Various

“ We can form but little idea of the immense numbers of animals thus leading quiet contented lives, and drawing from the surrounding water all that is needed for their support. They can not go in search of food, and they take only such as floats toward them. Still, they seem to have some choice in the matter, as they reject from their mouths any food they are not suited with. Many of these curious animals are glowing with bright colors, and surrounded as they are with a great variety of plants, they give to the bottom of the ocean a marvellous beauty. ”

“ Red Wolf rode closer to him at the moment, and said,
"Knotted Cord is young. Been on war-path before?"
"Say yes, Steve," muttered Murray.
"Yes, I'm young. Seen a good deal, though. Many war-paths."
"What tribe strike?"
"Lipans, Comanches, Mexicans. Followed some Pawnees once. They got away."
Red Wolf's whole manner told of the respect he felt for a young brave who had already been out against the fiercest warriors of the Indian country. He would have given a good many ponies to have been able to say as much for himself. ”

“ I will be a scholar. You are too poor to attend to my education, and that is why the King ought to look after it. I am sure to succeed in making him do so, but for that I must have a donkey."
"A donkey!" cried father and mother; "but where are we to look for a donkey? Don't you know, my dear Punchinello, it is no easy matter to pick up a donkey?" ”

“ We would call the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. this week to the interesting article by Miss Sarah Cooper entitled "Some Odd Relations of the Jelly-Fish," in which we learn more about the curious creatures that seem to us simply plants, but which that magical instrument the microscope shows to be living animals eating and drinking, and leading strange, mysterious lives way down in the depths of blue sea. You all know well the name of England's great Prime Minister, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and you will be glad to read the little sketch of his noble and laborious life. ”

“ P.S.—We walk three miles to Sunday-school.
We never hear of people who walk miles to day or Sunday school without feeling ashamed of ourselves, because, sometimes we think it hard to have to walk a few blocks on some such errand. ”

“ I always look forward to Thursday, which brings Young People, as we live in the country, and think more of getting the papers than the little girls in the city. We have had lots of ice and sleet, and it makes me wish, when I see my little brother on his sled going down the hill, that I could go too; but maybe I will be able to when another winter comes. We have a good many pets, but the best one is our dog. To close, I will tell the readers what my ma tells me, always to sew the paper before reading it. I am eleven years old. ”

“ And of course when the rain comes pit-a-pat on the roofs, and the wind goes racing along, driving the surf on the shore, that little girl knows that Dame Nature is full of her annual house-cleaning. When she is done, how everything will shine! ”

“ Very good, my Lord Ambassador. The Princess has the good taste to be of opinion that nothing as beautiful as the skin of your fat cheeks is to be found on earth, as its blackness is only to be equalled by its lustre. ”

“ Should you find a piece freshly washed up from the ocean, it would be well to place it in a glass jar filled with sea-water, and after allowing it to remain perfectly still for a while, it may perhaps show you, if it is yet alive, how it [Pg 308] has been accustomed to pass the quiet hours in its native home.
You will find each cup occupied by a soft animal, with a mouth in the centre opening directly into the stomach. Hydroids, you see, are higher in the scale of life than sponges, for they possess mouths and stomachs. ”

“ The position chosen by the Lipans was a strong one, and the scattered shots which now and then came from the mouth of the pass told that the beaten warriors of To-la-go-to-de were wide awake and ready to defend themselves.
But for one thing that end of the pass would have been already vacant. The pride of the Lipans forbade their running further without at least an effort to learn what had become of their chief. They felt that they could never look their squaws in the face again unless they could explain that point. ”

“ Forgive us, jelly-fish, forgive us, hydroids, if in our ignorance we have ever cast an indifferent glance upon you. We did not know your charming secret, and we should never have guessed it, for the lives we lead are so different from yours. Now that we have learned your secret, we shall certainly tell it to the boys and girls, that they may help us enjoy it. ”

