Cooling of the Earth

1914

The application of Stefan's law to the calculation of the mean temperature of the earth, at a given latitude, shows that at the latitude of 80 degrees, the temperature was in the neighborhood of 90 degrees Cent., when the sun's radius was about one and a half times its present dimensions, i.e., about two million years ago. Thus it would appear that life commenced on the earth in the vicinity of the poles. The same reasoning leads us to the conclusion that in less than two million years, when the sun's radius will be reduced by one-tenth of its present value, the temperature on the earth will have fallen below 0 degree, even at the equator. — Scientific American.

Snake Demands Its Eggs Fresh

1914

Species of South African Snake With a Dainty Appetite and Keen Sense of Smell

The South African snake called the eggeater has inherited from long generations of ancestors a sense of smell so acute that it appears never to be at fault. Professor Fitzsimons, director of the Port Elizabeth museum, gives in his book on "The Snakes of South Africa" an interesting instance of the wisdom of these serpents.

"Being short of fresh pigeons' eggs once, I went to my cabinet and took the clean-blown shells of a few doves' eggs. Beating up the contents of a fowl's fresh egg, I syringed them into the empty shells, and carefully pasted tiny bits of tissue paper over the holes. I put these in the eggeaters' cage, and watched, for I expected the snakes to swallow them as they did the other eggs. First one eggeater advanced. He touched each egg gently in turn with the tip of his nose or the point of his forked tongue, and crawled away in disgust. Another and yet another eagerly advanced, repeated the performance, and straightway retired. I began to get interested. Leaving the eggs, I returned in a few hours' time to find them still there.

"For two whole weeks those eggs remained in the cage untouched, although I refrained from giving the snakes any others. Then I procured some fresh pigeons' eggs and put them into the cage. The snakes approached, touched them with their noses or tongues, and instantly began to swallow them. I tried this experiment a second time with the same result. Frequently I have noticed that the snakes would eat some of the eggs that I gave them, and reject others. On breaking the latter open, I always found that they were either addled or else had a partially developed young bird inside. I could never induce an eggeater to swallow an egg that was not perfectly fresh.

"The eggeater is an expert climber, and his sense of smell is so sharp that he can discover birds' nests with the greatest facility. If you place an empty bird's nest in the cage of an eggeater, he will take no notice of it, except to use it occasionally for a cozy bed. But if you put fresh eggs in it, he at once detects their presence, although they are hidden from his sight." — Youth's Companion.

Light That is Lost in Space

1914

If one divides the known nebulae in groups according to the dimensions of their apparent diameters and one also notes their intrinsic brightness, it is clear that their apparent diameters should decrease as the distance increases. Their brightness, on the other hand, will diminish with increasing distance only if interstellar space absorbs light.

As the result of a great number of observations a correlation between brightness and apparent diameter has been observed, and is so marked that it is impossible to put it down to chance or to some systematic error. It appears that there is a real absorption in space, and if more precise descriptions of the nebulae were available the law of absorption could be assigned.


Almost Hopeless Case

Mrs. Flimmins is worried about her new husband. She fears he will never become elegant and refined, because be cannot learn to put on a monocle without twisting his mouth up to one side.

Glossomancy New Science

1914

Reads Character by the Shape of the Tongue

PARIS, Aug. 1. — Glossomancy, or reading the character by the shape of the tongue, is a new science which has just come before the public and is creating quite a furor.

The glossomancers, or glossomancists, assert that a long tongue shows frankness; a short tongue, dissimilation; a broad tongue, unreservedness; a narrow tongue concentration.

When the tongue is long and broad the owner is inclined to be gossipy. When the tongue is long and narrow, he is moderately open and frank.

Those who possess short and broad tongues are untruthful; those whose tongues are short and narrow are sly as well as bad-tempered.

Eagle is Not a Kidnapper

1914

Infant Found, Protected by Dog; Birds are Acquitted of Stealing Baby

Belvidere, New Jersey — Eagles making their homes in the cliffs of Jenny Jump mountain have been exonerated of blame for the theft of two-year-old Michael Dunal, who was missing for 24 hours. The child was found in the woods half a mile from his home. He was unconscious, and his hands and feet were partly frozen.

Young Michael's parents were working in the field and left him on the porch of their farmhouse. When they got home at noon the child and the family Newfoundland dog were gone. Searchers hunted all night, some of them even visiting the eyries of eagles on the mountain, suspecting that one of the birds might have stolen the baby.

