Various

“ When young, coral polyps are little jelly-like animals which swim about in the water. After they have chosen a resting-place, and the stomach and tentacles have grown, hard particles of lime, which they have drawn in from the sea-water, settle in their flesh to form a circular cup as well as the partitions inside. In this way the polyps soon acquire a solid frame, the soft parts being the stomach, the fringe of tentacles, and the fleshy mass covering the skeleton and the internal partitions. They can draw the tentacles entirely within the body, as the anemone does. ”

“ Then they came just outside of the tent and stood close to Nelly without observing her.
"I will not bear it another day," said one, looking very miserable and angry. "My wife and young ones are starving. Can I stand by and see that? And yet you tell me to have patience!"
"It's all Mr. Willard's fault, Bill," said the other, more quietly. "If he would give in, all the other owners would follow his example. They always do." ”

“ It is called the Filial Porridge festival. Instead of boiling rice by itself on that day, sugar, seeds, fruit, dried dates, and other things are cooked with the rice, making a dish which is almost black in color and very thick. This porridge is placed in bowls, and is set before the ancestral tablets and household gods which one finds in every Chinese house. Here it is left for a time, with incense and candles burning beside it. After a while, when the souls of the departed ancestors are supposed to have consumed all they wish, the family are at liberty to eat the remainder. ”

“ Fairy Holdon says, sweetly, "Dear little ones, Rome was not built in a day. One brick at a time, and the house is completed. One day at a time, and the century is finished. One lesson at a time, perfectly learned, and the little boy becomes a great scholar." ”

“ Mr. Willard kissed her. "Well, Nelly," he said, "I promise. The work-people shall have their own way, and Bill shall go unpunished. Now what shall I give you?"
"Nothing, thank you," answered Nelly, slipping from his arms. "I must go home, for mamma doesn't know where I am. Good-by, Mr. Willard; I thank you ever so much for your promise."
"Good-by, Nelly. Now kiss me, and take care of yourself until I see you again."
Next morning when the factory bells rang out, it was known all over Windham that the working people were to go to work on their own terms. Mr. Willard had given in. ”

“ Canoeing at night is always a ticklish business, but on a swift river, full of rapids, as is the Magog, it is exceedingly dangerous. The fire lighted the way for the fleet for a short distance, but before a landing-place was reached a turn on the river shut out the light, and at the same time the noise of a rapid close at hand was heard. ”

“ The door opened, and sad-faced men brought in, on a plank torn from the old bridge, Peter, the tailor, dead. His pallid face gleamed through the matted hair, the water dripped from his clothing, and clutched tightly to his breast was poor little Ben. The child's soft locks streaming back showed the sweet face that looked to Billy like an angel's, so pure was it now. The patient little helper! Billy burst into tears. He forgot the stuttering, the baby pinafore, the copper-toed shoes that used to make Ben so funny. ”

“ Harry's canoe had sustained a little damage where one of the planks had been ground against the rock on which she had hung so long, but it was not enough to cause her to leak, and the injuries of the other canoes were confined to their varnish.
"All the trouble," remarked Harry, "came from following too close after one another. To-morrow, if we find any more rapids, we will keep the canoes far enough apart, so that if one canoe runs aground, the others can turn out for her."
"We could have got into the canoes easy enough if we had only thought so," said Tom. ”

“ Like the anemone they also have lasso-cells for capturing their food.
Should it be a branching coral whose history we are tracing, it will now begin to bud from the sides. The buds will grow into branches, throwing out other buds, somewhat as plants do, until we have an elegantly branching colony. Each bud is a new polyp, and remains attached to [Pg 724] the branch from which it sprang. Although the polyps in such a community have separate mouths and stomachs, there is a close connection between them, and a free circulation of fluids through the soft flesh. ”

“ As soon as Joe returned, Harry said that he would paddle out into the middle of the river, where Charley was [Pg 723] last seen, and would let his canoe drift down the rapid, but Tom and Joe insisted that he should do no such thing. Said Joe: "Either Charley is drowned or he isn't. If he isn't drowned, he is somewhere at the foot of the rapid, where we'll find him as soon as it gets light. If he is drowned, it won't do him any good for another of us to get drowned." ”

