Various

“ The signs of plenty in the fields as he rode on encouraged Hadley Morris, who had seen, of late, so many things to discourage his hope in the ultimate success of the American arms. When he reached his uncle’s grain fields he found that they, too, had been reaped, and so clean that there was not a beggar’s gleaning left among the stubble. He rode on to the house, thinking how much good the store of grain Ephraim Morris had gathered might do the patriot troops, were Uncle Ephraim only of his way of thinking. ”

“ Two people cannot go through their experiences and dangers, to remain indifferent to each other. In both their hearts was now the kindliest feeling and the sincere hope that they should meet again. Pierre departed first, and looked back many times at the tall, graceful figure of his comrade; then the trees intervened and the forest had again swallowed him into its familiar depths.
Then Adrian, also, stepped upon the waiting buckboard and was driven over the rough road in the opposite direction. ”

“ Only the insects seem to rejoice in the burning rays of the sun, and gayly hover around the splendid profusion of flowers.
In this season we may make various studies in plant life. Seated upon some shady veranda, we have the glory of the garden spread out before us. Or we may be on some hill, tree-crowned, not far from the sea; we find within hand reach golden-rod, asters, milfoil, blazing-star, indigo. Looking down the gentle slope to the level land, we see black-eyed Susan flaunting beside St. John’s wort and wild snap-dragon. ”

“ Margot was right—none of us has a right to his own self. She told me often that I should go home to my own folks and make everything right with them: then, if I could, come back and live in the woods, somewhere, if I felt I must. But I don’t feel that way now. I want to get back and go to work. I want to live so that when I die—like that poor chap yonder—somebody will have been the better for my life. Pshaw! why do I talk to you like this? Anyway, I’ll set this slab in place, and then—”
Pierre rose, and still without looking Adrian’s way, pushed the new canoe into the water. ”

“ He wondered what had brought Lon up to Philadelphia—and just at this time of all others?
“The best thing I can do is to get out of town as quick as circumstances will permit,” thought Hadley, and upon reaching Friend Pye’s he told the old Quaker how he had seen somebody who knew him in the city—a person who would leave no stone unturned to injure him if possible.
“We must send thee away, then, Hadley,” declared the Quaker. “Where wilt thou go with thy wounded leg?”
“I’ll go home. There isn’t anything for a wounded man to do about here, I reckon. But the leg won’t hobble me for long.” ”

“ True, there is an upward motion: they grow up inch after inch, foot after foot, the law of growth overcoming the law of gravitation. The sap rises in the vessels by root-pressure, by capillary attraction, by the forming of a vacuum in the leaf-cells, by evaporation, and so the climbing sap builds up the plant. This getting up in the world is not a trifle in plant life any more than in human life.
Many a plant seems to have an extreme ambition to rise, and if its stem proves too weak to support any decided advancement in growth, it takes measures to secure aid. ”

“ Above the water-line the bark shriveled and scorched slightly, but Pierre looked out for this and with a scoop made from a leaf replenished the water as it steamed away. The beans, too, were swelling and gave every promise of cooking—in due course of time. Meanwhile, the cook rolled himself over and about in the warmth of the fire till his clothes were dry and all the cold had left his body. Also, he had observed Adrian’s surprise with a pardonable pride.
“Lose an Indian in the woods and he’s as rich as a lord. It’s the Indian in me coming out now.” ”

“ It was now pitch-dark in the tank. The only light I obtained was the feeble glow of the stars shining through the trap-door. I stood under this, gazing up wistfully into the heaven so high above me. After a time my eyes grew heavy, my head fell forward onto my breast, and, strange as it may appear, I dropped off into a gentle doze. I was awakened by a slight breeze fanning my cheek.
I opened my eyes dreamily. Overhead I could hear a deep, rumbling, grating sound; something going up and down, up and down, as it were a monstrous churn in motion. ”

“ Out-doors has been the breath of her living and her joy. I guess what those folks need is somebody to make a few points clear to ’em. What was this Eleanor the child talks of, that she should be set up for a pattern? Wa’n’t she mortal like all the rest of us?”
“Mrs. Manser says Miss Pomeroy thought she was perfection,” ventured Father Manser, as nobody else seemed prepared with an answer. “She used to talk with Polly about her, every day before she went, advising her what she’d better do—Mrs. Manser did.” ”

