Bellefonte Pa.. December 9, 1904.
A CHRISTMAS COFFEE POT.
He was only ten years old, and he cnghs
to have been in school, of course ; but his
father was dead and his mother almost an
invalid, to whose slender and uncertain in-
come from her needle Benny’s two dollars
a week at Haines’ General Store was no
mean addition. Some weeks indeed, his
earnings were greater than hers, and on
these occasions Mrs Brooks, who was still
young, would smile in her pretty way and
pat Benny on the head and call him her
little man of the house.
Those were always proud moments for
Benny; and, oh, how they made him yearn
to be earning ten dollars a week in the
store, like Hank Seliers! Hank was Ben-
ny’s ideal of a great man, for he could
blow smoke through his nose without
coughing ; he could lift a barrel of salt ;
throw anybody in town in a wrestling
match, and break the wildest colts that
were ever brought to him. Benny learned
in Sunday school, of course, and from his
mother, that some of these things were not
nice; yes, if they weren’s, why did a great
- man like Hank Sellers do them?
These were questions that ofsen puzzled
Benny’s brain as he sat on the high seat of
the delivery wagon, with old Ned jogging
along in front. Mr. Haines did not smoke,
to be sure—but he was a little, dried-up
old man, whom Hank could have licked
with one band tied behind his back. Mr.
Haines often spoke sharply to Hank,
especially when the latter bad been ous
training somebody’s colt instead of attend-
ing to business in the store; and Benny, on
such occasions, always trembled for his
employer—bat somehow Hank never lick-
ed him.
Every Saturday night Benny hurried
straight home with his two silver doilars,
and the kiss his mother invariably gave
him was the richest of rewards. In the
beginning he also conscientiously carried
home the occasional nickel or dime which
he picked up in return for some little favor
done a cnstomer. But one day his mother
told him, with a queer little catch in her
voice, which he could not then under-
stand, that thereafter he could have these
extras for himself. He kept them after
this, but whatever he bought with them—
candy or licorice-root or an orange—he al-
ways shared with little Elizabeth and his
mother.
Since September, however—and it was
now next to the last week in December—
he had not spent a penny. Why, was a
secret into which he had let no one bus
little Elizabeth. He was going to make
the first Christmas gift of his life, and it
was to be to his mother ! But what ? This
was the question he had pondered for days.
ie had considered at least a dozen articles,
always carefully bearing the cost in mind,
bust no sooner would he decide on any one
of them than all the others would at once
take on new charms, and thus undo his
decision.
What he wanted was something that his
mother really needed and would use every
day, but which at the same time would be
beautifal and enduring, and would not
60st over seventy-five cents. It proved a
difficult combination so find, and he was
beginning to despair, when one morning at
breakfast, just four days before Christmas,
his mother said: ‘Benny, dear, I guess
you’ll have to take the coffee pot down to
Mr. Conrad’s again. It bas sprung anoth-
er leak.”” In that moments the inspiration
came. He would get her a new coffee pot!
Not a plain tin affair like her old one,
which was battered and soldered in many
a place, with its spout twisted and the but-
ton gone from the lid; but a gorgeous one
of white and blue granite iron, such as he
had seen in Conrad’s window.
That very afternoon, after school, Eliza-
beth, following instructions, stopped at the
store for her brother, for the selection of
the pot was a responsibility not to be as-
sumed by any one person. Benny got ex-
cused for a little while, and the diminutive
pair hastened toward Conrad’s hardware
store. The clouds were spitting snow, and
a keen wind harried the street; bus Eliza-
beth’s little red hood and jacket were snug
and warm, and Benny, though he blew his
bare knuckles from habit, was too excited
to think of the cold. They paused in front
of the window, and Benny eagerly pointed
out the pot which he had chosen, contin-
gently, earlier in the day.
‘‘Ain’s it a beauty, Lizzie?"
“It’s awful pretty!’ she murmured.
‘‘How much does it cost 2’?
“I ain’t asked yet, but Hank says that
no granite-iron coffee pot ever made ought
to cost over seventy-five cents; and he
knows, ’vause he used to work in a hard-
ware store. We'll go in and ask, if you
think it’11 do.”
‘‘It’s beautiful, brother.’
*‘Do you think it’s too big ?’’ he interro- |
gated anxiously. ]
‘Oh, ne.” i
‘Do you think it’s too little then?’ :
Oh, no. I think it’s juss right,” said |
she. i
“Then I'll ask. Wait till I connt my
money again.’’
