Various

“ It is no light task, either, for one of these little fellows to carry a great bag of honey, fifty times his own weight, up a perpendicular wall and across a ceiling."
"I should think not indeed," cried Harry.
"But how do they use the honey?" asked Willie, curiously. "I should think when these honey-ants eat it, that would be the end of it."
"They feed it back to the others as they require it," replied Uncle Ben. "When one of the ants is hungry, he goes up to a honey-bearer, taps him to let him know what he is after, and puts his mouth to his. ”

“ In New Mexico it is the custom to have a plate full of honey-ants on the dinner table for dessert. The poor things can not get away, of course. After dinner the folks there pick them up one by one, squeeze the bags between their teeth, and suck out the honey, throwing the empty bags away."
"I don't like such a fashion as that," cried Harry, decidedly. "Why, they are regular cannibals."
"And what do the rest of the poor ants do for their honey?" asked Willie.
"I fear they must pass a hard winter, if they do not die of hunger," replied Uncle Ben. ”

“ I'd just like you to tell me what kind of candy it is, and how they make it; and I'd like to see one of their houses."
"Their houses are all built under-ground," replied Uncle Ben. "There are too many boys about, with clumsy feet, for them to build their delicate palaces above-ground. But if you were only to open an ant-hill, and trace out all its entries and passages, and its rooms and granaries, and its stairways and its nurseries, you might have more respect for these little creatures. If you want to see a larger ant-house, you will have to go to Africa. ”

“ He had jumped the barn-yard fence now in search of more helpless chickens, and more of what he called fun.
A snap of his great jaws would have been enough to kill any fowl in that yard, and it would have crushed the life out of one of the little yellow "peepers" the old hens were now clucking to, if he had but put a paw on it.
But Bayard, the game-cock, was neither a Dorking, nor an old hen, nor a chicken, and he did not run an inch when the big dog came charging so fiercely toward him. He did but lower his head and step a little forward.
"Oh, Uncle Joe! He will be torn all to pieces." ”

“ Should the hunter approach too near the ibex, the animal will, as if suddenly urged by the reckless courage of despair, dash boldly forward at its foe, and strike him from the precipitous rock over which he is forced to pass. ”

“ But I mean something else. Why can't they build themselves houses, like men do, with chimneys and fires? And why don't they have farms, and roads to travel in, and barns?"
"And cows to milk?" broke in little Willie Mason; "and somebody to work for them and to fight for them—and—and pies, and candy, and such?"
Uncle Ben looked down with a comical expression upon the eager little fellow, with his bright young face and his sparkling blue eyes.
"Perhaps they do," he said.
"Oh, now, Uncle Ben!" cried Harry and Willie in chorus. "You're only funning now. Who ever heard of cows building houses?" ”

“ We can detect the work of the sunbeams in the flash of the lightning and the roar of the thunder, in the turning of the compass-needle to the north, and in all the wonders of chemical science, as certainly as in the growing plant or the running stream.
The only form of force known to us which does not come entirely from the sun is that of the tides. The tidal wave is raised and carried round the earth mainly by the attraction of the moon. The sun, though immensely larger than the moon, is so much farther off that it attracts the waters of the earth much less than the moon does. ”

“ Having seen the charming little paper, Harper's Young People, and being in a distant country, I thought that now and again a letter from this place might please some of the dear children.
The little folks here are very dark-skinned, not black. They use a very different language, and call everything by a different name. Not having any snow, the boys go to the top of a steep mountain, and slide down its side on sleds they make for themselves. Some are boards, and some only palm leaves. The mountain is very steep, so that it looks as though the children must be killed in coming down its sides. ”

“ Everybody knows that we are indebted to the sun for light and heat, but this is by no means all that we owe to him; or, rather, this includes a good deal more than we may see at first sight. The sun really does all, or nearly all, the work of the world. ”

