Various

“ Why don't you get a decent nest, with a smooth round top, that a duck'll scare from easy? We don't do things in any such way as that over in Putney."
The Rockville boys felt that there was something awful in being lectured after such a fashion, right before Joe Biddle's city cousin. Just as if they didn't know how to play duck!
Nevertheless, there sat Bill Eaton's duck, solid as ever, and twice as ugly. Every duck stone that was pitched at it tumbled to the ground in disgrace, and lay there with an increasing look of being unfit for its business. ”

“ It is far better to play ball, or run foot-races in the country, than to spend the evening in a billiard saloon, where boys are too apt to learn to drink and gamble, and to use low and profane language; and our young friend need not consider his life wasted if he should never see a circus. There are hundreds of boys in New York who would gladly give up the excitements and amusements of city life if they could exchange the counter and the boarding-house for the greater freedom and healthier life of the country. ”

“ GEORGE STEPHENSON.—THE RAILROAD.
Swift as is the steamer, the rail-car is doubly and trebly swift. Some trains in England run at the rate of seventy miles an hour. This is as fast as a balloon moves through the air, or a storm wind. It is the most rapid means of travel ever known among men, and it is only within the past thirty or forty years that the railroad has reached this rapid rate of speed. The engine used on the rail-car is smaller and more compact than the machinery of the steamer. ”

“ There was fun in wading, but under the rigid inspection of the self-appointed teacher of the great game of duck the best pebbles of that creek bottom were fished out only to be despised and thrown away.
"I've got one," shouted Sid Wayne, as he lifted a dripping arm just high enough to let the water trickle down toward his neck, under his rolled-up sleeve.
"That!" said Charley. "Well, now, that'll almost do. Some of our fellows'd take that, if they couldn't find anything better."
"They'd have to hunt, then," said Joe Biddle. "Keep it, Sid." ”

“ They may make higher wages, but their living costs them more; and instead of a healthful country home, they are compelled to live in some close, stuffy boarding-house, to work from early morning until late at night, perhaps, in shop or store, until the fresh country color is bleached out of their cheeks, and their faces wear a tired, jaded look. The very amusements of the city, unless a boy is discreet and steady, are a source of great danger. ”

“ They hauled up the anchor, pushed the boat ashore with an oar, and made their way rapidly across the meadow to the beach. It was already beginning to grow light, and they could dimly make out the form of a vessel stranded on the bar that lies a few rods distant from the beach.
"There's a wreck, sure enough," said Charley.
"Can't we do anything to help the men?" asked Tom.
"I don't see how we can. If the coast patrol was here, they might do something; but they don't patrol the beach in summer." ”

“ Aunt Ruth lives in a big old-fashioned house in the country, at which her many nieces and nephews are always welcome, and all the country people adore her. Though there is so much of what papa calls personality about her, yet she never seems to be thinking of herself, i and one day when the girls and I were clustering about her in her own sitting-room, I exclaimed: "Aunt Ruth, do you ever think about yourself for one moment? You seem just made for other people." ”

“ The "creek" was a shallow stream where it was wide, and deep only where the banks rose a little and squeezed it narrow, so that all you had to do, for ordinary wading, was to roll up your trousers as far as they would go; that is, for any boy over twelve who was not small for his age. Any boy big enough to pitch a two-pound duck-stone for thirty feet could wade for one in that creek almost anywhere. Very small boys would have to keep near shore, and do their pitching with pebbles suited to their own size.
"We use the biggest kind over in Putney," said Charley McGraw. ”

“ Like Watt and Fulton, he was the son of a hard-working father. He inherited a clear mind. He educated himself, going to school at night. He was never discouraged and never repined. He never lived for money alone, but was chiefly anxious to be useful to his fellow-men. [Pg 547] Every one who sees the railway train rush by, laden with food, goods, and passengers, should remember George Stephenson. With Fulton and Watt and Evans he has made steam the most potent servant of mankind.
OH, WHAT A DUCK! BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
"Is that the duck, Joe Biddle? The little stone on top of the big one?" ”

“ In almost every German village there is a bowling-alley, simply constructed, where young people of both sexes meet on evenings or on holidays, and enjoy themselves a great deal more than city young folks do in billiard saloons and bowling-alleys hot with gas-lights, and reeking with the fumes of intoxicating drinks. ”

“ Stephenson now set himself to improve and enlarge his engines and railways. He became the founder of a new system of travel. He produced new inventions constantly, and his great and powerful mind placed him at the head of the railway interests of England. He grew famous and wealthy, but was always honest, modest, and true. Nothing could be more unpopular than his railways. They were called "nuisances" by respectable lawyers. Every one foretold their failure. ”

“ If it is happy, and feels at home, it will build itself a cunning little nest of woollen ravellings, or any other soft material. We remember a very funny surprise and disappointment which once befell a pair of pet flying-squirrels. A lady visitor was sitting near their cage, when she felt a little tug at her shawl. She looked around, and there were two little squirrels, their cheeks puffed out with the woollen fringe which they had pulled through the wires of their cage, and which they were vainly striving to carry away to their nest. ”

“ Anyway, we'll have light to work by."
"There ain't but four of us here," said another man. "I'm ready to launch her whenever Captain Raynor gives the word; but we ought to have another oar."
"Take me," said Charley. "I can pull an oar, and I've been drilled in landing through the surf. It's a part of the navy drill now."
"Are you in the navy, young fellow?" asked the Captain.
"Yes, sir," replied Charley.
"You shall come along if we launch the boat. It's no fool's play, though, you understand. Every man that gets into that boat takes his life in his hand." ”

“ She is not very tall, but there seems to me something queen-like in her manner. She is very pretty, but the charm of her face is its sweetness. When she smiles, her eyes grow very tender; when she is serious, a look comes into them of a peace I can not describe. ”