He drew from his trousers pocket hall a
handfal of pennies, nickles and dimes, and
after some study found that they totaled
seventy-five cents—just the amount he
should have had. Then he paused for one
final glance at the gorgeous pot. Te was
in that fatal moment that his eyes fell on
a pot which had somehow escaped him
hitherto—a beautiful vessel which shone
like silver, with a fancy cnrved spout and
figured handle, a verv king of coffee pots
in fact, throned high above ull the ress.
He gasped, and in that instant the glory
of the granite iron pot faded forever. and
it became a common plebeian thing.
‘‘Look at that silver one!’”’ he said, in a
hopeless tone.
‘Oh, my!" exclaimed Elizabeth. *‘I
wish we could buy mother shat one ; but
I expect it costs about ten dollars, don’
you?”
Benny shook his head, too dejected to
show his boyish scorn of her ignorance.
“Is don’t cost that ; no coffee pot cost
that—except a king’s mebbe. But it costs
$00 much for us.”
He fastened his longing blue eyes on the
glistering object again. It seemed to shine
win even more effulgence than before; and
he pictared to himself, with an aching
heart, the glow that would come to his
mother’s face if he could only make her
such a magnificent present.
“‘Lizzie,” said he, almost tragically,
while liis lip quivered, ‘I ain’t goin’ to
get mother a coffee pot after all. I'm goin’
to ges her something else.”’
“What you goin’ to get her?” asked
Elizabeth, greatly disappointed at this ous-
come of their momentuous shopping expe-
dition.
“I ain’t decided yet. I'll hink it over.
You stop at the store tomorrow afternoon
again. But I wish I badn’t seen that sil-
ver pot,”’ he added, sadly.
He dreamt that night that he feund a
place where quarters and half dollars lay
on the ground as thick as leaves, enough
to buy many silver pots. But just as he
was entering Conrad’s ssore, which didn’t
seem just the same old place exactly, the
bottom of his pockets suddenly dropped
out, his silver rolled hither and thither,
dodging about as if it had life, and not a
single piece could be found again. He
awoke bitterly disappointed ; but he was
somewhat cheered to find, on getting up,
that the seventy-five cents in his trousers
pocket was still intact.
On the way to work he could not resist
the temptation to stop and look at the sil-
ver coffee pot again. Some fairy must
bave polished it over night, for it reflected
the morningsun in a manner shat was
fairly dazzling. Each time that day that
he passed Conrad’s with the delivery wag-
on—and he went out of his way several
times to do it—he turned a pair of hungry
eyes toward the window. At noon, both
coming and going, he stopped again. Once
during the afternoon, as be went by on the
wagon, he saw Mr. Conrad showing the pot
to a lady, and his heart sank. He also felt
some resentment, just as if the pot were
his aud not Mr. Conrad’s. But when he
came back there was the king on his throne
again, looking, if possible, more royal than
ever.
‘*Lizzie,”’ said he, desperately, when
the pair once more stood in front of the
window, ‘‘I ain’t thought of anything else
yet, and I’m going to ask Mr. Conrad how
much it’s worti.”’
Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide at this
venturesome declaration.
‘*Mebbe he won’t like it, Benny. He
knows we’re too poor to buy it.’’
“I don’t care,’”” answered Benny. ‘I
heard Hank Sellers ask a man the price of
a thrashin’-machine once, and he didn’t
have the money to buy it. And mehbe
that pot don’t cost but seventy-five cents.’’
They climbed the steps of the old frame
building. Benny’s heart, in spite of his
valorous words, was thumping furiously;
and it was with a feeling of relief that he
noted the absence of any other customers
in the store.
‘Mr. Conrad,’’ he began, with a tremor
in his voice which he could not quite con-
trol, “I want to look at your ooffee-pots. I
want to get mother one for Christmas.
How much is that—that silver one in the
window, with the crooked spout ?’’
Elizabeth tightened her grip on Benny’s
hand as Mr. Conrad stepped to the window
and lifted the beauteouns thing down. When
he came back and set it on the counter,
within eighteen inches of the tip of her
snub nose—at which close range it was
overwhelmingly splendid--her eyes fairly
snapped. Bat Benny’s heart went lower
than ever. He realized already his folly
in pricing such an article.
‘Do you mean this one? That’sa dol-
lar and a quarter, Benny,’’ said the dealer.
There was silence for a moment, intense
silence.
“‘I suppose it’s solid silver,’ said Benny,
trying to muster a matter-of-fact tone, but
struggling with a lump in his throat.
‘No, it’s nickel- plated; but for all prac-
tical purposes it is as good as silver. Do
you think youn would like it ?"’
