Various

“ The odd thing about this thousand-mile beach is that it appears about to move away. It is continually walking along the coast, up or down, or forward and backward, as if restless and tired of staying in one place.
At one time it may have great holes cut through it, and at another time it creeps along and closes up the gaps, and alters the whole character of the country behind it. Its queer habit of creeping along the shore in certain places has given such parts the name of travelling beaches. Really, I suppose, there are no beaches in the world that do not travel about at some time. ”

“ Still more curious is the low land behind the beach and the still water. It stretches like a vast plain, growing wider and wider toward the south, far down to Florida. It is covered with pine-trees, and in some places it is called the Pine-Barrens, and at other places the Piny Woods Country.
The waves and the creeping beaches have been at work a long time, just as they are at work to-day. There will always be a struggle between the rivers at these queer travelling beaches, but which will be the victor and what will grow out of it all nobody can tell. It makes no difference after all. ”

“ There is nothing like seeing a thing for yourself, and those boys and girls who live near the eastern shore of the United States, between New York and Florida, can easily visit one of the strangest of the strange works done by the sea.
Along the whole south side of Long Island, beginning at Montauk, all along the Jersey shore, away down past Little Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, Cape Hatteras, and the low sandy shores of the Carolinas and Georgia, to the Florida Keys, is a most singular beach, built up by the sea. ”

“ SCRAP AND HIS KITTEN.
It was about this time that I one day heard a knock at my front door, and opening it myself, found Scrap standing very still, his eyes twinkling, and his little mouth trying not to smile. He had a wee kitten in a basket.
"Well, Scrap!" I exclaimed, "I'm glad to see you, dear. Where did pussy come from?"
"I find I don't need her," he said, soberly, coming in and sitting down, grave as a little judge. "She's a present for you. Do you think you like cats?"
"Not always," I had to answer in truth. "But that looks such a dear little thing! Where did you get her, Scrap dear?" ”

“ The tints are most vivid when the background of clouds is darkest and the drops of rain fall closest. The continual falling of the rain while the sun shines produces a new rainbow every moment; and a curious thing is that as each spectator sees it from a particular point of view, strictly speaking no two persons see precisely the same rainbow. A peculiar sacredness is attached to our thoughts of the rainbow on account of the mention made of it in Genesis, when, after the deluge, Noah saw its arch in the sky. ”

“ Scrap early developed two talents; one was for running away, the other was for composing stories. The stories were most interesting, but the running away used to frighten the whole household. Scrap would be brought back from these expeditions a most dejected, tired little person. One day he wandered all over New York with a German band; another time he was found in an old woman's shanty, learning how to feed pigs. When he was remonstrated with he would listen very soberly, fixing his eyes on Mary's face, and watching her mouth with comical intentness ”

“ All the rivers that flow east from the mountains in the Eastern States below New York Bay have had to fight with this creeping beach before they could escape into the sea. In some places the beaches have crept right across the streams, and compelled them to turn aside and go another way. ”

“ To be a good listener is as great an accomplishment as to be a bright talker. A young lady who listens intelligently, and with sympathy in her looks, giving now and then a brief reply or a turn to the talk, but not trying to lead it, or to be at all conspicuous, is sure of being popular. ”

“ One end of the wave strikes the bottom first, and the breaking surf seems to run along the beach, instead of falling all at once, for some distance. The waves, as you have seen, push the sand along before them, and so it happens that these southeast waves drive the sand along as well as up the beach. The sand slides and rolls toward the right, or north, and the beach is said to creep or travel. If there is an opening in the beach, the waves push the sand from the south into the opening, and it grows out into the deep water just as you saw in the picture of the sand-bar. ”

“ I have a very kind cousin who lives in Brooklyn, and sends me Young People. I am eight years old. I am very fond of reading the letters of children so many miles away from each other, and of hearing about their pets. I have a green parrot, but he is very spiteful. We have a gray cat, and if we stay upstairs beyond our time in the morning, she comes up and sits outside the door, and keeps mewing until I come out and speak to her. ”

“ The beach long ago crept over the place, and to-day the sand makes a solid strip of land there, just as we see it.
Look at the map again. Opposite the two rivers, outside the beach, you see a curious tongue or spit running out from the shore. This is under water, out of sight. The United States Coast Survey sent their boats all over this place, and measured the depth. The numbers on the map show the depth of the water in feet. Just here it is shallow. A little farther north, directly opposite the two rivers, it is much deeper. ”

“ They are all restless things, and while we may not see them move, we feel very sure they can and do travel for miles wherever the winds and waves compel them. People who live on these travelling beaches try to stop them by building heavy stone walls, or by driving rows of piles across them. They do not seem to care much, and in some places the sand and rolling pebbles climb over the walls, and travel on very much as they please. ”

“ There were but few persons around the outside of the tent, those who had money enough to pay for their admission having gone in, and those who were penniless having gone home, so that Toby did not find many of whom to make inquiries. The people belonging to the circus were busily engaged in making ready for the night's journey, and a number had gathered around one of the wagons a short distance away. But Toby thought it useless [Pg 502] to ask them for tidings of his missing friend, for he knew by experience how busy every one connected with the circus was at that hour. ”

