had been guilty of,
"an' we wouldn't say anything to you till we knew whether we could get
one up or not."
"An' we're goin' to ask three cents to come in, an' lots of the fellers
have promised to buy tickets if we'll let 'em do some of the ridin', or
else lead the hosses."
"But how are you goin' to get any hosses?" asked Toby, thoroughly
surprised at the way in which the scheme had already been developed.
"Reddy can get Jack Douglass's blind one, an' we can train him so's
he'll go 'round the ring all right, an' your uncle Dan'l will let you
have his old white one that's lame, if you ask him. I ain't sure but I
can get one of Chandler Merrill's ponies," continued Bob, now so excited
by his subject that he left his picture while it was yet a three-legged
horse, and stood in front of his friends; "an' if we could sell tickets
enough, we could hire one of Rube Rowe's hosses for you to ride."
"An' Bob's goin' to be the clown, an' his mother's goin' to make him a
suit of clothes out of one of his grandmother's curtains," added Reddy,
as he snapped an imaginary whip with so many unnecessary flourishes that
he tumbled over the saw-horse, thereby mixing a large quantity of
sawdust in his brilliantly colored hair.
"An' Reddy's goin' to be ring-master," explained Bob, as he assisted his
friend to rise, and acted the part of Good Samaritan by trying to get
the sawdust from his hair with a curry-comb. "Joe Robinson says he'll
sell tickets, an' 'tend the door, an' hold the hoops for you to jump
through."
"Leander Leighton's goin' to be the band. He's got a pair of clappers;
an' Mrs. Doak's goin' to show him how to play on the accordion with one
finger, so's he'll know how to make an awful lot of noise," said Reddy,
as he gave up the task of extracting the sawdust, and devoted his entire
attention to the scheme.
"An' we can have some animals," said Bob, with the air of one who adds
the crowning glory to some brilliant work.
Toby had been surprised at the resources of the town for a circus, of
which he had not even dreamed; and at Bob's last remark he left his
saw-horse seat, as if to enable him to hear more distinctly.
"Yes," continued Bob, "we can get a good many of some kinds. Old Mrs.
Simpson has got a three-legged cat with four kittens, an' Ben Cushing
has got a hen that crows; an' we can take my calf for a grizzly bear,
an' Jack Havener's two lambs for white bears. I've caught six mice, an'
I'll have more'n a dozen before the show comes off; an' Reddy's goin' to
bring his cat that ain't got any tail. Leander Leighton's goin' to bring
four of his rabbits, an' make believe they're wolves; an' Joe Robinson's
goin' to catch all the squirrels he can--we'll have the largest for
foxes, an' the smallest for hyenas; an' Joe'll keep howlin' while he's
'tendin' the door, so's to make 'em sound right."
"Bob's sister's goin' to show him how to sing a couple of songs, an'
he's goin' to write 'em out on paper, so's to have a book to sell,"
added Reddy, delighted at the surprise expressed in Toby's face. "Nahum
Baker says if we have any kind of a show, he'll bring up some lemonade
an' some pies to sell, an' pass 'em round jest as they do in a reg'lar
circus."
This last information was indeed surprising, for inasmuch as Nahum Baker
was a man who had an apology for a fruit store near the wharves, it lent
an air of realism to the plan, this having a grown man connected with
them in the enterprise.
"But he mustn't get any of the boys to help him, an' then treat them as
Job Lord did me," said Toby, earnestly, the scheme having grown so in
the half-hour that he began to fear it might be too much like the circus
with which he had spent ten of the longest and most dreary weeks he had
ever known.
"I'll look out for that," said Bob, confidently. "If he tries any of
them games, we'll make him leave, no matter how good a trade he's
doin'."
"Now where we goin' to have the show?" and from the way Toby asked the
question it was easily seen that he had decided to accept the position
of manager which had been so delicately offered him.
"That's jest what we ain't fixed about," said Bob, as if he blamed
himself severely for not having already attended to this portion of the
business. "You see, if your uncle Dan'l would let us have it up by his
barn, that would be jest the place, an' I almost know he'd say yes if
you asked him."
"Do you s'pose it would be big enough? You know, when there's a circus
in town everybody comes from all around to see it, an' it wouldn't do to
have a place where they couldn't all get in;" and Toby spoke as if there
could be no doubt as to the crowds that would collect to see this
wonderful show of theirs.
"It'll have to be big enough, if we use the tent I'm goin' to get," said
Reddy, decidedly; "for you see that won't be so awful large, an' it
would make it look kinder small if we put it where the other circuses
put theirs."
