COUNTING THEIR CHICKENS. BY M. LOUISE TANNER. "GOOD-BYE!" shouted John Travis, as the boat containing his friends obeyed the first stroke of the oars, and shot off from the sloping white sand. "Good-bye!" replied a chorus of boy voices, "and many happy returns of the day!” "We 've had a delightful time," called out Ned Grover, the oarsman. "Wish you had another birthday to-morrow. Three cheers for Travis!" How the welkin rang! And the surrounding woods took up the loud cheers and reëchoed them to the startled night-birds perched high up among the tall pines. Then the little group on the shore, consisting of John Travis and his two brothers and sister, sent back a shout of acknowledgment to the little boat, now far out toward the middle of the lovely lake, glinting under the rays of the full moon. A yellow glare from the fire of lightwood knots and oak "grubs," which was burning at a distance, and which had contributed to the fun of the birthday celebration, made the moonlight look green in contrast, and produced some curious effects of light and shade. Prue, the sister, was the first to notice the weird beauty which the newly risen moon had brought out from the shadows. "It's just like a scene in a fairy story, is n't it?" she said. "Look under those great live-oaks, where the moss is hanging so low. It looks like a mysterious cave-the home of some terrible giant "And here he comes now to carry off the beautiful princess," muttered a low, deep voice at her elbow; and Prue found herself seized and borne away, but only to a rustic seat under a graceful china-tree. "Oh, John! how you frightened me! What did you do that for?" remonstrated the little princess, in a tone half-pettish, half-laughing. "Oh, just for fun," he replied. "Don't be a goosey. It is n't nine o'clock yet, and Mother says we may stay up awhile longer, if we wish, as it my birthday. I ran up to ask her while you were mooning. What shall we do?" 'Let's tell stories," said Harry. "Yes," said Prue. You tell it, John a fairy story." tell us the interruption; "and they lived in a large city, where they all went to school every day. But their father was taken ill, and the doctors said that he must go to a warm climate, away from chilling winds. So the family left the northern city, where they had always lived, and went to a beautiful wild place in Florida, where the sun shone warm all winter, and you could pick roses out-ofdoors at Christmas — and oranges, too, if you had any trees." Why, that's just like ourselves," said Prue. "It's almost two years now since we came, is n't it? But I thought this was to be a fairy story." "Children should be seen and not heard,' Sissy," said Harry, sententiously. "Proceed, Mr. Speaker; I'll keep order in the galleries." "Well," continued John. good-naturedly, "the three boys and their sister enjoyed the change very much, at first; especially the one next to the eldest, who, I am sorry to say, was a little lazy, and not particularly fond of study." "That's you, Mr. Harry," piped out Freddie. "Interruptions are out of order, small boy," rejoined Harry, with much dignity. “They lived near a lake,” went on the patient story-teller, "and they used to set lines for softshelled turtles, which are very choice eating." "Yum, yum!" whispered Harry, in an aside. "And they used to go fishing and catch quantities of bass. And one of the boys learned to use a gun, and he used to shoot rabbits and quail and doves and reed-birds, and sometimes a wild turkey. Well, all this was great sport, and yet And yet he was not happy," ejaculated the irrepressible Harry. "No," responded John, severely. "He was quite unlike his younger brother, who would have been satisfied to do nothing but fish and hunt all his life, I am afraid, if the other had not battled with him continually to make him study, and keep up with other boys of his age. But one day, when the elder brother was moping by himself, and wondering rather sorrowfully if he should ever be able to do as he wished, which was, first of all, to go away to college,- a fairy presented herself "Well, let me see," said John, musingly. Then, before him, and pointing to a large orange which in a somewhat serious tone, he began: "Once there were three brothers ———" "Did they come over in the Mayflower'?" asked Harry, with a mischievous smile. had been given him, and which he held in his hand, she told him to plant the seeds, and wait to see what would come." "That was Mamma, I know," said Prue. "She "And one sister," continued John, unheeding told us to plant the seeds of all the fruit we ate. Mrs. Selden gave me a pomegranate on my birthday, and I planted the seeds, and now I have over twenty little plants. The chickens got in and scratched up the rest. In three years, I shall have pomegranates of my own." "Yes, and I have twenty-seven almond trees, nearly a foot high," chimed in Freddie, rousing himself from a momentary drowse. "But when you want lemons, gentlemen, just step over to my grove," said Harry, grandly. "Lemons! h'm! I should. think so. Did n't Mamma give me all the seeds from the lemons she used in her citron preserves last summer? Why, I have over a hundred little trees already. I saw a large tree the other day with two thousand lemons on it just beginning to turn yellow. Two thousand times one hundred two hundred thousand. Two hundred thousand lemons! Take one." "Very good," said John, loftily; "and I have a thousand young orange trees, half of them nearly two years old. Next spring, Father says, they can be grafted with buds from bearing trees of the best varieties and then set out from the nursery, and my orange grove is fairly started. In three years from that time they will begin to bear a little fruit, and then keep on bearing more and more for years and years. Let me see: in five years, I shall be twenty years old. That is too old to begin my college education. But then there are my fifty-four peach trees, and my forty-nine plum trees that Father grafted last spring with choice varieties. They will bear fruit in two years, any way. Just think what lots of fruit we shall have in a few years! and all for planting a few little seeds now and then, as we got the fruit to eat." she did not speak for a minute. A light cloud drifted across its face, and the children sat in shadow; but a delicate rim of light appeared in another instant, and soon the whole fair moon' shone forth again. And Prue wove in her thread of the story as follows: "The boy obeyed the fairy and planted the orange seeds. They came up in six weeks, and the boy was so rejoiced when he saw them that he could talk of nothing else to his brothers and sister. Then they planted