Various

“ JOHN'S "CAMEL-BIRD." BY LOUISE STOCKTON.
"Now," said John, "if you are really good, I'll give you something you like."
The ostrich looked at John out of his small bright eyes, and he gave his dingy-looking plumes a little shake, but he did not stir from the spot where he was standing; so John took out of his pocket a handful of nails, and gave one to the ostrich, who immediately swallowed it, and then bobbed his head down for another, and got it.
"But you must not be in such a hurry," said John; "it is not good for your health to eat so fast." ”

“ It was an instant's awkwardness on both sides, followed by a little cry from Milly, and a stare of horror from Roger. The cup of boiling chocolate poured in a brown stream down the front of her gray silk dress.
Poor Mildred! I am afraid, in spite of Roger's anxious apologies and her own instinctive politeness, she looked very miserable. The rest of the evening hung but heavily on her hands. Alice easily dismissed the subject, not guessing of how much importance one silk dress could be to any one, little knowing the misery in her companion's mind. ”

“ All wide-awake boys who know the pleasures of skating will agree with me that however cold and stormy it is upon the hill-tops, the mill-pond (and what does a village amount to without a mill-pond, indeed?) is always down in the coziest nook between the hills, where the winds can't come with more force than is needed to blow the falling flakes across its smooth surface, piling them in great heaps among the bordering willows, and leaving the ice in tempting order for "shinny." ”

“ Captain Richards told John why the ostrich was called the "camel-bird." The Arabs have a story that a King once said to the ostrich, "Fly," and it answered, "I can not, for I am a camel." So then he said, "Carry," and it replied, "I can not, for I am a bird." So, while it has the endurance of a camel and the swiftness of a bird, it will neither bear a burden nor fly through the air; and so, as John said, is neither, and yet both. ”

“ FISHING THROUGH THE ICE.—Drawn by W. R. Yeager, from a Sketch by F. H. Taylor. MR. CHALKER'S RUSE. BY FRANK H. TAYLOR.
Every country boy in New England knows that the village school-house is generally located upon the top of the bleakest hill in the neighborhood, and is the sport of every eddying gust of wind that drives down from the great pine wilderness of Maine, heaping the great drifts across the road and about the door for the children to break through, and then shake themselves free of the clinging snow like so many young Newfoundlands. ”

“ You don't want any boards in a snow house."
"And the Esquimaux don't have any," said Rory.
Fred had put down four of them flat on the snow, and was now shovelling a heap of snow upon them from the spot he had chosen for the house.
"Boards?" he said. "Why, boys, that's our brick-yard."
"Brick-yard? Snow bricks? What's the saw for? You can't cut snow with a saw."
"I'll show you. Just you fellows pile on snow, and bang it down hard with a spade. We're going to do just what the Esquimaux do." ”

“ A boy who has a scroll-saw may earn a little income for himself, if he is industrious, in his play-time. So may one who has a printing-press. A girl who has learned to embroider nicely, or to paint cups and saucers, can often have her own money; and let me tell you, money that is earned by one's own diligence is much more enjoyed than any other. ”

“ The snow was deep enough anywhere that winter, but it was not a very cold day, and every drift and level was in prime condition for snow-balling. The difficulty was that too much of that kind of fun had been going on all the week, and so the grand "match" set for that Saturday had been forbidden by the Academy Trustees.
"They'd about half kill themselves if we'd let 'em," had been the solemn comment of old Squire Garrison, and nobody dreamed of disputing his decision, for he was President of the Board, and the wisest man in the village. ”

“ It went through the snow so nice and easy, and Bill Evans remarked, "Can't he handle a saw!"
He worked away, till a dozen bricks were ready, and he made them a little shorter on one side than on the other.
"What's that for?" asked Bob Sanders. But then Bob never opened his mouth without asking something; and all Fred told him was,
"So they'll fit around in a circle. The short side goes in."
"It's the way the Esquimaux do," said Rory. "He read all about it in a book last night."
"Go ahead, boys," said Fred. "It'll take just thirty of those bricks to go around. It won't take so many after that." ”