"Well, then, I s'pose we'll have to make that do, an' we can have two or
three shows if there are too many to come in at one time," said Toby, in
a satisfied way that matters could be arranged so easily; and then, with
a big sigh, he added: "If only Mr. Stubbs hadn't got killed, what a show
we could have! I never saw him ride, but I know he could have done
better than any one else that ever tried it, if he wanted to, an' if we
had him we could have a reg'lar circus without anybody else."
Then the boys bewailed the untimely fate of Mr. Stubbs, until they saw
that Toby was fast getting into a mood altogether too sad for the proper
transaction of circus business, and Bob proposed that a visit be paid
Ben Cushing, for the purpose of having him give them a private
exhibition of his skill, in order that Toby might see some of the talent
which was to help make their circus a glorious success.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
FLOWERS IN FANCY DRESS.
BY MRS. SOPHIE B. HERRICK.
I remember as well as though it were yesterday how, years and years ago,
when I was a very little girl, I once went roaming through the beautiful
woods of Southern Ohio, hunting for a certain wild flower.
The object of my search was a flower not often found, which we children
called the Indian moccasin. It did look like a moccasin, indeed, with
its round blunt toe and yellow, leathery, shoe-shaped pouch. I wonder if
any prospector ever looked for signs of gold with more intense
excitement than I felt when searching for my little golden shoe?
Everywhere I turned, in my breathless haste, yellow moccasins seemed
dancing before my eyes, and I hardly knew, till my eager hands had
grasped the stem, whether it was a real flower I had found or not. I
hardly think I could have valued it more if I had known what I have
since learned about the wonderful ways of the orchids, to which family
my moccasin belonged.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--LADY'S-SLIPPER.]
You may never have found this particular plant in your rambles, and yet
may know some other of the orchid tribe which grows wild in our woods.
The common names are so different in different places that it is hard to
tell you how to know them when you see them. The putty-root, and the
lady's-slipper like that in Fig. 1, are some of them. Not the
touch-me-not, a plant whose seed-pods snap and curl up if you touch
them, and which is sometimes called lady's-slipper.
The orchids are an eccentric family. There is scarcely one of them which
is not "queer" in some way or other. They seem always to be trying to
look or to act like something besides flowers. They imitate all sorts of
things besides little Indian shoes. I wish I could take you into an
orchid greenhouse and let you look around. You would think you had been
invited to a fancy-dress party of the flowers.
There is one that looks for all the world like a swan, with its long
curved neck; there is a beautiful butterfly with spotted golden wings;
over yonder stands a scarlet flamingo, in a meditative attitude, on one
red leg. Bees and spiders, done in brown and yellow, or perhaps more
gorgeous colors, are all around. Here is a long spike of waxen flowers,
and in the cup of each nestles a pure white dove with outspreading
wings. The Spaniards have given it a name which means the flower of the
Holy Ghost, from its resemblance to a dove.
These strange likenesses to other things are, however, the least
wonderful thing about orchids. They differ from ordinary plants in many
singular ways. Many of them, instead of growing in the ground, and
drawing from it their food and drink, grow in the air, and take
nourishment from it by means of their naked dangling roots. It seems
sometimes as if living as they do high up on the bark of trees had put
the notion into their heads of trying to look like birds and butterflies
and bees.
The air manages to supply them with food, but they have to depend upon
getting drink in some other way. Plants are a good deal like people in
that respect; they can manage to get along somehow with very little
food, but they soon die of thirst if deprived of water.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--YOUNG PLANT GROWING ON FLOWER STEM.]
In a wild state, the air-plants grow on the bark of trees or on other
substances, but they send their little roots into the moist bark or moss
to get water. They do not feed on the juices of the trees, as parasites
like the mistletoe do; they only want a standing-place, something to
push against as they grow, and water. In the greenhouse they are usually
planted in pots filled with bits of stone and damp moss, or they grow
attached to the parent plant, as you may see in Fig. 2, and send their
roots out into the air for food. A few of them--the Indian moccasin, for
instance--grow like common plants in the ground.
It would almost seem as if the orchids had an eye to business in their
imitation of insects. At any rate, there seems to be a very good
understanding between them, and constant business relations are kept up.
The flowers always have a little pouch somewhere about them in which
they keep a stock of honey on hand. Their beautiful colors and delicious
smell attract, by day and night, bees, butterflies, and moths. In return
for the "treat" which the flowers give, the insects render a valuable
service to the plants.
I must remind you of something we have looked into before in "Picciola"
(February 14, 1882), and that is that every perfect seed is the result
of a partnership entered into by the pollen grains and the ovules of a
flower. The pollen is the yellow dust which it is so easy to see on
lilies and some other flowers; the ovules are little round bodies lying
in the swollen part of a flower where it joins the stem. Above the
ovules, and connected with them, is the pistil, sometimes standing up
like the lily pistil of the geranium, sometimes only a sticky little
pad, as it is in the orchids. Some plants get along perfectly well if
this partnership is entirely a family affair, and the pollen of a flower
falls on its own pistil, and makes a union with its own ovules, but this
is not always the case. Certain plants require that the pollen shall be
from another plant if the seed is to be sound and healthy. Orchids
require this _cross-fertilization_, as it is called, and without the
help of insects it could not be effected.
