[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]
* * * * *
VOL. II.--NO. 71. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.
Tuesday, March 8, 1881. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50 per
Year, in Advance.
* * * * *
[Illustration: "SUGARING OFF."--DRAWN BY W. R. YEAGER.]
FUN IN A SUGAR BUSH.
BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
"Well, yes, Jerry," remarked Salina Meadows, "old Mr. Wire'll be glad to
have anybody come to see him that knows as much about sugar as you do."
"It's all the hobby he's got," said her brother Phin. "He makes the best
maple sugar in all these parts. Whitest and cleanest. Biggest lot of it,
too."
"I've heard him say," added Rush Potts, "that no man was ever too old to
learn. Glad we could bring you along."
"There isn't much about sugar I don't know," replied Jerry Buntley,
modestly, with a pull at his dog-skin gloves to make them fit tighter.
"You just ought to see a real sugar plantation once."
"I would like to," said Hannah Potts, all the red in her rosy face
coming to the surface to meet the wind that blew in her face from the
direction of old Mr. Wire's great forest on the hill-side.
They were all cuddling down in Elder Meadows's great box sleigh, and
Phin Meadows was putting the sorrel span along the road in a way that
made their bells dance lively enough, for the March thaw had only just
begun, and the sleighing was capital.
Jerry Buntley had told them more about sugar that day than they had ever
heard before. It was a great treat to be invited to a maple-sugaring at
old Mr. Wire's, and Jerry's country cousins were glad of having
something worth while to take with them by way of payment; that is, they
were glad to take Jerry.
He was glad to go, and he talked sugar until every soul in the sleigh
thought he could taste candy, and Phin found himself comparing the color
of his sorrel team to that of the five pounds his mother sent back to
Barnes's grocery store, because, as she said, "She wasn't going to pay
any 'leven cents a pound for building sand."
It was not many minutes before they pulled up in front of old Mr. Wire's
big rambling old farm-house, and there were Jim and Sally Wire coming
out to meet them. Old Mrs. Wire was in the doorway, and she looked
twenty years younger as soon as they had a look at her husband. Mainly
because the difference in their ages was a good deal more than that.
Nobody knew how tall Mr. Wire would have been if he had stood up, but
the oldest old ladies around Lender's Mills village all said he'd had
that stoop in his shoulders ever since they'd known him.
"My mother used to say," said Elder Meadows, "that old Wire's father was
a short, stocky man, and built his log-house to fit himself, and so when
his son got taller'n he was himself, he had to hold his head down,
'specially coming through the door."
There he was now, and the visitors had not been in the house five
minutes before Salina Meadows told how much Jerry Buntley knew about
sugar.
"His father sells tons of it, and his brother's a clerk in a sugar
store, and his uncle's a book-keeper in a sugar refinery in the city--"
"Ten stories high!" put in Jerry, with a down look of modesty.
"--and he's seen sugar plantations, and molasses factories, and where
they make all sorts of candy."
"You don't say!" exclaimed Mrs. Wire. "I'm glad you fetched him along."
"Wa'al, so'm I," said old Mr. Wire. "No man ain't ever too old to l'arn.
I've only been a-b'ilin' sap for a leetle risin' of fifty year, and I
don't know much. You're jest in time. The sun's lookin' down warm
to-day, and we was jest a-wantin' to set out for the bush."
"It isn't the fur-away bush," said Mrs. Wire; "it's that there patch
nighest the house. The trees ain't been tapped this five year, and
they'll run the best kind."
"There'll be more here by-and-by," said Sally Wire. "Don't take your
things off. We'll have a real good time."
Old Mr. Wire took Jerry Buntley right along with him--under his wing, as
you might say. He asked him questions, too, and nobody could guess how
many times Jerry made him exclaim, "You don't say!" or, "Do tell, now,
is that so?"
The forest had been left standing on all that hill-side for nothing else
in the world but sugar. It was not half an hour before the Wires and
their visitors were crunching over the crust among the trees, or
standing around the great fires that had been built and lit before they
came. Every fire had a great iron kettle on it, and every kettle was
bubbling for dear life, except when a dash of cold sap was ladled into
it from the barrel that stood under the nearest tree.
"It's afternoon now," said Sally Wire. "I do hope the other folks'll get
here before it's too dark. But then we can have a good time at the house
in the evening."
"Boys," said old Mr. Wire, "if you want to help, you jest take them two
auger bits and them spiles, and go and tap a fresh lot of trees over
there to the east'ard. Jim and I'll go round with the buckets."
Wonderfully white and clean were all his buckets and shoulder-yokes, and
his wooden troughs that caught the sap as it dripped into them from the
ends of the wooden spiles he had driven into the trees he had tapped
already. There was plenty of work for him and his son, and so Jerry
Buntley and Phin Meadows and Rush Potts marched away to the east, while
the girls hung around the kettles, and tested the syrup, in every way
they knew how, to see if any of it had boiled long enough.
"We'll have plenty to sugar off with in the house this evening," said
Sally Wire; "but we mustn't let any of it get burned."
Jerry took possession of an auger and a bundle of spiles, and Phin took
the other auger, and Rush Potts said he'd just go along to learn how.
"Catching cold are you, Phineas?" asked Jerry, as he began to work his
auger into a splendidly tall tree, and Phin and Rush both were seized
with a sudden fit of coughing,
"Ugh, ugh, ugh--no--ugh--I guess not. Bore it deep, Jerry. Old man Wire
is particular about that."
