Various

“ She cooked nice things for him, read to him, brought boys to see him; but all to no effect. But when she staid at home from Sunday-school with him, alone with her in the quiet of the Sabbath morning, Johnny's reserve broke down, and in a great flood of penitential remorse out came the burden on his conscience. Then listening to his mother's words of sorrowful surprise, forgiveness, and loving admonition, he formed earnest resolutions of never again forgetting the sacredness of Sunday hours. ”

“ The gardens of Egypt produced beans, onions, cabbages, and were filled with flowers. Countless towns and cities sprang up along the Nile. Some of them were as large, perhaps, as Chicago or New York. The rich land swarmed with people. The families of the Egyptians lived in comfortable houses; the children were usually taught in the temples to read and write; all were taught to work; they were well dressed and very neat; and when Joseph governed the land with discretion and good sense, there was no part of the Western world that could equal the intelligence and civilization of Egypt. ”

“ They drop their seeds in the river, and the seeds float down till they reach the smooth water behind the beach. The sea-birds find the warm waters of the lagoon a good feeding-place, and they gather there by hundreds. They too bring seeds from distant places and drop them here. Perhaps in quiet corners where the water is not quite as salt as in the sea these seeds find a chance to grow. They spring up on the banks of mud left here by the tide. The poor things find their new home very different from the place where they were born, and they have a hard struggle to live. ”

“ It seems to be discouraged, and instead of a swift and pleasant river, it turns into a sluggish stream that does not seem to care for anything except to creep along in a lazy fashion.
Now a great and wonderful change begins. Before, it was swift and muddy. Now, the dull water begins to grow clearer, and the mud and fine sand in the water sink softly down to the bottom. The water spreads wider and wider on each side, and instead of a river running into the sea, there is a broad pool or lagoon behind the beach. ”

“ From the books which they had read the boys had learned that there is, if anything, more fun in cruising on a narrow stream than in sailing on broad rivers; that running rapids is a delightful sport, and that streams should always be descended instead of ascended in a canoe. They therefore wanted to discover a narrow stream with safe and easy rapids, and also to cruise on some lake or wide river where they could test the canoes under sail and under paddle in rough water. ”

“ PHRONY JANE'S LAWN PARTY. BY SYDNEY DAYRE.
"Now, Johnny, leave your saw."
"Ah, mamma, can't I just finish this bracket?"
"No, dear. All your Saturday evening's work is to be done yet."
It was hard, Johnny thought. A half-hour more would finish the beautiful deer bracket; the scroll-saw still had the charm of novelty, and the delicate pattern was a most attractive one. Johnny worked away harder than ever (a way he had of delaying obedience) , and was beginning to hope he might yet complete his work, when a bright-faced little colored girl came in. ”

“ In the wistful little faces that peered out over the rail could be read stories too sad to be more than hinted at to our young people. Here were little girls and boys who had never felt the green sod under their feet, nor picked a flower, but who had spent all their lives penned up in great towering houses, their only play-ground the burning roof, a hundred feet above the streets. ”

“ Its cities, temples, palaces, farms, and gardens were the wonder of the ancient historians.
To-day Egypt is an impoverished country, distracted by civil war. Alexandria, once one of the most magnificent cities of the world, lies in ashes, and the people throughout the land are suffering all the horrors of famine amidst their plundered and ruined homes. Long ages of mis-rule and ignorance have brought the fruitful and prosperous land to this terrible condition. In the days of Joseph the armies of Egypt might have withstood the world. ”

“ It rests awhile, as if to gain strength, and then some day it makes a grand rush, and tries to break down the barrier the beach has thrown across its mouth. If it fails, it turns aside and goes out another way ”

“ The Indians never said that the water once flowed here. There is no record of these things. Indeed! There are plenty of records.
In the first place, you can almost always find the beach at the outside of the meadows. Nearly all the beaches on Long Island have meadows behind them. There may not be a river near, but that makes no difference, for sometimes a beach may grow across a bay between two capes.
If we dig a hole deep down into such a meadow we may find the whole story. First we turn up the black sod full of stems and roots of the grass. ”

“ There are kind-hearted people in this world who spoil the effect of their best actions by cross or surly manners. The most beautiful gift will not please you if thrown in your face. Gifts are valued for the love they signify, and so they need loving looks and words to make them welcome. I have seen a family of young people perfectly devoted to an auntie who never did anything for them except tell them stories, show them her curiosities and treasures, and listen to their perplexities; and they were not in the least fond of another auntie, whose money was spent freely for them. ”