Bees and butterflies, it has been found out, always go in a single
excursion from one flower of a kind to another of the same kind. They do
not mix their drinks. This instinct not only serves to keep the honey
stored by the bees pure, but it enables the insects to carry the pollen
just where it will be useful. The pollen of a morning-glory would die if
put on the rose pistil. It must be placed on a flower of the same family
as the one it came from, or very nearly related to it, or it will do no
good.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--HONEY POUCH AND POLLEN PODS.]
Now look at Fig. 2, and you will see that the flowers have a hollow tube
in the centre, with a projecting lower lip. This tube is a single flower
leaf curled over to make a tunnel, and through this tunnel is the only
path to the honey pouch. When a butterfly feels like taking a drink, and
one of these orchids is near, he lights on the lower lip of the tube,
and pushing his long proboscis or trunk through it into the pouch, sucks
up the honey. Now look at Fig. 3. This is a picture of the tube with its
near wall cut away so that you can see the inside arrangement. As he
works his proboscis down into the honey pouch, _N_, it is pressed
against _r_, and touches a spring there; the little cap at _r_ snaps
open, and leaves a sticky ball resting on the proboscis. As the
butterfly goes on sucking, this ball dries as if it were glued to his
trunk. When he draws his head out, this proboscis is ornamented with one
or two little tufts which look like the trees in a child's toy village,
as you will see in the illustration.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--PENCIL AND NEEDLE, WITH POLLEN.]
Now look at the fragment of a flower in the lower part of the same
illustration. Suppose the pollen tuft to stay just where it is when the
butterfly comes out of the flower. You can see by looking at the figure
that it would strike _r_ in the next flower it entered, and that would
do no good; _s_ is the place it should strike; _s_ is the pistil. Now
take an orchid flower, if you can get one; if not, look at Fig. 4, and
see what will happen. I push into it a sharpened lead-pencil, and it
comes out with the pollen tuft standing up as it does on the butterfly's
trunk. Watch it a minute. As it dries, the stem of the tuft bends down,
toward the point of the pencil. Now push it into another flower. Wait a
little while--a minute perhaps--and take the pencil out. You will see
that the pollen has been pulled out of its little case. If you tear open
the flower, you will find the pollen sticking so tight on the pistil,
_s_, that you can scarcely brush it off. In this upper flower the
drawing is from Mr. Darwin's book; but the lower one is one of the
flowers in Fig. 2, which I picked off the plant after drawing it, and
tried with a pencil myself. _r_ in the lower drawing looks like a little
purple velvet pouch swung lightly on its stalk. The pencil came out,
leaving the little bag empty, and the pollen glued fast to its side. But
they were not glued so fast that they were not pulled off by the next
flower that the pencil entered.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--BUTTERFLY'S PROBOSCIS, WITH POLLEN.]
Some of the orchids have two pistils, one on each side. In these, if you
push into the tube a bristle or needle, the two pollen cases come out as
in Fig. 4; as they dry, they spread apart, and bend forward so that both
pistils are struck at once as it is pushed into the next blossom. The
contrivances by which each orchid receives on just the right spot
exactly the right pollen are perfectly marvellous. I have only told you
a very few of the simplest facts in regard to the help the insects give
to the flowers. Many a poor butterfly goes through life having its
proboscis loaded down with the glued-on pollen cases (Fig. 5). It is one
of those business arrangements which does not work equally well for both
parties. All this is beautiful for the flowers, but it seems rather hard
on the butterflies.
ANIMALS.
BY JIMMY BROWN.
I should like to be an animal. Not an insect, of course, nor a snake,
but a nice kind of animal, like an elephant or a dog with a good master.
Animals are awfully intelligent, but they haven't any souls. There was
once an elephant in a circus, and one day a boy said to him, "Want a
lump of sugar, old fellow?" The elephant he nodded, and felt real
grateful, for elephants are very fond of lump-sugar, which is what they
live on in their native forests. But the boy put a cigar instead of a
lump of sugar in his mouth.
The sagacious animal, instead of eating up the cigar or trying to smoke
it and making himself dreadfully sick, took it and carried it across the
circus to a man who kept a candy and cigar stand, and made signs that
he'd sell the cigar for twelve lumps of sugar. The man gave the elephant
the sugar and took the cigar, and then the intelligent animal sat down
on his hind-legs and laughed at the boy who had tried to play a joke on
him, until the boy felt that much ashamed that he went right home and
went to bed.
