Various

“ Every evening you might set down some of the incidents of your home life, tell her whom you have seen, what books you are reading, what new receipts you have tried, and what flowers are in bloom in the woods and garden. ”

“ So I light the Captain's pipe, scrub the tower, and do chores for the dame. Who cares what else I do, or what becomes of me? Yes, old sea, I'd rather be a fish-hawk, and snatch fish from you, than be Huldah Deane. Oh dear! If something would only happen! If I could do something great or wonderful—go out in a life-boat, maybe, to save drowning folks, or—"
"Huldy! Huldy Deane!" The quick, impatient call reached her, even above the roaring of the surf. It was Captain Dutton's voice. "Come right on, quick; mother's taken in a spell, an' I can't make it out." ”

“ Abner tried to thank his friend for the kindness he had shown him; but the sobs of gratitude came into his throat so fast that it was impossible, and he hobbled away toward his dreary home, while Toby ran into the house to tell the astounding news of the coming of the circus.
"So all the people who were so kind to you will be here next week, will they?" said, rather than asked, Aunt Olive. "Well, Toby, we'll kill one of the lambs, an' you shall invite them up here to dinner, which will kind of encourage them to be good to any other little boy who may be as foolish as you were." ”

“ If all has been quiet, if no one has been weeping, and especially if the little children have gone quietly to sleep, the sun will come gayly out of his palace, all shining with gold and precious stones. ”

“ You brave enough to go in a life-boat to save drowning folks! You deserve to be nothing better than a fish-hawk. Because Dame Dutton lies ill yonder, and the Captain puts off to fetch a doctor, is that any reason why you should go into spasms of fright? ”

“ But I learned later that in trout-fishing a vast deal more depends upon the fisherman than upon any apparatus he may be supplied with.
To begin with, any flexible light rod will do. You should have a reel, so that you may be able to fish at varying distances from where you stand, and also in order that if you do strike a large fish, he may not get away from you by simply starting off suddenly and snapping off your line or tearing out the hook. You should have about thirty yards of line. Then you want, if you mean to fish with the fly, a few gut casting-lines and some flies ”

“ If you can, provide yourself with a fish basket. It will keep your fish from being dried up by the sun, and visited by the flies, which latter like fresh trout quite as much as you do yourself. It will also leave you your hands free to attend to your fishing with; and if the fish bite at all, you will need both to manage them. ”

“ If you slacken your line, the chances are he will spit out the hook, or shake it out of the hole it has made for itself in his jaw, and then you are done with him. Keep a steady hand on him; bring him up sharp and quick if he jumps out, for that is a dangerous trick, and guide him at a favorable turn, and when you have a good head of speed on him, to his landing-place.
For fly-fishing, which is the finest after all, you want a gut casting-line, and some more in reserve in your pocket-book or about your hat, and an assortment of flies suited to the season. ”

“ THE SPANISH NOBLEMAN.
The days are very soon coming when boys and girls will scorn fireside amusements, and think no game worth playing that does not take them out among the green fields and flower-strewn hedges. But in the mean time, May is sure to bring us many raw, unpleasant days and rainy evenings to be disposed of somehow. Here is a game called "The Spanish Nobleman," that may help pass a leisure hour.
The company arrange themselves in a long straight line at one end of the room, excepting one person, who is to be the nobleman, and he must take his place at the other end of the room. ”

“ If you can not get worms, there is a variety of old stumps of trees that will yield you a fat white grub that the trout esteem highly. These grubs are borers, and an axe easily lays bare their long sawdust galleries in the decaying timber. Failing worms and grubs, you can use grasshoppers or minnows. For handsome as the trout is, he is a voracious fellow, and will eat all manner of small fish, snails, frogs, and the like, being nothing short of a cannibal, and devouring things until he can hold nothing more. ”

“ There that animal staid for six days and nights, squeaking in a way that made the woman's blood run cold, and waiting for her to come down. On the seventh day, when she was nearly exhausted, a man with a gun came along, and shot the mouse, and saved her life. I don't believe this story, and I told. Mr. Travers so; for a woman couldn't climb a tree, and even if she could, what would hinder the mouse from climbing after her?
Sue has a new young man, who comes every Tuesday and Thursday night. One day he said, "Jimmy, if you'll get me a lock of your sister's hair, I'll give you a nice dog." ”

“ There are also streams wherein the water is at times thick and murky, and where the fish lurk about the bottom of the deep holes and eddies, and can not see the fly when it is thrown. In such places the bait has to be brought very close to their notice, and it must also be fresh, or frequently they will have none of it.
A fly rod for trout should be about fourteen feet long, seven ounces or thereabouts in weight, and should be fitted with a good reel that will let the light line, which is of silk or of linen fibre, run out freely, and then wind it again as quickly. ”

“ It will drift quietly down, and if the fish are there, you will know it very soon. When you feel him bite, strike by sharply raising the tip of your rod. Do it firmly and quickly, but with such control that if you miss him you will not send your bait flying back over your head, among the trees, perhaps, or into any place but where it ought to be. If you have him, and he be a fish of any strength and weight, your sport begins. Let him run with it, but keep your rod well up so that you can maintain a steady strain on him. ”

“ Hearing that the Indians were in force on the southeastern bank of the Alabama River, the people in Fort Madison were greatly alarmed, fearing that all the crops in that region—which were ripe in the fields—would be destroyed. If that should occur, they knew they must starve during the coming winter, and so they made up their minds to drive the savages away, at least until they could gather the corn.
Captain Dale at once made up a party, consisting of seventy-two men, all volunteers. With this force Dale set out on the 11th of November, taking Tandy Walker, a celebrated scout, for his guide. ”

