Various

“ It would be very natural to think that plants moved only as stones do, because something pulled or pushed them; but this would not be a true conclusion. Every plant that we know much about is firmly fastened by its root in the ground; the movements of its leaves and flowers seem only caused by the blowing of the wind or the beating of the rain. But though plants are anchored fast to the earth, they are all the while moving as they grow. ”

“ Have you never wondered, when you looked at a tangle of grape-vine or morning-glory stems, how they came to twist themselves together so? Perhaps you had some sort of a notion that they got tangled up as a bunch of silk or a skein of worsted lying loose might do. Examine any vine which you can find growing near you, and see how different the tangle is from a snarl of thread, there is a regular twist, the branches coiling in the same direction. In some plants the turn is from right to left, in others from left to right. ”

“ I have been in Washington's Head-quarters at Morristown, and felt, when there, how much we owe as a nation to that great and good man, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." ”

“ I'm not sure that it isn't better than either yours or Tom's; but it certainly isn't as handy as Joe's lateen."
"Now that you've settled that I've the best rig," said Joe, "you'd better admit that I've the best canoe, and then turn in for the night. After the work we've done to-day, and the fun we had last night, I'm sleepy."
"Do you call sitting still in a canoe hard work?" inquired Tom.
"Is falling down a well your idea of fun?" asked Harry.
"It's too soon," said Charley, "to decide who has the best canoe. We'll find that out by the time the cruise is over." ”

“ Spratt's mental condition for fully ten minutes, that they finally decided to ask her just what she thought would be suitable for a dress for Katy, and within their means.
Even if Mrs. Spratt was not altogether right in her mind, and even if she did have ridiculous ideas regarding color, she spoke just as if she believed what she said when she told the boys that they could buy some pretty, plain material, sufficient for a dress for Katy, for about a dollar and a quarter, while with another dollar they could hire Mrs. Isaacs to make it for them in the latest style. ”

“ It was a large, roomy pasture, and so was that of Mr. Gates at the side of it, but it was because they were both very long, for they were not very wide. They reached up and over the hill, away to the cross-roads on the upper level, so that there was a great deal of fence between them.
It was good fence, too, and in perfect order, but for all that, before they reached the top of the slope, William suddenly exclaimed:
"Father, there are Mr. Gates's cows in our lot. Both of them."
"I declare! So they are. And there are both of Mr. Hollenhouser's beyond them. There must be a bad gap somewhere." ”

“ They paddled steadily on, looking in vain for a path through the reeds, and making up their minds to a good wetting. They found, however, that the rain did not come alone. With it came a fierce gust of wind, which quickly raised white-caps on the lake. Instead of dying out as soon as the rain fell, the wind blew harder and harder, and in the course of half an hour there was a heavy sea running. ”

“ Many flowers turn their bright faces always to the light. They follow the sun as he moves through the heavens all the day long from his rising to his setting. This comes from the effect the sun has on the water in the stem, and not because the flower is beginning to "take notice," as the baby's bright eyes do of a lamp when it is moved about a room, though it does remind one of it.
The movement of climbing plants is only one of many curious movements that are made by stems and roots and leaves and flowers, though the cause is the same in all cases. ”

“ If you try to get the sail down without coming up into the wind it will get overboard, and either you will lose it or it will capsize you; you tried it yesterday when a squall came up, and you very nearly came to grief."
"But you can say the same about any other rig," exclaimed Joe.
"Of course you can't very well get any sail down while the wind is in it; but Tom can take in his sharpie-sail without much danger even when he's running directly before the wind, and Harry and I can let go our halyards and get our lugs down, after a fashion, if it is necessary. ”

“ A muslin sack large enough to contain a boy of fourteen is handed out for examination, and after the audience are satisfied that the seams are not only secure and perfect, but that its only opening is at the mouth, the performer's assistant gets inside. The sack is gathered over his head, and the mouth tied fast with a silk handkerchief, and then with a tape, the knots of the latter being not only sealed in any way that seems best to the audience, but the ends, which are left long, given to some one to hold. ”

“ A paddle-wheel steamer can be heard while she is a long way off, but screw-steamers glide along so stealthily that the English canoeists, who constantly meet them on the Mersey, the Clyde, and the lower Thames, have nicknamed them "sudden death." ”