In the days when there were fairies--only I don't believe there ever
were any fairies, and Mr. Travers says they were rubbish--boys were
frequently changed into animals. There was once a boy who did something
that made a wicked fairy angry, and she changed him into a cat, and
thought she had punished him dreadfully. But the boy after he was a cat
used to come and get on her back fence and yowl as if he was ten or
twelve cats all night long, and she couldn't get a wink of sleep, and
fell into a fever, and had to take lots of castor-oil and dreadful
medicines.
So she sent for the boy who was a cat, you understand, and said she'd
change him back again. But he said, "Oh no; I'd much rather be a cat,
for I'm so fond of singing on the back fence." And the end of it was
that she had to give him a tremendous pile of money before he'd consent
to be changed back into a boy again.
Boys can play being animals, and it's great fun, only the other boys who
don't play they are animals get punished for it, and I say it's unjust,
especially as I never meant any harm at all, and was doing my very best
to amuse the children.
This is the way it happened. Aunt Sarah came to see us the other day,
and brought her three boys with her. I don't think you ever heard of
Aunt Sarah, and I wish I never had. She's one of father's sisters, and
he thinks a great deal more of her than I would if she was my sister,
and I don't think it's much credit to anybody to be a sister anyway. The
boys are twins, that is, two of them are, and they are all about three
or four years old.
Well, one day just before Christmas, when it was almost as warm
out-doors as it is in summer, Aunt Sarah said:
"Jimmy, I want you to take the dear children out and amuse them a few
hours. I know you're so fond of your dear little cousins and what a fine
manly boy you are!" So I took them out, though I didn't want to waste my
time with little children, for we are responsible for wasting time, and
ought to use every minute to improve ourselves.
The boys wanted to see the pigs that belong to Mr. Taylor, who lives
next door, so I took them through a hole in the fence, and they looked
at the pigs, and one of them said,
"Oh my how sweet they are and how I would like to be a little pig and
never be washed and have lots of swill!"
So I said, "Why don't you play you are pigs, and crawl round and grunt?
It's just as easy, and I'll look at you."
You see, I thought I ought to amuse them, and that this would be a nice
way to teach them to amuse themselves.
Well, they got down on all fours and ran round and grunted, until they
began to get tired of it, and then wanted to know what else pigs could
do; so I told them that pigs generally rolled in the mud, and the more
mud a pig could get on himself the happier he would be, and that there
was a mud puddle in our back yard that would make a pig cry like a child
with delight.
The boys went straight to that mud puddle, and they rolled in the mud
until there wasn't an inch of them that wasn't covered with mud so thick
that you would have to get a crowbar to pry it off.
[Illustration: "'WE'VE BEEN PLAYING PIGS, MA.'"]
Just then Aunt Sarah came to the door and called them, and when she saw
them she said, "Good gracious what on earth have you been doing?" and
Tommy, that's the oldest boy, said,
"We've been playing we were pigs ma and it's real fun and wasn't Jimmy
good to show us how?"
I think they had to boil the boys in hot water before they could get the
mud off, and their clothes have all got to be sent to the poor people
out West whose things were all lost in the great floods. If you'll
believe it, I never got the least bit of thanks for showing the boys how
to amuse themselves, but Aunt Sarah said that I'd get something when
father came home, and she wasn't mistaken. I'd rather not mention what
it was that I got, but I got it mostly on the legs, and I think bamboo
canes ought not to be sold to fathers any more than poison.
I was going to tell why I should like to be an animal; but as it is
getting late, I must close.
A LITTLE GENTLEMAN.
BY M. E. SANGSTER.
His cap is old, but his hair is gold,
And his face is clear as the sky;
And whoever he meets, on lanes or streets,
He looks him straight in the eye,
With a fearless pride that has naught to hide,
Though he bows like a little knight,
Quite debonair, to a lady fair,
With a smile that is swift as light.
Does his mother call? Not kite, or ball,
Or the prettiest game, can stay
His eager feet as he hastes to greet
Whatever she means to say.
And the teachers depend on the little friend
At school in his place at nine,
With his lessons learned and his good marks earned,
All ready to toe the line.
I wonder if you have seen him too,
This boy, who is not too big
For a morning kiss from mother and Sis,
Who isn't a bit of a prig,
But gentle and strong, and the whole day long
As merry as boy can be.
A gentleman, dears, in the coming years,
And at present the boy for me.
HOW JAMIE SAILED IN THE "SCUD."
BY MATTHEW WHITE, JUN.