A party from Danville came on the child. The Newfoundland dog was standing by and would let no one approach. Mr. and Mrs. Dunal had to be called before the dog would give up its threatening defense of the baby. It is believed the child will recover.

Comment: The Dunals might have a problem today with leaving a two-year-old on the porch and going away to work in the field until noon.


Marriage of Daughter Declared Legal

Denver — The marriage of eleven-year-old Martha Elizabeth Wilkins to Harvey M. Pugh, a boy of fourteen, was declared legal by Judge H. P. Burke. Annulment proceedings had been brought by the boy's father.

Not Their Time To Drown

1914

Men Swept From Deck of Vessel Thrown Back by Remarkable Action of Waves

Swept overboard by one giant wave, four seamen on the British steamship Ribston seemed to be lost, when another big billow took them on its crest and flung them back aboard the ship. Their mishap occurred while the vessel was on her way from Philadelphia to Cuba, and the story was told upon the Ribston's arrival in Havana.

The men were working near the forward hatch during a wild storm off Cape Hatteras. When the wave flung them into the sea their companions gave them up, because no boat could survive in such waters. To the great surprise of the other sailors, however, they soon saw the four men, drenched to the skin, making their way forward from the after part of the ship. The wave had carried them the full length of the craft and had flung them aboard again near the stern.

The voyage of the Ribston was full of harrowing experiences. The same storm which swept the men overboard carried away several hatches and deluged part of the hold. The ship's entire supply of food was either carried away or ruined. For more than a week the men were forced to live on salty hardtack and they were half starved when they reached Havana.

Several times during the voyage the engines broke down. The trip ordinarily completed in a week took two weeks. The vessel began to have trouble while she was still in Delaware Bay, being forced to anchor several times on account of ice clogging the propeller, and the difficulties continued until she ran into Havana harbor.

Man's Mental Power House

1914

On Proper and Wise Use of Brain Depends Individual's Value to the World

The brain is our mental power house; its electric product is thought, and our sanity is determined by the mental voltage we carry.

So long as we are live wires, so long as we transmit power, radiate love, give out sympathetic warmth, think individually and act collectively, we establish our right to live.

The lazy man, as has been frequently observed, us not only as useless as a dead man (and takes up more room), but he is a clogging drag upon the wheels of progress.

The man or woman blessed with imagination or anticipation possesses a sort of prophetic vision, a kind of instinct, so that they look upon life with prescience, strength of character and courage. This possession is not a gift of chance, but a cultivation that comes with useful activities.

Inspiration is the indicator of well-being in our mental power house — it is a by-product of labor, for without labor it merely becomes a mental dribble, a wasting (without renewing) of mental vitality. Inspiration is therefore the result of laboring, and when properly applied it is followed by achievements of great worth. Allied to labor, it expands its force. Unallied, it is soon exhausted.

Ragtime Music Good for Children

1914

Expert at Music Conference Defends Popular Songs — Says They Are Beneficial

Minneapolis, Minn. — Ragtime music and the singing of popular songs of the day does not injure the musical mind of the public school child, but rather encourages individual musical ability, says Ralph L. Baldwin, musical supervisor of the public schools at Hartford, Conn., who is in Minneapolis attending the seventh annual meeting of the National Conference of Music Supervisors.

"I have learned," said Mr. Baldwin, "that ragtime music or the singing of popular songs does not injure the child musically; that is, if not carried to an extreme. Ragtime music is nothing more nor less than a foot tickler for all of us, and it is a good change to fall back upon after pursuing music for some time. You know we have to have a change in music once in a while, just as we have to have a vacation or rest from our work, and this lighter vein of music is what brings about that change. It would not be good enough, though, for the public school pupil to just follow the popular songs of the day and do nothing else, for it leads to nothing."

They're Not Dead, But Living

1914

On Memorial Day

There is no death. There are no dead. In every town in America they are garlanding graves; lilacs from the tree beside mother's door, peonies from a great red mound which has been the pride of the place for years, snowballs and syringa from shrubs which father planted when the place was new.

But beneath the friendly grasses under the low mound marked with some dear name, there lies not one dead hero. Here is laid the dust fallen from his garments, here perchance may still be found a keepsake not yet indistinguishable. For all the years that we have mourned this brave spirit, he has lived only a little way apart in a planet to us invisible, alert, progressing, rejoicing in a plan universal, and at peace and in harmony with the law of love eternal. — Exchange.