“ He was the first to make one successful. He came back to New York, and, aided by his friend Livingston, in 1806 began to build his boat. It was only a small vessel, rudely built; in it he placed an engine made by James Watt, the English inventor; the paddle-wheels he planned himself, and the imperfect machinery. It seems now a very easy thing to build a steamboat, but it was then thought impossible. Men called the boat Fulton's Folly. Hardly any one supposed that a new era in navigation was about to begin, and that Fulton's machine would at last cover the world with its discoveries. ”

“ Travers doesn't always tell the truth. What did he mean by telling Sue the other night that he loved cats, and that her cat was perfectly beautiful, and then when she went into the other room he slung the cat out of the window, clear over into the asparagus bed, and said get out you brute? We can not be too careful about always telling the truth, and never doing anything wrong.
Tom and I talked about the circus all the next day, and we agreed we'd have a circus of our own, and travel all over the country, and make heaps of money. ”

“ Still, it might have occurred to Rube and Bun that cows could have preferences. Their own, indeed, had always marched on into the right lot without a blunder, and so had the Deacon's old ones. Even the new cow might now have been rightly guided if it had not been for her disturbed state of mind. So might all the rest but for the "worry" they were in. As it was, however, Watch had no sooner made his last dash at the head of the brindle than she made her last rush at him, and when she was met by Bun Gates and a long stick, she wheeled sharply to the right. ”

“ You can not straighten a stem curved in this way without breaking it.
Every movement of stems and leaves comes from the movement of the water that fills their cells. But besides the water, there is something else just as important, and that is the sun. The water is only a servant, which obeys the light as its master. ”

“ The root burrows into the earth in very much the same way as the stem revolves, by going around and around as it grows (Fig. 2) . Take a morning-glory vine, and let it lie without any wire or trellis to catch hold of. After a while you will find the stems and tendrils coiled round each other in a tight twist (Fig. 3) ; you could not begin to twist them so tightly yourself without breaking the stem.
Fig. 3.—Morning-Glories.
The tips of all growing plants, like the first leaves that pierce the ground, move around; they are forever weaving their magic circles in the air ”

“ A screen is now placed between the audience and the boy in the sack, the ends of the tape passing either over the top of the screen or through holes in its side.
It would seem impossible for the person thus securely enveloped to get out of the sack without cutting or untying the tape and handkerchief; and yet, O mystery of mysteries! in a few seconds the screen is thrown open, and the late occupant of the sack walks out, while the sack is found still tied up, the knots not tampered with, and the seals unbroken. ”

“ We had to go on a narrow path just wide enough for a horse to go, very carefully winding around the mountain-side, and we could hardly ever see to the top, and not to the bottom, it was so far down. The bright little creek that came splashing down through the rocks made the sweetest music that mamma ever heard. ”

“ It was a great mystery, and when Rube and Bun came along from school that afternoon there was Katy Chittenden at the gate, and Bill Chittenden was in the yard, and the Deacon was on the stoop, and Mrs. Chittenden was at the window.
"Katy," asked Bun, "did you tell your father what I told you?"
"Yes; and he and William have been up there all the afternoon mending the pasture."
"Audubon," exclaimed the Deacon, "how did those cows get mixed?"
"No, sir," said Bun; "the cows ain't mixed, it's the lots." ”

“ Father said that circuses were dreadfully demoralizing, unless they were mixed with wild animals, and that the reason why he took me to this particular circus was that there were elephants in it, and the elephant is a Scripture animal, Jimmy, and it can not help but improve your mind to see him. I agreed with father. If my mind had to be improved, I thought going to the circus would be a good way to do it.
We had just an elegant time. I rode on the elephant, but it wasn't much fun, for they wouldn't let me drive him. ”

“ With the daylight they became very courageous, and decided that they had never been in [Pg 791] the least afraid of the animal. The so-called wild-cat of Canada, which is really a lynx, is, however, a fierce and vicious animal, and is sometimes more than a match for an unarmed man.
There was a strong west wind blowing when the fleet started, and Chambly Basin was covered with white-caps. As the canoes were sailing in the trough of the sea, they took in considerable water while skirting the east shore of the Basin, but once in the narrow river, they found the water perfectly smooth. ”

“ Many wee people can be led along by gentle words and merry looks, when they can not be driven without very great trouble. If Susie has a handsome book which you fear she will spoil, do not hurt her self-respect by taking it suddenly from her, but bring a scrap-book, and divert her attention to that. ”

