Various

“ Now there is nothing more clumsy and dangerous than a badly rigged small boat. By badly rigged is not meant only the boat whose spars are imperfect, or other things connected with her rig radically wrong, but also the boat that carries a rig that may be perfectly suitable for another class, but is entirely out of place in one of this size. A thing to be avoided in all small boats is unnecessary rigging; too many halyards and sheet ropes are in the way, and, where the rigging is on a very small scale, are very apt to get tangled or out of order when most wanted. ”

“ Though the cell was crowded with prisoners, there was no danger of interruption, for each was amusing himself in his own way. Some played games with strange Spanish cards, on which were pictures of swords and men and horses; some read books, for no newspapers were allowed them; some sang brave songs to keep their spirits up; and others, sickened by the bad air and bad food, lay stretched upon the stones, groaning.
"They have made a mistake," Cristobal answered, as soon as he was able to speak. "I am only a poor boy from Barcelona, trying to take my young sister to our uncle in Cienfuegos. ”

“ They crossed the rugged ice of a glacier, whose innumerable crevasses intersected like the wrinkles on an old man's face, and had many hair-breadth escapes from slipping into their deadly depths of frozen blue. Then came a vast snow-field, over which they tramped for miles with weary limbs but light hearts, for the terrors of the mountain were behind them and the timber-line was in sight. Darkness had already overtaken them when they came to a steep rock-strewn slope, down which they ran with reckless speed. ”

“ Flea raised herself on her knees to bring her eyes on a level with her companion's. Her young face darkened.
"You are not foolish or a nobody. You would be foolish if you were to marry that meanest, cruelest, hardest-hearted of all men. And you would be a nobody—worse than a nobody—when once he had you in his power. Your brothers can tell you how he used to whip the boys and ferule the girls' hands until they were blistered, and he grinning all the time. He tortures people for the love of torturing. He is a bully, and a coward, and a demon." ”

“ In this place of welcome shelter numbed fingers were thawed to further usefulness by the grateful steam, a small fire was lighted, packs were opened, and in less than an hour a bountiful supper of hot tea, venison frizzled over the coals, toasted hard-bread, and prunes was being enjoyed by as hungry and jubilant a party as ever bivouacked at the summit of Mount Rainier. ”

“ Sometimes one would go cautiously ahead over a place of peculiar danger, with an end of the rope firmly knotted beneath his arms, while his companions, with firm bracings, retained the other part, ready to haul him up if by chance he should plunge over the verge and dangle above the abyss at the end of his slender tether. ”

“ As for myself, I do approve of the bicycle for girls. My questioner's inquiry is whether a girl loses caste by riding a wheel. Emphatically no. It is as proper to ride a wheel as to ride a pony or to walk. But a girl must ride with grace and fearless courage. She must have the right kind of saddle, must have her handle-bars at the right height, and be dressed so that her skirts will not entangle or entrap her. ”

“ But they have arrested me for an insurgent, and what is to become of my poor sister? We were in a cane-field only twenty-five miles from Cienfuegos, when they tore me away from her; and there I had to leave her, without a friend on the island, unless she finds our uncle. Oh, señor, what is to become of her?"
"They have made many mistakes," the kindly old gentleman replied, ignoring Cristobal's last question. "Here in this miserable cell are old men and young—merchants, professional men, clerks, laborers, and what not—at least half of whom are entirely innocent. ”

“ Many combinations are made with the jib. There seems to be about only one common way of rigging a jib for a small boat. A pretty clear idea may be gained from the sketch (Plate I) . As may be seen, no stay is used, the sail usually being bound with a rope, which gives it sufficient strength; no halyard is used, either the jib being lashed to the mast, and lowered and hoisted when it is stepped or unstepped. The lower edge is laced to a boom, which is secured to the bow with a lashing about four inches long, a third of its length projecting. The sheet rope is fastened to the inner extremity. ”

“ The Cleaver leads to a mighty mass of granite, a mountain in itself, that is fittingly called the Gibraltar of Mount Rainier. It bars a further passage to all save the strongest climbers, and to these it affords the only means of access to the lofty realms beyond. Here is the most perilous part of the ascent, and, with Gibraltar once passed, the summit is almost certain of attainment.
It seemed to our weary lads that they had barely fallen asleep when they were wakened by a rude shaking and the voice of their Siwash guide, exclaiming:
"Come, come, lazy boy! Wake up! wake up! ”

“ Our Cuban cane is tough and hard to bite in March."
The guard twirled the bundle of canes in his hand, and laughed derisively at the meanness of the gift as he passed it through the bars to the prisoner. Even some of the other prisoners laughed to think that one of their number was so poor that his friends could send him nothing but a few canes.
Being one of "the Yankees of Spain," Cristobal knew on the moment that his sister had not sent him sugar-canes merely for the sake of the sweet. ”

