Various

“ I think papa is not much of a politician.”
“I know how he feels,” said Ralph; “he is good and kind, and wants everybody to be free. He is one of the best men I ever saw.”
“He really is!” exclaimed Camilla, enthusiastically. “He is just as good as any one can be. And,” she added, with childlike earnestness, “he likes you ever so much, too.”
Ralph was perfectly happy upon this ride; and when the party reached home, it was to be greeted by the unaffected welcome of the negroes, old and young, who were evidently much attached to their master and his household. ”

“ Going to the ledge beyond, they saw where the negro had scrambled up with muddy feet, and where the sharp hoofs of the boar had scratched long lines on the rock.
It was easy to see how the large, loose stone, which had prevented the fugitive’s 390b escape, had slipped from its place as he tried to climb over it.
“Well, well,” said Mr. Arthur, “you ought to have one good friend in the forest, and I guess you have! I don’t think that poor fellow will ever forget you.”
Ralph felt that this was pay enough, even though the friend was only a poor negro, whom he might never see again. ”

“ Golden Days.—We commend this as the best of the class of publications to which it belongs, and as being essentially different from all that are contemporaneous with it. And if it shall prove to be like Moses’ rod when turned into a serpent, and swallow up the serpent-rods of all cunning magicians of evil, and then become a rod of power for working good in the home, in the school, and wherever youth are found, we shall rejoice. ”

“ OLD JACK SEES A REMEMBERED FACE.
One evening, when Ralph went into the forecastle, he found Jack alone there. The old sailor had just been overhauling his sea-chest, and had in his hand the baby’s shoe which he had so long carried for good luck.
“I was just looking at it,” he said, “because to-day I came across the father of that identical baby. I hadn’t seen him for about sixteen years, but I knew him in a minute. He was puffing his cigar, just as he used to do about the decks of the Moro Castle.”
“What!” exclaimed Ralph, “the very man? Oh, how I wish I had been with you! ”

“ A small village in Northern Italy to a wonderful extent fulfills the wild dream of the Macedonian architect, the houses being grouped in such a manner upon a broken eminence of land that from a certain point a striking resemblance to an upturned human face is outlined. In addition to a chin, nose and brow, a white chimney lends an eye to the profile, while a line of bushes at the crown has the appearance of shaggy locks. ”

“ A MODEL PAPER.—Two years ago, we informed the readers of the Citizen that a long-felt want was to be supplied—viz., a paper was to be printed which would give the young people (boys and girls) plenty of good reading without corrupting their morals or vitiating their tastes—in other words, would furnish them with stories which would gratify their love of adventure without inspiring in them a desire to imitate impossible heroes, and tempting them to desert their homes in search of adventures which never occur outside of blood-and-thunder papers and story books. ”

“ While the latter was talking, his hands were busy with the rope; and when the prisoner arose from the bench and stamped his feet to set the blood in circulation again, his excited and watchful guards at once covered his head and Joe’s with the muzzles of their guns.
“Turn those weapons the other way,” repeated Joe, angrily. “You don’t think this man is foolish enough to try to run off while his hands are tied, do you? Now, father, how did you happen to catch him?”
“It was just as easy as falling off a log,” replied Silas, resuming his seat and resting his double-barrel across his knees. ”

“ We can heartily recommend Golden Days as one of the purest and most charming juvenile magazines we have seen. It is wholly free from corrupting influences—fresh, instructive, and eagerly welcomed by the boys and girls. ”

“ The remarkable success attained by Golden Days, the boys’ and girls’ periodical, published by Mr. James Elverson, Philadelphia, is a most encouraging evidence that pure and healthful literature is not incapable of attracting the eager interest of “Young America.” Mr. Elverson, seems, in fact, to have gauged the taste of the average child of our day with wonderful accuracy, as there appears to be but one opinion as to the universal popularity of this excellent periodical. ”

“ It is said that the timid man is afraid before the danger, the coward during it, and the brave man after it. Ralph was afraid after it.
He felt a kind of weakness about the knees, and wondered that he had not noticed it before. He remembered how the bristles had stood up on the boar’s back, how the savage jaws had clashed together, and how he had seen the tusks standing out like long knives as the creature came straight for him. ”