Benny shook his head. He was about
to say, evasively, that he hadn’t decided
yet just what to get his mother ; but his
instinctive truthfulness prevailed.
“I ain’t got the money,’”’ he answered,
almost inaudibly.
*‘We have some cheaver pots,’ said the
merchant, kindly. “We have some as low
as a quarter.”’
But Benny again skook his head. “I
wanted to get ber something nice. I—I
wouldn’t take no pleasure in a cheap pot
after seeing that one. Come on, Lizzie.”
“How much money have you, Benny ?"’
called the storekeeper as the children
reached the door.
‘Seventy-five cents.’’
Conrad hesitated and glanced at the
bottom of the pot. It was marked o-m,
which meant that i6 had cost him, as it
happened, just seventy-five cents. Then
he glanced at the diminutive pair. They
were about the age of his own two chil-
dren.
‘‘Benny,’’ said he, with a smile, “‘this is
the season of peace on earth and good-will
to men; and I am going to let you have
this pot for seventy-five cents.”’
Benny's eyes lighted wondrously for an
instant; then the radiance faded and he
said, in a hard listle voice, without turn-
ing hack, ‘I don’t waut you to give it to
me, Mr. Conrad.”
“I am nos giving it to you. Seventy-
five cente is just what it cost me, and I
often sell goods to favored customers at
cost. You and your mother have always
been good customers of mine, and I should
be glad to have you take this pot at sev-
enty-five cents.”’
“All right, sir, if you put it that way,”’
answered the proud little boy ; and once
more he counted ont his small
change, fearful lest a penny or two might
have got away and thus at the last mo-
ment vitiate the sale. But it was all
there.
Mr. Conrad swathed the pot in paper
until no one could have guessed what it
was, tied it up securely and passed it across
the counter. Benny lifted it carefully
down with a sense of tremendous responsi-
bility, tucked it under his arm and passed
out with Elizabeth.
‘Suppose you'd fall down and smash it,
Benny,’ suggested she, awesomely, as they
trudged over the icy sidewalks.
“I ain’t goin’ to fall,”’ said he, con-
fidently. ‘I’ve carried things as valuable
as this before—glass, too. Bunt never noth-
ing for mosher,’’ he added, with a tenderer
note.
‘‘Suppose a hoise runned over yowm,’’
continued Elizabeth.
He langhed in a boy's superior way. ‘I
ain’t liable to be runned over by a horse
when I drive one myself every day. When
you get used to a horse, you ain’t afraid of,
any of 'em any more. Hank says old
Ned’s got the hardest mouth of any horse
in town."
Benny expected to smuggle the coffee-
pos into the house on Christmas Eve. He
had not yet decided whether he would
softly arise some time in the night and tie
his gift to his mother’s stocking—be would
hing beforehand that it would be well for
her to hang it up along with his and Eliza-
beth’s, this year -or whether he would set
it in the cupboard, in place of the old pot,
and let her find is when she went to make
coffee in the morning. Each plan had
some feature to recommend it.
But meanwhile he deemed it wisest to
keep the precious gift at the store,although
just where to stow it was a serious ques-
sion. Under a counter it might get dent-
ed; on a shelf it might fall off, especially
if there should happen to he an earthquake.
Moreover, if such a valuable thing were
left in an exposed place, burglars might
find it out and break in and carry it off.
Finally, however, Hank Sellers, whom
Benny took inte his confidence. hid the pot
in a drawer under some rolls of cotton bat-
ting. If Benny peeped into that drawer
once in the next two days, he peeped
twenty times. Bat on each occasion the
treasure lay there as peacefully as if it were
only a bundle of brown paper.
Benny’s work day ended at six o’clock,
by Mrs. Brooks’ stipulation, for he was too
young to be kept up as night. About half
past three o’clock on Christmas Eve, when
his heart was already beginning to quicken
in anticipation of the exciting venture of
getting his present into the house unob-
served, the telephone in the store rang
vigorously. It was Mrs. Rosecrans, and
she wanted to know why the two pounds
of raisins she had ordered for her Christ-
mas pudding bad not been delivered. The
store was full of customers, and Hank Sel-
lers hung up the receiver with a growl.
Mrs. Rosecrans lived outside the village
limits, abont a mile and a half from the
store, and Benny had been out there twice
that day in the delivery wagon with bas-
kets full of Clitistinas cheer; but Hank had
in some way overlooked the raisins in put-
ting up her orders. Mrs. Rosecrans was
Haines’ best customer, however, and could
not be disappointed, although the horse
bad been put away for the day.
