Various

“ After that every wave that comes in stumbles and appears to trip just there, and there are white-caps over that spot even in pleasant weather. When the smooth swelling rollers are coming in from the sea, they appear to be angry every time they strike their feet on the hidden bar, and they tumble over with a roar, and show a white feather of foam in their caps.
The sand-bar, once started, never stops growing or changing. It grows wider and higher, or it changes its shape, twisting about in the strangest manner. Smaller bars spring up upon it, or disappear only to grow up in another place. ”

“ I would prefer to say, "Smoke not at all, my ingenuous boy; but whatever you do, smoke no cigarettes." The nicotine will hurt your nervous system, and by weakening the action of the heart will diminish the force of the circulation of the blood. Your hands will begin to tremble, your memory to be affected. You will not be able to enjoy or take part in a good honest out-of-doors game. You will lose your appetite, as well as weaken your brain.
Apart from the inferior quality of the tobacco from which cigarettes are made, the method of smoking them is the most injurious possible. ”

“ You don't work, you just rest, and you hear the people who are alive crying and working and calling to one another down in the close, dark, noisy streets, and you pity them, for the burden has fallen off from you, and you feel so strange, so easy, and light. ”

“ Three of us, all at about the same advanced period of life, felt a noble ambition to show ourselves men as soon as possible, and we concluded that, while it might do for girls to spend their money on candies and pies, every boy who had any self-respect would prefer the manly pleasure of a smoke.
We raised about a quarter among us, and bought three clay pipes and some tobacco. We began to show our manliness at recess. We got behind the school-house, into the nook of an old snake fence, and lit our pipes. ”

“ She pointed to the chair that stood against the wall, farthest away from her own, and he went past it two or three times before he could reach it and sit down.
"Oh, you bad child!" cried Jenny, in a broken voice. "Come, come, you know what I'm waiting for. If there's any money left, let me take care of it. Put it here," striking the arm of her chair; "all you have left; every cent."
If Jenny had not spoken sharply, even crossly, she could not have made her "child" mind at all. ”

“ The servant had little faith in the boy's ability, but not knowing what else to do, he at last consented that Canova should try.
Calling for a large quantity of butter, little Antonio quickly modelled a great crouching lion, which everybody in the kitchen pronounced beautiful, and which the now rejoicing head servant placed carefully upon the table.
The company that day consisted of the most cultivated men of Venice—merchants, princes, noblemen, artists, and lovers of art—and among them were many who, like Faliero himself, were skilled critics of art-work. ”

“ To begin with, we want the article "On Cigarette Smoking" to produce such an impression that the stoves and ranges in all houses inhabited by the coming men of the next generation shall have a grand smoke, consuming in the operation all the compounded horrors in the way of bad paper, bad tobacco, dirt, opium, etc., that we now see defiling lips and destroying the nerve and brain power of the gallant lads to whom the world will soon look for the wit, the wisdom, the sagacity and the command, that shall keep her moving in the right direction. ”

“ The boy knew nothing of art or of its laws, but he fashioned his lumps of clay into forms of real beauty. His wise grandfather, seeing what this indicated, hired a teacher to give him some simple lessons in drawing, so that he might improve himself if he really had the artistic ability which the old man suspected. Pisano was much too poor, as he knew, ever to give the boy an art-education and make an artist of him, but he thought that Antonio might at least learn to be a better stone-cutter than common. ”

“ The paper in which the cheap tobacco is rolled for cigarettes is of poor quality, producing empyreumatic oil, which contains creosote in large quantities. The odor they give out is ranker, fouler, and more acrid than that from a clay pipe. From a cigar to a cigarette the descent is from the sublime to the ridiculous.
We are not talking, however, about smoking in general, but about this modern fashion of cigarette smoking by boys. It is far worse than pipes or cigars. ”