"Guess I know how to tap a tree," said Jerry. "The sun shines right on
this one, and the sap'll run well."
"Ugh--ugh--ugh," coughed Rush Potts. "I guess I'll help Phin. He doesn't
know as much as you do."
"I should say not," diffidently replied Jerry; but he had finished his
first tree quite skillfully, and now he went for his second with all the
zeal of a true sportsman.
"Phineas," he shouted, a moment later, "when you come to a maple of this
kind, knock off the outer bark. It bores easier."
"All right," replied Phin, with his mouth half full of his handkerchief.
But he added, in a lower voice: "Rush, stop rolling in the snow. He's
tapping a hickory this time."
"T'other was an elm. Oh, if he isn't fun! What'll old man Wire say to
that?"
"Keep still. Get up, can't you? I can't bore a hole worth a cent. Give
me a spile."
Jerry was an enthusiastic sugar-maker, and his rapidity of work was a
credit to him.
"Maple this time," said Phin, at the end of Jerry's next job. "But look
at what he's doing now."
"Beech! There'll be more sugar 'n old Wire'll know what to do with."
"We must pitch in, Rush. I want to be on hand when old Wire comes to see
if his spiles are set right. Maybe it'll kill him."
"I've tapped pretty nearly two trees to their one," said Jerry to
himself, "but I won't boast of it. Here's a remarkably fine tree, right
in the sun. I hope they won't make any mistakes."
With that he started his twist of steel into the yielding wood of one of
the noblest silver-birches in all that forest, and in a wonderfully
short time there was another spile fitted. Whether there would be any
need for Mr. Wire to put a sap trough under the end of that spile was
quite another question.
The crust was thick, and bore very well, so that the girls had no
wading to do in going from one fire to another; and Jim Wire and his
father worked like beavers at emptying the sap troughs, and carrying in
the almost colorless, sweetish-tasting liquid their trees had yielded
them.
"Now, Jim," said Mr. Wire at last, "we'd better take a lot of troughs
and follow them fellers. 'Twon't do to waste any sap."
Phin and Rush saw them coming, and at once stopped work. So did Jerry
Buntley, for he had some suggestions to make about those spiles. It
seemed to him that some of them were bored too small for the quantity of
sap which was expected to run through them.
He and the others came up just as the gray-headed old sugar-maker
stopped in front of Jerry's first tree, and they got there in time to
wink hard at Jim Wire. All three of them stepped around behind Jerry and
Mr. Wire.
"You've sot that there spile in jest about right, Mr. Buntley," said Mr.
Wire, without changing a muscle of his wrinkled face; "but this kind of
maple don't give any sugar at this season of the year. It isn't a winter
maple; it's the kind we call an ellum."
"Ah! Oh yes! Strange I didn't notice."
"Doesn't yield anything but brown sugar--common brown sugar. It's all
right, though. I declar'!"
He was looking at the shell-bark hickory now, and that specimen of
Jerry's work was a hard pull on his politeness.
"Jim," he said, "put a trough under thar. It's a changin' world. Things
isn't what they used to be. Mebbe thar's sugar into hickory nowadays."
"Hickory?" gasped Jerry. "That's a fact. I kind o' didn't look up to see
what it was."
"And ye couldn't ha' told by the bark; of course not. I'd
say--now--there--well--exactly--nobody ain't never too old to l'arn.
Beech, bass-wood, ellum, black walnut, birch--if thar'd been a saxafrax,
he'd ha' gone and tapped it for root-beer."
There was an explosion behind them just then, for the three other boys
gave it up the moment they saw it had been too much for old Mr. Wire.
"Put troughs to all on 'em, Jim," said the latter, solemnly, recovering
himself. "Stop your ignorant, on-mannerly laughin'. Mr. Buntley, jest
you come back to the kittles, and tell me over ag'in what you was
a-sayin' about surrup."
Jerry was beginning to understand the tree joke, but he could not see
why Phin Meadows should roll Rush Potts and Jim Wire over in the snow
the way he did, for he said to himself:
"It's a mistake any man would make. One tree is just like another. I
wonder how Mr. Wire tells them apart? I think I will ask him before we
go to the house."
So he did, and the old man answered him with cast-iron politeness that
he knew his trees, just as he did his dogs, by their bark.
When the day in the sugar bush was over, however, and when, after
supper, the fun in the house began, with a round dozen more of country
boys and girls to keep it up, Jerry heard all sorts of things. The
syrup, carried in and boiled down in the kettles over the kitchen fire,
was cooled, on the snow, and every other way, into "hickory sugar,"
"birch candy," "elm taffy," "beech twist," and all sorts of uncommon
sweetness, and Jerry overheard Mrs. Wire saying to Hannah Potts:
"You don't say! Did he really tap 'em all? He looks as if he might know
suthin', too. Mebbe he was jokin'."
All the rest were, except old Mr. Wire; and when the sorrel span was
brought out to take home the sleigh-load that came from Lender's Mills
village, he said to Jerry Buntley:
"No man ain't never too old to l'arn, and it wasn't knowin' too much
made me stoop-shouldered. Thar's a heap o' sense in what you told me
about that new way of settlin' surrup."
Nevertheless, Jim Wire went around the next morning and took away all
the troughs from under the trees which had not yielded any sap, and put
them where they were likely to do more good.