“ The higher the temperature, the greater the variety and profusion of the coral. During life the skeleton is covered with soft flesh, the surface of which is thickly studded with star-like animals called polyps. In this way millions of polyps are sometimes clustered together in one community. As they wave their delicate tentacles of white, green, or rose color, they are said to be very beautiful, especially if seen in the bright sunlight through water that is clear and still. ”

“ Pure Lily's sway was felt among the great ones of the earth;
Sweet Violet cheered with heart and hand her lowly cottage hearth.
Their lots were far apart in life, the goal for each the same:
A faithful heart serves God and man in lady as in dame. ”

“ Indeed, the whole structure of a coral polyp is similar to that of an anemone, and we can now easily imagine the stomach of the polyp hanging down in the opening left between those delicate partitions. Coral polyps differ from sea-anemones, however, in three important ways—they have hard skeletons, they can not move about, and they usually grow in clusters. ”

“ Sometimes we walk on the beach and gather moss and shells. From the front door we can see steamers passing up and down the coast, and can watch the fishing-boats. Last summer papa took me to San Francisco, and I enjoyed the trip very much. I have two brothers, Bertie and Harry, and a sister Pearl, and I am the oldest of them all. I have a number of dolls, and a kitten named Jessie. Bertie's kitten is named Daisy. We all think ever so much of Young People. ”

“ Withers is Sue's new young man, as I have told you already. He comes to see her every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening, and Mr. Travers comes all the other evenings, and Mr. Martin is liable to come any time, and generally does—that is, if he doesn't have the rheumatism. Though he hasn't but one real leg, he has twice as much rheumatism as father, with all his legs, and there is something very queer about it ”

“ The fear that an accident had happened to Charley made the other boys very uneasy. Joe cast his canoe loose, and paddled out into the river, and nearly across it, looking for some signs of the Midnight and her owner; but he came back unsuccessful, after having narrowly escaped being carried down the rapid. There could no longer be any doubt that the current had swept the Midnight away, and that Charley had been compelled to make the hazardous and almost hopeless attempt of running the rapid in the dark. ”

“ Father had a candle in one hand and a big club in another. You ought to have been there to see Mr. Martin and Mr. Withers. One of them had run against the other in the dark, and they thought they were both burglars. So they got hold of each other, and fell over the milk pans and upset the soap barrel, and then rolled round the cellar floor, holding on to each other, and yelling help murder thieves, and when we found them, they were both in the ash bin, and the ashes were choking them. ”

“ You will often hear coral spoken of as having been built by an insect, and you will see at once that this is far from correct. Coral polyps are very different from insects, and their skeletons grow, much as ours do, inside of the animal; so we can not say they have been built. All such animals as coral polyps, which have the mouth in the centre, with other parts radiating from it, are called "Radiates." ”

“ The organ-pipe coral consists of lovely crimson tubes standing upright, and connected at short distances by thin flat plates, which give it the appearance of being several stories in height. These plates may be distinctly seen in Fig. 3. When alive, a little polyp protrudes from the top of each tube, and being of a bright purple color, it makes a striking contrast with the crimson tube.
Fig. 4.—Fragment of Red Coral with Polyps.
Red coral, which is used for jewelry, grows in a bushy form on rocks at the bottom of the Mediterranean and Red Seas. ”

“ The fairies who help children at school are bright-eyed creatures, who teach you two things—the first is how to hold fast, the second is how to hold on. Fairy Holdfast will not let her friends look at a half-dozen things at once. ”

“ The fleshy mass of this coral is colored red by the numerous red spicules it contains, while the polyps are pure white. The whole resembles a pretty red shrub spotted over with sparkling white flowers. The spicules in the centre of the branches form a solid stem, which takes a fine polish. Underneath the flesh the surface of the coral is marked with deep grooves, which are canals for the circulation of water. These grooves are shown at both ends of the branch in Fig. 4. They are always removed in polishing. ”