‘‘Beuny,’’ said Hank, in atone not in-
tended for his employer’s ear, ‘‘do you
suppose you could hitch up old Ned by
yourself and take two pounds of raisins
out to old lady Rosecrans? I can’t possi-
bly leave the store now, and ehe’li have a
fit if those raisins ain’ delivered.”
Benny bad never hitched up the horse,
but he was not the boy to admis, especial-
ly to his idol, his inability to do a thing
before he had tried it. So a few minutes
later be trudged over to Haines’ barn with
the bag of raisins under onearm. Hank
had told him that he needn’s come back
again that day, so under the other arm—
and this was really the important thing—
he carried the precious coffee pot.
Arriving at the barn, he deposited his
packages in a safe place ; then he climbed
on a box and lifted the heavy harness
down from a wooden peg. Mounting the
manger with the bridle over one arm, he
seized old Ned’s forelock firmly, with a
reassuring ‘‘Ho, boy!’ as Hank always
did, and unbuckled the halter. But old
Ned, having done his day’s stint of work,
had no mind to be harnessed again, espec-
ialiy by this pigmy. So hesnorted, threw
up his head with a force which nearly
wrenched Benny’s arm from the socket,
and then derisively cantered out into the
barnyard, through the door, which Benny
bad inadvertently left open. Half fright-
ened at this catastrophe, and with an ach-
ing arm, the child followed with the bridle.
For fifteen minutes he alternately soaxed
and chased the horse, stumbling over the
frozen ground, and bruising his bare hands
until they burned like fire and were bleed-
ing in several places, but the wary old
Ned wonld neither re-enter his stall nor
allow himself to be caught.
As first the boy thought of returning to
the store and confessing the failure that
bad overtaken him. But in addition to
the humiliation of this course, it seemed
like an ungrateful thing, somehow, after
Hank bad let him off for the rest of the day.
So Benny resolved to walk out to Mrs.
Rosecrans’. He had walked out there
once before with some hoys, in the Sum-
mer time, to help pick strawberries; and
it had not seemed so very far. Gathering
up his parcele, therefore—for leaving the
coffee-pot behind in a stable was not to be
thought of—he started off.
The road was badiy cut up. The par-
cels, so light at first, soon grew amazingly
heavy;and his arms, especially the one
which old Ned had jerked, began to ache
terribly. Every few rods he paused to
shift his burdens, as firstthe raisins and
then the coffe-pot seemed the lighter for
his lame arm. In his haste acd anxiety,
too, he had left his mittens behind at the
stable, and his dirty little hands were
soon as red as boiled lobsters.
It was bLalf past four o’clock when he
reached the big Rosecrans house, and the
great red sun was nearly down to the
tree tops in the west. The cook made
bim come in and warm himself, and ex-
pressed her opinion of the man who would
send a boy of Benny’s size that distance
on foot with two packages to carry. Benny
explained, and after he was warm the
cook buttoned him up thoroughly, drew a
pair of her own mittens— a trifle hig bat
wonderfully warm—over his small hands,
and wished him a merry Christmas.
A few flakes of snow were drifting down
in an inconsequential way, but before
Benny reached the public road they were
falling thick aud fast. He did not objects
to snow, especially with the prospect of a
new sled for Christmas; but he decided to
take a short cut across a large tract of
meadow. The old snow in the meadow
proved deeper than he had thought, and at
each step he sank in abqve his ankles;
but by the time he realized how toilsome
this made the walking, be fancied that he
must be balf-way across, and that it would
be better to go on than to turn back.
He had broken through thin ice in several
low places, and his wet feet soon got very
cold, bus be cheered his flagging spirits by
bugging his present tighter, and picturing,
for perhaps the hundredth time, his dear
mother’s smile when she should look as
ber stocking in the morning. He was
considerably worried by the snow’s wetting
the porous brown paper in which tne pos
was wrapped, and fivallv, by the appear-
ance of one or two holes in the paper,
caused by his frequent shifting of the
package from one tired arm to the other.
Water might take off the beautiful glitter,
he feared, or even rust the nickel. More-
over, if all the paper came off, how should
he ever get his present into the house un-’
recognized ?
To remedy masters he tried to shield the
pot under his overcoat. But the strained
position which this crowding necessitated
hampered his walking badly, aud the open-
ingin his overcoat let in the wind and
snow. It occurred to him, too, that he
might scratch the polished surface with
his buttons. So he drew the vessel out
again—the holes in the paper now bigger
and more numerous than ever—huttoned
his coat as bess he could with his benumb-
ed fingers and trudged on.
