Various

“ The woods seem changed but little; boys have turned men, the men have turned gray, and just a little more moss lies on the fallen tree-trunks. Yet the same change has passed over Tobique as has passed over all the backwoods of Maine and Canada. The dreaded panther, or "Indian devil," as it is known, seldom troubles one now, or startles the forest with its awful cry—so human, so bloodcurdling, that its very mention sends a thrill through one's body. ”

“ GOOD MUSIC arouses a spirit of good-will, creates a harmonious atmosphere, and where harmony and good-will prevail, the disobedient, turbulent, unruly spirit finds no resting-place. Herbert Spencer puts his final test of any plan of culture in the form of a question, "Does it create a pleasurable excitement in the pupils?" Judged by this criterion, Music deserves the first rank, for no work done in the school room is so surely creative of pleasure as singing. Do we not all agree, then, that Vocal Music has power to benefit every side of the child nature? ”

“ But that which diverted the audience most of all was the trick mule—the mule so resourceful of pranks that he threw all the boldest riders among the ambitious youth of Nearbye. When Mike, the young man who is both hostler and barkeeper at the White Horse Tavern, wrapped his legs round the mule's neck and caught hold with both hands of the little fellow's slippery tail the people in the circus tent nearly went wild with delight. ”

“ They had come to Nearbye to have a good time and to see the sights, all unconscious that they furnished amusement to any one.
As a rule they brought their dinners with them, and at twelve o'clock they attacked baskets and pails for the good things in them. Eating, with hard-working people, whether of the city or country, is not a time of conviviality. They eat because they are hungry, and they get through with the business as quickly and unceremoniously as possible. The dinner hour, therefore, on this day of the circus did not as a rule last more than ten minutes. ”

“ One of the most intelligent and quite the best educated chimpanzee that I have ever seen is Consul II. He is an inmate of the Bellevue Gardens at Manchester, England. He is the most humanlike in his manners of any of his kind that have ever been known in captivity. The many clever feats done by this ape would fill a small volume; he has not been trained to perform them as tricks, simply to amuse or entertain visitors, but many of them he has taken up of his own accord, having seen others do so. The feat that impressed me most was his skill in riding a tricycle, and his taste for that sport. ”

“ Country people know about horses, and have opinions of those who ride and drive them. The young lady who rode two bare-back horses at once, now with a foot on each horse and now riding one and driving the other, easily bore off the palm. When she ran by the side of one of her steeds, as he cantered round the ring, and vaulted to his back without touching either mane or rein, and landed squarely upon her little feet, and then stood upright, the audience was so filled with wonder and admiration that there was a pause before the applause began. ”

“ People of both sexes and all ages, from the gray-haired great-grandmother to the infant in the arms, came or were brought, as each case required, until there was not a vacant fence post eligible for a hitching-place within half a mile of the circus tent. If half a dozen holidays could have been combined into one, not one-third so many people would have been attracted to Nearbye as were brought by this little circus. Some city people who had gone to Nearbye for their summer vacations put on airs about the show, and laughed at the enthusiastic excitement of the country folk. ”

“ The oxen, guided by instinct, made straight for the stable, and seeing the open door, made straight for refuge. The sled had struck the corner of the log barn, the tongue had snapped off, and the boys had been thrown forward; Raish's forehead struck, it was believed, either a sled-stake or one of the oxen's hoofs. ”

“ Hardly anything could have been more hopeless than such a search made by a boy and girl who knew nothing of the country, nothing of the language, but groped their way in pitch darkness through a dense forest. ”

“ When you are on country roads, where not one person an hour passes, choose the side path, since it may be the only good bit of road; but when you come to civilization, remember that no matter how bad the road, and no matter how many other wheelmen may be riding on sidewalks, and coasting and scorching, the law asks you to keep to your proper place, and you are helping the cause of bicycling, to say the least, if you do so. ”

“ I saw that little caper out in the boat, and I'm not going to have you playing such tricks on your cousin. You must look out for this girl, Will, as she is the worst tease in Florida. There is not a better sailor than she in all the Keys, and nothing could upset her unless she chose. Why, she sails that sharpie fifteen miles to school every day in winter, and she knows every rock and reef. ”

“ And of course every one who has ever been to a circus will recall how the ladies and gentlemen of the company come into the ring on horseback, and ride round and round with distinguished courtesy towards each other and towards the audience, and then ride out again. ”

“ So when his father took him down in the schooner to the Florida Keys to visit Uncle David, Will had no idea that ten days after leaving New York he would be crawling through a Cuban thicket, dodging Spanish soldiers.
Matacumbia Key, at the very tip of Florida, where Uncle David lives with his daughter Vic, is a long way from New York, and Will had never seen either of them, and, of course, had never seen their house on the beach, with the whole Florida Strait for a front yard, and nothing between their shady piazza and the Cuban coast but eighty miles of salt water. ”