“ As in other families one generation passes away and another takes its place, so in large branches of coral the lower and older portions may be dead, and living polyps will be found only at the ends of the branches. Corals seem to be delicate creatures, as they will not flourish under adverse circumstances. ”

“ Children who are married, and away from home, make and send a dish of this porridge to their parents if they possibly can. After the filial porridge has been eaten, the boys and girls amuse themselves by firing off crackers, playing merry games, and having a pleasant time. ”

“ Travers will be here in a few minutes and there's Mr. Martin down cellar and I feel as if I should fly what shall I do?"
I was real sorry for her, and thought I'd help her, for girls are not like us. They never know what to do when they are in a scrape, and they are full of absence of mind when they ought to have lots of presence of mind. So I said: "I'll fix it for you, Sue. Just leave it all to me. You stay here and meet Mr. Travers, who is just coming around the corner, and I'll manage Mr. Withers." Sue said, "You darling little fellow there don't muss my hair" ”

“ The patient is lucky if he escapes with even one good one. The natives have great confidence in the European doctors, and look upon them as magicians—that is, unless they propose to cut off an arm or a leg. That they won't submit to; they would rather die. The loss of an eye is evidently a trifling matter."
"That accounts for the Three Calenders," said Tom, "You remember those Three Calenders in the Arabian Nights? They were princes' sons, each blind of the right eye, who all met at the gates of Bagdad together. ”

“ It was two days after the funeral when, as Farmer Ellery was at work in his field, there appeared quite unexpectedly a red head over the fence near him, and then a boy with a very earnest face.
"Good-day, Billy. Going to leave us, I hear."
"No, sir. I have come to say I want to make a man of myself by being just a hard-working boy, if you will show me how. And could I work for enough to keep an old lady, do you think? I am going to keep her, anyhow. The town shan't have granny. ”

“ I have always supposed she had cubs at home."
"Hello!" cried Tom, "what's that? Some one firing on shore. Look!"
Mr. Jollytarre used his field-glass. The Captain of the Blosse Lynch sauntered up with his glass. On the banks of the river were two men firing at each other, one on either side, using the steamer apparently as a screen.
"Some of my crew tell me that those are two brothers," said the Captain, "who are fighting for the supremacy of their tribe. They keep up with us pretty well, don't they? Now look at that rascal shooting at that other fellow across the bow of the boat. By Jove! ”

“ The parents, you remember, are firmly rooted to some object, but their little ones are gifted for a time with the power of motion. They may well enjoy the privilege while it lasts, for it is their only chance of exploring their ocean home. Presently they must settle down like other sedate corals. But it is in this manner that the young polyps are distributed through the ocean instead of growing in a crowded colony around the parent. ”

“ Austin; "they are only men from Windham. They are dissatisfied with something the owners of the factories have done, and so have come to the tent to talk it over. They do not want to work until they have their own way. That is what is called 'striking.'"
"Well, then, mamma," inquired Nelly, "if they only mean to talk, why do you feel so badly and cry?"
"Because, dear, years ago, when you were a baby, there was a strike at Windham that ended in a terrible fight, and your papa, who owned one of the factories, was killed and our house burned." ”

“ She is not nearly so strong as the kind fairies I have been talking about, and if you make an effort to snap the threads she weaves about you, they will break like spiders' webs. Only, you must make the effort. Nobody can do it for you. ”

“ Fig. 1.—Branching Coral Alive, with Polyps Expanded.
In Fig. 1 is shown a piece of living coral with the polyps expanded. The flesh has been removed from the upper branch on the left that we may see the skeleton. Let us suppose that the specimens we have selected for study are of this kind. Each of the tiny cups on the surface was once the frame-work of a separate polyp, and we shall find that its interior is divided by a number of partitions which do not quite reach the centre. Look into the cups with your microscopes, [2] and you will find them very beautiful. ”