Presently he found himsell in a grove,
He was greatly surprised at this, for he
was positive that no trees grew in the
meadow. He bad been floundering along
with his bead down, as one naturally
breasts a storm; but stopping and looking
up now to get his bearings, he discovered
that no landmarks were visible. Nog only
the spires and trees of the village had dis-
appeared, hut also the Rosecians house
itself, big as it was, and eet oun a hill.
Snow, snow, nothing bus snow, in great,
wet, noiseless flakes which stuck to his
face and clothing! Frightened but not
despairing, hestruck out in the direction
in which he thought the village must
surely lie. After a little he came to a
barbed-wire fence. His heat gave a
great throb of thankfulness, for this must
mark the end of the meadow. But, alas!
There was no road on the other side, as
there should have been—only a smooth
expanse of snow, like another meadow.
By this time the last of the pulpy brown
paper had been rubbed from the coffee-pot;
Benny’s face, bair and clothes were wet
with melted snow and his feet numb with
cold. His biave little heart now failed
him, and be began to ery in short, bard,
bister sobs. He bad scarcely strength
enough left to drag himself through the
fence, vet he carefully screened his beloved
gift from the barbs on the wire. Having
gained the otherside, he had an almost irre-
sistible desire to sink do wn in the snow and
rest, but the thought of home and mother and
the Christmas entertainment at the church
kept him going. Elizabeth made up like
a fairy, was to sing a song at the church,
and he did not want to miss that. And
the next was Christmas ! That was a great
thought, and he repeated it over and over,
like some incantation which might have
the power to keep his aching legs in mo-
tion.
But even the virtne of this incantation
spent in time. His strength was almost
gone. Holding the coffee-pot by the handle,
in a rigid, balf-frozen grij, be stumbled
aimlessly about in the gathering darkness,
with no course in mind, and instinctively
following the line of least resistance—
where the ground sloced down or where
the snow was thinnest. Every few yards
he fell, and when he rose he staggered
helplessly. Both mittens were gone, but
he was scarcely conscious of the fact; and
to his he:iambed faculties the loss seemed
like a trivial one, even though the mittens
were not his own.
The lethargy which cold and excessive
fatigue produce was fast overcoming him,
when he was rudely jarred by bumping
squarely into something. Although uster-
ly indifferent to his surroundings now. he
knew from the feel and smell of the object
that it was a straw stack. It had been.
eaten away on the sides by the cattle until
it somewhat resembled a gigantic toadstool ;
and in the shelter formed by its over-
hanging edge he sank down in the litter of
Straw with a strange but delightful sense
of langaor, such as he had sometimes felt
in the morning when he had waked before
it was time to get up. His bands and feet
also had ceased to pain him, although the
former were so stiff that he could not move
a finger. So vlosing his eyes with a smile,
and hugging his treasure to his wet. frozen
breast, he began to repeat :
“It was the night before Christmas, and all
through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
He knew the whole poem by heart, and
had recited it the year before at the Chriss-
mae entertainment; but these two verses
were all he could remember to-night, and
he repeated them drowsily several times.
Then muttering in a fitfal way a part of
the little prayer which he was accustomed
to make each night at his mother’s knee,
he fell asleep.
‘There, three hours later, the searching
party, systematically canvassing every
square yard of the meadow with their
gleaming lanterns, found him, with the
coffee-pot clasped in his arms, and his cap
jammed over bis eyes—not dead, but in a
stupor which is the precarsor of death.
When he regained consciousness, his
mother was sitting beside the bed ; a lamp
borned on the table, and there was the
pungent smell of liniments in his nostrils.
He was still very tired, and it was some
time before he opened his eyes wide enough
for bis mother to perceive that he was
awake.
‘‘My dear little hoy !'’ she exclaimed,
bending over and kissing him, while the
tears glistened on her long, beautiful lashes
—-the most beautiful in the wold to Benny.
‘““‘Have I comed home, mother?” he
asked, in a mystified tone.
‘Why, yes, darling; only you are in
mother’s room to-night, where it is warmer,
instead of your own. Don’t you recognize
it?”
“Did I come alone ?’’
‘No, the men—the good, kind men—
found you and brought you home.’
Then the memory of his presens flashed
over him. He glanced about the room,
but the coffee-pot was nowhere in sight;
and the sickening conviction that it had
been lost came over him.
‘‘And is it Christmas yest, mother ?’’ he
asked, faintly.
‘Yes, it is now two o’clock, and really
Christmas. Bus we don’t usually count it
as beginning until morning, when all the
little bovs and girls wake up and look in
their stockings. I am so thankful, darling,
that you have been spared to be one of
those.”
‘Did you hang up your stocking ?”’ he
asked.
