Various

“ But bogs and swamps and wet pastures are well worth exploring, and are justly dear to the botanical heart; for here, springing from a bed of soft black mud, may be seen the pink Arethusa, fair as a rose leaf, the rare Calypso, the singular trilliums, the graceful adder's-tongue, and several species of the remarkable Cypripediums, or lady's-slipper. The beautiful spring orchis, the only orchis blossoming early, of most delicate white and purple tints, flourishes in damp, rich woods, and the Cornus, or dogwood, lights up the shady nooks with level sheets of bloom. ”

“ There was a sort of natural "open" on that side of the little lake, and Wade led the way straight to it.
"Just as I expected. The old shanty's knocked all to pieces. The boards and the nails are there, though. They may be good for something."
"What next? Shall I unpack?"
"Hold up, Sid. Yes, there's the spring. Down yonder; that's where we'll pitch our tent."
"Needn't do that, yet awhile."
"First thing always. We're not in camp till the tent's up."
"Go ahead. Don't you wish you had the tent poles here now?"
"Not if I had 'em to carry besides the other things. We can cut all we want." ”

“ In every month are to be found some peculiarly rare and interesting plants, and May can show a fair array. In cold bogs and swamps of New England the genial airs awaken many a blossom that seems too lovely for such dismal surroundings. ”

“ There's one roll of it, but the bacon's the butter for us. Now for the butcher-knives. We must ditch our tent."
"What for?"
"To drain away the water, if it rains. We must cut a V."
The apex of the V was cut pretty deeply on the slope above the tent, and the arms were cut around it till they led out below.
"Water doesn't run up hill," said Sid. "We're drained. What next?"
"Fire."
"A day like this? Are you going to cook right away? I'd rather try the lake for some fish."
"Of course we will. But it takes an hour for an open fire to be fit to cook by. Got to have plenty of coals and ashes." ”

“ In one of these a weighted string is hung up at one end of a tent, and the children, starting from the other end, try to cut it with a pair of scissors. This would be easy enough, were it not that each player is blindfolded by a great hollow head with a grinning, ugly face, something like the comic masks we see in the shop windows. There are no holes for the eyes, and the head rests down on the shoulders of the player, like a great extinguisher, making her look like the caricatures in which little bodies are represented with big heads. ”

“ John went on thinking, as he looked at the pretty rippling stream, which kept up such a merry little song over its round pebbles, "and I promised him I'd stick to the farm for this year, and do my best to like it, and so I will. Mother said, 'It isn't because he doesn't like you to be a lawyer; it's because he thinks you aren't old enough to judge, and he thinks good farming is the best and noblest work in the world, and that you can't help liking it if you try. ”

“ But the young flower-hunter must get an idea of some of the flowers sure to appear in May, and those who will notice the habits of plants will soon discover where these fair friends dwell, and will learn which selects the valley, which the hill-side, finding that as a general thing they may be looked for with the certainty of being found in their favorite haunts. ”

“ All around on the rocky road-side banks and in dry fields the airy wild columbine and pretty corydalis blossoms nod in every breeze, and the ravines on the hills are fringed with the softest frills of exquisite leaves and odd flowers of the Dutchman's-breeches and squirrel-corn, whitish and pinkish, and with the scent of hyacinths. ”

“ Oh yes, of course we can. Shall you go now?"
"Why, no; not till we get in fish enough for dinner."
"That's it. We're Indians. Got to fish, hunt, or starve—or live on hard-tack and bacon."
Pot Lake was a great place for trout, and both of the boys knew how to handle a rod.
"No three-inchers; none of your speckled minnows," shouted Sid, as he landed a half-pound beauty.
"Here comes a bigger one. Oh, but isn't this fun?"
"Better fun than going into camp."
"Or tramping through the woods with a load. But don't you begin to feel hungry?"
"Begin? Well, you may say begin if you want to. ”

“ As most of the young people love dogs, and many of them own one or more of these faithful pets, they will, perhaps, be glad of a few hints as to their proper care and treatment.
Dogs are subject to accidents, and swellings or tumors of various kinds on different parts of the body; and in such cases, if you do not know just what to do, it is better to consult some good authority, such as the editor of a first-class sporting paper, than to try experiments which may or may not be for the good of your favorite. ”