“ BY FANNIE WILLIAMS.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Linda Trafton, turning over the pages of a closely-written, school-girlish letter, which her brother Fred had tossed into her lap, on returning from the post office. “I do wish I could get silk pieces enough to make a crazy quilt. Cousin Dell writes all about hers, and it must be very pretty.”
“Crazy quilt! That’s about all I’ve heard for the last six months! I should think you girls had all gone crazy yourselves!” ejaculated Fred. ”

“ Over the Egyptians it was a dense fog that cut off all their vision so that they could not tell what the Israelites were doing, while to the latter it was as though it had caught and held the rays of the setting sun, and poured a brilliant glory all over and through their encampment. The Egyptians, thinking that the rising sun will disperse the fog, wait for morning.
THE ISRAELITES ENTER THE RED SEA. “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ”

“ This curious little bird is, in size and plumage, about like an English sparrow, and gets his name from the fact that the little fellow, who is very fond of honey, being unable to obtain it for himself, will lead men to the places where the wild bees have hidden their stores of rich, wild honey. Whenever this bird sees a man, he will fly close to him, hovering around, uttering a twittering sound ”

“ The whoop and the hat together were enough to startle almost any horse; and, although Mr. Trafton’s fine roadster, “Billy,” was pretty well trained, the combined effect was a little too much for his nerves. He gave a sidelong leap and started to run. His master checked him sharply, and veering from the road, he ran the wheels into a deep rut, and over went the buggy with a crash!
Linda screamed, as she was pitched headlong into a thicket of sweet-fern which grew along the roadside; but the bushes broke her fall, and, beyond the fright and a scratched hand, she received no injury. ”

“ With the mellow light of sunset falling obliquely upon the thin layer of water flowing over a sharp ledge worn and fretted by the continual wear of the current for ages, rock and spray together making up the illusion, is to be seen the fairy-like form of an Indian maid, with flowing hair and robes. ”

“ I have examined with great interest several numbers of Golden Days, and am much pleased with them. We greatly need all such publications for our young people, to save them from the corrupting trash that meets them on every side. ”

“ For a long time the want has been seriously felt for something more than mere denunciation to overcome the growing evil of the demoralizing literature—cheap and vile—that has been scattered broadcast over the land. ”

“ They would make the loveliest crazy quilt!”
“What kind of a quilt, my dear?”
“A crazy quilt,” said Linda, laughing. “Haven’t you ever seen one, Mrs. Burbank? Fred says the person was crazy who first invented them; but I think they’re just as pretty as they can be. It takes a great many pieces of silk, though, to make a bed-quilt, and some of the girls only make sofa-pillows and such things.”
“Oh, you mean patchwork. The land!” said Mrs. Burbank, “I used to make silk patchwork more than sixty years ago. ”

“ He found the letter, and read it. Of course he was greatly alarmed, and so was his companion; for they couldn’t help believing that some one had got wind of their hiding-place. They could hardly believe me when I told them that you and I made that letter up out of the whole cloth, and that we never dreamed there was any one living in the gorge.”
“But we did know it,” said Tom.
“Of course we did after they frightened us, but not before. They spoke about that, too. We took them completely by surprise the day we came down the gorge. ”

“ As long as he lived, Jack continued to grow in the good opinion of the household. But, alas! he could not live forever.
One day he sat drooping on his perch, and refused to be enticed away from it. He even declined the plump crickets Fred offered him in hopes of tempting his appetite.
The next morning he was found dead under his perch. He was mourned sincerely by the whole family, from grandma down, and we buried him with great ceremony under his favorite post-oak. ”

“ Its stories are graphic, entertaining and by the best writers, while each number has articles especially prepared on subjects of practical interest to boys and girls by authors whose fame in the arena of natural history, science, biography and art is national. Add to all these excellencies and attractions the fact that no impure line or thought ever stains its pages, and it must be acknowledged that Golden Days is pre-eminently fitted to become the intellectual and pleasant companion of the young in the American household. ”