‘Yes. Don’t you remember that you
told me at dinner yesterday to be sure not
to forget it 2’? :
He burst into tears.
nothing now, mother.
snow !”’ he sobbed.
‘Ob, no, youn din’t, my darling! You
had it in your arms when they found you ;
and you held it so tightly that they let it
stay in your arms until they got you
home.”” Her own teais now flowed.
' “The coffee-pot?’’ he queried, in amaze-
ment, his eyes lighting wih hope.
‘Yes, that beautful, beautiful coffee-pot,
finer than mother ever had before, or ever
hoped to have.’ :
‘‘And wasn’t it rusty ,?"’
‘‘Not a bit of it. It shines like silver.
Mother shall always he so proud of it. But
how wuch pronder shall she always be of
ber noble boy, who was so thoughtfnl and
so self sacrificing in order to give her pleas-
ure; and who, in all his pain and despair,
out there in the darkness and the storm,
would not abandon his present for her!”
“*Mother,’’ said he, with a radiant face,
“I knowed you’d talk like an angel when
I give it to you. That’s one reason why I
done it—just to hear you. Bat I wanted
you to have it, too,” he added, gnickly,
just before her lips smothered his speech.
—By Elmore Elliott Peake, in the Delin-
eaior for Dee , 1904.
“You won’t get
I lost it in she
Stage Ice Cream.
Au amusing ‘‘hreak’’ once occurred in a
produotion of “*Camiile’ at the old Walnut
street theatre in Philadelphia.
In those days sea irland cotton was stage
ice cream, just as molasses and water was
make believe wine—sherry or port, accord-
ing to the proportion of molasses.
Armand and Camille were at table, where
they had heen discussing such viands
as these, and their dialogne was making
the finest sort of an impression on the
crowded house. Enter a maid servant
with candelabra of the wabbliest sort im.
aginable. The scene was so engrossing
that the maid was hardly voticed hy the
audience, hut when she had set down the
candelabra between the unfortunate Cam-
illeand her lover and one candle toppled
over and aet the ice oream in a blaze the
nervous sbrain upon the house was broken,
and the entire andience burst into a roar
of laughter that brought down the curtain.
— Harpers Weekly.
Good Games to Play.
Pleasant Amusements for Boys and Girls During
the Xmas Tide.
Here is a jolly game.
Pass around to each of the players a
sheet of paper with these sentences written
on it.
Tell the players to find a river hidden
in each sentence, and not only to write
down the name of the river, but to state
some one thing that he knows about thas
river.
It will keep the players busy and happy
for some time, you may be sare. This
game was got up oy Miss Virginia Baker
in the Normal Instructor.
1. Yes, Adam, a zone is a belt passing
around the earth.
2. Miss Elsie Davol gave a party.
3. That lawless gang escaped from
prison.
4. Ob, Engene, see my new book !
5. Will you rally round the flag ?
6. Industry brings its own reward.
7. ‘Hullo!’ he shouted. ‘‘ Hullo!” I
replied.
8. We must sever now our friendship.
9. Whatever happens, don’t forget to be
polite.
10. Ned drew a plat and a chart.
11. Hurry, or we shall miss our ride.
12. The cucumber landed on the ground. |
13. Baby is taking a little nap.
14. Oh, I overlooked that picture.
15. Bees gather honey from the flowers.
ANSWERS.
1. Amazon; crosses northern part of
South America.
2. Volga; eastern part of Russia.
3. Ganges; northeastern part of British
India.
4. Genesee; crosses western part of New
York.
5. Ural; separates Europe and Asia.
6. Indus; western part of British India.
7. Loire; central part of France.
8. Severn; central part of Canada.
9. Po: northern part of Italy.
10. Plata; eastern part of South Amer-
ica.
11. Missouri; crosses northwestern and
central parts of United States.
12. Cumberland; crosses Kentucky and
Tennessee.
13. Lena; northern part of Siberia.
i4. Ohio; eastern part United States.
15. Rhone: eastern part of France.
TREE GAME—GOOD FUN.
You boys and girls can have lots of fun
some evening playing the following game
from the Normal Instructor.
Thegrown folks in your family will
enjoy it just a= much as you will. Some
of the questions are not very easy to
answer, either,
1. What is the moss level tree ? Plane.
2. Which is the brightest colored tree?
Redwood. :
3. Which tree suggests thoughts of the
ocean ? Beech.
4. What tree would we prefer on a very
cold day ? Fir.
5. What tree contains a domestic ani-
mal ? Mahogany.
6. What tree might very properly wear
a glove ? Palm.