“ They'll be fresh, too, in the morning. We can't live on fish, though. I can show you twenty ways of cooking birds."
They had crept into the tent now, and the rain was pelting harder and harder.
"Glad the tent's well ditched," said Wade. "We'll be as dry as two bones."
"Oh, but isn't it fun! But I tell you what, Wade Norton, I feel as if I wanted to sleep about twenty-four hours."
SCENE AT A FRENCH FAIR—TRYING TO CUT THE STRING. FÊTE DAYS IN FRANCE.
The French are a very merry nation, and for their fête or festival days have many jolly games to amuse both the children and older people. ”

“ Nearly all dogs enjoy an occasional washing, and if they do not get it, their skin is apt to become foul, and vermin may collect, which will prove very troublesome and difficult to remove. When the dog is to be washed, get two large buckets full of soft water, a rough towel, and a cake of Spratt's soap, for which you may be obliged to send to a dog-fancier. The water in one bucket should be lukewarm, and that in the other cold. Tie the dog in the yard or on the grass under a tree, and begin by pouring a little of the warm water on his shoulder, at the same time rubbing on the soap. ”

“ So they were, when they were dug out from the ashes, their leafy coats removed; and Sid discovered that by a careful use of his fork and fingers all the parts of the fish that he did not want seemed to come away together. A little salt and pepper improved both them and the hard-tack, and the coffee poured out beautifully clear and strong.
Just as he and Sid were getting ready to begin their meal, however, Wade took one of the partridges and spread him flat on the forks of a long crooked branch he had cut.
"That'll hold him just high enough above the coals." ”

“ They are now rebuilding the old block-house, which was burned a few years ago. The flag-ship Lawrence, which Perry commanded when he gained the victory over the British on Lake Erie, used to lie buried in our bay, but in 1876 some enterprising young man raised it out of the water, and took it to the Centennial. I think we have the nicest place in the United States for rowing, fishing, camping out, and having lots of fun. I am eight years old.
Mamie H.
I like to read the letters in Young People, and I thought I would tell you about a wild-cat. ”

“ Then get the hairs from an old brush, a few sticks of broom-corn will answer as well, and stick them into the body of the spider, as represented in Figures 1 and 2. Take three hair-pins, bend them into the proper form, run them through the cork, and you have the legs. Now your spider is complete except in two points: you must run a pin in the back to which to tie a thread or string to hold it up by, and two large pins into the place where you have painted the eyes. The bright heads of the pins make the eyes look very natural. ”

“ John thought.
He had put the whetstone in his pocket, and was once more leaning to the scythe.
"Of course I can be a farmer, and of course farmers are as necessary as Presidents; and a farmer can be a President, and eat potatoes and corn in the White House, instead of hoeing and hilling them in the field. But I want to be a lawyer, and that settles it for me. I just wish it would do as much for father. He did look queer when I told him I didn't believe a lawyer that was always hankerin' after a farm would amount to much in lawyerin'. ”

“ If you can be as brave, tender, and good as Abraham Lincoln was, I shall wish with all my heart that you may have power like Rufus Choate's and opportunity like Charles Sumner's. You mustn't fret about father. ”

“ If your dog has a collar—and every well-behaved dog deserves a pretty collar to wear when he goes out for a walk—be sure and take it off as soon as he comes in. Remember, also, that while the outside of the collar must be kept clean and bright in order to look well, it is very important for the good of the dog that the inside should be kept clean as well, and not allowed to become foul. ”

“ For the corn-flowers use blue silk, and work them in chain stitch. The calyxes are worked in satin stitch with moss green silk, and the lilies-of-the-valley with white silk. The stems and sprays are worked in tent and herring-bone stitch with green silk in several shades. For the ends cut of blue satin two pieces each six inches and a half wide and seven inches and a quarter high, fold down the upper edge an inch and a quarter wide on the wrong side, and gather it twice. ”