“ When the latter is satisfied, he walks away, and the living honey-comb takes a rest until some other hungry individual calls upon him."
"Well, that is very curious, I know," cried Harry. "And does the honey last all winter? Is that all they have to feed on?"
"Yes, so far as is known."
"I guess the honey-bags must be pretty empty by spring, then," said Willie.
"I have not quite finished the story yet," continued Uncle Ben. "We have talked about how bears feed on the honey-comb of the bees. Now men feed on these living honey-combs." ”

“ We talk of water-power, wind-power, steam-power, animal power, and the like; but all these are only kinds of sun-power. Let us look at them one by one, and see if the sunbeams are not the forces within or behind them all.
Water-power is the force exerted by falling or running water; and running water is falling water. In the most familiar forms of water-wheels, troughs—or buckets, as they are called—are arranged on the rim in such a way that the water runs into those on one side of the wheel near the top, making that side heavier, so that it descends. ”

“ Wherever a wind blows, the process is similar: it is the sun that causes the wind, be it zephyr, or gale, or hurricane.
"But," you will say, "the sun does not run our steam-engines; it is artificial heat, not natural heat, that changes the water into steam." Very true; but how do we get this heat? By burning wood or coal. For the former we are clearly in debt to the sun, which made the trees grow that furnish the fuel; and the coal is the remains of plants that grew long before the creation of man, plants that were as dependent on the sunshine as those that flourish to-day. ”

“ The keel of a ship has been likened to the backbone of a man, running, as it does, from stem to rudder. It consists of several timbers scarfed or pieced together, and under it is the shoe, a kind of second keel, but differing from the keel proper in that it is only loosely joined to it, whereas the keel is bolted to the ship's bottom through and through. The reason for this is that in case of grazing a rock a vessel having a shoe will, in most cases, part with the shoe, thus saving the keel, and escaping without serious injury. ”

“ Did you ever see a steam-boat towing a row-boat with a man in the bow? If ever you do, you'll see him go overboard mighty quick. A boat'll sheer all over creation if you tow her with a fellow in the bow. You just put the biggest of you fellows in the stern of that there boat, and she'll go through under the bridge just as steady as a church."
The boys gladly took the old man's advice. When the boat was baled out, they floated the rope down again, and when it was made fast, Tom Schuyler, who was the heaviest of the boys, offered to sit in the stern. ”

“ I am but a tiny baby, but my mamma takes Young People for me—so she says; but when I grab it to cut my teeth on it, my mamma grabs it away, which don't seem as if it were much mine.
I live in Rochester, and I am in a farm-house near the lake for the summer. The lake air is good for little babies.
I go all over the farm in my little carriage, sometimes 'way out in the field to see the cow from which I get milk fresh twice a day. ”

“ When he died, grief spread like a shadow over the whole land. In every home men felt that they had lost a faithful friend, a wise and loving guide. Wherever men gathered, words of sorrow for his loss, and praise for his great life, were spoken. ”

“ Why, there is an ant out West that makes a living honey-comb. Some of the ants themselves are turned into honey-combs to feed the others during the long winters."
Harry rose to his feet. He could not continue to lie down lazily when such marvellous stories as these were afloat.
"Living honey-combs!" he ejaculated.
"They are from the West, you know; the land of wonders," explained his uncle. "They are found in New Mexico. ”

“ Charley was a brave little fellow, and besides this, he had confidence in the Professor, who seemed to manage his "air-ship," as it is often called, so skillfully. What a great thing it is to have confidence in a leader! ”

“ I have tried Puss Hunter's recipe for cake, and it was very nice. I am going to try R. C. W.'s recipe for candy, in Young People No. 28. I hope it will be a success.
I expect to have a young turtle given to me soon, and I should like to tame it, if I can. Is there any reader of Young People who can tell me how to tame a turtle?
I have a great many dolls, and I think a good deal of them all. I have a wax doll named Maud, and a china doll named Nellie, and another named Linnie. I like Nellie better than all the rest.
Jessie B.
Young People is a very welcome visitor at our house. ”