the seeds of other fruit, and the different kinds of fruit trees all grew and grew and grew, till by and by the whole hill was covered with trees, and acres and acres beside. The eldest brother, who wanted to go to college, had an orange grove of two thousand trees, and every tree bore three or four thousand oranges; his next younger brother had a grove of a thousand lemon trees, and they bore a hundred thousand lemons, so he had all the lemonade he wanted the rest of his life; and the little brother had an almond grove that bore bushels and bushels of almonds. The sister had pomegranates and many other kinds of fruit, and she sold a lot of it every year, and went to Europe and learned to make beautiful pictures. And the mother had lots of chickens that laid so many eggs you could n't count them, and she had custard-pie for dinner every day. And the father had sheep and cows and horses and everything he wanted, so he never was sick any more. "By and by, the sister came home from Europe, and one day she received a letter from her big brother, who had just graduated at college, and was coming home the very next day. So she put flowers all over the house, and then she went to meet him in a beautiful carriage, drawn by lovely black ponies, and "Come, children, it is ten o'clock!" called out the mother. "Time for bed. What are you doing down there?" "Counting our chickens before they are hatched," said Harry. And they left the still lake shining under the moon, and went up the long hill to the little loghouse at the top. day, his mam-ma was talk-ing in the tel-e-phone. Fred want-ed to talk, too, but his mam-ma said, "No, Fred-dy, not now. Run a-way." What do you sup-pose Fred did then? He did not cry, but he ran off to the nurs-er-y. His mam-ma did not know what he was go-ing to do. Pret-ty soon he came tod-dling back. He had in his hand his cup and ball. will see them in the pict-ure. You What do you think he was go-ing to do with them? Catch the ball in the cup? No. He walked straight up to the wall un-der the tel-e-phone, and put the cup up to his ear. Then he looked up to Mam-ma with a fun-ny lit-tle smile, and shout-ed "Hel-lo!" SO BRIGHT Little School-ma'ams and great big school-masters all over the land have turned you out-of-doors-have they? And they 'll not let you in again until the middle of September? Well, that is too bad! Poor dears! You have my deepest sympathy. OH, DEAR ME! WHO knows the meaning of this very common exclamation? Girls use it more often than boys; and yet, I once heard even Deacon Green say it. That was one day when he was stung by a bumble-bee. After the good man had finished the little dance that he performed in honor of the occasion, and the dear Little School-ma'am had soothed the angry wound with a poultice of wet clay, she said, "Oh, dear me!" too, but that was because she saw suddenly a beautiful bird flying past. Now, why should the Deacon dear him at the sting of the bumble-bee, and the Little Schoolma'am dear her at the sight of the bird? I'll tell you, my hearers, and when I get through, you'll agree with me that the Deacon used the expression more appropriately than the Little School-ma'am: My friend the owl, who lived a whole winter in a library, says that "Oh, dear me !" is a corruption of the Spanish Ay de mé, meaning woe is me, or words to that effect and I am sure the owl is right, because the Little School-ma'am thinks he is. HOW FAR THAT LITTLE THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND CANDLE THROWS ITS BEAMS! DEAR, dear! what will my birds tell me next! According to their account, there's a wonderful pole now standing in Minneapolis (which the Little School-ma'am says is in Minnesota) that rears itself higher than the tallest trees. Folk call it an electric mast, but it's not a lightning-rod; no, indeed; it's a sort of electric chandelier, as near as I can make it out. It holds up eight electric lights (ST. NICHOLAS has told you about electric lights, I believe *), and these eight lights shine out so modestly, that, for almost a full mile from it in every direction, those natives who happen to have watches can tell the time of night without the aid of any other light. Minneapolis is a large city, and it takes a good deal to light it; but I am told that some of the smaller Western towns require but one of these electric masts apiece to make them bright as need be. It's a new-fangled thing, this electrical illuminating business, and yet there's something pleasantly old-fashioned about it, too, when we think of one of those Western towns, with the corporation, like a good old mother, standing there holding out her one great candle to light the whole town to bed. FISHING BY LIGHTNING. TALKING of electric light, do you know that even the fishermen are using it now? Yes, so my sea-birds tell me. And the scientific folk who study the wonders of the deep also are employing it. They have a new invention called the "searchlight," which is three electric lights sealed in a tight glass case, and this case inclosed in a very, very strong glass globe. Now, the plan is to sink the globe into the deep sea and illuminate the lower waters with it; of course, this will attract the fish,-deep-water fish, that are not known on the surface, and these, by means of a net attached caught and drawn up, and in the broad light of in some way to the search-light, may then be day be introduced, like so many distinguished strangers, to the naturalists. Well, well, what next? BLACK SNAKES AMONG THE FISH. DEAR JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT: Did you know that black snakes will catch and eat fish, if they have an opportunity? It is the truth. One day this last summer, another boy and I saw two black snakes chase three little fish in a shallow pool, and form themselves into a sort of "hollow square," until they closed in upon the little swimmers. We should have defended the fish, I suppose, by driving the snakes away, but we did not do so. Yours respectfully, JOHN C. MCK. EVANSVILLE, IND. FLOATING SAND. DEACON GREEN went to an academy the other evening, and heard a wise man "read a paper ". at least, that 's what it was called; but the Deacon says the gentleman only stood up and talked in a pleasant sort of way about the bottom of the deep ocean. But one thing in his remarks surprised the Deacon very much. And it was about floating sand. The Professor said that out in the deep sea, away beyond the Gulf-stream, if you drag a net or cloth in the water you will find many grains of sand sticking to it; also, that when a dredge is sunk to the bottom (or one of those plummets that *See ST. NICHOLAS for May, 1882, page 566.-ED. |