Remember Lincoln's Message

That man honors the memory of the dead on Memorial day who, in Lincoln's words, dedicates himself "to the unfinished work" which must be done before this nation shall be worthy of its opportunities, and of the devotion of those who gladly died for it.

Woman May Fly Ocean

1914

Miss Ruth Bancroft Law and her brother, F. Rodman Law, are to try a flight across the Atlantic in a biplane. They expect to make the trip in July.

"The flight will be from Newfoundland to the Irish coast," said Miss Law today, "and I shall take my brother. I do not think there is the slightest doubt that we can do it. We shall carry no pontoons or boats, but under the wings of our machine we will have three floats of hollow tin, so in case of a fall the apparatus will float.

"Boats would be too heavy to carry, and in case we fell they would be of no use in the ocean. Then, again, by not carrying them we get away from just so much weight. We shall have to carry from 90 to 100 gallons of gasoline, and this will be enough for about 30 hours flying. We expect to make 100 miles an hour on our way across. Lord Northcliffe has offered a prize for the successful flight across the Atlantic, and we are after it."

Now Futurist Face Powder

1914

Mauve, Yellow and Green Tints Made by Fashion's Leaders From Pearl Dust

The post-impressionist artists, painting, as they do, mauve, yellow, green, and brown flesh tints, have given a new idea to manufacturers of cosmetics. The fashionable woman may now tint her complexion in any tone as easily as she may assume a toilette in that color. One manufacturer is showing face powders in shades called violet yellow, emerald, old rose and ashen rose.

These new tints are recommended only for evening wear, as it is generally admitted that they would be too grotesque for daylight. The amazing thing, however, is that they really look well on the skin, and when applied give only the faintest suggestion of shadowy color. Thus, when the mauve powder is used, the shadows have a sort of purple bloom, which is rather becoming and lends softness to the face, accentuating in small degree the expression of the eyebrows and eyelashes, and also intensifying the color of the eyes. The purple tint is usually recommended for brunettes with blue or gray eyes.

Yellow powder is flattering to blondes, who need to intensify the yellow in their skins to correspond with the shadows cast from golden hair. This intensifies the type and makes it much warmer looking, therefore much more harmonious than if the face were tinted with either white or so-called flesh-colored powder.

The most difficult of all the new shades to conceive as having a place among beauty applications is the green powder. But through demonstration it is proved that certain types of coloring look well with the green tint, notably ashen blondes who have the reflection of green lights from the hair. This is also recommended for types too florid, whether blonde or brunette. It is said to give a cool, clean look to such skins.

The rose color is not at all the old fashioned flesh pink, but a sort of salmon tinted old rose. This is a color which would be well suited to a neutral brunette, as it would warm the type, giving body and a look of strength to the skin and a consequent health-like flush.

It is an interesting fact that these new cosmetics are made from powder of real pearls, a discovery of somewhat recent date, though for some time in quite current use in Paris.

All Fear The Mantis

1914

Remarkable Attitude of Prayer While In Wait for Prey

Most persons know the praying mantis — that large, greenish, grasshopper-like insect which holds up adoring arms as if venerating some deity of the woods, or making an invocation — an oracle among insects, as the old Greeks thought it. But these attitudes of prayer conceal the most atrocious habits; these supplicating arms, to fall into Fabre's picturesque phrasing, are lethal weapons; these fingers tell no rosaries, but exist to seize the passer-by.

Although a member of a vegetarian family, the mantis feeds exclusively upon its living prey. It is a tiger in ambush; and if only it had sufficient strength its ogrish appetite and its horrible facility of concealment by color and form among the green leaves where peaceful insects travel would make it the terror of the countryside.

At first glance it does not look very terrible. Its neck is flexible and it can turn its head and look with sharp eyes all directions, but no formidable jaws affright a victim. In its powerful uplifted forelimbs lies the hidden, danger, the cruel trap. Each long thigh, shaped like a flattened spindle, carries on the forward half of its lower face a double row of steely spines, alternately long and short; and three needlelike spikes, longest of all, rise behind the parallel rows, between which the fore leg lies when folded in "prayer." This fore part of the leg is similarly armed, but with smaller spikes, and terminates in a hook with a blade like a pruning knife and a tip as sharp as a needle. Handle the insect incautiously, and this armament discovers itself to you instantly, thrusting its needles and blades into your flesh gripping you in a stinging vise and forcing you to crush it to get free.