The _Scud_ was a cat-rigged, clipper-built pleasure-yacht, belonging to
Mr. Trenwick, and now for sale. It had never been used very much, and
now that Jamie was almost old enough to want to sail himself, and still
sufficiently young to run a good chance of being drowned in the attempt,
Mrs. Trenwick declared that she would sleep much easier at night if
"that boat" were owned by somebody else.
Jamie was nearly eleven, and both he and his twin sister Marian knew how
to row, and, in their pretty little boat would paddle about for hours in
shallow water, so that it was considered perfectly safe to allow Jamie
to pump out the _Scud_ after a rain.
But as time went on and no purchaser appeared, the yacht seemed to feel
the neglect with which it was being treated, and by way of attracting
more attention to itself, suddenly began to leak.
"Well, pump her out every day if necessary, my son," said Mr. Trenwick,
when informed of the fact, for he was very busy at his office in the
city just then, and was never at home during the day except on Sundays.
The _Scud_ was moored on the edge of the channel, only a few yards from
the outer end of the Trenwicks' dock, and formerly a pretty blue and
white buoy had floated above the spot where the anchor lay; but this had
been lost by some means, and now the cable was fastened directly to the
bow of the boat.
In the course of a week or so the pump, too, gave out, so that the water
had to be patiently taken out by means of pail, bailer, and sponge,
which Jamie found to be not nearly as interesting an occupation as
pumping, which was certainly more "ship-shape."
"I don't wonder that nobody wants to buy her," he remarked to Marian one
very hot afternoon, as she rowed him out to the scene of his daily task.
"Look out, now, and don't let her bunk," he added, as his sister brought
the boat up alongside the _Scud_ with a swoop that threatened to
considerably damage the paint of both, had not Jamie skillfully warded
off the blow.
At the same moment there was a sound of wheels on the gravelled driveway
leading to the house, and a handsome village cart was seen to stop at
the front door.
"Oh, it's Mamie Henley!" cried Marian, clapping her hands. "Hurry out,
Jamie; here's your pail and things;" and quickly catching up her oars
again, the little girl shoved off, and was nearly back at the dock
before her brother could shout after her:
"But how am I going to get ashore? Come on out here again and take me
in; then I can leave you and keep the boat;" and Jamie beckoned
violently with the pail, as if to add emphasis to his words.
"Oh, I can't stop now," Marian screamed in reply, as she nimbly slipped
the painter over a post, and scrambled out on the dock. "There's Mamie
beckoning to me now. I'll run up and see her first, and when I come back
you'll be all through;" and throwing out the last sentence as she ran,
Jamie's twin flew on her way to the house. Jamie himself took up his
bailer and went to work, hoping that Mamie Henley's call would be a very
formal and consequently short one.
As it happened, it was not a call at all, for she had simply come to
take Marian out riding with her old pony in his new cart.
"But there's Jamie out there in the _Scud_," began Marian, when she had
been hugged and told that if she could not go at once she couldn't go at
all, as the coachman must be at home in time to meet the train.
"Oh, I'll see to your brother," returned Mamie, "and I know your mother
will let you go, for we met her on the road, and I asked her if you
might. Now hurry and put on your other hat," and as Marian vanished on
the instant, her friend walked to the bank and called to Jamie to know
how long it would take him to finish his work.
"About ten minutes," he shouted back.
"Well, I'm going to take Marian for a quarter of an hour's drive,"
screamed Mamie; "so you needn't hurry. I can't wait until she rows the
boat out to you. Good-by;" and before Jamie could make her understand
that it would be possible for them to let the boat drift out to him on
the ebb-tide, Marian appeared in her best hat, both girls hurried into
the cart, and with a cry of farewell went rattling off down the avenue.
"Well, this is a pretty fix to be left in!" thought Jamie, as he stood
up on the deck of the _Scud_ and looked out over the river in search of
a crab boy, or any other sort of boy with a boat.
But as it was quite early in the afternoon, there was not a single one
visible. Then, as it was so very warm, Jamie decided to rest awhile
before going on with his work, so he crawled in under the forward deck,
where there was shade and a strong smell of damp wood, and pillowing his
head on a sand-bag, lay there listening contentedly to the regular lap,
lap of the river against the _Scud_, wondering if each little ripple
wasn't a sort of water-sprite in disguise.
Of course it was but a wave's-breadth from thinking about water-sprites
to dreaming about them, and as the weather was extremely sultry, and the
slight motion of the boat very soothing, Jamie was soon seeing strange
sights.
First there were only the tiny water-sprites that seemed to flit before
him; then these gradually grew into dwarfs with large heads, which they
took off and tossed back and forth like foot-balls, until finally they
themselves changed into giants, while the heads were transformed into
immense cannon-balls, which crashed into one another, as they whizzed
through the air, with a terrible report.
