371 THINGS IN LONDON. 69 mighty aonster of a snail, or something and made them fast to each other and the equally alarining. At length Mrs. Wilson wall, just as he pleased; and could also adgrew better, and then she sent for Clara to mire the sleek coat and bright eyes of the her room, and talked to her very kindly and little gray mouse on the table. Clara's book very wisely, on the folly of fearing things slipped from her lap, and as she stooped to which had not the power to hurt her, and catch it, that it might not fall on the floor, which were still more afraid of her than she she was seen by the two visiters, who incould be of them; and with reason, since stantly fled away to their retreats in the she was stronger, and had far more power to greatest fright possible. Neither spider nor hurt and give pain, than a thousand frogs or gray mouse appeared again that day; and mice had. ever after Clara Hammond had courage and prudence, and took care not to do mischief to others, nor deprive herself of pleasure, by the indulgence of foolish fears. Clara promised that she would try to get the better of her fault, and she soon proved that her promise was sincere. One day she was with Mrs. Wilson in her chamber, and this good lady being fatigued and sleepy, gave Clara a book of pretty stories to divert her, and begged the little girl would make no noise while she slept. Mrs. Wilson lay down on the bed, and Clara sat on a stool at some little distance. All was as still as possible; and after some time, as Clara chanced to lift her eyes from her book, she saw not far from her a spider, who was spinning his web up and down from the ceiling. She was just going to scream, when she thought of the mischief she had already done to Mrs. Wilson, and she forbore. At the same moment, she turned her head to the other side, a little gray mouse sat on the table, nibbling some crumbs of sweetcake that had been left there. Clara now trembled from head to foot, but she had so much power over herself, that she neither moved nor cried out. This effort, though it cost her some pain at first, did her good; for in a minute or two she left off trembling. Her fear went away by degrees, and then she could observe and wonder at the curious manner in which the spider spun long lines of thread out of its own mouth, YOUTH'S SKETCH BOOK. STATUE OF CHARLES I. ON HORSEBACK. There was once, in England, a village by the name of Charing, in which Edward I. built a cross, to the memory of his queen. This cross remained till the civil wars of Charles I., when it was destroyed, on the foolish pretence of being a monument o popish superstition. It was then replaced by a brass statue, representing Charles I. on horseback. This was the first equestrian statue erected in great Britain. During the civil war, it was sold by Cromwell's parliament to a brazier; who had strict orders to 70 ABOUT WASTEFULNESS. break it to pieces; but he concealed it under ground till the Restoration. In 1678, it was again erected on a pedestal, and ornamented with royal arms, trophies, &c. The engravag is a picture of it. ABOUT WASTEFULNESS. RETURNING home, one day, from my labor, ■ noticed in one of the streets in our city, a couple of lads kicking a loaf of bread very merrily, as a substitute for a foot-ball. I was somewhat pained at the sight of seeing the "staff of life" thus sharefully wasted by these wicked boys. If every two boys in the city should get a loaf of bread and kick it for a foot-ball, we should find that many more beggars would be calling at our doors, and many more children would be crying to get a little bread to satisfy their hunger. And, perhaps, some of these wicked boys themselves may, at some future time, be glad to get a crust of that very bread which they had trampled under their feet. Children should early learn to be saving -not stingy. They should try to make every thing go as far as possible. When their father buys them a new pair of shoes, they ought to be very careful of them; and not kick the toes out in a week after they are purchased. I have seen hundreds of boys that would beat the toes of their shoes out in a short time kicking foot ball; or, they would coast down hill on a sled, dragging their feet on the snow and ice—thus wearing out their shoes as if they were afraid that they would last too long! Some boys, too, will have a new hat and wear it a few times to meeting, and then put it on every day, and presently use it for a foot wall! Now my friends, let us see what advan 372 tages we should secure, if we were saving and prudent. Suppose your father pays a dollar, for a pair of shoes for you. They last three weeks, and you have them mend ed. This costs fifty cents. In a fortnight more, they are thrown aside. Thus you see that one