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next trip. “Madam," he added, to Mrs.
Brown, “don't you think the ohildren ought
to be saved first?”
But Mrs. Brown said “No,” and began to
cry, and said if any body was to be left be
hind, to leave the biggest Ferniey boy; and
Johnnie commenced to get out again, when
Almira begged him to stay, saying:
“I’Jl stay; I’d lust as lieve as not. I ain’t
a bit afraid. If Mrs. Brown and Kitty will
only keep Josie warm, I’d just as lieve wait
as not.”
Johnnie wanted to stay with her, but Al
mira begged him not to.
“Mother gave me the charge of you all,"
she said 1 “and you promised to mind me,
Johnnie. I ain’t a bit afraid—and you'll
hurry back, mister, won’t you?”
"That I will, my little lass," said the man;
“and I’ll see that every one knows how
brave you are, too.”
Mrs. Brown hid her face, and perhaps,
wished in her seliish heart, that she could be
brave, but she could not; so the boat was
pulled slowly away with its precious freight.
“Good-by, dears," said poor little Mira,
leaning over the railing.
“Good-by, good-by,” came faintly from
the cold and frightened children.
They had plenty of wraps in the boat, so
they had left her a blanket; and Johnnie,
standing up, had helped to wrap it close
about her. As he did so, he noticed how
pale her cheeks were, that he bad always
seen so rosy, and how dull and heavy were
her bright, sparkling eyes.
How long the faithful “little mother”
shivered and watched and waited, they
never knew. It was long past noon before
the boat could get back, and then the bal
cony was gone—had been torn away, per
haps, by some of the many heavy things
floating in the water.
They rowed around and around until they
found her, and then they had to put her in
the “best rom,” with the poor old woman
and her little child.
The little woman had remembered to the
last, that “mother trusted her," and had
kept her faithful promise “even unto death.”
Pet Beetles.
We were sitting on our piazza one warm
evening, when our neighbor over the way
opened his front door and proceeded to cross
the street. *
Now we had never felt much interest in
this particular neighbor, agrave, silent man,
but this evening every eye was fixed upon
him with attention, for as nearly as we
could discover in the surrounding darkness (
he appeared to be bringing to us a basin of
tire, real tire, that lighted up his whole face
so that we could see quite plainly how anx
iously he watched his fiery dish.
As he came nearer, we all rose, eager to see
what this dish contained that burned
with such a strange greenish light, and, as
we could now see, appeared to be water,
blazing water.
As our neighbor paused to open the gate,
he stumbled, and the next instant all was
confusion. We saw two gleaming lights rise
from the dish, heard a crash of broken
crockery, and then were astonished at the
sight of our grave neighbor bobbing about
up and down the high steps, making quick
snatches at the two lights thaVtianced about
his hands.
Presently both lights disappeared, while
our neighbor entered our family circle so
suddenly that several chairs and small chil
dren were overturned. “Beg your pardon,"
gasped the gentleman, when he had, at last,
found a safe resting-place. “I was sure I'd
lost them. Look here, you little folks, did
you ever see fire-bugs like these ?’’
We, children and all, crowded about him
in the darkness, and by the faint light that
came through the parlqr-blinds, coild see
him slowly open his hands, and then we saw
nothing but two ugly brown beetles, quite
dead apparently.
"Well, I declare," said our neighbor in
consternation, as the two beetles refused to
respond to the friendly shaking he gave
them, “I’m afraid I squeezed ’em too hard."
At some one’s suggestion the injured bee
tles were taken into the house and water
sprinkled on them to “bring them to,” but
the shower-bath only had the desired effect
upon one leg of each beetle. The revived
legs kicked vigorously, but the rest of the
beetles refused to come to life until they
were dipped in a bath prepared in the ca
nary’s bath-tub, borrowed for the occasion.
This bath proved the beetles to be impos
tors, for no sooner had they touched the
water than their legs flew out in every direc
tion, and from two large yellow spots on
their shoulders streamed the strange, beauti-
THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 15,1882.
ful blaze that had lighted up the water in our
neighbor's bowl, now lying broken on the
steps.
Those who have never seen the “Elatcr,"
as this tropical phosphorescent beetle is
called, can have no idea of the strange bril
liancy of the light that shines steadily from
the 8pots on its shoulders. As the beetle
lifts its wings you see the soft body also
flaming with light, and you soon think of
these spots as windows through which the
light from the body shines.
Our neighbor told us of a poor prisoner,
who was shut up in a dungeon so dark that
he could not sec his hands before his face, to
whom friends succeeded in sending a little
scrap of paper in which was folded one of
these clater beetles.
When the frantic, half-mad prisoner un
folded the paper, a wonderful light shone
out about him, and in spite of the terrible
darkness into whicli he had been cast by
cruel men, he was able to read, by the
friendly, steady gleam of the elater, direc
tions, written on the scrap of paper, for es
caping by a secret passage leading from his
dungeon.
This beautiful light proved true to him,
for after a patient search it showed him the
stone, described in the paper, that could be
rolled aside from the hidden door.
We were all glad when we knew that the
two fire-beetles were ours, and the children
immediately named them Jupiter and Mars.