“ It cut a path along the front of the hills, and there we find it to-day, a narrow river running to the north between the beach and the high-lands. Steam-boats pass up the Navesink River this way, and a bridge has been built over the stream to the beach. All this, as it is to-day, is shown on the map.
This creeping motion of the beach is very curious. The waves when the wind blows from the south or southeast strike the shore obliquely; that is, instead of rolling in "broad-side," as the sailors would say, or squarely in front, they strike at an angle. ”

“ Here is a map showing one place where long years ago there was a strange fight between the creeping beach and two poor little rivers. The place is on the New Jersey shore not far from New York. At the bottom of the map is a part of the Shrewsbury River. Just north of it is another and larger stream called the Navesink. Still farther north are the high hills called the Highlands of Navesink. In front of these two streams and the hills is a narrow strip of beach, and outside of this is the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ While they were talking they had gone out of the tent, and Ben started at once toward the crowd around the wagon, for he knew there was no reason why so many men should be there when they had work to do elsewhere.
"Did you go over there to see what was up?" asked the old driver.
"No; I thought they were getting ready to start, an' I could see Abner wasn't there."
"Something's the matter," muttered the old man, as he quickened his pace, and Toby, alarmed by the look on his friend's face, hurried on, hardly daring to breathe. ”

“ Coney Island is one of these travelling beaches, Rockaway is another, Sandy Hook is part of another.
The only thing that can stop one of these creeping beaches is a river. The Hudson River, flowing out of New York Bay, breaks the beach in two between the Highlands of Navesink and Long Island. ”

“ At the close of the long afternoon, Dolly Goodwin, a girl of about sixteen, had gone out to do the milking. The cows had not been turned to pasture that day, but had been kept in an inclosure near the barn, shut in by a stone wall eight feet high.
Her mother had objected to Dolly's doing this. "Father will be at home soon," she said, "and there will be time enough then."
But Dolly, who was a busy little body, insisted. "If you are afraid for me, I will take my gun. You won't have to worry then. The cows really ought to be milked, for it's almost dark. ”

“ He happened to know what is called a "sandwich man"—that is to say, a man who walks about with signs hanging behind and before him. One day this man made him a proposition. The sandwich man knew a baker who, with his two sons, carried on a small business in a cellar. The baker was fond of reading, but had no time for it, and as he and his sons had to bake their bread early in the morning, he proposed, through the sandwich man, to employ William Chambers as reader. ”

“ The children of the city of Brooklyn, Long Island, are fortunate in having a day of their own when they have the right of way. The schools, public and private, are closed, and some of the finest streets are given up to the little folk on the day of the annual Sunday-school parade. ”

“ The story of the rainbow, as the Bible tells it, is to be found in Genesis, ninth chapter, from the eighth to the seventeenth verses.
Hattie C.—You are needlessly distressed at what you call your lack of conversational powers. It is true that some people have the gift of talking with ease, and that they are not embarrassed in the presence of others. But any person of ordinary intelligence may learn to talk brightly and pleasingly by simply taking pains to learn how. In the first place, try to forget yourself. ”

“ In the little German town where the boys lived he became a sort of small leader, older boys quite giving way before his manly assertion of authority. Among others, Scrap played with some young German Princes, whose rank in their own country entitled them to rule in all the games. This puzzled and bothered Scrap. One day he withdrew from a game, calmly remarking: "Perhaps you didn't know—I am a 'Merikan Prince." ”

“ You must practice very diligently, so that your music will delight your papa when he comes home again. How much you must love him, all the more fondly because he was in such peril on the ocean! I hope he will reach his children in safety.
Nightingale Valley is a beautiful name for a wood.
Brooklyn, New York.
I want to tell you about our cat, whose name is Miss Moll; my little brother named her, and he is three years old. Miss Moll trots all over the house, and when she wants to go out, she stands by the door and mews. When she wants to come in, she scratches at the door. ”

“ Do not fancy when you open your lips that the lady opposite you on the sofa, or your neighbor at the dinner table, is criticising or making fun of you. Well-bred and kindly mannered people never do so. ”

“ I used to have a pet rooster, but papa sold him. He would fly up on my shoulder, and when he saw any one with a pan he would fly in it. I will tell you about a squirrel that lives in a very large hollow hickory-tree back of our house. He is so cunning! He comes out on the side of the tree and chatters at us, and the dog and cat try to catch him, but he is too sharp for that. He comes and steals walnuts from our store-house, and carries some to his tree. We have two small mules; I love to ride on their backs.
Emma F. B. ”

“ They took him up and jiggled him by the tail, and the penny dropped out. At last they caught a whale, and carried him home with the little fish. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway thought they would like to go to that same brook and fish. So, early the next morning, they went. They worked all day, and William and Billy had two pieces of pie for dinner all alone. And what do you think? When Mr. and Mrs. Holloway came home they had only caught one skinny, miserable little thing, and William and Billy sat down and roared laughing."
Scrap asked Mary if she thought any one would like to publish this story. ”

“ On being recalled, the person, ignorant of the hiding-place, must commence a diligent search, taking the piano as his guide. The loud tones will mean that he is very near the object of his search, and the soft tones that he is far from it. ”

“ Scrap had the measles about this time, and while he lay in bed Ben and Lewis occupied themselves writing bulletins of his progress, which were pinned to the dining-room door every morning, and were intended to be very helpful in their character. Scrap was by no means dangerously ill, but his seclusion filled the boys with a sense of horror. One of these bulletins ran as follows:
"No chainge for the better. Pulse is lite and he cries a good deal. Mary says he's got to be made to keep still." ”