“ Athletics now are regarded in a different light. Very few of us go through the tedious systematic drill necessary to a perfect physical condition. By many, indeed, the exercise of the entire year is crowded into the short space of a fortnight, and then it is taken only as recreation.
A better form of the practice is found in what we might term team athletics, but even here we lack the wise purpose of the ancients. The object in this case is to develop a squad of athletes, generally those already well gifted by nature, to compete with and defeat another such team of picked men. ”

“ Under the guidance of Pierre Ricord, a young Indian, the lad sets out for the nearest settlement. The journey for the most part is made by water, and while attempting to shoot the rapids of the stream which they have been following their canoe is dashed against a rock and both occupants are thrown into the seething whirlpool.
For an instant Adrian closed his eyes that he might not see the inevitable end. But—was it inevitable? At the logging camp he had heard of just such accidents as this and not all of them were fatal. ”

“ So, notwithstanding the fact that every one is welcomed as a candidate for these teams, the final result is to turn out, perhaps, a score of exceptionally well drilled men, while hundreds of others, who, in reality, most need the exercise thus afforded, are content to fill the grand stands and cheer their men to victory.
Undoubtedly, team athletics does much good. It stimulates a greater interest and brings more men into the field than any other influence ”

“ I suppose you’ve met folks as old as that, haven’t you?”
“Why, everybody at Manser Farm is ever and ever so much older, except Mrs. Manser and Father Manser, and Bob Rust,” said Polly, earnestly. “They’re all traveling on toward their end, Uncle Blodgett says, and he doesn’t care how soon he gets his marching orders for the heavenly land, but I care,” and the brown curls danced, “for I just love Uncle Blodgett.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Arctura, heartily. “Well now, about the Square and me. You see, my mother—‘marm,’ we all called her—was a notable cook. ”

“ But we, who are better acquainted with him, must admit that Robin never did quite conquer his pride. Everybody knows that he is one of the best hearted of birds, and that whenever any danger threatens Birdland he is always among the first to defend it. But the influence of Bluebird has refined him to such an extent that there is little doubt in our mind that he still thinks his other cousins, the Thrushes, in spite of their splendid musical ability, are backwoodsmen, so to speak. ”

“ This caused so much hard feeling between Robin and Wood-thrush that they have ever since built their nests in very different localities. But this isn’t all, and here comes the event which changed the former’s whole life.
Until this time Robin had always worn a spotted breast, but no sooner did he move to his new home than he decided to have a vest of red like Bluebird’s. But with all his pains he could not make himself as handsome as his cousin, for, like many folks when they try to imitate others, he overdid it. ”

“ Hadley Morris, our hero, is in the employ of Jonas Benson, the host of the Three Oaks, a well-known inn on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Like most of his neighbors, Hadley is an ardent sympathizer with the American cause. When, therefore, he is intrusted with a message to be forwarded to the American headquarters, the boy gives up, for the time, his duties at the Three Oaks and sets out for the army. ”

“ He had tried for a year and a half to keep from a final disagreement with Uncle Ephraim; but to no avail. The old man did not consider Hadley old enough to judge for himself, or to have any opinions of his own. The times were such that children grew to youth and young men to manhood very rapidly. When the fathers went to the war the sons became the providers and defenders of the household; if the fathers did not go, the sons were in the ranks themselves. Questions were not asked regarding age by the recruiting officers, providing a youth looked hearty and was able to carry a musket. ”

“ These are all fed to the plant in a solution of water.
From the rain the plant receives as food hydrogen and forms of ammonia.
From air the plants absorb carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and ammonia; very much of the first, little of the second, and very little of the others.
When plants grow out-of-doors, the winds, dews, and rains free the leaves from accumulations of dust which obstruct the pores and hinder the receiving of food. In very dry and dusty seasons we notice that the plants become sickly from the stopping of the pores. Plants need clean skins as human beings do. ”