“ Indeed, the thing which made Washington so great was the earnest way in which he tried to find what was right, and to do it. Other men have had greater gifts of mind than he, and could do what he could not. But no man was ever more true to duty, small or great. ”

“ Who ever heard an ant bark?"
"Or a cow?" rejoined his uncle. "As for running, I think this little fellow can run fast enough. And he eats, too. And he can climb trees. I don't say that he can whistle, but neither can a frog. I have no doubt that our ant can talk to his comrades as easily as your dog can converse with his friends."
"But ants," said Harry, doubtfully. "Don't you forget, Uncle Ben, you said they built houses and barns, and milked cows, and made roads and bridges, and had farms, and kept soldiers and workers?—I forget the rest. Yes, you said some of them lived on candy ”

“ The atmosphere has been compared to a great wheel carried round by the heat of the sun. We know that when air is heated it rises, and that the tropical parts of the earth are hotter than the polar regions. ”

“ With every movement we make, a portion of this fuel is burned up in our muscles. Every beat of our hearts is at the expense of such material; and the material is the gift of the sun. Our very thoughts are indirectly dependent on the sunbeams; for the brain, which is the organ of thought, requires food to maintain its activity, like the muscles and all the other machinery of the body. ”

“ I am a little girl eleven years old. My father was hurt on the railroad and died, and I and my mamma live with a family that have no children at home, so I am the only child in the house. Uncle Henry sends me Young People. He is not my own uncle, but I love him just as well as though he were.
I have a nice shepherd puppy. It is just as cunning as it can be. There is no school here that I can go to, so I study at home. We have eight cows. I can milk, and I can strain the milk and skim it too. One evening I skimmed sixteen pans.
Susie H. ”

“ It has often happened that in the course of excavations in search of minerals, the workmen have come upon some singular hollows or openings in the rock, caused by convulsions of the earth or earthquakes, or caverns through which torrents have flowed in former ages, and have left them for nature to ornament in the most beautiful and fantastic manner. ”

“ The soft white masses rolled and whirled close beside the basket; it was very cool and damp.
In a minute the Professor exclaimed, "Look, Charley! we are above the clouds."
"What a funny smell the clouds have!" said Charley; upon which the Professor laughed heartily, and showed him that the neck of the balloon was open, and some of the gas was flowing out. He explained that the gas took up more room as they arose, until it finally escaped in this way. Then he pulled on a small rope which was fastened to the top of the balloon, and a rushing sound was heard. ”

“ As a rule, every wooden vessel's ribs are of oak, and, for greater strength, preference is given to the best qualities of live-oak. As a ship's side curves, her outside planking has to be forced into place, and for the short curves near the bows and stern, the planks have to be steamed, and bent on while moist, as otherwise they would crack and split in the process. ”

“ And soon his dread anticipations were realized, for striking into a path that ran through a corn field, the boys made straight for the brook, where Frank proceeded to cut a long switch from a willow-tree, while Tom took out three pins from his coat, and deliberately impaled the two paper ladies to the stern, and General Popgun to the bow of the boat. ”

“ I read so many letters in the Post-office Box from other little girls that I thought I would write myself. I like Young People so much that I can hardly wait until it comes.
I had some pet chickens. They were so tame they would eat out of my hand. I had a bird too, but it fell into its bath-tub, and was drowned. My only pet now is a cat named Kitty Clover.
N. V. L.
Chicago, Illinois. ”

“ He packed them away with his rubber blanket rolled tightly around them, and Jim attended to the duty of stepping the mast. Then the boys took their places, and Joe pushed the boat off with the boat-hook. The gentle breeze filled the sail, and the Whitewing went peacefully on her way up the river.
"Boys," said Harry, presently, "it's getting awfully hot."
"That's because we're sailing right before the wind," said Tom. "We are going just about as fast as the wind goes, and that's the reason why we don't feel it." ”