“ They lived alone upon the banks of the Nile, shut out from the world. All Europe was then a wilderness filled with wild beasts and a few savage men. All was waste and desolate. The savage people who surrounded Egypt were like our American Indians, ignorant and treacherous. Had they been able they would have broken in upon the industrious Egyptians, sacked and burned their cities, and robbed them of all they possessed. They would have destroyed temples and palaces, houses and gardens, ships and factories, and left us without any of the Egyptian inventions and improvements. ”

“ The name "homing" is not given to any one variety of pigeons, several kinds possessing the faculty. They are all large in frame, and resemble the carrier in appearance, being undoubtedly descended from the same stock. They are easily raised and easily taught, and the pleasure derived from the teaching amply repays the little care required. A boy can certainly find no more absorbing occupation for his spare hours, and with a little patience can train a bird very successfully.
In the first place, the "loft," as the pigeon-cote is called, should be lofty. ”

“ Each one of these rigs has its advocates, who will prove to you that it is better than any other, and you can't do better than to try them all. Only be sure to tell the builders that every canoe must have two masts, and neither of the two sails must be too big to be safely handled."
"How does it happen that every canoeist is so perfectly certain that he has the best canoe and the best rig in existence?" asked Tom.
"That is one of the great merits of canoeing," replied the Commodore. "It makes every man contented, and develops in him decision of character. ”

“ The amount of spade-work and field-digging which they accomplished without any success would have sufficed to have made good farmers of them. It is a surer thing in Japan, as in America, to seek to find gold by steady work and a mind on the lookout for opportunities than by digging for it at random.
The Chinese way of talking about a person who is "waiting for something to turn up" is "sitting beside a stump, on the watch for a hare." A farmer in ancient times was ploughing a rice field, when he saw a hare dash itself against a stump that stood in his field; and immediately fall dead. ”

“ We ran to meet papa on Thursday, and how we shouted when we saw that our books had come! But we made still more noise when we saw our old friends Toby Tyler and Jimmy Brown. We saw one grand improvement in Harper's Young People, and it was the Postmistress. What a dear, kind, patient lady she must be! We have a great many pets. Perhaps we would not have so many if we did not make pets out of almost everything; even the calves and pigs are pets. We have got a very cunning little kitten. She is very playful, but will not make friends with our dog Hunter. ”

“ Then the other side had to be curved to make things even. Then he happened to be just where he was when he had been obliged to quit work the evening before. His foot did not hurt much as still that saw seemed to cut of its own accord into the graceful leaves. On it went, just going to stop every moment, Johnny inwardly assuring himself he never would think of doing such a wicked thing as saw on Sunday, but still following that enticing pattern until he at last stopped in alarm at seeing there was only one leaf more to do. ”

“ We have not any little birds, but we have an empty cage, and could catch a great many wild birds if we wished to; but we don't think they would love us if we took them out of the beautiful woods and shut them in a narrow cage. There are a great many wild birds' nests close around here, and in the morning they make the woods echo with their sweet songs. In the winter the snow-birds come every morning for their breakfast of bread-crumbs; so we always have birds around us, winter or summer. Rosalie P.'s letter was the first I ever saw in Our Post-office Box written by any person that I knew. ”

“ Moses studied in the Egyptian colleges, and Joseph and his father looked upon its Pyramids and temples with wonder.
The land of Egypt is a deposit of mud brought down by the floods of the Nile from the mountains of Middle Africa. Every year the river overflows its banks, and renews the fertility of the soil by a new deposit, and these regular inundations have been so provided for by embankments and canals as to be seldom dangerous. The Nile scarcely ever sweeps away the flocks and harvests of the farmers, like the Mississippi. ”

“ Then the terrible mud smothers and chokes them, and they and the other fish die, and their empty shells cover the muddy bottom of the still water.
All this may take years and years, yet the change goes steadily on. The grasses grow higher, and higher, and tiny spears of marsh grass stand up out of water where once it was quite deep. The lake is filling up, and year by year the grass spreads over the water. ”

“ As the name implies, "homing" pigeons are birds which possess so strong a love for home that their first impulse when free is to return there. They are so keen of sense that they are able to find their way back even from distances of several hundred miles, and in an incredibly short time.
The pigeon now known as the carrier was probably originally used for homing. Its usefulness in that direction, however, has long since departed; it is to-day simply a fancy bird, and a carrier by courtesy only. ”

“ When ten miles from home we crossed a fresh trail, and a few moments later discovered a band of Indians on either side, the one at our right being the larger, and some two miles away. Those at the left—there were twenty—were nearer, and as soon as they saw us, wheeled about, and came dashing after us. Papa whipped Kate and Jennie, and they broke into a regular runaway, which lasted for a mile or more, the Indians, of course, gaining on us all the while, and soon we were almost in shooting distance. ”