Various

“ The steam-engine is the finest example of the mechanical art. A thousand parts make up the whole, all of which move together in harmony. The most violent storm never disorders them. The piston moves, the crank turns, the steam rises, and is condensed. It is nothing but the Marquis of Worcester's kettle boiling over, Papin's rod or piston, Watt's crank, improved by later inventors. ”

“ A black pony and a red one were then pointed out for Toby to take away, and they were not more than twice as large as Newfoundland dogs; they were, in fact, just exactly what was wanted for a little circus such as the boys were about to start.
Joe was so puffed up with pride at being allowed to ride one of these ponies through the village that if his mind could have affected his body, he would not have weighed more than a pound, and he held his head so high that it seemed a matter of impossibility for him to see his feet. ”

“ He examined the curious fact, and at last asked himself, What is it that lifts the cover?—what power is there hidden in the boiling kettle? It was evidently the white vapor; it was steam. The Marquis of Worcester had made a wonderful discovery, and when he was liberated he gave much of his time to the study of the new power. He felt the great value of steam to mankind; and in his work, A Century of Inventions, thanked God that he had been permitted to discover one of the "secrets of nature."
No one before him seems ever to have thought of making steam useful. ”

“ The linnets love to be about houses, and very frequently make their nests on any exposed beams which they can find in verandas or porches, rather than in trees or bushes. I have seen hundreds of them in such places. This pair of linnets quietly completed their nest, and it already held one or two eggs, when a pair of barn-swallows arrived, and after looking at the place, and evidently talking the matter over in their own fashion, decided to take possession of it for themselves by driving out the linnets, and forthwith a violent battle commenced. ”

“ My little boy will be a man,
That I can hug no more.
Mountain House, Sierra County, California.
When I opened Young People yesterday, the first thing I saw was the picture of Toby Tyler, looking as natural as ever. If I knew Toby, I would tell him about my black cat, which he could have in his circus. It was born with hardly any tail, and what there is of it is crooked at the end. His hind-feet are much higher than his fore-feet, and he growls like a bear when we touch him ”

“ We have a large martin box, and this spring, before the martins came, a lot of sparrows built their nests in it. When the martins arrived and found the sparrows in their house, they gave them notice to leave; but the sparrows fought for their place like little warriors, and the battle lasted a week before the brave sparrows were beaten off. I like Young People ever so much! ”

“ I am a little boy eleven years old, and live on a farm in the town of Stoddard. I have a dog, and call him Jack, two nice calves, a very pretty lamb, four doves, and some hens. I like to attend to my father's stock. He keeps horses, oxen, cows, sheep, hogs, and some young stock. I let out the cattle to water, and tie them up again. When my father is away in the summer-time, Jack and I go after the cows. Sometimes Jack trees a woodchuck, and then he and I have a grand time digging him out. He and I caught twenty-one last year. Jack is a splendid dog. ”

“ The diet given above provides for three meals a day, which makes the rabbit appear to be a very greedy animal. But, on the contrary, it is very dainty in its feeding, and will neither eat much at a time nor return to that which it has left. Hence it is best to give but little at a time, and to feed regularly. Food should be given in a trough like a gutter, and to prevent the rabbits getting into it, it is well to fasten wires from end to end of the trough, just far enough from the sides to allow the rabbits to get their heads into it. ”

“ On another occasion the same hunter saw a rhinoceros lying down with its fore-legs stretched out, sleeping in the sun. Almost at the same moment the animal awoke and looked around, as if he suspected that there might perhaps be a man with a gun somewhere about. The hunter instantly fired, aiming just forward of the beast's shoulder. The rifle was a very large one, and it nearly kicked the hunter over on his back ”

“ With the exception of the elephant, the rhinoceros is the largest of all land animals, and in point of ugliness he is quite unequalled. In appearance he is something like an enormous pig, with a horn on the end of his nose, and a skin so thick that a leaden rifle-ball will not ordinarily pierce it.
But in spite of his ill-temper, of which hunters are never tired of speaking, the rhinoceros certainly has a love of fun. An English hunter in South Africa had gone to bed in his travelling wagon one night, leaving his native servants feasting around the camp fire. ”

“ But she may have a strong feeling of terror about the deep waters of the lake which he thinks so safe, and if, as I judge from his note, he is really a kind and manly boy, he would prefer to go without the pleasure of swimming rather than make his mother anxious or uneasy about him.
Ladies are sometimes more timid than there is any need to be about places and things which boys and men consider entirely free from danger. Yet a gentleman always prefers to yield his own wishes rather than to let his mother or sister suffer from alarm. ”

“ The linnets you have probably never seen, unless you have been in California. There they are extremely abundant: east of the Rocky Mountains they are not found. The females, and all the young birds until they are at least a year old, have much the look of several species of our brown sparrows. The English sparrow, which has become so very common in our cities and villages, gives you quite a good idea of their size and color. The male bird, however, when in full plumage, is very different. ”

“ My auntie says Jumbo had the bench all to himself without any delay. I like Harper's Young People so much! and watch for it every week.
Reggie R.
That was very "cute" in Jumbo.
Brooklyn, New York.
I am a little girl nine years old. I have taken Harper's Young People since last January. I like it very much, and always look forward to Tuesday with pleasure, for that is the day I receive it. Most little girls tell about their pets, but I have none, because I have lived all my life in hotels. I am more fond of my books than anything else. ”