“ Sir Knight P. Conn wishes to know the best tray for the dark-room, the best for a toning-tray, and the best kind of plates to use. A celluloid or gutta-percha tray is a good one for developing solution, and an amber-glass tray for the hypo. If one uses a glass tray for hypo he never mistakes the hypo for the developing-tray. A white porcelain tray is a good one for a toning-tray. There are so many kinds of plates, or rather brands of plates, made that there is little choice between those made by reliable manufacturers. No one plate can be used for all kinds of work. ”

“ The storekeepers of Nearbye for a fortnight after the circus had gone could not make change for a bill, as the circus treasurer had taken away with him pretty nearly all the silver coins in the township. This circus will doubtless be talked of in Nearbye when many of the barelegged boys who came at daylight to see it have grandsons eager in their turn for the passing shows, and when Miss Kitty has taken to spectacles and caps, and prefers a cozy corner within-doors to the breezy piazza or the hammock beneath the apple-trees. ”

“ In long distances, in road races of 25 miles or more, time handicaps are usually given. The time of each contestant—that is, his best time for a mile, or for 35 miles—is ascertained, and a table made of all these. Each man, then, shows a certain rate per mile for 25 miles, or whatever the distance may be. According to this record, one man does 10, 20, or 25 miles at the rate of a minute a mile faster than another. In a 25-mile race, therefore, he should give the other about 25 minutes' start. ”

“ In the first place, the laws, ordinances, or regulations regarding riding on sidewalks, scorching, coasting, and so on, are different in every city or township—that is, each township has its regulations concerning these matters, and they have been adopted to protect other people. There is a movement on foot to make bicycles come under the head of carriages, and subject to the same laws; but in the mean time several things ought to be borne in mind by wheelmen. Most ordinances agree in stating that in city or town no bicyclist shall ride on sidewalks; that too great speed is dangerous ”

“ The dangers of the woods are exaggerated. No living thing is match for a man, and every creature among predatory beasts shuns the society of man. There are exceptions, as there are seasons when our black bear should not be provoked. So in the experience of every woodsman there have been times when the rule has been broken, and it is the man that has been hunted.
Raish Turner, now a man of some fifty years of age, still lives at the Red Rapids, on Tobique. ”

“ There is an old darky who can be found any day perched on such freight as may rest on the platform of the little station at S—— up in Maine. He has a cheerful word for every one that will greet him, and was never known to lose his good-humor except on one occasion. One morning he was as usual perched on a bale of straw, but instead of whittling at a piece of stick, a habit of his, he sat with his face in his hands, gazing mournfully out over the little lake that stretched away among the hills. It was then I noticed that his nose had assumed enormous proportions, almost shutting out his eyes. ”

“ I answered; "but we have good reason to believe that they are out in force, and it will be prudent for us to learn the situation at the ranch before we go nearer. I want to join the white men without the Indians' knowledge, if possible. Our presence seems to be unknown to both parties."
"Then Mr. Baldwin must be the man killed."
"He may be there, and the men may know we are on the road; but it certainly does not look like it."
"Can't Vic be sent with a message?"
"No; she does not know the locality, nor has she any friends at the ranch. She will not take a message to a stranger." ”

“ We had now reached a point from which we could see a log cabin, a stable, and an open shed. On the side of the buildings toward us, as if screening themselves from an enemy in the opposite direction, were a few men.
"If you would like me to, I can crawl to the house without being seen," said Frank. "That cart, wagon, and stack will screen me." ”

“ Thousands of old men, who have served years in harness and earned a partial rest, if there be such reward, do not aim so high. If you seek employment with an engineer party, apply directly to an engineer. There is no employment bureau or agency through which you can deal, or, if there be, it is better to attend to the matter yourself. You will find addresses in the railway journals and in colleges where surveying and engineering are taught. When you get the place, banish at once any thought of pleasure as one of the objects of your occupation. ”

“ When it is to appear in the carafe, the hidden assistant gives a strong and quick pull on both ends of the thread, and the handkerchief flies so quickly into the carafe that it is impossible for the eye to follow it. When it is once inside the bottle the assistant pulls on one end of the thread, and thus soon pulls it through. The handkerchief is now detached, and may be taken out of the bottle to convince the audience that it is in no wise connected with any string.
Such wonderful tales are told by travellers of the feats of Indian magicians that many believe them to be more than human. ”

“ Occasionally they wound along mighty precipices, where the horses could scarcely pick their way. Again, they forded mountain streams that could be breasted only by the most tremendous exertions. They made their way through a great cleft in the mountains about mid-day, and began to descend towards the valleys. The distance was but twenty miles, yet so difficult was the road that it was late in the short autumn afternoon before Lord Fairfax, pointing to a collection of roofs that lay directly below them in a sheltered part of the valley, said to George, "There is Greenway Court." ”

“ We ought not to have known them, and probably they were not gentlemen; but she will learn, when she gets to be a grown woman, that if she confines her acquaintance only to real ladies and real gentlemen—that is, to men and women who never put on airs and never inconsiderately assume to be better than they are, and who never scoff at simplicity—she will have a very narrow circle, and will know fewer people than almost anybody in the world. But few of the country people cared for the rudeness that Miss Kitty resented. ”