When the mantis is in repose these weapons are folded and pressed against the chest, showing nothing of their ferocity. The bandit's sword is sheathed and it seems at its devotions. But let a victim come within reach and the ruse — if ruse it be — is abandoned like a flash. The three long joints of the deadly forelimbs straighten and shoot out their talons, which strike the victim like the unsheathed claws of a cat and drag it back between the saws of the thighs. The vise closes with an upward motion, as a man would bring his hand up to his shoulder, and no cricket, grasshopper, beetle or spider can struggle out of the crook of that terrible elbow. — Harper's Weekly.

Time-Telling Inventions

1914

It seems that the invention of clocks and watches was not the fruit of a single discovery, but was really a slow growth, side by side with many other advances in civilization, and of course the earliest clocks and instruments were sun dials.

The invention of the sun dial is generally attributed to a Grecian astronomer who died about 547 B. C.

The dial was followed by the hourglass, and this by the water clock, which marked time by the escape of water through an orifice. These were introduced into Rome about 158 B. C., but are believed to have been in use in Chaldea and Egypt for a hundred years previous to that date.


Ants Build Skyscrapers

West African anthills are veritable giants, frequently standing 40 feet high, says the Wide World.

These anthills are shaped something like a sugar loaf and are divided into hundreds of tiny rooms. They have, needless to say, myriads of inhabitants and these are all busily occupied in various ways, forming tunnels, making roads, gathering food and watching over the eggs and youngsters.

The natives are afraid to touch these hills, except from a distance, with firearms. The ants often make their strongholds around trees, and they are built very solidly, with sides sometimes 20 inches thick.

The inside is hollow, and at the top there is a sort of attic. The "royal cell," where the queen ant lives, is always found on the ground floor. This good lady is a prisoner, but is carefully fed by her busy subjects, the eggs she lays being immediately carried away and deposited in "rooms" set apart for the purpose.

Freezing an Easy Death

1914

Freezing to death, writes a medical authority, is preceded by a drowsiness which makes the end painless — the body actually feels warm and goes comfortably to sleep. Experiments have been made with animals to show just how freezing to death proceeds.

In one of these experiments, in which the animal was placed in a temperature of 125 to 150 degrees below zero, the breathing and heart beats at first were quickened, the organic heat of the body actually rising above normal.

This rising showed a sudden and an intense effort on the part of functions to preserve the body's temperature. Then the violent heart action gave out suddenly and death came when the temperature of the body dropped to 71 degrees.


In a "Higher" Grade

That juvenile human nature remains pretty much the same always would seem freshly indicated by the quaint incident related in a famous author's recent reminiscences of his childhood. The said author had an older brother whom he admired hugely, and whose society he desired to enjoy as much as might be. There came a time, however, when the older boy revolted against the too frequent companionship of the younger, and thus gravely explained the grounds of his superiority:

"I play with boys who curse and swear."

Wise Compromise in Slang

1914

"Good slang is permissible among school children," according to Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Precisely the same thing is true of college boys, of college girls and of the rest of us.

Slang is inevitable. To thunder against it, to ignore it, to burlesque it is equally idle. Since we cannot end it — and really, we should not and would not if we could — the part of wisdom is endeavor to mend it. Let educators direct their satire and condemnation against vulgar, vicious, idiotic slang — of which there is abundance — and they will accomplish something. The slang that is racy, spontaneous, humorous, expressive deserves kindly toleration if not encouragement. Some of it establishes itself and becomes classical English.

As to the question what good slang is, it is manifestly foolish. There is no fixed test, but persons of taste and cultivation have no difficulty in differentiating between legitimate slang and grotesque, silly and offensive slang.

Comment: So, slang is manifestly foolish, yet it deserves kindly toleration if not encouragement, because some of it will establish itself and become classical English (like that's any kind of goal.) "We would not [end it] if we could." Somehow I don't believe you, anonymous writer of long ago.

No More Last Forty Winks

1914

Fiend Has Invented an Alarm Clock That Simply Insists on One's Rising in the Morning

It has often seemed, after the announcement of an invention to which the attention of the entire civilized world has been called, that the human mind could scarcely invent anything more and fashion it in material form, but the countless dreams of inventors continue to be realized in astounding numbers.

Every week, every month, the trade journals advertise and comment upon new things in the lines which they represent and publish new ideas which this material labor-saving age seizes and makes its own.