“ He has twice been Prime Minister—an office which can be held only so long as the Minister is supported by a majority of the members of the House. This office he still holds; and though he is said to be anxious to retire from public life, he is so far superior to any other statesman in the Liberal party that he must remain at its head as long as health and strength will permit.
Although he is now seventy-two years of age, Mr. Gladstone is still a young man so far as work is concerned. ”

“ By this time the icebergs were near enough to be plainly visible from the deck, and the sudden chilling of the air by their approach, like the coldness of coming death, was felt by every man on board. ”

“ Jelly-fish produce eggs, from which are born little floating bodies. These after a time fasten themselves to some stick or stone, and grow by budding until they become the elegant feathery branches which we must now call hydroids. The young of nearly all animals resemble their parents, but the children of jelly-fish, you see, are very different from the jelly-fish itself. ”

“ One quick turn of the helm, and the vessel glided past the nearest berg, so close that one of the projecting ice points scraped her taffrail. Even that slight contact with the mighty mass made her whole frame quiver from stem to stern; but the danger was past, and the crew breathed freely once more. ”

“ Just before reaching the station the railroad crossed a draw-bridge. Polly liked to watch the man open and shut the draw as the boats in the river passed through. There was a foot-path over this bridge, and Polly had once crossed it with Aunt Mary. They had stopped to speak to the flagman, who was pleasant and good-natured. He told Polly where she could find some beautiful white lilies in a pond not far away. ”

“ In the next generation, however, we shall find jelly-fish again.
Most of the plant-like objects which we are accustomed to see growing near the shore are in reality hydroids. Has it ever puzzled you to know the difference between plants and these low forms of animal life? One very important difference is that most plants can procure their food directly from the soil, whereas animals are obliged to feed upon living substances, or those which have at some time been alive, as vegetables and animals. ”

“ I saw many wonderful beauties of nature, among which was the Devil's Slide, which was two perpendicular walls one hundred feet high, and twenty feet apart, coming down the steep side of a mountain. The Devil's Gate is a stream of water flowing under a mountain. Witches' Rocks are five rocks that look like ladies. Pulpit Rock is the place where Brigham Young preached his first sermon in Utah. ”

“ Tom is eight years old, and we are reading Young Folks Abroad, so we can know about London and Paris and the other cities. We have read Abbott's Histories, and the death of Charles I. and Marie Antoinette almost made me cry. Would you like me to write you what I see when I am across the great "ditch"? We expect to be in Germany this summer, and in the winter in Nice, but I don't want to leave you behind.
Katie R.
You will enjoy yourself very much more if you study and read before going to the Old World, in order to understand what you see. ”

“ Hydroids grow in all parts of the ocean, in deep water as well as near the coast. Some of them are three feet high. One branch may contain a hundred thousand distinct animals, the only communication between them being a circulation of fluid through the hollow stems. In this way each branch constitutes a family which has sprung originally from the same little egg. Some varieties never grow tall, and as they occur in patches over rocks and shells, they resemble thick beds of moss. ”

“ As I like so much to read the letters from the little girls in Young People, I thought I would write one. I have been sick, and not able to walk for a year, but my pa, who is a doctor, thinks by the time the leaves and flowers come out I will be able to go out too. I study at home, so that I may keep up with my class at school ”

“ This hydroid has no buds or branches, but the main tube of the body divides itself into a number of rings or plates, until the whole animal looks somewhat like a pile of tiny saucers with scalloped edges. Finally the upper plate begins to twist and squirm until it loosens itself from the pile, and floats off to lead the gay and independent life of a jelly-fish. It is followed by the other plates in their turn, each making a separate animal. These new jelly-fish eat greedily and grow fast, forming some of our largest varieties. ”