“ Sparrow declared that nothing could tempt her to leave their country home. You see, she thought it would be better to keep the children at that place, where she could be sure that they would not be out late at night, or get into mischief, than to take them where they might make bad acquaintances, for she loved these two boys of hers very dearly, even though they had got only about half as many wing and tail feathers as they would have when they were older. ”

“ He's a beautiful Scotch terrier, and he said he would kill rats like anything, and was two years old, and had had the distemper; that is, Mr. Withers said the dog would kill rats, and of course Mr. Withers himself never had the distemper.
Of course I wanted to see the dog kill rats, so I took him to a rat-hole in the kitchen, but he barked at it so loud that no rat would think of coming out. If you want to catch rats, you mustn't begin by barking and scratching at rat-holes, but you must sit down and kind of wink with one eye and lay for them, just as cats do. ”

“ Susie, with her dancing eyes and her dimpled cheeks, flies for the duster, and declares that she means to be mamma's chief assistant. Jack and Tom, who are very strong, and like to show what splendid muscles they have, are on the spot, ready to lift and carry and do all they can to aid in the spring campaign.
House-cleaning is not the quietest work in the world, but it is work that pays in the end; and good-natured people often find plenty of fun in it. ”

“ Did you ever think how many queer old proverbs there are concerning dogs? "Love me, love my dog;" "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him;" "A living dog is better than a dead lion;" "A dog's life;" "Going to the dogs;" ”

“ But if they have not been good, he will wrap himself in clouds and mist, make a cold wind blow, and send down great showers of rain and sleet, and then the nurses can not take the children out into the gardens to chase the butterflies. ”

“ Toby lay awake a long time that night, thinking of the pleasure he was to have in seeing Mr. and Mrs. Treat, old Ben, and little Ella eating dinner in Uncle Daniel's home, and of how good a boy he ought to be to repay his uncle and aunt for their loving-kindness to him.
Operations were almost entirely suspended by the would-be circus managers in view of the coming of the real show. It would have been commercial folly to attempt to enter into competition with it; the real circus would, without a doubt, prove too strong a rival for them to contend against ”

“ Light your lantern, and while I sleep, go softly and with noiseless steps all over the earth. Peep in at every window, and see if the children within are good and say their prayers, or if they cry and keep others from sleeping, but, above all, if they are quiet, and go to sleep betimes. ”

“ Fly-fishing is undoubtedly the greater sport, and requires more delicacy and skill of handling than the other; but it is also much more expensive by reason of the cost of the rod, the line, the flies, and the various small matters that a fly-fisher always wants. Then, again, it happens that there are days when a trout will not rise at a fly, but when if you whisk a ripe red angle-worm or a fat grasshopper under his nose he will promptly take in either ”

“ If placed in the City Hall Park, the Pyramid of Cheops would have covered nearly all its surface; its top would have risen two hundred feet above the spire of Trinity Church; the first object seen by the voyager entering the Narrows would have been this immense and useless structure. The folly of man was never better shown than in the building of the Pyramids. The Egyptians were houseless, naked, starved, that the Pharaohs might rest in their indestructible tombs.
The Egyptians lived, in general, at ease. They were shut out from the world, and few strangers were suffered to pass up the Nile. ”

“ Mamma takes him out sometimes, and he plays with her just like a kitten. I am afraid of him, although I like to watch him play. I have a bird that sings from morning until night. I have a cat and two dogs. I have also three horses. I can ride one of them. My grandpa gave me such a nice little saddle and bridle! Don't you think I have a good many pets? I am eleven years old.
Irene N.
New York City. ”

“ Flies are imitations of the various insects that trout feed upon, and are of great variety. You may learn to make them yourself with a few simple materials, such as small feathers and bits of silk or woollen goods.
To your casting-line attach your flies as you see them in the engraving, and then you are ready. You have at least eight feet of gut between your end fly and your line. Fish with as much length of line as you can easily and surely throw. Use your rod like a long delicate whip, and let the three flies that form its taper lash settle down on the water as lightly as thistle-down. ”

“ If he can hold one while he can count ten, it is considered a fair catch, and the prisoner becomes wolf too, and assists in the capture of more, all of whom, as soon as caught, go to swell the number of wolves. Of course each passage across is more dangerous than the preceding one, since there are more wolves to avoid. At the same time a great part of the fun consists in "dodging." The boy that can change his course the quickest and turn and double has the best chance. ”

“ The Care of Pets.—Children who are unwilling to care for their pets should not keep them. A little bird in its cage can not provide its own seed and water, nor fill its bath, and if its mistress neglects to give it food and drink regularly, it will suffer, and very likely die. In taking care of pet animals it is very necessary to attend to their wants at a regular time every day, and their houses, boxes, and cages should be kept very clean. ”

“ In the first place, you deserve very much harsher treatment than you have received, because of having come here against your parents' wishes. Go home at once, and remember that it is much safer to trust to what your father says than to try to find out for yourselves. ”

“ As to your beauty, of that you should allow others to judge. There is an old maxim which comes very near the truth, and that is, 'Handsome is who handsome does,' the true meaning of which I think you can now readily understand. ”

“ It's hard lines to leave a young one like you here with such terrible trouble, but there's no help for it. I'll fetch the doctor soon as I kin—leastways 'fore the sun drops. No sailor kin say as ever Kyle Dutton missed lightin' the beacon wi' the last ray o' sunshine, or turnin' off lamps as the sun stepped 'crost the horizon. ”