“ Directly opposite the wagon on which he had been sleeping were the four elephants and two camels, and close behind, contentedly munching their breakfasts, were a number of tiny ponies. Troops of horses were being groomed and attended to; the road was littered with saddles, flags, and general decorations, until it seemed to Toby that there must have been a smash-up, and he now beheld ruins rather than systematic disorder. ”

“ Down the street there is a crippled boy, who watches you with a sad, wistful face as you go bounding past his window on your way to school. Poor Jimmy! the hours move very slowly indeed to him. He is fond of reading, but he has read all the books he possesses till he knows them almost by heart. ”

“ He stuck a peg in the snow for a centre, and around that, with a string five feet long and another peg, he marked a circle that was just ten feet across.
"Now, boys, there's eight of us, and we can build the biggest snow house you ever saw. The snow packs splendidly. We'll make our bricks a foot wide and a foot high and a foot and a half long." ”

“ BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE. Chapter IV.
Mildred thought she had never seen anything finer than the beautiful hall and staircase at Miss Jenner's. She scarcely felt her foot fall on the rich dark carpets as she made her way up stairs into a beautiful old-fashioned room where half a dozen young people were congregated, laying aside their wraps. They were talking and laughing gayly, and Mildred recognized them as the daughters of the "leading people" in Milltown—girls about her own age or a little younger, to whom she had constantly sold ribbons or laces, or the "newest thing" in mantles. ”

“ My papa says there is no difficulty in painting magic-lantern slides with water-color paints, and the design can easily be made without using those dangerous chemicals. He used to make slides in this way when he was a boy: Take a slip of glass of the proper size, and cover one side with a coat of mastic varnish, and let it dry well. Then make your sketch on a piece of white paper, and lay your slide over it, and trace the outlines on the glass with a fine camel's-hair brush and India ink. ”

“ Richards's coral breast-pin. It was pretty, and it looked good; so in went Perry's head, and in a flash the pin was down his throat.
Then, also, he would eat the little chickens. No one cared how many rats and grasshoppers he ate, but it was very provoking to have a pretty little brood of chickens gobbled up by this long-legged camel-bird. Even John did not like this, and he was glad when his father had a slatted coop made for the hens and their little ones. For a time all went well, but suddenly the chicks began to disappear, and then Mrs. Richards set a man to watch. ”

“ For ten cents you can buy a beautiful story, or a charming illustrated paper, which will give Jimmy two or three days of delight. The money which we deny ourselves, that we may bestow some pleasure on others, always is the best investment, for it returns us the most true happiness. ”

“ Every penny is an opportunity, and pennies make dollars. There are very few young ladies and gentlemen who do not spend a generous sum in the course of the year, and so often it goes for trifles of no real value that when the year is over they have nothing to show for it. Take the small sum of ten cents. It may be expended in chocolate cream drops, and eaten up in a few minutes. It may be spent in buying a dainty little easel for your mother's photograph, or a pretty illuminated card, or a gay fan, which, hung on the wall, will make a vivid bit of color, quite brightening the room. ”

“ The one person who did not like Perry was Mrs. Richards. She used to be afraid to see John mounted on him, and, as she said, if Perry chose to run off into the wilds with John, who could stop him?
"But he won't," said her husband. "A tame ostrich is sure to come home to be fed." ”

“ I saw in a minute that all the parts of the block are cut away except the parts marked by the lead-pencil and brush; these must stand up higher than the rest of the wood, to take the ink for printing. But I tell you what seemed like magic—taking a proof. The proof-taker just laid the engraved block picture on its back in his press, and ran an inked roller over its face; then he laid a sheet of paper on it; then he pulled the press down on it, and it only took a second's pressure ”

