Various

“ Except when talking with Murray, Steve had not heard a word of English for three years.
Yes, there had been one other exception. Whenever he had found himself all alone, he had talked to himself, asking and answering questions, and listening to his own pronunciation of the words.
"I shall get among white men some day," he thought, "and it would be a dreadful thing to be white myself and not to talk white. Anyhow, I've learned Mexican Spanish since I've been out here, and I'll be glad enough to forget all I know of Indian talk." ”

“ The summer woodcock is, however, no such bird as it will become if allowed to moult, and then to grow fat in the corn fields and brakes. October finds it strong of wing, ready for a night flight of many miles; then it may be sought not only in the low grounds, but on the alder-covered hill-sides.
The quail is the best known of all our game birds, because of its remaining with us all the year round, because of its easily recognized note, "Bob White," and because, timid as it is, it loves civilization, and lives on cultivated lands. ”

“ I don't know that I've any special grudge against this lot."
"Seems to me it's a good deal like an Indian to kill one man for what another man did. I'm only a boy, and I've been among the Lipans three years, but I've made up my mind to stay white." ”

“ The boy whose fortune it is to live in the country looks forward to the advent of autumn with eagerness, if happily he belongs to that large class of boys who have a passion for hunting. There are some people who object to this trait in the character of boys, as indicative of cruelty, but I doubt if they fully understand the trait. Very few hunters, old or young, take pleasure in the mere act of killing birds and animals. ”

“ The ruffled grouse may be called the king of our Northern game birds. Delighting in mountains and thick swamps, wild, and strong of wing, the hunter who brings one down when under full headway must be of steady nerve, quick sight, and skillful with long practice.
If a modern artist were to draw a sketch to illustrate an article on our hunting season, it would have to differ very much from the pretty picture on the preceding page. The spear and cross-bow are weapons unknown to modern American hunters, and instead of the winding of the horn, there is only the shrill note of the dog whistle. ”

“ The only way I know of to make a room look livable is to live in it. Sit in your parlor every day. Gather the household there every evening. Don't be ashamed of the friendly, familiar faces on the walls, nor, indeed, suffer in yourself any shame of any honest thing that belongs to you or yours, your home or your environment. ”

“ Or on a Saturday, taking such dogs as they own or can borrow (most dogs, like most boys, seem to be ready to hunt rabbits) , they can set out for the brush lots and stubble fields, and revel in excitement as the sharp bark of the dogs lets them know that a fresh track has been struck.
When cold weather and snow come, the rabbit is apt to desert his snuggery in the fields for a home in some well-built stone wall. ”

“ But people must do the best they can under the circumstances which are theirs. One of the pleasantest parlors I ever saw had a rag-carpet on the floor, and a map of the United States, bordered by the heads of the successive Presidents, on the wall. In the first place, keep your parlor resplendently clean; don't permit the suspicion of dust or the trail of stray shreds and thread on the too brilliant carpet. Admit the sunshine and air every day. Fill the windows with plants—blooming plants, if possible, but green, growing ones at all events. ”

“ It may not seem that so far away as early Egyptian days was the first idea of our piano, yet certainly such is the case. In some far Eastern country you might see, graven in stone of centuries gone by, a figure holding an instrument dimly shadowing that on which you now may play all written music. ”

“ There was a laugh at Tom's expense, but he persisted, coaxingly:
"Do let me go, papa. You know I wouldn't be careless about your business."
"I guess you may go, Tom. Now listen. Find Sheriff Carroll either at his house or at the court-house, and give him this letter. Take the twelve train home, and be sure you are on time. There is money for your fare."
So Mr. Primrose departed, while Tom, highly delighted at the prospect of such an unexpected little jaunt, went to get ready. ”

“ I can hear my young readers exclaim, "the music we play on our pianos—Bach and Haydn, as well as old English airs—were certainly played on some horizontal instrument." Of course they were, but not on our kind of piano-fortes; and the story I am going to tell will take you back far into the sixteenth century, when ladies of rank, and monks and nuns, and some troubadours, had the instruments from which our piano is descended. These were known as the clavichord and the virginal. ”

“ The most common object of pursuit with boy hunters in our New England and Middle States is the rabbit. The more mature sportsman may look with scorn [Pg 69] on the "cotton-tail" if he pleases, and rejoice more over one dead quail than the capture of a dozen rabbits. Not so the boy. With boys, size counts in a good many ways. Then, too, in rabbit-hunting, boys get a variety of sport. They can find time after school to set a few snares or dead-falls in the nearest thicket. ”

“ A hunter's pleasure is made up of a great deal more than success in filling his bag. If he is to be really an expert in his work, he must study carefully the habits of the game which he pursues, become acquainted with the country over which he is to hunt, and submit to long practice with his gun or rifle. ”

“ If we were to leave out all the bright stories and droll rhymes and all the instructive articles, and make up Harper's Young People of letters only, we are sure our boys and girls would protest against such a proceeding. We want them to understand that we are trying to make the very best Post-office Box that we can, and if the first little letter they send does not find a niche, they must wait awhile, and then write a second, and a third. ”

“ I do not admire fans and screens very much myself, and I am no friend to curtains and tidies and such things, unless one has plenty of time to care for them. But you have doubtless a large, old-fashioned sofa. Make a generous-looking pillow to invite the weary head, and put it at one end of the sofa, and at the other lay a gay patchwork quilt. Study harmony, and even in an ugly room harmony will evolve a certain degree of beauty. Every parlor should aim at some high effect. ”