“ Bones is the framework of the body. If I had no bones in me I should not have so much shape as I have now. If I had no bones in me I should not have so much motion, and teacher would be pleased, but I like to have motion. Bones give me motion, because they are sometimes hard for motion to cling to. If I had no bones, my brains, lungs, heart, and larger blood-vessels would be lying around in me and might get hurt, but now my bones get hurt, but not much unless it is a hard hit. ”

“ Then Alaric took in the slack of the rope as Bonny, tied to its other end, made the same perilous descent.
So, with strained arms and aching legs, and fingers worn to the quick from clutching the rough granite, they made their slow way from ledge to ledge, gaining courage and coolness as they successfully overcame each difficulty, until they estimated that they had descended fully five hundred feet. Now came another smooth face absolutely without a crevice that they could discover, and the next ledge below was further away than the length of their dangling rope. ”

“ Of course, if the boat's owner is inclined to spend more money, wooden blocks will make the rigging neater and run easier. Travellers are used to fasten sheet ropes to the boat, and may be made in two ways, either out of iron or rope. The iron traveller in this case is an iron rod carrying a ring to which the block is attached, bent down at the ends, which are threaded and fastened with nuts through the stern. The rope traveller is a strong cotton rope, the ends fastened on each side of the boat, and the rope passing through a ring on the lower side of the block. ”

“ Gypsy is forty-five years old, and weighs five tons. She spent the winter in Chicago with a circus, and was kept in a stable at No. 232 South Robny Street. Her name used to be Empress years ago, but she killed a man, and her owners gave her a new name and hoped she would never become vicious again. But an elephant that goes wild is like a horse that runs away. She may not misbehave for a long time, but she is almost certain to do great harm sooner or later. Gypsy had been irritated for several days before her outbreak. ”

“ There is no pleasure which surpasses that of swift motion, when one is young and strong and the blood courses buoyantly through the veins, whether the motion come from skating, running, riding, or going forward in any sort of progress which requires exercise. ”

“ The drop is just as efficient, and can never get out of order, whilst easily replaced if broken. It is the one most used by the "natives." The only danger of this board, and one that must be always borne in mind when sailing in waters where bars abound, is that it cannot raise up when it strikes an obstruction as the drop will, and, if you are not watchful, may upset your boat. The leeboard seems only a miserable apology at the best, and is only pardonable when you do not desire to cut a hole in your boat's bottom to build a trunk. ”

“ I hope he will die while he is away!" uttered Flea, savagely.
"Fie! fie on you!" said her father, trying to look stern. "You'll make me afraid of you if you get so bloodthirsty. Never meddle with people's love-affairs, chick. It's worse than putting your fingers 'twixt bark and tree. Miss Emily knows her own business, and has a fine high spirit of her own." ”

“ It is the introduction of jaws at the mast, instead of the rope sling. The tendency to bag is removed, as the sail is fastened at frequent intervals by lacing to the boom, along which it may be kept stretched tightly. Also the tendency of the boom to slide forward is effaced as it butts up against the mast. In this method a much lighter spar can be used, as the strain is made to come more or less throughout its whole length, whilst in the first-mentioned it comes wholly at the ends. The principal objection against the "leg-o'-mutton" rig in general is the great length of mast required. ”

“ Mount Blanc is the finest Alp I ever saw and it looks good enough to eat—like a great big plate of ice-cream. I wanted Jules to get up early the next morning and go out and climb it with me and have a snow-ball fight, but he says it takes nine hours to get to it riding all the way in a wagon, and two days more to climb it. It hardly seems possible, but I guess he knows because he's done it—leastways he says he has though Pop doubts it. Pop says Jules is a French Sandboys who has done a heap of things which no man ever did, but I don't care he's a good fellow to go with and I like him. ”

“ At their feet the rock wall dropped so sheer and smooth that no man might climb it, and then came the snow, sweeping steeply downward for miles apparently without a break. Far beyond lay the vast sea of forest, seeming to cover the whole earth with its green mantle. ”

“ Our point of view has changed so much that we in the great cities, where public opinion is formed, and where all opinions are heard and sifted one by one, are surprised when we hear a condemnation of the bicycle. ”

“ The mile will bring out a great many new men, and at the present writing there is no one of great enough promise to claim it in advance. Tichbourne of Hillhouse ought to take the walk. Lyman of Hotchkiss and Strong of Hartford will have a hard fight for first place in the bicycle event. Sturtevant of Hartford should take the high jump, with Goodwin of Hotchkiss second. The broad jump is claimed by a dark horse from the University School, of Bridgeport. In the pole vault Paulding of Black Hall will have to do his best to defeat Sturtevant. ”

“ We left Paris yesterday. We didn't any of us want to come away but our time was up and so we left leaving about ninety-nine per cent. of the city unvisited. We didn't see the cemetery or go to the opera or any of those places—at least I didn't. Pop went to see the cemetery and he said it was not very cheerful and reminded him of a city of bathing houses, which I think must have been a mighty queer looking cemetery. Jules took me and the babies to the circus, but it isn't like our circus. ”