[Begun in No. 58 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, December 7.]
TOBY TYLER;
OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS.
BY JAMES OTIS.
CHAPTER XIII.
TOBY ATTEMPTS TO RESIGN HIS SITUATION.
At last it was possible for Toby to speak of his loss with some degree
of calmness, and then he immediately began to reckon up what he could
have done with the money if he had not lost it.
"Now see here, Toby," said Ben, earnestly, "don't go to doin' anything
of that kind. The money's lost, an' you can't get it back by talkin'; so
the very best thing for you is to stop thinkin' what you could do if you
had it, an' just to look at it as a goner."
"But--" persisted Toby.
"I tell you there's no buts about it," said Ben, rather sharply. "Stop
talkin' about what's gone, an' just go to thinkin' how you'll get more.
Do what you've a mind to the monkey, but don't keep broodin' over what
you can't help."
Toby knew that the advice was good, and he struggled manfully to carry
it into execution, but it was very hard work. At all events, there was
no sleep for his eyes that night, and when, just about daylight, the
train halted to wait a more seasonable hour in which to enter the town,
the thought of what he might have done with his lost money was still in
Toby's mind.
Only once did he speak crossly to the monkey, and that was when he put
him into the cage preparatory to commencing his morning's work. Then he
said:
"You wouldn't had to go into this place many times more if you hadn't
been so wicked; for by to-morrow night we'd been away from this circus,
an' on the way to home an' Uncle Dan'l. Now you've spoiled my chance an'
your own for a good while to come, an' I hope before the day is over
you'll feel as bad about it as I do."
It seemed to Toby as if the monkey understood just what he said to him,
for he sneaked over into one corner, away from the other monkeys, and
sat there, looking very penitent and very dejected.
Then, with a heavy heart, Toby began his day's work.
Hard as had been Toby's lot previous to losing his money, and difficult
as it had been to bear the cruelty of Mr. Job Lord and his precious
partner Mr. Jacobs, it was doubly hard now while this sorrow was fresh
upon him.
Previous to this, when he had been kicked or cursed by one or the other
of the partners, Toby thought exultantly that the time was not very far
distant when he should be beyond the reach of his brutal task-masters,
and that thought had given him strength to bear all that had been put
upon him.
Now the time of his deliverance from this bondage seemed very far off,
and each cruel word or blow caused him the greater sorrow because of the
thought that but for the monkey's wickedness he would have been nearly
free from that which made his life so very miserable.
If he had looked sad and mournful before, he looked doubly so now, as he
went his dreary round of the tent, crying, "Here's your cold lemonade,"
or "Fresh-baked pea-nuts, ten cents a quart," and each day there were
some in the audience who pitied the boy because of the misery which
showed so plainly in his face, and they gave him a few cents more than
his price for what he was selling, or gave him money without buying
anything at all, thereby aiding him to lay up something again toward
making his escape.
Those few belonging to the circus who knew of Toby's intention to escape
tried their best to console him for the loss of his money, and that
kind-hearted couple, the skeleton and his fat wife, tried to force him
to take a portion of their scanty earnings in the place of that which
the monkey had thrown away. But this Toby positively refused to do, and
to the arguments which they advanced as reasons why they should help him
along, he only replied that until he could get the money by his own
exertions he would remain with Messrs. Lord and Jacobs, and get along as
best he could.
Every hour in the day the thought of what might have been if he had not
lost his money so haunted his mind, that, finally he resolved to make
one bold stroke, and tell Mr. Job Lord that he did not want to travel
with the circus any longer.
As yet he had not received the two dollars which had been promised him
for his two weeks' work, and another one was nearly due. If he could get
this money, it might, with what he had saved again, suffice to pay his
railroad fare to Guilford, and if it would not, he resolved to accept
from the skeleton sufficient to make up the amount needed.
He naturally shrank from the task; but the hope that he might possibly
succeed gave him the necessary amount of courage, and when he had gotten
his work done, on the third morning after he had lost his money, and Mr.
Lord appeared to be in an unusually good temper, he resolved to try the
plan.
It was just before the dinner hour; trade had been unexceptionally good,
and Mr. Lord had even spoken in a pleasant tone to Toby when he told him
to fill up the lemonade pail with water, so that the stock might not be
disposed of too quickly, and with too little profit.
Toby poured in quite as much water as he thought the already weak
mixture could receive and retain any flavor of lemon, and then, as his
employer motioned him to add more, he mixed another quart in, secretly
wondering what it would taste like.
"When you're mixin' lemonade for circus trade," said Mr. Lord, in such a
benign, fatherly tone, that one would have found it difficult to believe
that he ever spoke harshly, "don't be afraid of water, for there's where
the profit comes in. Always have a piece of lemon-peel floatin' on the
top of every glass, an' it tastes just as good to people as if it cost
twice as much."
Toby could not agree exactly with that opinion, neither did he think it
wise to disagree, more especially since he was going to ask the very
great favor of being discharged; therefore he nodded his head gravely,
and began to stir up what it pleased Mr. Lord to call lemonade, so that
the last addition might be more thoroughly mixed with the others.
Two or three times he attempted to ask the favor which seemed such a
great one, and each time the words stuck in his throat, until it seemed
to him that he should never succeed in getting them out.
Finally, in his despair, he stammered out:
"Don't you think you could find another boy in this town, Mr. Lord?"