Boom! bang! b-o-o-m! The noise was so loud that it woke Jamie with a
start, and even then he heard it, for in truth it was not all a dream,
but a fierce thunder-storm which had suddenly swooped down upon the calm
afternoon, and churned the peaceful river into a raging sea.
Jamie quickly turned over, and backed out of his retreat, to be at once
soaked through by the driving rain.
The _Scud_ was rising and falling on the waves with mighty thuds,
tugging at the cable like a spirited horse eager to be off, and even as
the boy stood there, transfixed with amazement, the rope parted, and the
liberated boat shot swiftly down the river with the wind and tide.
Then Jamie rushed to the stern, thinking he might be able to steer the
yacht in such a way that she would speedily be blown ashore; but with a
thrill of terror he discovered that there was no tiller on board, nor
even an oar or boat-hook to take its place, and thus, the rudder was
rendered practically useless. The next instant a zigzag flame lit up the
darkened heavens with its awful light, followed by a succession of
thunder-claps, which sent Jamie back under the deck with a heart that
nearly failed him as he realized how helpless he was.
The river was a broad one, and not particularly deep, except in the
channel, although now that the tide had only been falling for about an
hour there was not much hope of the _Scud_ running aground anywhere near
home. Faster and faster she drifted, or rather sailed along, until
Jamie, unable to longer lie there in suspense, came out from his refuge,
and, prepared to face the worst, gazed out upon the wild scene about
him.
There was not a boat to be seen, with the exception of a schooner
running down the river before the gale in the direction of the sea. The
sea! Yes, it was only five miles off; and as Jamie recollected the fact,
it seemed as if there _must_ be something he could do to check his
swift, dashing course toward it.
But he was quite powerless, and the _Scud_ went whirling on, now bow
first, now sidewise, yet ever moving on toward the ocean, between which
and it there now loomed up the draw-bridge.
With wide-open, anxious eyes Jamie gazed at the latter as the schooner
passed safely through, wondering in a dazed sort of way if the keeper
would see him before he closed the draw.
"But how can I be sure of not missing it, even if it is open?"
The question was a momentous one, and, alas! how difficult to answer!
And still onward sped the _Scud_, swiftly nearing the spot that now
seemed more terrible to Jamie than the ocean itself.
The man had evidently seen him, for the draw remained wide open, but
already the course of the boat was tending in such a way that a
collision with the bridge appeared to be almost inevitable. Jamie sprang
to the stern, and made a desperate effort to turn the rudder-post with
his hands, but all in vain.
The bridge-keeper had by this time perceived the full extent of the
lad's peril, but he could do nothing to help him--could only stand there
on the draw with straining eyes fixed on the _Scud_.
Yet would the shock really be great enough to harm him? Jamie wondered;
and for an instant or two he thought that the bridge might be the means
of saving him from a worse fate, for perhaps the boat would remain
unhurt, and he could manage to clamber up by the spiles. Then he noticed
how rapidly he was passing each landmark on shore, and felt the full
force of the gale as he turned to face it.
"The _Scud_ can never stand it," he cried aloud in his excitement.
"She's so old and leaky that at the first jar her timbers will give way,
and I--"
But he was almost there now, and Jamie closed his eyes for an instant,
as he fell to wondering vaguely whether the bridge-keeper would ever
find him, or if he would be swept out to sea with the wreck. Then there
came a sudden shock, which threw him from his feet, and caused him to
put up his hands as if to ward off the mast, which he felt must now
crash down upon him.
But nothing of the kind occurred, and venturing to raise his head, Jamie
saw that the boat had not yet reached the bridge, and what was stranger
still, remained stationary, with the spray dashing over its decks in
great sheets. And now he understood it all: the _Scud_ had run aground,
and just in time too, for the bridge was less than ten feet distant.
All was safe, then, for as the tide was falling, the boat would
undoubtedly remain where it was until the gale should subside, and Jamie
could be taken off. Meantime, after shouting to the bridge-keeper to
send some one out to him as soon as it was possible to do so, he crept
under the deck and awaited the end of the storm. This was not long in
coming, and soon the stout arms of a hardy fisherman lifted Jamie's
chilled and dripping form from the _Scud_, in which he had sailed in
spite of all, and he was rowed over to the beach in time to take the
same train back in which his father was returning from the city.
"An' am dat you or yer ghost, Mas'r Jamie?" exclaimed the colored
coachman, as they got into the carriage at the station. "There's yer
pore ma at home lookin' up an' down de ribber as white as yerself, an'
Miss Marian, she am dat scared 'bout yer dat--"
"But where was she all the time?" eagerly interrupted the boy, as his
father took the reins from Pomp, and started the horses at their
liveliest pace. "Why didn't she or somebody come out after me?"