“ When the board is cleaned it should have a layer of sand sprinkled over it after it has been put back in its place.
The hutch should be from thirty to thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches wide, and about as many high. As a rabbit should not be expected to eat in its sleeping-room any more than a human being should, the hutch should [Pg 459] be partitioned off by a board, leaving the sleeping-room about twelve inches long. In this board should be a round hole large enough for a rabbit to pass through, and protected by a door sliding up and down in a groove. ”

“ He founded a great factory of steam-engines that were sold all over the world; he grew wealthy, famous, and was always benevolent. He never ceased to invent, write, and labor, even in extreme old age, and at eighty-three produced a new copying machine that imitated any piece of sculpture. Soon after he died. No one has done more to add to the comfort and ease of his fellow-men than Watt by his rare inventions. ”

“ When they started down town again, Abner went with them, and it was so late in the morning that Toby was sure the skeleton and his wife would be prepared to receive visitors.
When Toby, Abner, and Joe reached the tenting ground, everything was in that delightful state of bustle and confusion which is attendant upon the exhibition of a circus in a country town, where the company do not expect that the tent will be more than half filled, and where, in consequence, the programme will be considerably shortened. ”

“ There are many suffering children in hospitals who are made very happy by the gift of flowers, either daisies and violets from woods and fields, or roses and lilies from gardens. Some of you, no doubt, send flowers every summer, that poor, or sad, or sick people in the cities may be comforted by them. ”

“ A few pansies, a rose-bud tied up with a couple of geranium leaves, a bunch of mignonette or lilies-of-the-valley, do not cost much, but they show your good-will, and cheer a sick-room with their sweet faces and sweeter perfume. ”

“ The linnets had built and been driven away, the swallows had occupied the field, and I saw the female bird sitting quietly on her eggs in a nest which was in the summit of a strange-looking pillar. The pillar was a rough mass, four or five inches in diameter, and more than a foot high, composed of eight layers. The layer at the bottom was very thin, of hair and grass, the one above it being a solid heap of mud more than three inches thick, then a thin one again, and so on until the swallows' nest at the top made the eighth. ”

“ The linnets' nest was beautifully made of soft grasses and hair and other fibrous materials, and the first thing which the swallows did was to plaster that across the top solidly with mud, so as to make a foundation on which they could work. The barn-swallows always construct their nests of mud, mixing with it a small number of pieces of straw or grass. They heap up the mud until often the nest weighs as much as two pounds, and then the hollow top is beautifully lined with soft materials, grasses, feathers, etc., on which the eggs are laid. ”

“ You ought to see him drive up the cows; they have to go home when he says so, and they will start when they see him coming.
I have been making sugar for myself this spring. My father let me have twenty buckets, and my mother let me take her large brass kettle and two pots. I hung them up by a large rock, and tapped fourteen trees, and have made forty pounds of sugar, which I sold at ten cents per pound. I have bought me a pair of boots and some books, and have almost enough left to pay for Young People next year. I start to school next week.
J. W. T.
Well done, my little man! ”

“ The linnets in California are not migratory; they remain through the winter as well as the summer. The barn-swallows, on the contrary, are migratory, just as they are here, for, unlike the linnets, they inhabit the whole breadth of the continent. ”

“ Savery addressed his pamphlet describing his engine to King William, who had examined his machine with interest at Hampton Court. In the year 1700 the steam-engine was in its infancy.
It grew slowly. Savery's engine was improved, but was still for nearly a century imperfect and almost useless. It could only move a piston or rod up and down. No one had yet discovered a way to make it turn a wheel. Until the American Revolution, and the age of Washington and Franklin, the imperfect machine seemed of little real value. ”

“ I also have a dog that Toby would like to have, as he can ride on the velocipede, with my sister. He can ride sitting in my brother's cart, with a hat on his head and a pipe in his mouth. His name is Tiger, and he is quite large. I should think that Toby had had enough of a circus, without wanting to be the manager of one. I hope this letter will be put in print, for I would like Bob Simpson to see that my cat would do as well in the circus as his three-legged cat with four kittens.
Ida C.
Trinidad, Colorado. ”

“ A rabbit-hutch is a simple affair, but if the animals are worth caring for, they are worth something better than an old packing case for a house. One of these, if water-tight, does well enough for the shell of the hutch, but it will require some fixing up before it is ready to be the abode of a rabbit that "knows what's what." ”

“ The young ones may stay with their mother for seven or eight weeks, but should then be taken away, one at a time, and put with other young rabbits, if there are any, the bucks and does being kept separate. The father buck will often kill the little ones, so he should be kept apart from them. ”

“ It should always be put in dry. The hutch should be raised about a foot from the ground.
It used to be thought that cabbage and bran were all that were necessary for rabbits, but modern fanciers have learned better. The principal thing in rabbit-feeding is variety, and as rabbits will eat almost every kind of vegetable, this is easily managed.
A little book called The Practical Rabbit-Keeper gives a table of diet for a week. This is printed here, not because it need be strictly followed, but to show what is meant by variety of feeding ”

“ The mesh should not be more than three-quarters of an inch wide, or some prowling cat may get her paw into the house and do mischief. The writer lost his first young rabbits by allowing too large a space between the bars of his hutch. The open front of the hutch should extend as far as the end of the living-room. The sleeping-room should be inclosed by a solid door, opening in the ordinary way ”

“ If good care is taken of the rabbits, they will probably escape disease, but in a long spell of wet weather, or in a sudden cold snap, "snuffles" may make its appearance. The symptoms are like those of a severe cold with us—running at the eyes and nose, etc. A good authority recommends sponging the eyes and nose with warm tea, and a few drops of camphorated spirit given twice a day. ”