Mr. Lord moved around sideways, in order to bring his crooked eye to
bear squarely on Toby, and then there was a long interval of silence,
during which time the boy's color rapidly came and went, and his heart
beat very fast with suspense and fear.
"Well, what if I could?" he said at length. "Do you think that trade is
so good I could afford to keep two boys, when there isn't half work
enough for one?"
Toby stirred the lemonade with renewed activity, as if by this process
he was making both it and his courage stronger, and said, in a low
voice, which Mr. Lord could scarcely hear:
"I didn't think that; but you see I ought to go home, for Uncle Dan'l
will worry about me, an', besides, I don't like a circus very well."
Again there was silence on Mr. Lord's part, and again the crooked eye
glowered down on Toby.
"So," he said--and Toby could see that his anger was rising very
fast--"you don't like a circus very well, an' you begin to think that
your uncle Daniel will worry about you, eh? Well, I want you to
understand that it don't make any difference to me whether you like a
circus or not, and I don't care how much your uncle Daniel worries. You
mean that you want to get away from me, after I've been to all the
trouble and expense of teaching you the business."
Toby bent his head over the pail, and stirred away as if for dear life.
"If you think you're going to get away from here until you've paid me
for all you've eat, an' all the time I've spent on you, you're mistaken,
that's all. You've had an easy time with me--too easy, in fact--and
that's what ails you. Now you just let me hear two words more out of
your head about going away--only two more--an' I'll show you what a
whipping is. I've only been playing with you before when you thought you
was getting a whipping; but you'll find out what it means if I so much
as see a thought in your eyes about goin' away. An' don't you dare to
try to give me the slip in the night, an' run away; for if you do, I'll
follow you, an' have you arrested. Now you mind your eye in the future."
It is impossible to say how much longer Mr. Lord might have continued
this tirade, had not a member of the company--one of the principal
riders--called him one side to speak with him.
Poor Toby was so much confused by the angry words which had followed his
very natural and certainly very reasonable suggestion that he paid no
attention to anything around him, until he heard his own name
mentioned, and then, fearing lest some new misfortune was about to
befall him, he listened intently.
"I'm afraid you couldn't do much of anything with him," he heard Mr.
Lord say. "He's had enough of this kind of life already, so he says, an'
I expect the next thing he does will be to try to run away."
"I'll risk his getting away from you, Job," he heard the other say; "but
of course I've got to take my chances. I'll take him in hand from eleven
to twelve each day--just your slack time of trade--and I'll not only
give you half of what he can earn in the next two years, but I'll pay
you for his time if he gives us the slip before the season is out."
Toby knew that they were speaking of him, but what it all meant he could
not imagine.
"What are you going to do with him first?" Job asked.
"Just put him right into the ring, and teach him what riding is. I tell
you, Job, the boy's smart enough, and before the season's over I'll have
him so that he can do some of the bare-back acts, and perhaps we'll get
some money out of him before we go into winter-quarters."
[Illustration: TOBY AND THE LITTLE BOY CUSTOMERS.]
Toby understood the meaning of their conversation only too well, and he
knew that his lot, which before seemed harder than he could bear, was
about to be intensified through this Mr. Castle, of whom he had
frequently heard, and who was said to be a rival of Mr. Lord's, so far
as brutality went. The two men now walked toward the large tent, and
Toby was left alone with his thoughts and the two or three little boy
customers, who looked at him wonderingly, and envied him because he
belonged to the circus.
During the ride that night he told old Ben what he had heard,
confidently expecting that that friend at least would console him. But
Ben was not the champion which he had expected. The old man who had been
with a circus, "man and boy, nigh to forty years," did not seem to think
it any calamity that he was to be taught to ride.
"That Mr. Castle is a little tough on boys," old Ben said, thoughtfully;
"but it'll be a good thing for you, Toby. Just so long as you stay with
Job Lord, you won't be nothin' more'n a candy boy; but after you know
how to ride, it'll be another thing, an' you can earn a good deal of
money, an' be your own boss."
"But I don't want to stay with the circus," wailed Toby; "I don't want
to learn to ride, an' I do want to get back to Uncle Dan'l."
"That may all be true, an' I don't dispute it," said Ben, "but you see
you didn't stay with your uncle Daniel when you had the chance, an' you
did come with the circus. You've told Job you wanted to leave, an' he'll
be watchin' you all the time to see that you don't give him the slip.
Now, what's the consequence? Why, you can't get away for a while,
anyhow, an' you'd better try to amount to something while you are here.
Perhaps after you've got so you can ride, you may want to stay, an' I'll
see to it that you get all of your wages, except enough to pay Castle
for learnin' of you."
"I sha'n't want to stay," said Toby. "I wouldn't stay if I could ride
all the horses at once, an' was gettin' a hundred dollars a day."
"But you can't ride one horse, an' you hain't gettin' but a dollar a
week, an' still I don't see any chance of your gettin' away yet awhile,"
said Ben, in a matter-of-fact tone, as he devoted his attention again to
his horses, leaving Toby to his own sad reflections, and the positive
conviction that boys who run away from home do not have a good time,
except in stories.
The next forenoon, while Toby was deep in the excitement of selling to a
boy no larger than himself, and with just as red hair, three cents'
worth of pea-nuts and two sticks of candy, and while the boy was trying
to induce him to "throw in" a piece of gum because of the quantity
purchased, Job Lord called him aside, and Toby knew that his troubles
had begun.