- 7. What tree is a pronoun ? Yew.
8. Which is the most melancholy tree ?
Blue gum.
9. Which tree is a tale teller 2 Peach.
10. Which tree is an insect ? Locust.
11. Which is the dandy among trees ?
Spruce.
12. Which tree is an invalid * Pine.
13. What tree never is barefooted ?
Sandal-wood.. ¥
14. Which tree can hest remember nom-
bers? Date. /
15. Which tree has passed through fire?
Ash. t
16. Which is the most ancient tree?
Elder.
Two Arctic Babies.
On the 4th of July, 1899, in a broad
level valley in the heart of Ellesmere
Land, I came upon a herd of five musk
oxen. When they saw us they ran to-
gether and stood back to back in star form,
with heads outward. This is their usual
method of defense against walrus, their
only enemies in this land. After they
were shot I discovered two tiny calves,
which till then had been hidden under
their mother’s long hair.
Such funny little coal-black creatures
they were, with a gray patch on their fore-
heads, great, soft black eyes, enormously
large, bony knock-kneed lege and no tails
at all.
With the falling of the last musk ox
my dogs made a rush for the little animals
which, though wide-eyed and trembling
with fear,showed a bold front to the savage
unknown creatures which surrounded
them. Fortunately I was too quick for
the dogs aud rescued the little fellows.
~ Then I hardly knew what to do. I had
not the heart to kill them myself nor tell
my Eskimos to. Finally I thought I would
try and get them to the ship, fifty miles
away, though I did pot know how I was
to do this over the miles of mountains and
rough ice.
+ After the dogs were fastened the little
fellows stood gaietly hy she bodies of their
mothers till all the animals were skinned
and cunt up; but when we were ready to
start for camp, and put a line about their
necks to lead them away, they struggled
0 violently at the touch of the rope that I
kuew they wonld soon strangle themselves
fo death, and had the ropes taken off. Then
we tried to drive them, but could not.
Then I remembered by experience years
before at far-off Independence Bay, and
told Ahngmalokkok to throw one of the
musk ox skins over his back and walk off.
With a baa-a-a the little fellows were at
his heels in an instant, and with noses
buried in the long hair trailing behind him
followed contentedly, while the rest of us
kept off the dogs.
In this way everything went nicely, and
we scrambled along over the rocks, waded
across two or three streams and walked
through an exgnisitely soft, green little
patch of meadow, out by a gurgling crystal
brook, until we reached the ice-hoat where
the sledge had been left—Robert E. Peary’s,
in the December St. Nicholas. ;
Had Them All,
A well known writer of humorous prose
and verse was talking witha bibliomaniac
when the latter said: ‘By the way, I am
collecting first editions of American au-
thors. I want to add your first book to
my collection. Have you any copies of
the first edition?’’
“Yes,” answered the author.
of them,’
“I have all
— “Yes,” said Stormington Barnes, ‘‘we i
At a one-night
did well in the Weat.
stand in Arizona we played to a $10,000
house.”’
‘‘Say, what are you giving me?” queried
Walker Ties. ’
“Facts,” answered the footsore trage-
dian. ‘‘The one man who comprised she
audience was said to be worth fully that
amount.’'—Kenuebec (Me. ) Journal.
End of the Fair.
Great Exposition at 8t. Louis Closed,
With ideal winter weather prevailing,
with the gates thrown open to children
and to those who were worthy bat had
been unable to attend from pecuniary
reasons, with crowds pouring through the
turnstiles from the opening of the gates
antil far into the day, the Louisiana Par-
chase Exposition held forth its last day last
Friday.
President David R. Francis was the
guest of honor and ceremonies were con-
ducted commemorating the services he had
rendered in making the Exposition a suc-
cess, and at the same time bidding fare-
well to the world’s fair, the magnificence
and greatness of which have been heralded
and acknowledged throughout the entire
world.
It is estimated that the attendance was
in the neighborhood of a record-breaker.
An official announcement Sunday night
showed that 18,317,475 paid admissions
have been recorded since the Ex-
position opened on April 30th.
The banner month’s attendance was in
September, when the total attendance was
3,651,873. The highest single day’s at-
tendance wason September 15th, when
“St. Louis Day’’ was observed.
That every citizen of St. Louis might
participate in the last day of the Exposi-
tion and help observe Francis Day, it was
proclaimed a holiday by Mayor Wells.