pair costs one dollar and fifty cents, and lasts five weeks-so, at this rate, you would require ten pairs of shoes in a year! and they would cost fifteen dollars. But suppose you make your shoes last twice as long. How much money will it take to buy them for a year? Seven dollars and fifty cents; one half as much. So then you would save seven dollars and fifty cents by being careful. Well, now, let us go a little further and see how we come out. Ten pairs of shoes cost 15 dollars, five pairs 7 dollars and fifty cents. Now if you were to be still more careful and require only three pairs in a year, it would cost but 4 dollars and fifty cents. Deduct 4 dollars and fifty cents from 15 dollars, and how many dollars will remain? Ten dollars and fifty cents. So you would save ten dollars and fifty cents in the single article of shoes, by being careful. And now suppose every one of my readers would be careful in every thing. How much money they would save, and how much good they could accomplish! However, I have a plan for you. t is this. Let all boys and girls who read this paper ask their father to let them have all the money they can save by being careful of their things-not shoes, merely, but hats, clothes, &c. What I mean is this. Suppose you have had a hat every year which costs two dollars. Now it you can make that last six months longer than a year, there will be one dollar for you. And this will pay for a year's subscription to this paper Reader, you are fond of travelling, are you not? Let us go on board a vessel bound to Constantinople. We cross the Atlantic, pass through the straits of Gibralter, sail over the Mediterranean Sea, enter the strait which leads from this sea to the Black Sea, and soon come to Constantinople. But we will not stop long in this great city. We will go by land directly east across the northern part of Turkey in Asia, to the Caspian Sea. This we will cross about its middle. Now we are 6,450 miles exactly east from Boston, if we could measure in a straight line; but more than 7,000 by the crooked course which we travelled to get here. We have now entered into Independent Tartary. But let us go on 900 miles farther east. Now we are 7,350 miles east of Boston, and we are just coming upon the borders of Chinese Tartary. You have heard in Parley's Magazine and elsewhere, about the people we are to see. They are called Tartars; or sometimes wandering Tartars, because many of them wander about much like our North American Indians. And they look a little like our Indians. Did you ever see a Tartar soldier? We shall see one of them soon. Here comes one of them. (See the engraving.) See how oddly he is dressed. He carries a bow and a load of arrows with him; and looks quite formidable. But he will not hurt us, if we go along about our business, and let him alone 72 THINGS IN THE PARLOR. Every Tartar boy is considered a soldier, as soon as he is born; and is enrolled as a soldier, in his own native province. When they are called out to war, therefore, the army must be very large. The title of their highest military officers is Tsiang-kiun. The two next highest officers are called Tou-tong. But you do not like a country, you say, where all the male inhabitants are born soldiers. Neither do I. Then let us leave it, and hasten home again. THINGS IN THE PARLOR. MANY a boy, and not a few young men can tell more about Europe or Asia, or even the sun, moon, and stars, than they can about the things in the parlor, or bed-room, where they have spent a large portion of their lives. Ask them what the stove was made of, where it was probably made, where and how the iron was procured and formed into its present state; and could they tell you? Ask them where the Lehigh coal which is burnt in it daily is procured; and how few can tell whether it was brought from Canada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, or Mexico! Again; inquire about the chairs and tables; of what wood the various parts of them are made, how the paint and varnish with which they are coated over, was prepared, and of what materials; and ask them if they know whether there are any chair factories in Massachusetts, and can they answer your inquiries? Or suppose you ask them about the carpet;—where carpets are made, what they are made of, and how often, and in what manner wool is procured from sheep;-how wool is spun, how the carpet is colored, wove, &c.; and can one boy in a dozen tell you? Perhaps you ask about the looking-glass 374 There are the mahogany, the gilding, the glass, and the quicksilver. How many boys and girls in a hundred, who are under fourteen years-I might say sixteen years of age,-can tell where all these materials come from, how they are procured, and how they are formed into the shape of a