"I want you to go in an' see Mr. Castle; he's goin' to show you how to
ride," said Mr. Lord, in as kindly a tone as if he were conferring some
favor on the boy.
If Toby had dared to, he would have rebelled then and there, and refused
to go; but as he hadn't the courage for such proceeding, he walked
meekly into the tent, and toward the ring.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
THE NATIONAL FLOWER OF JAPAN.
BY WILLIAM ELIOT GRIFFIS.
[Illustration]
The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan, as the rose is of
England, the lily of France, the thistle of Scotland, and the shamrock
of Ireland. On the Mikado's flags, papers, and carriages, and on the
soldiers' caps and uniform, you will see the open chrysanthemum. But
the flower of the people and of the nation is the flower of the
blossoming cherry-tree.
"Do not all cherry-trees blossom?" you will ask.
Yes; but the Japanese cultivate all over Japan, by the millions, the
sakura-tree, which is valued only for the beauty of its blossoms.
Botanists call it _Prunus pseudocerasus_. From an entire tree you could
not get ripe cherries enough to make a pie; but the blooms are massed
together on the boughs like clouds, and the blooms are often as large as
a rose. Picnics in Japan are called, "Going to see the flowers." In
June, millions of the people go out to sing and sport and laugh and play
under the cherry-trees, or to catch "the snow-showers that do not fall
from the skies." There are tens of thousands of stanzas of poetry about
the cherry-tree. Some of the people become so enchanted with the lovely
blossoms that they actually say their prayers under them, or even
worship the famous old trees. Here is an instance, which the artist has
told by his pencil. A sacred cherry-tree has been carefully surrounded
by a fence of bamboo, and two old gentlemen are worshipping the tree,
while one young fellow is snickering at them from around the corner, and
the other's mouth is wide open with astonishment, and he is probably
saying, "Naru hodo" (Well, I declare!).
PUSSY WILLOW.
BY MARIAN DOUGLAS.
The brook is brimmed with melted snow,
The maple sap is running,
And on the highest elm a crow
His big black wings is sunning.
A close green bud the May-flower lies
Upon its mossy pillow;
And sweet and low the South Wind blows,
And through the brown fields calling goes,
"Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!
Within your close brown wrapper stir;
Come out and show your silver fur;
Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!"
Soon red will bud the maple-trees,
The bluebirds will be singing,
And yellow tassels in the breeze
Be from the poplars swinging;
And rosy will the May-flower lie
Upon its mossy pillow,
But you must come the first of all.
"Come, Pussy!" is the South Wind's call--
"Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!"
A fairy gift to children dear,
The downy firstling of the year--
Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!
THE ANTS AT HOME.
BY CHARLES MORRIS.
The brook that ran merrily by the garden of Woodbine Cottage, prattling
like a happy child on a holiday, grew sober and quiet further down,
spreading into a broad sheet of gleaming water, through whose liquid
surface glistened the silvery sands that adorned its bed.
Here the soft green verdure spread like a rich carpet, and Harry and
Willie Mason lay buried in the deep grasses until only their heads
appeared above the waving blades. On the bank of the brook sat their
uncle Ben, his kindly face turned with a pleasant smile to the
questioning boys.
"So you want to hear some more queer stories about ants?" he said. "Why,
I thought we were well done with the subject."
"But you said, you know, that there was a lot more of odd things,"
replied Harry, "and Willie wants ever so much to hear them. Don't you,
Willie?"
"I guess _you_ does," retorted Willie, with a sly gesture.
Uncle Ben laughed heartily. "So it is one word for Willie, and two for
yourself," he said. "But what shall I tell you about? Shall I describe
that strange tree which keeps up a standing army of ants to preserve it
from injury, while it in return finds the ants in food and shelter?"
"A tree!" cried Harry, with a shout of laughter. "It must be a thinking
tree, then."
"I suppose so--in its way. Not just in our way, of course. One can
hardly believe such things of a tree."
"_I_ don't b'lieve it," said Willie, sturdily.
"What a born critic you are!" replied his uncle, with a quizzical look
at the little doubter. "It is true, nevertheless. The tree in question
is called the bull's-horn acacia. A species of ants lives upon it, and
protects it from insects which would injure its foliage, such as slugs
and caterpillars. But the odd thing is the mode in which the tree
manages to provide for these ant soldiers."
"Is they the soldiers you kept talking 'bout?" asked Willie.
"Oh no; those were soldier ants who went out in armies, and fought
battles with other ant armies, or attacked the nests of the negro ants
and carried off their young to bring them up as slaves. These soldiers
only fight for the good of the tree."
"Which takes care of them in return?" asked Harry.
"Precisely. There are certain cavities in its outer surface which serve
as barracks for these regiments of ants. But the most curious feature is
the mode in which the tree provides food for its defenders. When the
leaves are young, and in danger from insects, there opens a little gland
at their base, which is filled with a honey-like liquid. The ants are
very fond of this, and lap it up greedily. They run from one gland to
another, and are thus kept constantly about the young leaves. And these
little chaps bite shrewdly, so that no other creeping thing dares to
venture near the leaves."
"Well, that is certainly very curious," said Harry, raising himself on
one arm half out of his grassy bed.