“ There was no trip to the village for Miss Pomeroy and Polly that morning. Toward noon Hiram drove off in the light wagon, holding a large umbrella over his head, and returned well splashed with mud an hour or so later. ”

“ When folks have such a beautiful place I guess they do not care much about going out-doors, but there is a Pyaza and I walk on that a great deal, beside I have been to walk down the road most every day with Miss Pomeroy and she is just as good to me! And once I have been in the Woods with Miss Arctura, and she said ‘next time,’ so that means we are going again. Mr. Hiram that is her brother can resite pieces and he is teaching me On Linden when the Sun was Low, Uncle Blodgett do you know that piece? ”

“ Cinque-foil and its cousin, strawberry, send out runners from all sides, which root and shoot up new plants until the whole bed is a solidarity, and would so remain did not the thankless plants keep all the food and moisture for themselves, and deliver over the runners to death by starvation.
The walking fern has a most original way of getting over the ground. It bends its slender frond and starts a root by extending the tip of the mid-rib; so it sets up a new plant and is anchored fast on all sides by its rooted frond tips, covering the ground with a rich carpet of verdure. ”

“ The clear drops of gum attract insects to the leaf, and they are held by the feet or wings. Their struggles cause the leaf to fold together, when the hairs pierce the body of the insect and drink up the juices. When only a dry husk remains the leaf opens and the wind shakes the shell away.
The pitcher-plant invites insects by a honey-like secretion. They fall into the liquid stored in the pitcher and are thus drowned, because, owing to numerous downward-pointing hairs in the throat of the pitcher, they cannot climb back. ”

“ Naturally observant, she is encouraged in her out-of-door studies by her uncle, at one time a college professor. Through her woodland instincts, she and her uncle are enabled to save the life of Adrian Wadislaw, a youth who, lost and almost overcome with hunger, has been wandering in the neighboring forest. To Margot the new friend is a welcome addition to her small circle of acquaintances, and after his rapid recovery she takes great delight in showing him the many wonders of the forest about her home. ”

“ Other plants of lowlier mind creep along the ground. The prince’s pine forms a strong, thick mat, cleaving to every root, twig, grass-stem, in its way, striking rootlets here and there, until only a strong hand and a firm wrench can drag it from the earth, its mother. ”

“ But many a soldier who has fought all day with his face to the enemy has wept childish tears when left at night, wounded and alone, on the battlefield.
However, one could not really despair on such a bright morning as this, and Hadley soon plucked up courage. He got out his pocket knife, found a sapling with a crotched top, cut it off the proper length, and used it for a crutch. With this, and dragging his useless musket behind him, he hobbled up the road in a direction which he knew must bring him to the American lines, and eventually to Philadelphia. ”

“ Manser, I’ve got a sharp knife that would cut those fastenings,” said Father Manser, wistfully. “Her door’s closed, and I won’t be but a minute. I won’t speak of the package, and I’ll mention that the fire needs more wood, for I see it does.”
“I’ll wait,” said Aunty Peebles, and spurred by a “Hurry up, then, for goodness’ sake!” from Mrs. Ramsdell, Father Manser sped off with the paper.
“It’s Polly’s writing,” said Uncle Blodgett, after a long squint at the address on the brown paper covering of the box. ”

“ When I was at that lumber camp I nearly died because all the meat, or nearly all, was so salt. Got so I couldn’t eat anything, hardly. Now, just because I haven’t salt I can’t eat, either.”
“Indians not that way. Indians eat one thing same’s another. Indian just wants to live; don’t care about the rest. Indian never eats too much. I’m all Indian now.”
Adrian opened his eyes to their widest, then threw himself back and laughed till the tears came.
“Pierre, Pierre! ”

“ I don’t approach her on pie crust nor muffins, and there was a sort of rye drop cake,” said Miss Green, lowering her voice, “that nobody but her could ever make. And she was a great one to invent cake receipts, and then invite folks in to take a dish of tea in the afternoon and test the new cake.
“The Square’s wife was a good deal younger than he—she’d only be seventy if she was alive to-day, while he was eighty-five when he died—and she’d often accept marm’s invitations, and come to our old house—’twas burned years ago—and spend the best part of an afternoon just as friendly as you please. ”