“ It was because she kept digging them up every day, to make them show her the new leaves and buds. She vexed Mother Nature so by her worry and hurry that the wise old lady frowned until her cap ruffles shook, and said:
"That child shall have no flowers this year. When she plants her seeds, she must trust me to make them grow, and not peep into my work-shop so often."
The little girl who owns the flower-pot we give you this week will not put the good old mother in a pet. She knows that Nature is very busy waking up the sleeping flowers, and making their new spring dresses. ”

“ The can is held over a fire until the soldering that fastens the opened or top end of the can melts, when it will be found that by giving the joint a sharp blow with a chisel or a table-knife it will drop off. After a little practice, all danger of unsoldering the side joint of the can is overcome. Strips of bark must now be cut about two inches in width, and the can dipped in hot asphalt. Apply the bark to the outside, filling the joints with moss, lichen, or other products of the woods. You will now have a pretty toy, which will hold a flower-pot ”

“ A mother's eyes are indulgent, and in a deformity more or less they never find anything to complain of. However, this pretty child only had two defects—one in front, his stomach being shaped like a comma, and the other on his back, which was like a note of exclamation. ”

“ They believed they knew where he had been all the while, and none of them imagined that Two Knives had been set free before he had lain in that "prison lodge" three minutes. It was a terrible mortification; but something must be done, and again Murray was asked for advice.
"What do I think? Let me ask you a question. Did the Lipans go away on foot?"
"Ugh! No. Take good horse."
"Did they have any arms? Gun? lance? bow?"
"Ugh! No. Think not."
"They are cunning warriors. Did they ride out among your young men? Send Warning says they would do just what great Apache chief would do." ”

“ I am too small a boy to write, so mamma is writing this letter for me. I am the only pet mamma and papa have. I can read a little, and hope soon to be able to write.
Carlton R. B.
Just a little patience, dear! The Postmistress saw Mr. Otis yesterday. Keep a bright lookout until April comes, and then when the showers are falling, and the buds are springing, "Mr. Stubbs's Brother," with his queer little eyes, flat nose, and funny long tail, will make his appearance in Young People. ”

“ They are both in Echo Canon, which is a canon that throws the echo back when you speak very loud. Cape Horn is in California, and is a mountain rising up from the American River about 2500 feet, and has a railroad cut around the side of it. I wish all the readers of the Young People could see all the beautiful things I did last summer.
I will exchange some pretty shells, stones, advertising cards, unpressed sea-moss, or a small piece of petrified wood, for fossils, minerals, stalactites, stalagmites, foreign stamps, old coins, or flint. ”

“ I go to school every day, and I expect, if I live, to go by-and-by to the university. Would it not be strange and pleasant if I should there meet some of the little friends that write such interesting letters for the Post-office Box? ”

“ We moved to Kansas from Indiana more than a year since, and witnessed our first large prairie fire on the afternoon and evening of February 9. We first noticed the reflection on the sky in the southeast on the night of the 8th, and by the afternoon of the next day the fire had come so near [Pg 319] that we began to make preparations to protect our property by burning a "fire guard" around the house, etc. After that we had leisure to watch the progress of the fire, and as it grew dark the grandeur of the sight increased. ”

“ Without them we can not be good-natured or happy; for if we are continually fretting and fuming about something that we are "sure we put on the table yesterday, and now it has disappeared, and who has taken it?" etc., etc., we can not be as contented and pleasant as though each thing were in its proper place, and we could go right there and get it without any trouble. ”

“ She does not love old Cann, and fights him every time she finds a chance. He never fights her back. My little gray cat comes to my room every morning, and cries until I let her in, and then we have fine fun for awhile. ”

“ We can scarcely imagine animals that are more unlike jelly-fish than these slender branches are; and yet the wonderful story I have to tell you will show them to be so closely related that we could not study the life of one without the other.
Long graceful sprays of hydroids are often thrown on shore by the tide, and as they resemble plants much more than animals, they are generally mistaken for sea-weeds. Many persons gather them for decorating brackets and hanging baskets. We frequently see bunches of them arranged in sea-shells, and offered for sale in our shops. ”