“ The huge billows that roll over the sea in storms are seldom much more than fifteen feet high, and they pass over the surface without disturbing the water beyond the depth of a few feet. Every wave has a top, a middle part, and a bottom, or lower part. When a wave coming in from the sea approaches the shore, the bottom of the wave strikes the land first. The sand catches and holds it back and makes it go slower. The top of the wave, not feeling this friction against the ground, rushes forward, leaving the lower part behind. ”

“ That wonderful machine, the human body, is not unlike a stove, in which the fire will not keep on burning cheerily unless it is replenished from time to time with fuel. Now the very worst fuel in the world for the human stove is composed of pickles on the one hand, and creams and confections on the other. If the brain is to perform its high offices as it ought, the stomach must receive due attention.
After a comfortable luncheon at the school restaurant, we should advise the boys and girls to petition for a half-hour of merry play out-of-doors in pleasant weather. ”

“ As the wave comes nearer to the beach, the bottom part is held back more and more, and the whole wave tips over. It pitches forward as if tripped up, and the top rushes onward swiftly, while the lower part lags behind. The crest, or upper edge, rises higher, for there is no room for it all to pass, and it lifts up as if trying to stand upright. The air gets caught under the crest of the wave in front, and in a moment the wave, unable to rise any higher, falls flat on its face upon the sand. ”

“ Papas and mammas do not like to say no when their pets ask them for pocket-money, and the pocket-money is nearly sure to go to the confectioner's till. Suppose you all ask your parents and teachers to consider our idea of a school dinner nicely served every day. Most of you are sensible folk, and know just as well as your physicians, or the Postmistress does how much brighter, better, and rosier you would feel and look if you could have a hearty nourishing meal to sustain you through the labors and pleasures of the latter half of the day. ”

“ How would you like the idea of a school restaurant of your own, little folks? On the bill of fare we would have every day nice hot soup, good home-made bread, both white and brown, baked potatoes, apple sauce, rice pudding, crisp celery, cold ham, and ripe fruit, served at the order of the pupil-diner, at a daily cost of a few cents. We think there are clever women who could manage such an enterprise so that it would pay them very fair profits, and we are sure that if mammas and papas were consulted, they would consider it an economy to have their children well fed every day. ”

“ For this reason we find that his pictures are not stiff little photographs of sedate and unnaturally wise young people, but that they have the frank unconsciousness and joyous serenity of youth. They are real children, and truth is as essential to greatness in the world of art as it is to greatness in the human character. ”

“ The wind blows upon the water, and as it moves very easily, a part of the water is pushed up into little heaps by the wind. If the wind is light, these tiny heaps are small, and soon fall down again. When the wind ruffles the water in this way, we call it a ripple. When the wind blows stronger, it pushes up more water, and we call these heaps and ridges waves. As the wind keeps on blowing in the same direction, the heaps rise and fall quickly, and the waves appear to move along over the surface of the water in a great procession. ”

“ Willie F.—Your idea that time spent in the study of the dead languages is lost time, and that you would prefer to devote yourself wholly to your native tongue, is perhaps a natural one, but it is based on an error. Latin and Greek are dead languages in the sense that they are not spoken in any land by living people to-day. ”

“ No matter what it was, or how trifling the obstruction, the loose sand rolled along by the wave caught just there, and was left behind; the next wave left a little more, and each in turn added to the heap.
Waves are very irregular in size, and perhaps some big fellow may lift up more sand than he can carry, and may drop it all in one place. Then for some time the weather may be pleasant, and the tiny ridge, perhaps not a quarter of an inch high, and twenty feet wide, may rest awhile. ”

“ This was precisely what our great-grandmothers used to call a "roasting-jack," and all it required was that somebody should wind it up when it ran down, so that the meat would be evenly done all over.
Meantime the broiling and eating of smaller pieces went right on. Their long ride and hard work had given Steve and Murray both good appetites.
"Now, Steve, lie down. Sleep all you can."
"Sha'n't you take a rest?"
"Don't need much. Young eyes call for more sleep than old ones. Never mind me. I'll call you when the time comes."
Steve was used to obeying Murray, and was glad enough to do so now. ”

