Various

“ She need not be a tired mother who feels herself a martyr to her children and their comrades. There are mothers who are not tired, whose health is excellent, whose spirits are not jaded, and who do not wish to be omitted when the roll-call of pleasure-seekers is called. But any youthful married lady may appropriately act as chaperon to a group of young people, as may a dignified spinster, still charming and elegant, though past her own early youth. And a girl's father may chaperon her, and prove most delightful when acting in that capacity. ”

“ They were so busy lifting the chest from the boat that at first they did not observe that Tom Chist had come up and was standing there. It was the white man with the long plaited queue and the gold ear-rings that spoke to him. "Boy, what do you want here, boy?" he said, in a rough hoarse voice. "Where d'ye come from?" And then dropping his end of the chest, and without giving Tom time to answer, he pointed off down the beach, and said, "You'd better be going about your own business, if you know what's good for you; and don't you come back, or you'll find what you don't want waiting for you." ”

“ And Tom Chist, as he rattled in his breeches pocket the half-dozen doubloons he had kept out of his treasure, felt that what his friend had said was true.
As the two went back homeward across the level space of sand, Tom Chist suddenly stopped stock still and stood looking about him. "'Twas just here," he said, digging his heel down into the sand, "that they killed the poor black man."
"And here he lies buried for all time," said Parson Jones; and as he spoke he dug his cane down into the sand. Tom Chist shuddered. ”

“ If you grow weary five miles out, stop at the first decent-looking house and tell the housewife you are on a pleasure tour, that you want to rest, or hope for a glass of milk or a dinner or a bed. She will help you out if you pay, and often if you don't; but should she refuse, try the next house after suggesting to her that she should ride a bicycle; for as sure as there is a wheel resting up against the house anywhere, you will be received and comforted. Some of the pleasantest incidents of a trip, some of the kindest friends, are found in these little unexpected stops. ”

“ Again, on its way to us the light of a star passes through media of varying densities; it is refracted—bent out of its course—and turned aside for an instant from our eyes. This occurring many, many times per minute makes the star appear to twinkle to an observer on the earth. ”

“ One of them was a negro, naked to the waist, and the other was a white man in his shirt sleeves, wearing petticoat breeches, a Monteray cap upon his head, a red bandanna handkerchief around his neck, and gold ear-rings in his ears. He had a long plaited queue hanging down his back, and a great sheath-knife dangling from his side. Another man, evidently the captain of the party, stood at a little distance as they lifted the chest out of the boat. He had a cane in one hand and a lighted lantern in the other, although the moon was shining as bright as day. ”

“ Even as late as that time of the American colonies, the little scattered settlement at Henlopen, made up of English, with a few Dutch and Swedish people, was still only a speck of life upon the vast frontier of the great American wilderness that spread away, with swamp and forest, no man knew how far to the westward. That unfathomed wilderness was not only full of wild beasts, but of Indian savages, who every fall would come in wandering tribes, no man knew whence, to spend the winter along the shores of the fresh-water lakes below Henlopen. ”

“ Here in New York young people have learned to prefer the company of chaperons on every occasion where they meet one another for pleasure. It is not regarded as possible to leave out the mother or married friend, whose presence imposes no restraint, and who, by her tact and address and ready sympathy, makes a theatre party, or a dance, or any little meeting of girls and their friends among boys and men, pass off successfully. A chaperon need not be a withered old personage who frowns upon amusement. ”

“ There are other trips that in some ways would prove more interesting to different men, and any one, wherever he lives, provided it is somewhere in the northern or eastern part of the United States, or on the Pacific or Atlantic coast, can lay out such a tour from his road-books or his own head. Suppose, for the moment, this trip is to be taken, however, how shall a bicyclist fit out? The questions which require solution are how to carry sufficient clothing for exigencies, and to have it weigh as nearly nothing as possible ”

“ Puncture.—That is a word that makes every wheelman wince. A little hole in the tire makes the bicycle, that a few seconds ago was a means of travelling, a useless encumbrance. But in this case it does not always follow that it is an encumbrance, for if a pocket repair kit is carried, or the rider can make the best use of things at his disposal, some kind of stoppage of the escape of wind can frequently be accomplished. ”