Gov. Dockery likewise bad proclaimed
throughout the State that the day was es-
pecially set apart for paying final homage
tec the Exposition, and the crowds that
poured into the city on the early trains at-
tested to the fact that the proclamation
was widely observed. A large number of
business houses ceased operations and the
public schools were closed. Additional
forces of officers and guards were stationed
over the Exposition grounds to preserve
order in handling the crowds, but every
visitor was bent on having a last good
timeand there was little need of guards,
except for giving directions and looking
after the comfort of the visitors generally.
Promptly as midnight the electric illumi-
nation that has amazed millions of visitors
was turned off and the World’s Fair was
formally ended.
Inanguration of President Diaz.
The inavguration of Gen. Porfirio Diaz,
ag President of the Republic of Mexico for
the seventh time, and of Senor Don Ramon
Corral as First Vice President, took place
Thursday in the Hall of the Chamber of
Deputies under most auspicious circum-
stances, Atsunrise all the artillery sta-
tioned in the Federal district and also the
infantry here and at barracks throughout
the Republic fired a presidential salute and
flags were hoisted over all public build-
ings.
The principal streets and edifices and
residences were decorated profusely with
arches and National flags freely inter-
spersed with flags of foreign nations. One
of the features of the street decorations
was two allegorical arches over the Paso
de la Reforma, the principal street of the
capital, representing ‘‘Peace’’ and “Glory.”
These arches were greatly admired on ac-
count of their artistic construction.
There was a huge procession, at the head
of which rode many members of the local
police force. The pageant was made up of
thoasands of Federal troops, the reserves,
bands, societies, political organizations,
and many prominent political personages,
including the Governors of the States com-
prised in the union. The procession pro-
ceeded to the Hall of Congress, where,amid
great enthusiasm, the President and Vice-
President were formally notified of their
election and took the oath of allegiance.
After an exchange of felicitation between
the President and Governors, the foreign
diplomatic representatives and prominent
citizens who had received invitations, the
assemblage went to a reviewing stand,
where they witnessed the passing of the
procession en route to the Castle of Cha-
pultepec, where it was dishanded.
“The Christmas Presence.”
I couldn’t seem to contemplate a con-
tinuous Christmas of peace, now-a-days,
when suddenly I seemed to see the words
befo’ me,” differently spelled. Instid of
‘‘e-n-t-8’" I saw *‘e-n-c-e,”’ an’ righs befo’
my speritual vision I saw, like sky-writin,’
‘‘The Christmas Presence’'—thess so.
Maybe it won’s strike you, but it wasa
great thought to me, doctor, an’ *‘Christ-
mas all the year’”” had a uew sound to my
ears. :
Think of that, doctor—of livin’ along in
the azarine blue, beholdin’ the face of the
Little One of the manager by the near light
of the Bethlehem star! Or maybe seein’
the Beloved leanin’ on a pillar of clouds,
illuminin’ our listenin’ faces with the
gleam of his countenance whilst he'd may-
be repeat the Sermon on the Mount from
the book of his eternal memory. Think
of what an author’s readin’ that would be
—an’ what an andience !
An’ it 's this Christmas Presence that
inspires all our lovin’ thoughts here be-
low, whether we discern it or not.
An’ what we’ll get on the other side 'll
be realization—a clair vision with all the
mists of doubt dissolved.
This is the thought that come to me yes-
terday, doctor, out o’ the cyclone of play-
ful good will that got me so rattled. An’
it ’s come to stay.
An’ with it, bow sweet it will be to seb
an’ wait, with a smile to welcome the en-
durin’ Christmas. thas ’ll last “‘all the
year” an’ forever —Ruth McEnery Stuart's,
in the December Century.
Wealth in Tiny Particles of Gold.
“The United States government assayed
the ald mintat Denver recently,” said R.
W. Burchard, of that city, ‘and got $30,-
000 in the clean-up. That sounds like a
peculiar statement, but it is the truth.
The new coinage mint, which has heen in
course of construction there for about seven
years, was completed recently, and the
government moved from the old mint,
which bad been ocoupied for about thirty
years.
‘When they got ready to clean out the
old place every particle of dust and ‘dirt
was carefully saved. This was then run
through the assay furnace, and it was
found that the tiny particles of gold which
had accumulated about the building in all
those years had aniounted to the snug sum
I nave mentioned. The particles had heen
carried through the air during the refining
processes, and were fo minute that they
bad not affected the weight of the metal
assayed to any appreciable extent. But
the total acoumnlation was extremely large.
It was all velvet for Uncle 8am, and more
than paid the expenses of moving to the
new mins. *’
——-Jars and hottles that smell of onions
will be quite aweet and odorless it left ont
of doors filled with sand or garden mold.
——Sunbscribe for the WATCHMAN.