"But that is only part of the provision," continued his uncle. "The leaf
is what is called a compound leaf, consisting of a number of leaflets on
one stem. When this compound leaf first unfolds, there appears at its
base a little yellow fruit-like body, attached by a fine point to the
leaf. It is a beautiful object through the microscope, looking like a
little golden pear. It is not quite ripe when the leaf first opens, and
the ants may be seen busily running from one to another to see if any
are ripe. Whenever one is found to be ripe, the ant bites it off at the
small point of attachment, and carries it eagerly away to its nest. But
they do not ripen all at once, so that the ants are kept about the
leaves until these are old enough to be out of danger."
"Well, I never heard anything quite so queer about trees!" exclaimed
Harry.
"There are many strange instances of trees being aided by insects,"
remarked Uncle Ben; "but I doubt if there is any stranger than this.
There is one tree, of the genus _Triplaris_, whose trunk, limbs, and
even its smallest twigs, are hollow. If any person happens to break or
even to shake one of these twigs, he might well imagine that the tree
was alive, for he will instantly find it covered with multitudes of
creeping brown creatures, which bite furiously. It is, in fact,
inhabited by myriads of ants, which occupy the whole interior, and which
protect the tree from its enemies by their vicious bite."
"I hardly think I would like to break switches from that tree," laughed
Harry.
"I's mighty sure I wouldn't," said Willie.
"There is another tree, called the trumpet-tree," continued their uncle.
"This has a hollow stem, divided by partitions, like the reeds which
grow on our river shores. Ants get into this tree by boring a hole from
the outside. They then bore through the partitions, and get the run of
the whole interior. Every cell made by the partitions serves them as a
separate apartment, some being devoted to eggs, and some to their young
in different stages of growth. One cell is kept as the home of the
queen, this royal lady having an apartment of her own."
"Do the ants protect this tree too?" asked Harry.
"Oh yes; they rush out in millions if the tree is shaken, and are very
apt to make things uncomfortable for intruders."
"Don't feed 'em on pears, does it?" asked Willie.
"Not exactly; they do not get their living directly from the tree; but
they feed on it indirectly. The fact is, this species keeps a kind of
ant cows. These are minute insects, which attach themselves to the
interior of the tree, and live on its juices. They give out a honey-like
liquid, of which the ants are very fond, and lap up with great
eagerness. You see thus that there are various ways in which plants feed
the ants which protect them from other insects."
"Are there any other ants that live on trees?" asked Harry.
"Yes, indeed. Ants are very apt to take possession of hollow trees. They
build thin partitions, which divide the interior of the tree into halls,
galleries, and saloons, and they live there thoroughly sheltered from
the weather. The Ethiopian ants hollow out long galleries, and use the
finely powdered wood which has fallen to the bottom of the tree to stop
up every chink in the floors, to make partitions, and to fill up useless
apartments. There are also yellow ants which construct entire stories of
this decayed wood. They mix it with a little earth and spider's web, and
thus make it into a sort of _papier-maché_."
"Don't think that's so awful smart," protested Willie. "Jess don't the
wasps an' the hornets make paper nests too?"
"Very true," replied his uncle. "There is another curious ant, though,
which makes its nest out of leaves. These are large, strong leaves, but
the little creatures somehow draw their edges together, and gum them
fast, so that they make themselves a close, roomy shelter inside. They
have been seen at work, thousands of them tugging away for dear life at
the edges of the leaves. If they are startled, and made to loose their
hold of the edge, it flies back so strongly that it is a marvel how they
ever drew it in."
"Don't they sometimes build very large nests on the ground," asked
Harry--"much larger than the little ant-hills we see about here?"
"I should think so, indeed! Why, the common red ant of England builds a
nest of any rubbish it can find, such as straw, leaves, and bits of wood
mixed with earth, often as large as a small hay-cock. But this is a
trifle, compared with some tropical ant-hills. Travellers in Guiana
describe ant-hills which are fifteen or twenty feet high, and thirty or
forty feet wide at the base. You might well fancy they were houses for
elephants, instead of for ants."
"I should imagine they must be elephantine ants," remarked Harry.
"Not at all. There is a very small ant in New South Wales whose hills
are eight or ten feet high. But this is not all; these great mounds are
only the upper part of the ant city. It extends as deeply under-ground.
There is one ant described that builds a nest of forty stories, twenty
above and twenty under ground. These stories are divided into numerous
saloons and apartments, with narrow galleries, and inclined planes for
stairways. The partitions are usually very thin, but the ceilings are
often supported by pillars and buttresses, just like our great halls."
"It must take the ants a long while to build such nests as that,"
remarked Harry.
"I guesses so," said Willie. "I's seen 'em, many and many a time,
running up with their wee little bits of dirt, and I knows they'd jess
be ever and ever so long."
"But you do not stop to think what can be done by keeping at it," said
Uncle Ben. "They are the very hardest of hard workers. They never seem
to tire or lie down to rest, so that it is astonishing what progress
they make. It is said that they will finish a complete story to their
nest, with all its rooms, galleries, vaulted roofs, and partitions, in
seven or eight hours. They use wet clay in the work, and put it together
very rapidly."
"I suppose these big nests are built just like the little ones we have
here," said Harry, with a questioning look.
"Yes, on much the same principle. In fact, our little mason ants are
very expert builders. Some of them only build while it is raining, or
while the ground continues wet. If it gets so dry that the earth will
not stick together, they pull down their unfinished walls, and heap the
earth over the finished portions. The ash-colored mason is very curious
in his ways. He begins by bringing a quantity of earth, which he heaps
on the roof of his old home. Then he goes to work upon this, excavating
galleries, just as a laborer will dig ditches across a field. Finally he
roofs over these galleries. But if he should begin a roof before the
walls are high enough, he will carefully take it down, and build the
walls higher before proceeding with his roof."