“ It has become the custom to ride through England or France, and thus combine a sight-seeing tour with a long bicycle ride, rather than make similar runs at home, and why not here?
If a tour is possible in Europe, it certainly is possible in America, and to him who has eyes to see there is much to see and learn about his own country, if he goes on a wheel, that never can be seen in any other way. Now, too, the facilities for such a trip are greatly improved over anything in the past. ”

“ BICYCLE-TOURING DURING SUMMER VACATIONS.
Wheeling has become such a universal matter now that it may prove of interest to give some practical hints to riders who have not yet realized what health and enjoyment, as well as experience, may be gained by taking something more than a day's ride in the vicinity of home and daily work. By far the greater number of those who own wheels are, or rather have been up to the present, satisfied to take afternoon runs of from ten to fifty miles in length, or, at most, to ride out of town to some friend's house, returning the next day. ”

“ We have now reached in our discussion of the bicycle a part just as essential to the running ability as anything previously mentioned—the tires. On account of the wear and tear upon the tires, from one cause or another, they require much care. It is the tires that take up the jolts from the inequalities of the road, and upon their proper degree of inflation depends the easy running of the wheel. Quite a study may be made of this, the pressure varying for the different uses the wheel is to be put to. Without exception the rear tire should be harder than the front ”

“ If you want to get swamped with figures, supposing at least you have the conception of what is a million of dollars, the total stock of money in the world is $3,656,935,000 in gold, and $3,944,700,000 in silver, making a grand total of $7,601,635,000. Say that the population of the United States is 65,000,000, then about this amount of money, $10.47 in gold, $8.55 in silver, $6.51 in paper notes, or $25.62, suffices for each one's use. ”

“ Luggage seems lighter on the wheel than on your back.
The trouble with the average portmanteau is that it is too thick, making it necessary for the wheelman to straddle it instead of giving him the free use of his limbs to press up and down on the pedals perpendicularly. If you will take the trouble to have this portmanteau made to order and carefully measured, so that it will not come outside a line drawn on either side of the bicycle from the sides of the saddle to the inside of each pedal when at its lowest point in a revolution, you will find no trouble with it. ”

“ At a signal all the players, each with his fowl in his arms, must enter the court, and the host, going to the centre, now becomes auctioneer, and taking each offered fowl in turn, he loudly calls, "How many eggs am I bid for this chicken?"—two eggs, three, or whatever the number may be; no one must bid what he cannot pay, and the chicken is given to the boy offering the largest number, and the eggs are given to the previous owner of the chicken. He may put them wherever he pleases, only they must be somewhere within the netting. ”

“ There was a time when many a hotel had a regulation that no one in bicycle costume was permitted to enter the dining-room, but such inns are fast getting behind the times. All hostelries are in existence to make money, and the moment—which is now arrived—that a sufficiently large number of men and women ride to them on bicycles they will open dining-rooms and the whole hotel to them. Then, again, the League of American Wheelmen is doing a great deal for this touring of the bicyclist. The League is not a money-making affair in any way ”

“ Then there were maces and great big solid gold porridge bowls for royal babies to eat their oat meal out of, till you really got tired of it all and felt as if you wouldn't mind looking at a tin cup or a pile of rusty iron tracks near a railroad for a little while. The Queen must be awful rich to own all these things, but after all I don't see what good it does her to have 'em if they've got to be locked up all the time. It's like owning a gold watch your Pop won't let you carry for fear you'll break it. ”

“ Of course it would be foolish to attempt to state that photographs are better than good sketches. Any one who can draw reasonably well has something of the greatest value with him. For the average mortal a camera must take its place.
All this time nothing has been said as to the use to be made of the large valise or small trunk. It contains several changes of clothing, extra shoes, extra suits, extra everything, and is sent from New York by express to the Narragansett House at Providence, or to Newport, or even to Boston. ”

“ How frequently one sees a rider, wrench in hand, dubiously surveying his wheel at arm's-length, now tightening a nut here or loosening one there, in a vain endeavor to fix in this manner something that is out of order and prevents his wheel from running properly! ”

“ At any rate, there is not much pleasure in running on railroad time. If the week or fortnight at your disposal is up before the journey is done, take a train and go home, with the wheel in a baggage-car; but on no account hurry. You have your road-map with you, and can see at a glance that Johnstown is three miles further on, and Brownstown is ten. If at Johnstown you don't want to stop, make for Brownstown. ”

