Various

“ A great lump was struggling in her throat.
"But you're not going, and I am. And you and Jack can have fun together."
"Jack's grown up; he isn't a boy, like you." Molly would have liked much to add, "He isn't my twin, Roy," but at the bare idea of saying such words her whole heart seemed to rise up in one huge billow, and very nearly swamped her self-control. She had to clench her hands and to bite her lips fiercely. If Roy did not care about leaving her, she was not going to let him see that she cared about losing him. ”

“ It takes some years for English eyes to get accustomed to the bareness of the hills of California, or to find out the true beauty of these dried-up looking slopes. Once the love for them begins, however, it grows at a great pace, and one discovers constantly fresh wonder and charm in them. ”

“ Other people have troubles, as well as you, little Moll. Try to believe that, and try to be brave. We don't all—I mean, they don't all talk about their troubles always. It is of no use. Things have to be borne, and crying does no good. So stop the tears, Molly, and hold up your head, and think how nice it will be to see my grandmother and Jack, and the Bath Pump-room, and all the fine ladies and gentlemen walking about in their smart clothes. ”

“ Baron occupied rather the position of an elder sister. To Roy and Molly, Denham had always been like a brother. He had seen a good deal of both Polly and Jack in their childhood, but during later years he had been much on service abroad; and his first view of Polly Keene, his quondam playmate, transformed into a grown-up young lady, had been but a few weeks before this date. Denham had lost his heart to her in the first half-hour of their renewed acquaintance; and Polly soon discovered that he was the one man in the world who had her happiness in his keeping. ”

“ If I wasn't going to be a soldier I should want to be a sailor; but of course I'm going to be what papa and Den are, and I like that best, only I've got to wait longer for it. And we shall stay in Paris, and there will be mounseers everywhere. Won't that be funny? And I shall write and tell you all about it"—as her silence dawned upon him. "And you'll have Jack and Polly, you know."
"If I was going to Paris, would you think Jack and Polly enough instead?" demanded Molly, out of her sore heart, still staring fixedly at the wall. ”

“ Who wants to learn anything about prepositions in the middle of summer, and who would be so extremely foolish as to spend any of the precious—not to say "honied"—hours over a grammatical puzzle? In the summer of 1897 about fifteen hundred individuals tried to unravel a page full of curious suppositions. But then suppositions are always dear to the girl mind, while prepositions seldom are, because they pertain to a science which the girl mind (as a rule) little understands. ”

“ The soft caressing voice, the cool rose-leaf cheek against her own, the lovely dark eyes smiling upon her, all comforted poor Molly's sore heart; and she clung to Polly, and cried away more than half her pain.
"Don't tell Roy," she petitioned presently. "He doesn't mind, and he must not think that I do."
"Why not? That is naughty pride, Molly. It is always the women who care, not the men." Polly held up her head, and a far-away look crept into the soft eyes. "Dear, you must expect it to be so. Men have so much to do and to think about. But we have time to grieve, when they go away to fight ”

“ I thought I would try to learn a lesson from the wise king of old and see whether maternal love would not prove a sure test. I thought I would allow the vole that first returned to the nest to remain and place the other in a separate globe.
The plan was successful, for the mother mouse went back to the nest at once and set to work to repair the dwelling which I had somewhat disarranged.
The young voles were by no means beautiful. Bright red in colour, the thin hairless, almost transparent, skin allowed one to see the beating of the heart and its circulation very plainly. ”

“ However, it is an open question whether it really costs more in the end to buy a ready-planted and bearing ranch at the very high figure generally quoted.
If you buy in a less settled neighbourhood the rough untouched land at a tenth of the price—which would be about the cost of good land with water—there is the hard work of clearing and grading, laying out, planting and piping it. Then the long waiting before the trees can bring in any income, and when household and ranch expenses have to be met, must be counted as so much more money invested. It is just here that so many sad failures occur. ”

“ Arthur always looks back on the year spent with you as one of the brightest of his life; and I am sure Peggy would be equally happy. I write to you from force of habit, but really I think this letter should have been addressed to Mrs. Asplin, for it is she who would be most concerned. I know her heart is large enough to mother my dear girl during my absence, and if strength and time will allow her to undertake this fresh charge, I think she will be glad to help another mother by doing so. Peggy is bright and clever like her brother, and strong on the whole, though her throat needs care. ”

“ And so no dark trial, no grievous judgment, can cross our sky without revealing some spot of heavenly blue in the midst of it, or if concealed for a moment, breaking forth again with greater brightness and beauty. ”

“ Fair Japan.—No; it will do you no harm to ride a bicycle. If you sit well on the machine, and do not ride too fast, bicycling is a good and healthy exercise. All girls of thirteen and fourteen "grow very fast." We do not quite understand your second question—"When a girl leaves school, what science ought she to know best?" The only science commonly learnt at school is mathematics. If you want to know which science is the best to study after leaving school, it depends entirely upon yourself. That science in which you have greatest interest is the best to learn. ”

“ Asplin," Mrs. Saville wrote, "I come to the real burden of my letter. I return to India in autumn, and am most anxious to see Peggy happily settled before I leave. She has been at this Brighton school for four years, and has done well with her lessons, but the poor child seems so unhappy at the thought of returning, that I am sorely troubled about her. Like most Indian children, she has had very little home life, and after being with me for the last six months, she dreads the prospect of school, and I cannot bear the thought of sending her back against her will. ”