"Why," replied Pomp, as he feasted his eyes on Jamie, sitting there in
flesh and blood between himself and Mr. Trenwick, "yer see she went on
dat ride wid Miss Mamie, an' dey was jist goin' to turn roun' an' come
home, when de storm broke ober 'em. An' Miss Mamie's pony he am powerful
'fraid o' thunder, so dey couldn't jist do nothin' at all wid him,' cept
drive into a barn 'long de road an' wait for clar weather. An' Miss
Marian, she say she wur a-frettin' 'bout yer all de time, although she
tink of course you had seen de storm a-comin' an' hollered to de
gardener or somebody roun' dar (yer ma an' me bein' out wid de
kerridge). An' when she come home an' find dat de _Scud_ wur gone an'
you in it, yer should hab seen her an' yer ma take on, like-- But yer
can see 'em now, tank de Lord!" added the good soul, as the team dashed
up to the piazza, and Jamie sprang into his mother's arms, with Marian
sobbing for joy on his damp jacket.
[Illustration]
THE FINE ART OF COOKING.
BY AUNT MARJORIE PRECEPT.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
A fine art, like painting, music, embroidery or sculpture? Yes, my
dears, and an art which involves as much industry, skill, and taste as
any of the others. Good cooking is an important element in home life and
happiness. Health depends upon it, for nobody can be well and strong who
suffers from indigestion, and nothing causes indigestion sooner than
ill-cooked food.
Many people think that while a girl must go to school for years to
acquire a knowledge of her own and foreign languages, and must have
masters for this and that accomplishment, she may be safely left to pick
up an acquaintance with cooking after she has a household of her own.
This is a great mistake, as hundreds of ladies who remember the trouble
they have had through want of experience can tell you. I myself once had
a dreadful time trying to prepare a dinner, in the absence of my
faithful Bridget, and I would have given up Latin, Greek, and French
that day to have known when the potatoes were done, and to have
discovered how to get the pease and beans out of the water in which they
were floating.
To be a good cook, girls, one needs a light, firm hand, an accurate eye,
and a patient temper. One needs, too, a few rules and a trustworthy
receipt-book. We have all seen the easy way in which a good cook makes a
cake. She tosses three or four things together, gives a flirt of the
spice box, and a feathery touch or two to her foamy eggs, pops the pan
into the oven, and presto! there appears the perfect loaf. And if you
ask her why and how she did this or the other part of her work, she will
very likely smile and say, "Oh, I used my judgment."
This judgment is the quality which no novice in cooking can expect to
possess, just as no novice on the piano can perform the "Moonlight
Sonata" after learning two or three scales, and no beginner with the
pencil can paint such sea-pieces as those of De Haas.
But if you are watchful and persevering, the judgment will surely come,
and by-and-by you will be as independent as a dear old colored aunty who
once cooked for me. One day when I had asked some friends, and wanted a
very nice dinner indeed, I asked Aunt Hannah how she intended to prepare
the turkey. She raised herself to her full height, and looking like a
queen, said, "Now, honey, you jest go 'long and sit by de fire. It's
_my_ business to cook de dinner, an' it'll be yours to eat it, chile."
Have your receipt-books, at least until you know certain rules by heart,
and minutely follow their directions. Still, as no receipt-book can tell
you just when bread is light or precisely when meat is done, you must
watch whatever you are cooking very carefully, and you will gradually
acquire a sort of sense which will not fail you.
One of the things you must learn if you wish to cook successfully is the
management of your fire. A range is a splendid servant if under proper
control; but unless you understand dampers and draughts, you will
probably have no end of trouble with your ovens. The skillful cook keeps
her fire raked clear of ashes from beneath. She never heaps coals up so
high that they over-brim the fire-chamber and rattle against the lids,
and she does not let her heat go up the chimney when it ought to be
baking her biscuits.
Try your oven with the thermometer. Miss Juliet Corson says that a good
temperature for baking meat is from 320° to 400° Fahr. Beef and mutton
require about twenty minutes to the pound, and you may tell when they
are done, and how much, by pressing the surface with the finger. Rare or
little-cooked meat will spring back from the touch. There will be little
resistance if it is quite well done, and none at all if it is baked
thoroughly.
In baking bread, which is, I think, the real test of a cook's merits, a
great deal depends on the kneading. You can not knead bread too long or
too often, and the more it is kneaded, by which I mean rolled over and
pounded with the clinched fist, the finer and closer-grained it will be.
If you have never made bread, ask mamma to let you try, and then, if
once or twice she will stand by, and show you how to sift the flour, how
to heap the right quantity into a deep pan, and make a hollow in the
middle, into which you shall pour your lukewarm water, your yeast, your
wee bit of sugar, and your spoonful of salt, following this by enough
tepid water to make a soft dough, you will not require her instructions
often. The art of making bread once learned is never forgotten. And how
proud papa will be the first time he eats a slice of his daughter's
home-made bread!