“ He hurried forward with a good deal of curiosity to see who had landed, but it was not until he had come close to them that he could distinguish who and what they were. Then he knew that it must be a party who had come off from the pirate sloop. They had evidently just landed, and two men were lifting out a chest from the boat. ”

“ In the adjustment of a wheel's bearings, whether front or rear, a good test to use against too tight a cone is to raise the wheel clear of the ground, and, turning it so that the valve of the tire is on top or nearly so, see if the weight of the valve will cause the wheel to rotate so that the valve will describe an arc, like a pendulum, each swing gradually diminishing in length. If the cone is properly adjusted, the valve should swing back and forth for some time. Of course the rear wheel will not swing as long as the front, the valve having to impart motion to the sprocket and pedals. ”

“ In the advanced stage which bicycle construction has reached to-day there are a large number of ball-bearings in a machine—in fact, there are balls wherever there is friction, however light. These bearings should have careful adjustment. Perhaps a glance at the sketch of a wheel bearing will make the construction clearer. Of course the bearings of different makes of wheels vary, but the principle is the same in all. The little steel balls are the only medium by which the weight on the bearing is transmitted between the rim and the cone (hub and axle) . ”

“ There is not a village of any size, to say nothing of towns and cities, that has not one repair shop at least, and in New England and the Middle States, and all along the northern part of the United States, out beyond Chicago, a wheelman can get to one within an hour, except, perhaps, in some isolated instances where there are long stretches of woodland. A five or ten mile walk with a badly broken wheel is an unpleasant job ”

“ Accidents sometimes happen to the best equipped parties, and at such times a woman of experience and presence of mind knows precisely what to do and to say, and where otherwise there would be awkwardness she relieves the situation. Do not be so selfish as to drag the weary and overworked mother into society against her will, but let some lady whom everybody likes and admires act in the mother's place. ”

“ Sometimes a difficult part of a puncture on the road is its location. After examining the tire and noting the likely places, apply saliva at these spots, and when the right one is found, bubbles will be noticed.
The permanent repair of a double-tube tire is to patch the inner one. Let the air out, and if the tire is "cemented" pull it off, and, if the "clincher," spring off, being careful in pushing the valve through the hole in the rim. If it is the "clincher" pattern the inner tube may be readily removed, but if a "cemented" tire, it is a trifle more difficult. ”

“ Matt Abrahamson's daughter Molly had had a baby that had died a month or so before. So when she saw the little one lying there in the bottom of the chest, she cried out in a great loud voice that the Good Man had sent her another baby in place of her own. ”

“ Meanwhile, the chickens, running in every direction, are very apt to "cluck" loudly.
The Bird's Nest.—Put a bird's nest in a room; hunt for it as you "Hunt the Slipper," only instead of saying "warm, warmer," and so on, you cluck, cluck, cluck soft or loud as the party goes toward or from the nest. Only one person hunts at a time; everybody else clucks.
Never rob a bird's nest, no matter how much the pretty eggs may tempt you. Think of the sorrow of the mother bird when she returns and sees it empty. ”

“ If an egg drops it must stay where it falls until the other eggs have gone around the ring three times. It may chance by that time that all the eggs have dropped. When the third time around is complete, immediately a grand chain is formed, and the children dance, and go back to position, picking up the eggs as they dance. If the egg is not picked up, keeping time to the music, which is being played throughout the game, that person cannot retain it, but must give it to the one following. Sometimes no eggs fall, then the game is kept up until all the eggs have passed rapidly around three times. ”

“ The portmanteau will always be full, so take only what is absolutely necessary, otherwise you will find that some important thing has been left behind, and a useless appendage brought only to occupy valuable space, and be thrown away in disgust. Always carry soap and a towel. They are sometimes hard to find, and oftener so bad that one goes dirty rather than use them. Then, too, a good wash by a stream is only satisfactory when soap and towel are at hand. If you have been compelled to repair a puncture by the way, such a wash with soap and towel is everything. ”

“ The single tube, or "hose-pipe," is the easiest to patch up on the road. The leakage can usually be stopped by cementing a piece of rubber over the puncture and binding it on securely with tire tape. Perhaps if the rider is skilled he may effect a permanent repair by plugging it. Now a hint to the rider who goes on the road with only a wrench in his pocket; and if he is given to the chewing-gum habit, it may be of use. A very novel and effective repair for a single-tube tire may be made by a little chewing-gum and some bandages. ”