“ To some, seeing me only suggests sickness and bitterness. I can't be seen, for I am intangible, and can only be heard. I can't be heard, for when I am done, no sound is heard, because I am an act, not a thing. I make no sound when in motion. ”

“ No one can like me, I am so disagreeable; yet to many I am the dearest thing they own. No owner would willingly part with me. I am a protection, a home, and, to crown all, I am vegetable, mineral, and medicinal. ”

“ One morning the torments of thirst become so intolerable that Wormington begs the two others to cast lots with him as to who shall die for the rest, that by drinking his blood the other two may survive. To which Hynes replies that if he (Hynes) drops, they may do what they will with him, but as long as he can walk he will consent to no such thing. The idea is then abandoned by common consent, nor is it renewed when Wormington falls, and "with one feeble effort to rise, stretches himself on the shore, burying his right hand in the sand." ”

“ Murray had never worn paint or adopted any more of Indian ways than he could help, but it was a wonder how soon he made himself look like a white man. There was more in the pack on his spare pony than Steve had imagined. ”

“ Eat a heap. Take Yellow Head. Go all night."
"Any warriors go with me?"
"No. Maybe Apache dog see you. See pale-faces, and not think of Lipans. Dress Yellow Head. Wash off paint."
It was a genuine stroke of Indian war cunning. The two pale-faces were to act as scouts in the advance. If the Apaches should happen to see them, their presence would not suggest the dangerous nearness of a band of hostile Indians. ”

“ Then the boy hunter lets the rabbit betray himself, and very plainly he does it; for no boy who is once shown a rabbit track in newly fallen snow can ever mistake for it the track of any other animal: two dots before, and two behind, like this, · · :, are the rabbit's handwriting, and a little skill soon traces him to his hiding-place.
To secure game birds requires more skill with the gun, and a more intimate knowledge of their habits. Our principal game birds in the Eastern States are the woodcock, the quail, and the ruffled grouse, or, as it is called in some States, the partridge. ”

“ As I make no sound, and am a fixture, so I can not annoy any one. My swift motion may give uneasiness to those unaccustomed to me, but as I am an act of mutilation performed by a person, which I am not, of course I can not stir. When in rapid motion, with all my equipments, I am a very pretty sight. ”

“ I say my lessons to mamma now. I think Young People is splendid. I live on a plantation about a mile from the Mississippi River. When it is high, we can read the names of the boats. It seems so strange to read about snow up North, when we have not had a frost. We have geraniums growing in the yard, and plenty of roses in bloom. We have nine pecan-trees; they are full of pecans. I have four dolls, and lots of play-things. Bob, Buddy, and I have a play-house under the grape-vine. I like to play with dolls very much.
H. M. S. ”

“ Primrose. "I'm sorry, but he sprained his foot yesterday, and must keep quiet for a few days."
"That's bad—for the boy and for me. I must hurry down town and send some one else."
"Oh, papa, let me go!" said Tom. "Please do, sir. I've been up there twice with you, you know, and I'd know just where to go, and you could tell me just what to do."
"Ho! ho!" laughed Frank. "'Heedless Tom' on important business! Why, he would be sure to have the judge and sheriff under arrest, and the burglars at large. He can't help doing everything backward, you know." ”

“ Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book, and the family must be poor indeed which, once in their lives, can not for such multipliable barley loaves pay their baker's bill. ”

“ The virginal and spinet belong to the same period. From them, as need of a more elaborate performance grew, we have the harpsichord. A very fine harpsichord looked something like a grand piano, but it had two rows of keys, one upper and one lower. I shall not here go into a description of the harpsichord. It is only needful to say that it was the outgrowth of clavichord and virginal and spinet, and had some of the defects as well as the good points of all three. ”

“ Yet I don't see how it is possible for me—colorless, brown, soundless, sharp, rasping, tasteless, bitter, motionless, vibrating, quiescent, gliding—to excite either pleasurable or the contrary emotions in any one. Absolutely valueless, save to my owner, I play an important part in commerce. I am an article of merchandise, and very expensive. A little of me goes a great way, and costs a great deal. ”

“ I want to tell you about our bird Hensie. He is very cunning. He is a young canary-bird, and likes soaked cracker. One morning my aunt put a dry cracker in his cage. He took a piece of it in his bill, hopped upon his bath-tub, and dropped the cracker in the water. He watched it, and when it was soft, took it out and put it on the floor of his cage, and began eating it. He has done this several times since then. He tries very hard to sing, and imitates the notes of the other canary-bird.
Robbie S. S. ”

“ If only you knew how fast the exchanges come crowding in, you would understand why it is that we must keep some of them lying in a pigeon-hole when we desire very much indeed to have them translated into type. ”

“ Sometimes great storms would come on, and the rain fall so heavily that the men had to hold their canvas frocks over their fire to prevent its being extinguished. Without fire, they would have been lost indeed. ”

“ In Young People No. 103 I saw a letter from Augusta C., South Glastenbury, Connecticut. This young lady says she hates cats. I should judge that she never had any. I disagree with her entirely. Almost any cat, if fed well and petted, will make as affectionate a little pet as one can desire. I have had a great many cats. ”