“ Let me make the coffee this time."
"All right. But don't put any more wood on the fire. I'll broil some fish instead of frying them. Clean 'em, and split 'em down along the backbone inside, and they'll lie flat. Spread 'em on a forked stick, so they won't touch the coals and ashes. Season 'em just a little."
Sid decided afterward that there was very little to be said against broiled trout.
They were both of them tired enough to go to bed early, but it was hardly eight o'clock when the rain-drops began to patter on the tent cover.
"We must keep our fire, Sid," said Wade. ”

“ I am one, yet it takes many to complete me, though I am intangible. Motion is necessary to make me. I have no motion of my own, being incapable of voluntary action; still, were there not voluntary action on my part, commerce would be at a stand-still. ”

“ It is not possible to comply with all Japanese fashions at once. Time is necessary to the acquirement of taste. Cooked fish was next served, and that in great variety, including shell-fish. A sort of lime or small lemon was used as the flavoring to this dish. Then came boiled beans, with ginger roots, and some fried fish and horse-radish. To follow that came boiled fish and clams, the latter cut up, and served with pears. Rice in tea-cups followed, and then a salad, and the dishes were ended. ”

“ John's father did not happen to think about John as John thought about himself. This very often happens between parents and their children. Your parents are older and wiser than you, but then you boys and girls often think a great deal more, and with more good sense, than you get credit for. When your parents do not think as you do about what you are to be and do in life, it is hard to tell which is wisest, and there is no sure rule to help you out ”

“ The cover of the coffee-pot was lifted, and half a cupful of cold water was suddenly dashed in, and then the pot was lifted from the coals to the grass.
"Let her stand a bit. Now for the fish. Have your tin plate ready."
"Ain't they splendid?" ”

“ There is a fixed tariff for our employment; contracts must be drawn up; yet I can be made as expensive as one chooses. Sometimes I am undertaken in the cause of science. I am generally in the kitchen, and we certainly need a kitchen and me to provide for our many and daily wants. ”

“ As they talked they walked, and they were now standing by the spring, on the slope, not more than a hundred yards from the shore.
"There's the place for the tent."
"Isn't one spot as good as another?" asked Sid. ”

“ Come on and let's cut some tent poles."
Two five-foot sticks, each with a "crotch" at the upper end, were soon set in the ground about six feet apart, and a ridge pole laid across them.
"You haven't set 'em deep enough," said Sid. "They'd go over too easy."
"No they won't. The strength of a tent is in the canvas and pegs, not in the poles," said Wade. ”

“ He shook his head, and the old gentleman bowed himself out as politely as if Frank had purchased his entire stock. Five minutes later came a second tap, and another native entered, with a basket of delicious fruits, answering our hero's "How much?" by pointing to a pair of worn-out shoes, and saying, "Can do." Before Austin could recover from his amazement at the idea of a country where men preferred old shoes to hard dollars, the fruit merchant had made his "salam" (bow) , and departed with his prize. ”

“ I am ended every day by some one; and though meant to hold a liquid, still, when there is my full complement, more solid food than liquid is needed to satisfy when I am on myself. If broken, I am useless ”

“ May have rain. We must cut our bedding and lay in our wood-pile."
Plenty of small hemlock boughs were heaped on the bottom of the [Pg 401] tent to spread their blankets on; and Sid almost rebelled at the amount of dry wood Wade insisted on piling up.
"May rain all day to-morrow, Sid. We must catch a lot of fish to-night."
"What are all these great slabs of bark for? Kindling?"
"I'll show you. It's mean work starting an open fire with wet wood." ”

“ He was unrolling the great square piece of strong but light "cotton duck," and in a moment more it was flapping over the poles.
"Stretch it well, and peg it strong. That tent won't blow down."
"Can't stand up in it."
"That isn't what it's for. In with the supplies. The sun's as bad as rain would be, for part of 'em, spite of the tin boxes." ”

“ The player turns around several times before starting, and having no idea of the proper direction, sometimes walks toward the sides, and snips the scissors in the faces of the spectators. A drummer marches toward the string, making a loud noise with his drum, but the sound oftener confuses than guides. ”