“ But the wave must go slower here, and thus it lets go its hold and drops its load. When it has passed, the sand, that may have been level before, is raised into a low ridge or windrow. The smaller and lighter grains, being carried farthest, are dropped in one place, and the heavier grains and small pebbles are dropped in another place.
The next wave may stir up and drag along more sand, and lay it down, all sorted out, on the ridge. Other waves may follow, and do the same thing, and so the heap begins to grow: the baby sand-bar has been born. ”

“ Sometimes, when sailing around a bend in the river, the voyagers would come suddenly upon the gnarled and bleached trunk of some gigantic tree that uprose from amid the blooming forest like a withered stalk in a bouquet, causing everything around it to look more bright and cheerful because of the contrast. ”

“ Yet we can not blame children for [Pg 200] disliking the usual school luncheon, which is seldom dainty-looking or inviting to the taste; sandwiches roughly and thickly cut, the bread clumsily buttered, and the meat in chunks instead of slices, cake crumbling and soggy, pickles, and pie that has been wedged into a dinner box for hours, are none of them the proper food for exhausted brains. ”

“ Then a storm comes, with large waves, and when they meet this slight obstruction they go over it more slowly, and drop part of their loads upon it. So it may grow very fast in a single day. In front, toward the sea, the sand will be scooped out in long trenches, and behind it will be a stretch of deeper and smoother water. ”

“ It is all sorted out, the larger pieces at the top, and the smaller bits trailing along toward the pool. All the light sand is arranged by itself next the pool of still water. This bar was thrown up on top of the beach by a storm, yet it serves to show how the sand-bars made under water look. Even on shore you can hear the bars roaring and moaning all day and night, as the great work of the sea goes on, never stopping, never hurrying, for centuries after centuries.
ON CIGARETTE SMOKING. BY AN OLD SMOKER
I am an old smoker, that is past all doubt; but I was a young smoker as well. ”

“ They possess the Homeric quality of dramatic movement and majestic strength, and for reading aloud on a chill winter night, when the wind is raging outside and the fire is bright within, they are surpassed by nothing else that the Postmistress remembers. ”

“ There is a tender love-story running through the book, but its main interest, after all, is derived from its splendid descriptions of battles and forays, which stir the blood to enthusiasm, and rouse the martial impulse which is latent in the most tranquil natures. The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of Old Mortality are full of power, and of that vivid word-painting which is the highest style of writing. ”

“ He had the great fault of thriftlessness, and carelessness of his personal affairs, and when he died in 1805, in his eightieth year, he was reduced to a condition of miserable poverty. It is sad to contemplate so wretched an end to the life of one whose artistic creations will be admired and respected as long as art endures. ”

“ Else how does it happen that Alice and Fanny, who never have the least appetite in the morning, are permitted to go to school, after a very slender breakfast, with a few cents in their pockets to buy lunch; and that Walter and Howard, with their heads full of other declensions, decline to take even so much as a sandwich, on the plea that they have no time to eat at noon?
DISPOSING OF THE CANDY.
Growing boys and girls need to eat if they are to be rosy, plump, and strong. ”

“ I am a little boy three years old. Have taken Young People from the first number. Mamma reads the stories and letters, and tells me about them, and I am every day measuring myself to be big and do my own reading. ”

“ One person plays the piano, or makes some kind of a noise. Place the chairs in a row across the room, every other chair in an [Pg 207] opposite direction, one less than there are players to go round the chairs, and when the music stops, each player must sit down, and of course one will be left out. Then one chair is taken away, and the person who could not get seated can not play any more, and so on until there are but two players going round one chair, and the one who gets seated goes to Jerusalem, and wins the game. ”

“ The ancients—who are so called because when they lived this old world was young—had a wise saying about a sound mind in a sound body, which fathers and mothers in these days seem to have quite forgotten, if they ever heard it. ”