“ If our little friend could have his wish fulfilled, and exchange his beautiful country home for a city residence, we are sure that the experience of a few weeks would entirely cure him of his delusion. Thousands of young men and boys flock from the country into our great cities every year, in the hope of making money, and having a good time at the theatres, circuses, and other places of amusement. ”

“ She easily made papa see that it was I who should go. "Joe is not well," she pleaded, "and he never does anything for Ruth; he must be taken care of." One such excuse after another was made, greatly to my delight, and the only drawback to my satisfaction was Mrs. Judson's disapproving air. She came over more than usual, and several times remarked upon the injustice of this arrangement. "Why, Winny is quite a young lady," she said once to me, "and really ought to see something." But it was always Winny who silenced her, and prevented papa's discussing the question further. ”

“ Since that time the whole civilized world has adopted his invention, and travels and traffics by its aid. The locomotive climbs up the Andes in Peru, runs beneath the Alps at Mont Cenis, is imitated in Japan, and mobbed in China. The Chinese recently tore up a railway because they thought it the work of evil spirits. Fifty years ago, English mobs threatened to destroy Stephenson's railways, and his men worked under the protection of a guard. There are now twenty thousand miles of railway in England alone, and eighty thousand in the United States. ”

“ Now is it probable that any real good man would put a boy up to any such nonsense as this? It's my belief that the lecturer was hired by somebody to come and entice all our boys to get themselves stung.
As I was saying, I got a ladder and a lantern, and a piece of paper covered with mucilage, and after dark I climbed up to the wasps' nest, and stopped up the door, and then brought the nest down in my hand. ”

“ PLAYING DUCK.—Drawn by S. G. McCutcheon.
"You see," said Joe Biddle, in pity for Sid's ignorance, "Bill Eaton can't get his duck away and have another chance to pitch till it's knocked off; and he can't then unless he grabs it, puts it back on the nest, and touches another fellow that's made a miss before that fellow can get away home. If one of 'em tries to take his duck-stone, though, any time, and Bill can touch him before he gets in with it, then that fellow has to be 'duck-tender' in Bill's place. ”

“ I have received many nice things in answer to my other letter, and although my collection is not so large as that of some of the boys and girls who write to Young People, still it is a source of great amusement and pleasure to me. My brother is in Europe this summer, and when he returns he will bring me many nice things for my collection.
Samuel Carpenter, Jun., Oswego, Kan.
I have no more oil-sand to exchange, but will send to those who wrote to me. I will now exchange specimens of white spar and quartz, and a rock and soil from West Virginia, for four foreign or old United States coins. ”

“ There are other kinds of fish that can make a noise as well as the genus called by naturalists Prionotus pilatus, to which the sea-robin belongs. Even the eel will squeak when caught, and the porpoise sometimes grunts very much like the sea-robin. The drum-fish, too, which makes a noise not unlike a drum. But here is another curious fellow," he added, as he pulled in a small brown fish about as long as your finger.
"What is it, Uncle Harry?" asked Charley. ”

“ Small, low, almost insignificant, it possesses a giant's strength, and may often be seen rushing with its long train of cars along the banks of the Hudson or over the New Jersey flats, swift as the wind. ”

“ There is no reason why country life should be dull. In every village a club of young people can be found to play base-ball, cricket, croquet, lawn tennis, or practice archery—a most healthful and delightful kind of sport. ”

“ Come on, men, and get out the boat. We'll have her on the beach, though I don't believe we can do much with her."
Everybody went back to the house.
"We'll want all you boys to help this time," said the Captain of the coast-guard, for such he proved to be. "It's hard work dragging a boat through the sand."
Tom's fire was now blazing nicely, and he left it to lend a hand with the boat. It was hard work until the loose, deep sand at the foot of the sand-hills was passed, after which the boat was moved more easily, until she was finally brought opposite the wreck. ”

“ He's only a rod to go. Don't let him know about the hole."
Charley was too busy over Sid's really remarkable duck-stone to take note of the winks and nods and whispers that were firing off around him, and as soon as he discovered that there was no fault to be found with the size, smoothness, roundness, or weight of Sid's pebble, he was again wading on down stream. ”

“ It is only a cow, but I can ride on her. I live on a farm, but I wish I could live in the city. There is no fun in the country but running foot-races, and I have never seen a circus since I can remember. ”

“ There is a society in this city which every year sends large numbers of boys and girls to country homes, and we believe that none of them wants to come back. Let Master Robert take this lesson to heart, and learn to be happy in the healthful work and sports to be found in his native fields. ”

“ I go in bathing, and I have a boat of my own, and go out boating and fishing, and catch lots of fish. Sometimes we catch a turtle. There are lots of land turtles here, but the people call them gophers, and the real gophers they call salamanders. ”

“ He staid in England making clocks, engines, and various machines, and found employment in James Watt's factory. There he began to study the steam-engine. He lost no opportunity of study and improvement. His remarkable intellect was eager to get knowledge, and he became, when he was about forty, a well-known engineer, and the maker of steam-engines. As early as 1812 he had planned a railroad, and even built an imperfect locomotive, but many a year was to pass before his plan could be carried out, and lines of railway laid from city to city. ”

“ They can not fly like birds, for their "wings" are only a kind of fur-covered skin stretching from the hind to the fore feet, which enables them to sail in the air in a downward direction. When they pass from tree to tree they spring, at the same time spreading their feet, and the extended skin acts as a sail, enabling them to go a great distance. ”

“ She's so heavy that we couldn't haul her down here without a team of horses; and if we had her here, there ain't enough of us to launch her. No, my boy; we've done all we can do. Our only chance now is that we may fish some man out of the surf before he is drowned. ”