An alarm clock which awakens you with the words of a disgusted wife who has breakfast on the table, and a large vessel which carries submarines over long distances by means of a "pouch" are among the newest offerings.

As an ever present need, the alarm clock will probably be put into more general household use than the ship with the "pouch" for carrying submarines. In the evening before retiring you set the clock for 6:30; at 6:30 you will probably get up. Here is what will waken you:

"Six-thirty, six-thirty, six-thirty; time to get up; get up, can't you? Get up you miserable, lazy man. Get up, get up, get up!"

The first clock of this kind was exhibited in 1900, but it cost $2,500 to make it. The present offering costs $25. If you are awake in the middle of the night and wish to know the time, press a button and the clock will tell you the nearest quarter hour as: "Two-fifteen," if it happens to be 2:13 or 2:18. The phonographic record is on an endless belt and the grooves in which the voice vibrations are recorded run lengthwise of the belt. The belt continues to give out sound until shut off when once started. So far the clocks have been supplied with belts which talk in thirty-five languages.

Origin of Some of World's Most Popular Quotations

1914

Famous Words That Will Endure

Cynical Old Diogenes Told the World "Habit Is Second Nature"

It is recorded that an ignorant person, explaining her distaste for Shakespearean performances, said that his plays were too full of quotations. Yet we, too, though we may pride ourselves upon our learning, probably do not know the origin of half the common phrases we use as carelessly as verbs in our daily conversation.

No less a person than Cicero first made use of the expression, "While there's life there's hope," in a letter he wrote to Atticus. "We are in the same boat" is not modern slang, but occurs in a letter written by Clement I., bishop of Rome, to the Church of Corinth in the first century. This letter is extant and is one of the prized documents of the early church.

"I never put off till tomorrow what I can do today," was Lord Chesterfield's explanation of how he managed to do so much work. "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well" he wrote later in the famous letters to his son.

In some of the expressions we use habitually may be crystallized an epoch of history. Such is the motto of the Order of the Garter, "Honi soit qui mai y pense" ("Shamed be he who thinks evil of it"), which was given by Edward III. of England. Wishing to draw the best soldiers in the world to him, he proposed a revival of the round table of King Arthur, holding a tournament at Windsor castle on New Year's day, 1344. After the contest of arms the guests were entertained at his expense at a round table. Philip, king of France, was jealous over the interest this aroused and forbade his subjects to attend, at the same time misrepresenting Edward's motives. Several years later, when Edward founded the Order of the Garter, he chose a motto that seemed to challenge his rival monarch to think wrong of it if he dared.

Later English history has not been laggard in increasing the supply of apt remarks that have grown into everyday sayings. Lord Eldon, lord chancellor of England during the first twenty-six years of the nineteenth century, continually mispronounced the name of Henry Brougham, afterward to be a successor in the chancellor's office. Brougham objected to be called Broffam, and in this regard Eldon was the chief offender. Once, after Brougham had made an excellent speech, Eldon by way of apology pronounced his name correctly and made a proverb, "New brooms sweep clean."

The same expression occurs frequently to different people who could have no knowledge that their thought had been given utterance before. "No man is a hero to his valet" has been paraphrased by scores, from Mme. du Cornuel, a witty Frenchwoman of the seventeenth century, to Dr. Johnson and Napoleon. The first record of it, however, is found in Plutarch, who states that when Hermodotus addressed a poem to Antigonous I., king of Sparta, hailing him as son of the sun and a god, the monarch replied, "My body servant sings me no such song."

It was Diogenes, the cynic, who declared that "habit is second nature." The phrase "circumstances over which he has no control" was used by the Duke of Wellington in a letter concerning some affairs in which his son was mixed up and with which be declined to interfere. Dickens also used the expression a few years later when he had Micawber write to David Copperfield. "Circumstances beyond my individual control," etc.

"Conspicuous by their absence" has been used on many occasions in modern oratory. It was first used by Tacitus in relating that in the funeral procession of Julia, niece of Cato, sister of Brutus, wife of Cassius, many of the images of the most famous families in Rome were seen, but "Cassius and Brutus shone pre-eminent because their images were not displayed."

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes," wrote Benjamin Franklin, stating that the constitution of the United States was in operation and to all appearances would last.

"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones" was said by James I. of England when his favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, complained that a mob had broken his glass windows, which were at that time a luxury.