“ The dyeing of kid gloves requires very skillful workers, and a very fine eye for the making of all the different and varied shades of color. The coloring matter is put on each and every skin separately with a brush, each needing from one to four applications of the dye, according to the shade desired. But the light or so-called evening gloves do not need quite so much care, as frequently two hundred or more skins can be put into the vat of dye, which will soak through every particle of the skin. ”

“ Spratt's wisdom and superior judgment; but when she boldly declared that a silk dress could not be purchased for two dollars and sixty cents, they began to have suspicions that she was not the wise woman they had always believed her to be. Those suspicions became a certainty when she added that even if they could afford to buy such dresses as they had seen, they would not be suitable for Katy to wear while plying her trade on the street. ”

“ Clothes you would think worn out will please them, and make them warm and comfortable; ribbons, etc., too much soiled for you to use will please them as well as new; shawls, no matter if old and faded, anything warm, will be of great service; quilt patches, needles, and thread—in fact, anything and everything will be of use in making a tree for them. They all are very, very fond of candy. ”

“ The first thing to be done with the skins freshly stripped from the animal is called 'towing'—to get the hair or wool off; the best and easiest way is to put the skins in a mixture of lime-water, very strong, where they must remain for some time, after which they are taken out and placed in running water, to remove all the lime, and then with a blunt kind of scraper the hair is carefully removed. ”

“ It's the two other canoes that I'm troubled about."
"My canoe suits me well enough," said Joe, "so long as she keeps on the top of the water, but she seems to have made up her mind to dive under it."
"Mine would be all right if I could stop paddling long enough to bail her out, but I can't," remarked Tom. "She's nearly half full of water now."
"We can't leave the other fellows," said Harry, "so what's the use of our talking about getting sail on our canoes?"
"It's just possible that Tom's canoe would live under sail," resumed Charley; "but it's certain that Joe's won't. ”

“ Once she stopped, and men cried, "There, it has failed!" But it was only because Fulton was anxious to alter some part of his machine. The great voyage was successful. The steamer reached Jersey City, and Fulton's victory was won.
Soon the Hudson began to abound with Fulton's steamboats, the wonders of the world. There was the famous Paragon, a vessel of the enormous size of three hundred tons. One built for the Czar was called the Emperor of Russia. A ferry-boat ran from New York to Jersey City. ”

“ There must be some curious arrangement by which plants, that can not feel and will as animals do, can move. They have no brains to think with, no nerves to feel with; it is strange to believe that they really do move with a reason. Mr. Darwin has examined the subject so closely that he has taken nearly six hundred good-sized pages to tell all he has found out about it. His ways of finding out are many. One method is this: he takes a small stiff bristle and glues it on the growing part of a shoot. ”

“ The game is won by the player who at the end of the sitting has the cleanest score. When one word has been discovered, the second player becomes the leader, and after him the others in turn.
No letters should be added at random even should they prove correct, and any player having reason to suspect that this has been done may demand the word of the person preceding him. If the latter can give any historic name in which the letters occur as then written upon the slate, even if it is not the leader's word, the person so calling is counted a miss, and the player giving the name chooses anew. ”

“ At last he caught cold crossing the Hudson on a chill February day, and died 1815, a good son, an inventor who has been useful to every one. He has founded nations, and opened the distant seas to trade.
THE MAGIC SACK. BY HENRY HATTON, MAGICIAN AND VENTRILOQUIST.
Yes, boys, real Simon-pure "magic." Just such tricks as you have seen the "magician" do; just such tricks as some of you may have seen your humble servant do. Many of these you can do yourselves—when you know how; others require more practice than you ought to give to such nonsense, and others again are too expensive. ”

“ In a week or ten days you will see the earth cracked all about. This is not because the growing plant acts like a wedge and splits the earth open, but because in growing the first little leaves move round and round, boring their way out of the ground very much as a corkscrew works its way into a cork. ”

“ I go to school now, and study reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, geography, and spelling! I picked raspberries for papa this summer for two cents a quart, and blackberries for one and a half cents a quart, and got two dollars and ninety-two cents for all. We live on the bank of Lake Michigan. My two cousins from Iowa are here now; they are the only cousins I have. We have had a nice time. We make houses on the beach in the sand, and go in bathing. ”