A pretty little red Chinese lantern with per
forated paper over the top made au elegant
house for our new pets, and when we had
put for their refreshment a piece of banana
in the tin candle-socket, and bung the lan
tern to the gas-fixture, we thought Jupiter
and Mars might be quite comfortable.
When we put the gas out they rewarded us
by brightly illuminating their red castle.
From the first they were very tame, or very
stupid, and seemed to have no fear.
The children made a tiny chariot of thin
whito paper and covered it with diamond
powder. This chariot was harnessed by
silken threads to Jupiter and Mars, and a
lovely paper fairy with diamond-glistening
hair was drawn by these fiery steeds round
and round a marble table. In a dark room,
with the weird greenish light from the bee
tles falling upon the gleaming chariot, this
made a very pretty sight. The entertain
ment was sometimes varied by placing Jupi
ter and Mars upon their backs. In this po
sition they were helpless as turtles, until
they gave a spring in the air and came down
right side up again.
Tliis performance delighted the children,
but one evening Jupiter and Mars became
tired of the sport, and with one accord rose
in the air, dragging the chariot after them,
and throwing out the fairy driver, who was
badly injured in the efforts of the children
to capture the runaway steeds.
Poor Jupiter came to an untimely end at
length, through being fed, by the little ones,
on wet sugar stirred with a match. The
phosphorus paste, thus innocently made,
wholly disagreed with the poor beetle’s di
gestion, and we felt so badly over our dead
elater that we did not grieve when Mars,
taking advantage of the general confusion,
escaped through an open window.
“He was safe from matches, anyway,” the
children said.—Youth’s Companion.
Taming Wild Animals.
Lion and tiger “kings” lead a life of
danger, lor wild animals are never “gentle."
Every time they enter a cage containing
these fierce creatures they carry their lives
in their hands. “Gentle?” remarked one
of these venturesome folk the other day.
Those tigers of mine ? Why, do you see
that whip? I know, as well as I know any
thing, that if I drop that whip when I am in
that cage, they’ll be on me. Their idea of
obedience is connected with the whip first,
then with my voice, then with my face.
Severity? Cruelty? No use at all. I never
use cruelty in training them. Only patience.
When I take a new cage of beasts I work to
get them used to me; feed them ; cleaning
the cage; talking to them ; all that sort of
thing; before I go in among them. Then I
do that. It’s a ticklish piece of business go
ing in the first time, and I pick my chance
for it when they are specially peaceable. I
go right in, just os if it were a matter of
course, but I keep my eyes about me. It is
all humbug that a man’s eyes has power over
a wild beast. Your eyes are to watch their
motions—that’s all. They'll find out quick
ly enough if you are getting very careless.
They are always sure enough to be watching
you all the time. Are they intelligent?
Well, there's as much difference among
them as there is among men. I can train a
really Intelligent lion, right from the wilds,
im about four weeks, so he will do all thai
the lion kings make them do. A Horn
always takes a couple of weeks longer, an
so does a leopard and tiger. You can't get
hyena well in hand inside of two monthi
They're the meanest of brutes. You can’|
teach any of the creatures to love yoi
They’ll fawn and fawn on you, and you’
think you've done it, may be. Then yoi
get into the cage, if you want to, withoi
your whip, or when they’re in bad tempo
and find out for yourself what they’ll di
They’re all treacherous. Every lion kin,
gets sick of it after a while. I could nanij
more than a dozen of the best wl\o hav|
given it up right in the prime of life. Onci
they give it up, nothing'll tempt ’em insid
of a cage again. You see, every now an
then, some other tamer gets clawed and bi
ten. They've all been clawed and bitte
more or less themselves. The strain on
man’s nerves is pretty sharp—sure dcatl
around him ail the while. And the pay isn'l
anything like what it was.”
Cottcn-I’lckett.
A good many years ago a Mr. Cotten, of
Amite county, was riding along the road,
and finally fell in company with a stranger,
goingln the same direction. After the usual
salutations on such occasions, the stranger
asked:
“ What might be your name?"
“My name is Cotten, sir,” was the re
sponse.
“ What might be your name?” asked Mr.
Cotten.
“ My name is Pickett,” said the stranger.
Mr Cotten regarded the response as an af
front, and in an excited manner said :
“ If you think you can ‘ pick it,' sir, just
light, and I’ll convince you of your mis
take.”
Without further ado the gentlemen dis
mounted. fastened their horses, and with no
one to witness the contest, they took off
their coats and at it they went.
They fought and knocked and knocked
and fought for some time, and finally it re
sulted in a draw fight. Explanations fol
lowed, which developed the fact thnt the
stranger’s name w«s Pickett, and that Cot-
ten’s name was Cotten, and then they
laughed at themselves and laughed at each
other, shook hands, and were afterwards
good friends. Mr. Pickett was from Franklin
county.—Magnolia (La.) Gatelle.
W. A. Ross & Co, the manufacturers of
Ross’s Royal Belfast ginger ale, have just
received tbe gratifying intelligence that
their goods received the only gold medal at
the International Exhibition in New Zea
land. And the ale eminently deserved the
honor conferred upon it. It is a sparkling,
invigorating, refreshing and non-intoxica
ting beverage. We call attention to Mr.
Henry H. Ross’s card in our advertising
columns.
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