Whatever else you omit, girls, do not omit to learn to prepare food
properly; for
"You may live without friends, you may live without books,
But civilized man can not live without cooks."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE SPRING CONCERT.]
RACKETS.
BY B. HARDWICK.
Did you ever play rackets? If not, come and have a game with me. But
first we must understand the court and the implements.
[Illustration]
Here we have a picture of the racket-court on the corner of Twenty-sixth
Street and Sixth Avenue, New York city. The figures are those of the two
markers, whose business it is to keep the score. The court is eighty
feet long by forty feet wide. The front wall is thirty feet high, and
the back twelve. Over this wall there are galleries for the spectators.
These you can not see in the picture, as they form the point of sight.
The floor of the court is divided by a line from side to side, and where
this line meets the side walls there are quarter-circles marked. These
are called the service courts; there is also another line dividing the
nearer half of the court. The spaces on either side of this line are
called the right and left courts. The front wall to the height of
twenty-six inches is covered by a wooden board. And seven feet from the
floor there runs a line, over which every served ball must be struck.
The walls and sides of the court are of brick and plaster, hard and
smooth.
The rackets, or bats, have handles about two feet long, and their frames
are strung with catgut. They are much smaller than tennis bats. The
balls are of white leather, very hard, and tightly sewn, and little more
than an inch in diameter. The game is played by either two or four
persons. If by four, two play on a side. Let us have a single-handed
game, you and I, so that we may understand it more easily. I will begin.
I go to the right-hand service court, and throwing up the ball, I strike
it with the racket so that it bounds back into the left-hand court, in
which you stand ready to receive it. If I fail to strike over the line,
or play the ball so that it does not bound back into the left court, it
is a fault. Two faults would put me out. But now, see, I give my racket
a sweep, cutting the ball rather than striking it. The effect of this is
that when the ball strikes the wall it does not rise, but returns at a
low angle. Now it has bounded, and you strike it back, before its second
bound, on to the front wall. After the service you are not bound to
strike any higher than the twenty-six inches of wood. If you strike the
wood, the ace counts to me, or if you fail to return the ball on to the
front wall, it counts to me, and I score one. Then I go over to the
other service court, and serve again, so that the ball returns into the
right-hand court, and so on, until one of us fails. If you fail to
return the ball properly, it counts another ace to me; but if I fail, it
does not count one to you, but simply puts me out, and you go in and
serve. Only the server can add to his score. The one who first scores
fifteen aces, or points, wins the game.
This seems very easy, does it not? But if you take the racket you will
find it is not so easy as it looks. There are several tricks in the
game, the object of which is to make your opponent's return difficult if
not impossible. Thus, sometimes a player will volley a ball--that is,
strike it before it has bounded--and, playing it downward just a few
inches above the wood, it will bound downward, and touch the floor where
it can not be reached, or a player will strike very low, so as to
produce the same effect. I should have mentioned that you are not bound
to strike the front wall first. You may play off the side walls, and
sometimes by this play make it very difficult indeed for your adversary
to return the ball. Thus, if you play on to the side wall at an angle of
anything like forty-five degrees, the ball will take a similar angle off
the front and side walls, and never come down to the end of the court
where the players stand at all.
There is another point to be learned--the science of twist. If you
strike the ball very low, cutting it with the racket held with the face
slanting, it will give a twisting movement to the ball, so that the
return will not come off at the usual angle, but in a very unexpected
manner. This makes it very difficult for the other player to know where
to place himself to receive the stroke. The French, who are great
racket-players, have a saying, "La balle cherche le bon joueur" (the
ball seeks the good player). In point of fact, the really good player,
the moment a ball is struck, places himself so that the ball comes to
him. Nothing marks more clearly the difference between good and bad
players than ability in this respect.
When four players play together, they play, as I have said, two on a
side. Each side goes in alternately. One player on one side serves until
he is put out, and then his partner serves until he is put out. Then the
other side goes in, and so on. The non-strikers are bound to get out of
the way. If they in any way embarrass a striker, it is called a "let,"
and counts for nothing.
The Spring Handicap Championship games were lately held at the Racket
Club. There were thirty-eight entries, divided into first and second
class, with a prize for each class. In order to make the chances of the
good and the bad players as nearly equal as possible, the good ones gave
odds to the bad ones. Thus Mr. Allen, who is one of the best players in
the club, was put down as "scratch," that is, he received no odds. Mr.
Leavitt and another gentleman were in the same position. After these,
all the other players received odds--one or more aces, for instance, or
an "extra hand."