"Mind your p's and q's" is said to have been taken from an old French phrase at the time of Louis XIV. A very low bow was in fashion, and the dancing master in instructing his pupils would warn them to look out for the position of the feet and the movement of the head lest their cue wigs be disarranged. The French word for foot is pied. "Mind your pieds and queues" soon came to be transplanted into English and abbreviated.

Wallace Irwin once complained that when he had been invited to be funny at a banquet his real gems of wit were addressed to the back of his chauffeur on the way home. But what's the difference? According to the Latin poet, upheld by modern investigation, everything you could possibly say has been said before. — Anna Bird Stewart in Minneapolis Journal.

The Luckless Procrastinator

1914

The procrastinator is always liable to be luckless. To postpone a duty that should be discharged at once is to invite trouble for all concerned.

Many a man who is well disposed toward life insurance is still deferring the purchase of a policy which would be a boon to his family in the event of his death. The would be insurant is in good health today, but tomorrow he may be stricken with a disease that may bar him from the ranks of the insurable.

His reason for putting off securing a policy may he that it is inconvenient at present to pay the premium. But he should consider carefully the fact that life insurance will never be cheaper for him than it is today. His yearly premium on a policy taken out now would be appreciably less than would be the premium on a policy of the same amount taken out when he is a year older. Delay, therefore, will add somewhat to the yearly burden he would have to carry. The best thing for any uninsured man to do is to insure at once. — Leslie's Weekly.

Color Photography at Last

1914

British Experts Who Should Know Are Satisfied That the Process Has Been Discovered

What appears to be an almost perfect process of color photography is at length announced. It gives results by which oil paintings are reproduced with startling fidelity. The process has been shown to the British Royal Photographic society and the Royal society.

Five years ago Aaron Hamburger of London began to experiment for the production of photographs in natural colors. After many failures he discovered a process which he now calls the "polychromide system," and which is already beginning to revolutionize photography and all business affecting colored reproductions.

In the opinion of Sir William Crookes, who spent a day examining every detail of the process, the discovery is the "greatest achievement in photography." Sir William Crookes, Sir Archibald Geikle, and the council of the Royal society are being photographed by Mr. Hamburger.

The autochromes of the famous brothers Lumiere were under the disadvantage of being incapable of reproduction. Mr. Hamburger narrated how desperately he had tried every means to reproduce them. Failing, he invented a new camera with special screens, which divided a beam of light into three colors, and the effect of the screens is that no color save those desired find their way to the plate.

By the air of three sensitive gelatino-silver developing papers, which are printed under the red, yellow and blue printing negatives, the final photograph in colors is obtained, and the canvas effect of an oil painting is then easily produced.

Courtesy All Too Scarce

Ohio, 1914

Cleveland Man Set Fine Example of the Duty of a Gentleman to the Fair Sex

The youthful Walter Raleigh spreading his velvet cloak on muddy walk for his queen to pass, is a pleasant historical picture. But the heart of a courteous gentleman may beat under the blouse of a workingman as well as under the cloak of a courtier.

Last November the city of Cleveland was cut off from the outer world by the worst storm of wind and sleet and snow in its history. Traction lines and railways were tied up for several days. Four days after the storm, a woman reached Cleveland to visit her sister. She knew that the cars were not yet running on the line she wished to take, and so she took a car on another line that would take her to the city limits, where she hoped to connect with a car that would take her where she wanted to go.

Forty minutes later she stepped from the car at the edge of the city. Between her and the curbstone a wide stream of water six or eight inches deep was running. As she looked helplessly about, a workingman whose hair was touched with gray left a group on the sidewalk, waded out to her and said: "Madam, you don't know me, and I don't know you, but if you'll let me, I'll be glad to help you to the sidewalk." She thanked him, and he took her suitcase to the curb, splashed back, and taking her up in his arms, waded with her to the walk. There he put her down dry-shod, carried her suitcase into a near-by store, and told her he would tell her when her car came; for he was also waiting for it.

Two hours later he waded with the suit case to the long-delayed car, returned, and splashed once more through the stream of melting snow as he carried her to the step. Then he said "I hope you'll be all right," and took a place at the opposite end of the car. — Youth's Companion.


Daily Thought

As the flowers carry dewdrops trembling on the edge of the petals, and ready to fall at the first waft of wind or brush of wing of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving, and at the first breath of heavenly favor let down the shower perfumed with the heart's gratitude. — Beecher.