"Why, what smart little chaps they are! They must think, anyhow. Don't
you believe so, Uncle Ben?"
"One would fancy so, at any rate. They may not be able to think like
philosophers, but they certainly think like builders. I could give you
other evidences of it. If you saw them carefully closing the doors of
their nests at night or in wet weather, and opening them again in the
morning, and carrying their young out-of-doors to enjoy the sun on
bright days, and a dozen other shrewd habits, you might well imagine
they thought it all out. Among the strangest of these ant-philosophers
are the driver ants of West Africa, a species which can not endure the
hot suns of that region. If they are caught by the fierce rays of the
sun when out travelling, they at once build themselves a covered archway
of clay--a long tunnel whose sides and roof are cemented by some gummy
material from their own bodies. Under this they travel safe from the
sun. It is said of the same ants that when they are obliged to cross a
stream in their journeys, they will ascend a tree, and run out on a low
limb that hangs over the opposite side. From this they drop a line of
ants to the earth, each clinging firmly to the one above it. Over this
living line the whole army passes. Other travellers relate that if they
can not cross the stream in this way, they will drop a line of ants to
the water, from which a horizontal line, supported on the water, runs to
the other side; forming a living bridge, over which the whole army
marches. For my part, I hardly know what to think of these stories,
since the driver ants are entirely blind."
"I guesses that's 'nough," said Willie. "Let's go play, Harry. Ants
can't do that, anyway. They doesn't do nuffin but work all the time."
"Indeed you are very much mistaken, my young friend," replied his uncle.
"They are just as fond of play as you are. They will wrestle with one
another, and ride on each other's backs, as if it were the greatest fun
in the world. And they have been seen practicing gymnastic sports,
climbing, hanging down by one leg, and letting themselves fall from a
distance, as if they enjoyed it hugely. In fact, they are up to almost
as many pranks and capers as young boys. I doubt, however, if they get
into mischief as often. But go on; I won't detain you any longer from
your play."
"Maybe you's glad 'nough to get rid of us," said Willie, slyly, as he
snatched Harry's cap and ran away with it. In an instant the ants were
forgotten, and there was a hot chase across the grassy meadow.
[Illustration: ABDULLAH AND HIS FRIENDS.]
AN EGYPTIAN BOOT-BLACK.
BY L. M. F.
I am only a poor Egyptian boot-black, but, for all that, I do not
consider myself the inferior of any living being, and feel very proud to
own that I am a descendant from one of the most ancient nations existing
on the face of the earth. I was born in Cairo, Egypt; so were all my
ancestors, and no other land bears the imprints of the soles of their
feet, for they lived and died in this sunny land.
My name is Abdullah (_i. e._, servant of God). I am an orphan; my
parents died before I was five, leaving me a waif trusting to the mercy
of the world at large. Having no home, and no kith or kin to claim me, I
was thrown into the streets to hunt up my own living. I used to wander
up and down begging for a para, a piece of bread, or anything with which
I could satisfy the pangs of hunger. Thus I passed about four years of
my life living on beggary, till one day I noticed a boy blacking an
Englishman's boots, and he paid the boy one piastre for doing it. I at
once resolved to earn my living that way, and begged the boy to instruct
me. He first refused, but on my telling him I was an orphan, he at once
taught me how to handle the brushes, and gave me a couple of old ones
which he had in his box. I gratefully accepted them. Hastening to one of
the stores, I begged for an empty little box, and fastening it to a
piece of rope I had found on a dust heap, I slung it across my shoulder
proudly, in imitation of all boot-blacks. How could I get some blacking?
was my next thought. I entered a grocery store, and said to the owner,
"Ya sidi" (_i. e._, my lord), "I will black your boots for a couple of
figs."
"You don't look like a boot-black," he responded.
"I can black boots better than ten boot-blacks," said I, confidently.
"All right," said he, seating himself, and presenting me his foot;
"black away."
I tremblingly opened my box, and taking out my brushes hesitatingly
said:
"Ya sidi, my blacking is not very good; it is rather dry. If you let me
use your blacking, I could make your shoes like a mirror."
"Very well," he unsuspectingly said, handing me a large box of blacking
from a well-filled shelf over his head. "I guess mine is fresher; but
make them fine, for I want to go to a wedding."
"Halla rassi" (_i. e._, on my head), I replied, setting to work. It
being a very hot day, this gentleman was dressed in a long spotless
white caftan touching his ankles. I worked vigorously, and in my
eagerness to do the thing well, I got the blacking smeared over my
hands, which left large black marks on his ankles, and, worst of all, I
had a nice sprinkling of black dots all over his white suit.
"Oh, you young rascal!" he exclaimed, hurriedly, glancing at his
condition, "what have you done?"
He was just about dealing me a blow, when I grasped my box and brushes
and made my escape. Exasperated that he had missed me, with an oath he
flung the box of blacking after me, which hit me on the shoulder. I
joyfully clutched the blacking, and ran into another street as fast as
my legs could carry me. Breathless, I sat down on a door-step to
contemplate my next undertaking, whereupon four professional boot-blacks
roughly accosted me, asking how long I had been a boot-black, and to
what district I belonged. I replied that I did not belong to any; upon
which they began roughly pushing me, and wanted to take away my brushes
and blacking; but I fought manfully and desperately for them.