“ Sparks; you don't trap me into any expression of adoration, as you did Miss Gooch. But tell me, how do you make these cards?"
"The simplest thing in the world. You take a piece of thin card-board, and outline on it in pencil any sentence you wish, as I have done 'I love you'; then you blacken portions of the letters, as I have also done, and place the card with its face to a window-pane, so that the light shining through will show what you have done on the other side. ”

“ Here some of the girls were afraid again; so, as it was near twelve o'clock, we hurried up the winding stairs again to see the folding and binding and "marbleizing" done.
The folding-machine is just the cleverest thing. The sheet is laid on a moving roller which carries it over to a second and then a third roller, and it goes in and out, and the first thing you know it drops down in a trough at the side, all nicely folded, and cut, too, for binding.
Then we saw a lot all ready for the sewers. Well, I think I never saw needles fly like those that the girls were sewing the leaves in lots with. ”

“ And look at the way they're dressed. It's no use playing Esquimaux, and not have anything to do it with."
"Now," said Fred, with another long look at the picture in the book, "you're going for too much. We can get all the boys."
"Guess we can, now they daren't start another snow-ball match."
"Think of all the snow, Rory. It's just thawed enough to pack. We can go back of the orchard and make a snow house as big as that."
Fred had spent his whole evening, the night before, over that book of Arctic Voyages, and he had brought it to bear on Rory the first thing after breakfast. ”

“ How'll you get out after your roof's on?"
"Give me the saw, and I'll fix that while Rory's gone for the chair."
It was easy enough to cut a hole two feet square down at the floor, and Fred said, "We can make a long crawl-hole entry, such as the Esquimaux use, when we've finished the house."
"The roof's the toughest part of the job," said Bill Evans.
He was mistaken in that, however, for the last rounds of bricks were fitted in just as easily as any others, only Fred made them shorter and shorter, till there was only a hole a foot square left at the middle of the roof. ”

“ If there is any difficulty, a little ox-gall, which can be bought at any paint shop, will make it right. All the details must be carefully painted with a very fine brush, as the magic lantern magnifies all defects. Only transparent colors, like gamboge, Prussian blue, lakes, and madders, can be used. The slides should be finished by covering all the glass, except the figures, with black oil-paint, and adding another coat of varnish to the slide.
Harry J.
Stalybridge, Lancashire, England. ”

“ There's a fellow going around here just now who makes a regular trade of snapping up all the good caps he can lay his hands on. He hires a hack carriage, and drives about the streets after dark at a rattling pace, the driver being, of course, a confederate of his own. ”

“ Of course John did not live in this country, but in the southern part of Africa, where his father was an English officer. Perry was a tame ostrich, and had been given to John when the boy was quite a little fellow, and many a good time they had had together. Sometimes they would go out walking; but Perry was not fond of this, because John went so slowly, even when he ran. The best arrangement was for John to ride. Perry would stand perfectly still, and Captain Richards would put John on his back. John would catch tight hold of Perry's neck, and away they would go. Go! ”

“ Here are two pretty botanical experiments, which may be new to some readers of Young People. Place a sponge of any size in a saucer, which must be kept filled with water. Sprinkle some canary-seed on the top of the sponge, and in a short time it will sprout and become a beautiful bunch of long green grass.
A crocus bulb, if wrapped in cotton and placed in a saucer of water, will in course of time sprout and bloom.
Carl R. E.
When I was seven years old my brother, my two sisters, and myself were presented with four white Angora rabbits. ”

“ As this page was only a letter from a doll, I didn't care much for it, but all the girls just went wild over it; however, I took one for the curiosity's sake; for what fellow is there cares for dolls?
Harper's Young People is not printed right from these type, as I thought when the proofs were being made for us, for the type would soon wear off. A wax mould is made from each page of set-up type. I asked the editor what good a soft wax thing like that mould could be, so he took us all into a wonderful room, where they make copper plates from the wax moulds. ”