“ But everybody can't go to Paris at the same time. Fie, fie, little Molly, to mind so much what isn't worth making your eyes red about! Fie, dear! Wake up, and don't be doleful. Always laugh, if you can; because if you are unhappy, it makes other people unhappy as well. ”

“ Nothing is more curious and interesting in the changes and chances of the world than the stories of things "lost and found." One constantly hears of such on the best authority, being told by people in whom one has the most perfect confidence, and who have no reason to deceive us. ”

“ It has been suggested that the experiences of some English people in search of and on a ranch in California might be of interest to others, especially, perhaps, to those who are looking about more or less anxiously to find some promising opening for the future of their boys, and who, seeing the Old World so crowded, and realising the difficulty of finding a possible niche at home, may desire to try an altogether new life in the New World. ”

“ It makes me feel half inclined to cry also, because I wanted to have dear little Molly, and now I know that Molly does not care to come. Molly, you dear little goose, don't you know that people can't be always and for ever together the whole of their lives? It isn't the way of the world, dear; and you and I can't alter the world to please ourselves. Roy is glad to go to Paris, of course ”

“ We have game and poultry in abundance and just in their prime; the bag that sportsmen take delight in filling is here emptied for the benefit of those who rarely or never breathe the air of the moors where the birds flourished so happily. ”

“ None who are able to cultivate a flowering plant, or to take a walk on to a piece of waste land or in a lane, need ever plead excuse for an ungarnished table, and much pleasure is missed by those who think the table can do as well without garnishing as with it, providing there be plenty of good food upon it. ”

“ So, with a show of coy reserve, she gradually yielded, intimating that she did like him just a little; that some day or other she thought she could be his wife; that meantime she would somehow manage to keep him in her memory.
"And next week you are away to Paris!" she said, perhaps secretly wondering why he did not prefer to spend his leave in Bath. "For a whole long fortnight!"
"I could wish that I were not going. But all is arranged and the Colonel desires it. I must not fail him now at the last. If I can see my way to return at the end of a se'night, I will assuredly do so. ”

“ It is rather late, but we have been anxious to include solutions from the remotest parts of the world. One comes to us from Coomooboolaroo, wherever that may be, and the author mildly suggests that she is afraid her solutions do not arrive in time as she has never had honourable mention. Now that we allow a reasonable extension of time, we hope the writer will continue to solve, for if The Girl's Own Paper can reach even a place with eight os in it so can a Puzzle Poem Prize.
It is very odd, but a puzzle which is popular at home is certain also to be popular abroad. ”

“ Arthur's throat was delicate too. She must use my gargle."
The vicar laughed softly.
"Ah! I thought that would decide it. I knew your soft heart would not be able to resist the thought of that delicate throat! Well, dear, if you are willing, so am I. I am glad to make hay while the sun shines, and lay by a little provision for the children. How will they take it, do you think? They are accustomed to strange boys, but a girl will be a new experience. She will come at once, I suppose, and settle down to work for the autumn. ”

“ As in summer-time we arrange our dishes for cool effects, so in winter months we may try to make as much contrast of bright colour as possible. All these things are worth studying, for it is in such details that the hand of the true culinary artist is shown. ”

“ Many fathers and mothers, also like ourselves, would fain discover, if possible, some way of keeping their boys beside them; some business which they can work together, and in which they may find a satisfactory livelihood for all. ”

“ As to the delinquencies of your French correspondent in not writing oftener, we are unable to help you. It is not an unusual thing for correspondence to flag; but if you feel that "every three or four months" is not sufficiently often to receive a letter, the best way is to write a kind and pleasant note telling her so, and close the correspondence. We do not think it is worth while to be "annoyed" about the matter, as she may, owing to some change of circumstances, be quite unable to command her time. ”

“ Our house agent, a kindly Englishman, who had been many years in California, told us that even if we desired to go to law about it, the case would most certainly be given against us. The jury would be composed of men, all more or less of the same class as our servant, and their sympathies would be with her, and we should not have the least chance of getting justice. ”

“ To a woman it will not be at all wonderful to hear that this loss was a subject of great concern, and also somewhat superstitious fear; for by many people such a loss is thought to be an omen of ill-luck. Some of the family still remained on the lake of J——, a married daughter, the sister-in-law of the loser of the ring. One morning, about two years after the departure of her family, she had a letter from her brother's wife, to beg her to go across the lake to the old homestead, for she had had a very vivid dream about the lost ring ”

“ Whilst still quite blind, the young voles, if placed on a table, would invariably creep backwards and continue a retrograde movement, until at last they would have fallen over the edge of the table if I had allowed them to do so.
I imagine nature teaches this evolution so that, in their native burrow, these defenceless weak young creatures may invariably retreat as far back as possible out of the reach of danger. ”

“ Some of the older established fruit districts were very prosperous looking, and had quite a busy social life. But our minds were quite made up, that of what the land had to offer, we would, without hesitation, choose a real country life, free and untrammelled, in one of the less settled neighbourhoods. ”

“ It has been said that small fruit—berries of different kinds—may be grown meanwhile, and that the profits from these will help out the expenses until the ranch trees bear. If you are made of cast iron, you may possibly be able to give the necessary work to your ranch, and at the same time cultivate small fruit; but if you come from the ordinary comfortable middle-class at home, you cannot have the strength or resistance to stand this additional toil. ”

“ In the thirteenth century pottery was reinstated in public favour; and a great advance was made in the art, a glaze being employed from the fourteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, when a new description of pottery was invented, a salt-glazed stoneware, which came into the market with importations of Italian fayence and oriental porcelain. ”