“ Golden Days is well worthy the examination of parents who wish to provide their children with a large amount of carefully-prepared miscellany, at once entertaining, instructive and clean. It is edited with ability, and shows a quick sympathy with the pleasures of the young people, and a clear outlook for their welfare.
From the Maryland School Journal.
Golden Days (Elverson, Philadelphia) has fulfilled its promise, and is in every respect a suitable weekly paper to put into the hands of young boys and girls. ”

“ You get a whole package of assorted colors for a dollar,” suggested Fred.
“Oh, that would make it cost too much! Mamma would not let me do that,” said Linda, shaking her head. “She says it is well enough to use up odd bits of silk in that way, if one happens to have them; but she doesn’t think it right to spend money in such a manner, instead of using it for better purposes—and I don’t suppose it is.”
“Well, I am sure I don’t know what you are going to do,” was Fred’s consoling observation. “You’d be as crazy as the rest of the girls if you began to piece a quilt ”

“ Golden Days, published by James Elverson, of Philadelphia, is a new first-class paper for boys and girls. Provide them with good, entertaining reading, and they will grow up good men and women.
From Town Talk, Mansfield, Ohio.
James Elverson, Philadelphia, publishes a handsome illustrated and interesting youth’s paper called Golden Days. It should find a welcome in every home for the young folks, for the reading is wholesome, and such literature should be encouraged by prompt subscriptions. If the youngsters catch a glimpse of it they will find they need it as a recreation after study hours. ”

“ Surrounded by darkness and enveloped by the fog, the Egyptians did not know that they were rushing into the midst of the sea. It is not said that Pharaoh went in, and yet as the post of the king is usually represented on the ancient monuments as leading his soldiers—marching at their head—it may be, as some think, that his chariot led those six hundred chariots, and that he perished with them. ”

“ When the honey-bird has shown one tree, if the hunters are satisfied with that, and refuse to follow him further, he leaves them; but I have never heard of an instance in which the bird misled any one in regard to finding honey. It frequently happens, however, that a honey-bird will lead a person into very dangerous places, and unless the hunter keeps his eyes about him when following this bird, he may run right into a lion, a venomous snake, or some other equally undesirable acquaintance.”
—A correspondent of a New Orleans paper writes: “Dick was only a big toad. ”

“ If the reward is not paid over to you by the time spring opens, I will advance you enough to start you in business and build your house. Then I think you had better give Dan a chance.”
“So do I,” whispered Tom, to his friend Bob. “Dan has lived by his wits long enough, and if Silas doesn’t begin to take some interest in him, the sheriff will have a word or two to say about those setters. I can see plainly enough that he intends to hold that affair over Silas as a whip to make him behave himself.” ”

“ Davy stumbled upon it quite by chance. Following the trail of a bird with a wounded wing, he found himself in a part of the wood he had never been in before, and came suddenly upon a great pile of brush a dozen feet high, behind which was the entrance to a deep cave in a rocky hillside. ”

“ Then, looking about him, he saw another line of tracks, and, going to examine it, perceived that it was where the boar had chased the black man across the morass. Most of the negro’s footprints were lost in those of the hog.
Almost at the moment in which Ralph reached his pony, he heard the report of a gun at some distance, and guessed that Mr. Arthur was coming in search of him. He answered the signal, and the planter, who had become anxious for his safety, soon made his appearance. ”

“ A short strip nailed outside the gunwale in the middle of the canoe is a good thing; it prevents wear from the paddle, and forms something to catch hold of in lifting the canoe.
A short outer keel is also a good thing at each end to prevent wear; but in making holes for the nails through the canvas into the keel care must be taken to turn in the edges round each hole, to tack with a close circle of tacks, and paint well, so as to render the place water-tight. ”

“ He wants a chance to earn an honest living, and he needs it, too. He’s a strong boy, a first-rate hand with a boat, knows all the best fishing-grounds on the lake, and would be just the fellow to send out with a party who wanted a guide and boatman. You can easily afford to pay him a dollar a day for such work as that.”
“Well, I won’t do it,” said Silas, promptly. “He’s a lazy, good-for-nothing scamp, Dan is, and I won’t take him into business along of me.”
“But you will hire him, and give him a chance to quit breaking the game law and make an honest living,” said the sheriff. ”