lookingglass? Are there not some who would be as likely to say that mahogany comes from Switzerland, and quicksilver from Africa, as to say that either are found on any part of the continent of America? But once more. You well know that whole loads of coal have been put into the stove in the course of a year, but the ashes that remain in the pile amount to only a few bushels. Do you know what has become of the rest? "Burnt up," you will say; and so people generally say. But do you` mean that from being something, it has become nothing? If you do, you are greatly mistaken. Not a single particle of what we burn is ever reduced to nothing; it is only changed. It becomes smoke and gas of various kinds, as the chemists call it; and they have names of all the gases thus formed, and can tell us all about them. But I have mentioned only a few of the things usually found in a parlor. The truth is we study things afar off, and try to know something about them; while we often remain ignorant, as long as we live, of the history nature, and character of things which we every day see and touch and use. Ought it to be so?-Will you not, after to-day, try to know more about things in the nursery, the parlor, the closet, the bed-room, the schoolroom, &c.? Your parents and friends will answer many of your questions; your books will answer many more; and there are some which you could answer yourselves, if you would only set yourselves to thinking 375 LESSONS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. LESSONS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN No. V. WHISPERING AND SHUFFLING SCHOLARS are not apt to think enough of the evils of whispering in school; and how much they may aid the teacher by avoiding this bad habit. They probably think, if they think at all, that one little whisper cannot do much harm. But let us talk the matter over a little while, and perhaps they will see their mistake. One whisper, you think then, is not likely to do much harm in school. But do you not know, perfectly well, that if you whisper, others will be apt to follow your example? And have they not as good a right as you? Why not? Suppose every one should think that one whisper in a long hour could do no harm, and should act accordingly. This, in a school of 60 boys and girls would be 60 whispers an hour, or 360 a day, reckoning a day in school at only six hours.-Is not this an evil? If you were put in the teacher's place for only one hour, I believe you would think so. Perhaps you think he does not hear you. You are mistaken, then. He can hear you almost as well as the teacher of a choir of singers can. You know how quick he can discover it, if there is whispering in the room. It is true that neither the music master nor the school master can always tell who makes the sound, but he knows that somebody does, and it is very painful to him, and greatly hinders him; besides the trouble of keeping it in check by reasoning, threats, or punishment. Shuffling the feet is another evil in school which boys and girls-especially boys-are apt to think is a very small affair; not worth the master's trouble to mention. But let us think of this, too. 73 We all know, very well, that no boy can sit motionless in school, for whole hours together. But there is a great difference between moving the feet gently, by taking them up, and putting them in another place, and drawing them along to the spot, over a handful of gravel which had adhered to the soles, but which ought to have been scraped off at the door. Why, the mere thought of this grating sound of the feet almost sets my teeth on edge. Suppose every pupil in a school of 60, should drag his feet along in this way only once in ten minutes. Some boys would think it a mighty confinement to be obliged to sit even so still. But this would amount to 2160 moveinents in a day. Is this a trifle, not worth the master's notice? Now I can tell you, my young friends,-and if you ever come to teach a school yourselves, you will find I speak the truth-that it is a very serious evil, and greatly hinders the teacher, and thus injures the school. I can also tell you that the boy or the girl who forms a resolution-and keeps it not to whisper or shuffle feet, could hardly take a better course to assist the teacher in keeping a good school. AN OLD SCHOOL MASTER. TEA-DRINKING. I have a natural antipathy, says a writer in the Village Nosegay, to all tea-drinkers, male and female. Now my aunt was a real-tea-drinker. No toper ever loved his dram better than she did her cup of tea. I say cup, but in fact it was a great many cups. Morning, noon, and night, she had her tea; and well do I remember her bright Britannia tea-pot, with its shining ebony handle. Many a time, when a youngster, I have wished to show |