"Hafarêm" (_i. e._, well done), said one. "You are a ghadah" (_i. e._,
fine fellow). "You can fight well; and as you have no one, we will take
you in our company, provided you divide your earnings with us."
Of course I acceded with great pleasure.
The Egyptian boot-blacks have a regular constitution and set of laws;
not written out or printed, but not the less enforced.
1. The city of Cairo is divided into about a dozen boot-black districts.
2. The strongest boot-black in his district shall be the Sheik, or
chief, until some stronger boy whips him; then the strongest boy takes
his place.
3. Every boot-black must obey his Sheik.
4. Always stand by a boot-black, even if from another district.
5. Only Mohammedans are allowed the privilege of being boot-blacks. Any
other sects taking up the trade must be put down.
I soon learned all these rules, and followed them closely. The
Mohammedans, with the exception of the military men and those in the
Viceroy's service, never have their boots blackened. A true Mohammedan
looks on blackened boots as on something sacrilegious, so that we
boot-blacks are regarded with scorn by our pious neighbors. The
boot-black trade is in the European part of the city; that is where we
mostly get our customers. We charge no regular price, but take just what
we can get. Our worst customers are the military officers and policemen,
for they often fail to pay us a single para; and if they are in a good
humor, thereby refraining from giving us a kick, they will occasionally
throw us the end of a cigar, and we are obliged to submit to this
treatment with all humility. The European and American tourists are our
genii, for they often give us a franc for polishing their boots. The
Christians and Jews who reside in the city do not pay us well. Some of
the richer ones give twenty paras (equal to two cents); while others,
such as grocery men, pay us in an orange, or a few figs, or a handful of
dates. Thus we barely make a living among a population of four hundred
thousand inhabitants. Our voices are heard among the first sounds of the
early morning, calling, "Boyâ! boyâ! boy-â-â-â!" (_i. e._, blacking). We
frequent the streets where most customers are to be found, and often
have a fight with some boot-black from another district who is trying to
obtain the best custom.
Once in the year there is a gathering of the faithful followers of
Mohammed for a pilgrimage to Mecca. The streets are filled with gay
processions escorting the pious pilgrims. All the boot-blacks on that
day unite in full force, every Sheik marching at the head of his company
brandishing a stick; our boxes are slung across our shoulders to
designate our trade; and we all heartily join in making as much noise as
possible, shouting, "Boyâ! boyâ-â-â!" as we lead a camel richly
harnessed through the streets of the city. There are hundreds of such
other camels in this grand procession, led by various parties. Slowly we
file through the streets, amid the hearty cheers of the citizens, and
wend our way toward the desert, where we leave our camel to the charge
of some faithful pilgrim, and return back again to our daily routine of
boot-blacking.
I have been a successful boot-black for five years, and I am now the
Sheik of my district, which position I gained by being the strongest and
most able fighter, and best story-teller, consequently, as a badge of
honor, I wear a small turban around my cap. The four boys who first
patronized me are my best friends. After a hard day's work, we often
resort to some quiet spot on a door-step, and, seating myself, my
friends cluster round me for a thrilling tale from the _Arabian Nights_.
Ali sits on my left, resting his weary arm on my knee, for he is the
best boot-polisher in the city, and works very hard. Mustapha, on my
right, has his only brother Hassan's head resting in his lap. Mahmud is
the youngest, and is rather restless. He is fond of standing up, brushes
in hand, and trying to see if he can not chance to spy some customer
wanting his boots blackened, for he is ambitious to make as much money
as possible, as he has an old grandmother, whom he loves dearly, to
support.
Not long ago a kind American lady, who seems to have taken an interest
in us poor boot-blacks, started an evening school for us. As she had
been good to me, and had once helped me out of a serious difficulty, I
used all my power as Sheik of my district to make the boys attend. At
first it seemed rather dull work to spend two evenings every week in
school, but our kind friend made it so pleasant for us that we gradually
grew to like it, and now think our school evenings the pleasantest of
the week. I am trying hard to learn what is taught us, and hope some
time to be something better than an Egyptian boot-black.
[Illustration: THE FAITHFUL SENTINEL.]
AN AWFUL SCENE.
BY JIMMY BROWN.
I have the same old, old story to tell. My conduct has been such
again--at any rate, that's what father says; and I've had to go up
stairs with him, and I needn't explain what that means. It seems very
hard, for I'd tried to do my very best, and I'd heard Sue say, "That boy
hasn't misbehaved for two days good gracious I wonder what can be the
matter with him." There's a fatal litty about it, I'm sure. Poor father!
I must give him an awful lot of trouble, and I know he's had to get two
new bamboo canes this winter just because I've done so wrong, though I
never meant to do it.
It happened on account of coasting. We've got a magnificent hill. The
road runs straight down the middle of it, and all you have to do is to
keep on the road. There's a fence on one side, and if you run into it,
something has got to break. John Kruger, who is a stupid sort of a
fellow, ran into it last week head first, and smashed three pickets, and
everybody said it was a mercy he hit it with his head, or he might have
broken some of his bones, and hurt himself. There isn't any fence on the
other side, but if you run off the road on that side, you'll go down the
side of a hill that's steeper than the roof of the Episcopal church, and
about a mile long, with a brook full of stones down at the bottom.