Newspaper Page Text
6 (918) r H E J
Our Boys
SAYING GRACE.
When we're at grandpa's house to dine
He looks around with sober face,
Then clasps his hands and shuts his eyes
And sister says he's "saying grace-"
He says big words that I don't know?
I'm only four years old?but then?
I know two words he always says,
One is "Thanks" and one "Amen."
wnue warning in my grandpa's woods
We saw a squirrel big and grey,
He held a nut between his paws
But did not eat it right away.
He closed his little shining eyes,
His hands raised just like grandpa's then;
I said, "Oh, sister, keep real still,
He's saying 'Thank you' and 'Amen.' "
MINNE-WA-WA.
(AN INDIAN LEGEND.)
Apes before the white man came to this land of
ours the Mohicans, direct descendants of the
Great Spirit, journeyed from their home in the
West toward the rising sun, where they hoped to
find a red man's paradise?a land of deer and
salmon and beaver. But the way was long, famine
was sore on the plains they had to cross and
food none too plentiful in the mountains, so it
was a sadly diminished tribe that came at last to
the broad and beautiful valley of the Hudson,
where fish and game were theirs for the taking
and their paradise found, indeed.
The chief of the tribe was called Evening
Star, his wife was Wa-bun An-nung, his son,
Osseo, and his mother, Minne-wa-wa, the pleasant
voice.
They had not lived in the now hunting grounds
very long, when Osseo and his father, while chasing
the red deer over the mountains west of the
sparkling river, were overtaken by a great naked
bear, Miske^Mokwa, and destroyed. "Wa-bun
An-nung wandered away from the village in her
grief and was taken captive by the Pak-wadjininico,
the little vanishing men of the woods who
are only seen as night approaches. They suspended
her in the eastern sky, where she became
the Morning Star.
Poor, lovely Minne-wa-wa betook herself to
the western mountains, where she wept in solitude
near the spot from which her loved ones
had vanished. As time passed and her grief
grew less, her heart beat only for her people, and
her desire was all for their welfare. Fearing that
others of the tribe would be overtaken in the
darkness by Mislu-Mokwa. she crave wee lamns
to the little swamp flies, Wah.-wah-tay-see, that
they might flcak them here and there among the
bushes and reveal the monster should he be lurking
near. But she soon saw that the Wah-wahtay-see
could only be of service in the damp hollows,
where they lived, and under the shadow
of the trees, so she climbed the mountain's
highest peak and hung the crescent bow of her
lost son, Evening Star, in the western sky. She
then prayed that it might become light, her
prayer was granted, and the beautiful crescent
bow became the Moon.
Now the Great Spirit rejoiced to see Minnewa-wa,
thus forgetting her own grief to care for
others, so he changed her into an immortal spirit
and gave her for a lodge, the vast mountain,
which was the treasury of storm and sunshine
for all the country of the Hudson. Ho also
pave her power to send them forth when she
would. Day and night were shut up in the great
mountain, as well as storm and sunshine. Min
ne-wa-wa let them out in turn, hut never at the
same time!
Each month she came from her dwelling and
hung the crescent moon in the western sky, nlaeing
it so that her people might know when she
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
and Girls
was about to send out cooling showers to water
the maize fields and freshen the springs and
grass. If she hung it so that the lower horn of
crescent was high enough to hold the bow and
quiver of a hunter suspended upon it, they knew
that the hunting was over for a season and that
they were to keep within lodge and wigwam.
After hanging forth the signal in this way, Minne-wa-wa
would stand on the mountain top and
shake the drifting rain clouds from the folds of
her mantle, blowing them over the valley with
her breath. Sometimes she would weave them,
all lightly of cobwebs, gassamar and morning
dew, sending them off to float in the air and give
gentle summer showers.
Rut when the people had displeased her, she
would brew black thunderstorms and send down
drenching rains to swell the streams and sweep
everything away. These would be accompanied
by the rolling thunder of her voice and the
lightning ffashes of her eye.
Thus did Minne-wa-wa, beloved of the Great
Spirit, became the guardian of her people, the
Mohicans, ever ministering to their good, send;
ing them rain and sunshine day and night; hanging
out the new moon each, month, and, as often
cutting the old one into pieces, which she scattered
throughout the heavens as little stars, whose
uini|\S sue ligut^u rverv ui^iit.
There is truth as well as poetry in this Indian
legend. It recognizes the beauty and the reward
of unselfish love and shows faith in a great All
Father, who "maketh the sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust."?Adapted for the Christian
Intellujencer, by Cousin Joan.
A NEW MULTIPLICATION TABLE.
"Oh, I'm going to have such a good time this
afternoon!" cried Myra, as she danced through
the room where her aunt Rachel was at work.
"It is so lively to be out of school at last,
Auntie!" she went on. "So good to be done
with lessons, and to think only of having a
good time!"
"I hope you are not leaving all your lessons
behind you, dear," said aunt.Rachel, with a
smile at the light-hearted lassie.
"Every one of them. Not to give them a
thought until vacation is over. But," turning
at the door with an inquiring look, "do you
mean I ought to keep up my lessons, Auntie t"
Mother thinks that, as I had a good deal of
head ache the last few weeks, I had better not
use my eyes much."
'' She is right, dear. I was only thinking that
if you could multiply your good times a little?"
"The very thing I'm going to do all the?o
weeks. Trust me for that."
"That's right, dear. Take the multiplier
tion tables into your pleasures."
"But, do you mean to study it? You are
puzzling, Auntie. But you often are, and then
I find you always mean something."
'' Puzzle it out, my bird. If you multiply well
you will find it a rich vacation. I mean jutt
that?hold on to the multiplication-table- Yon
will be surprised to find how easy it is, and how
very delightful."
Later in the day Myra caine again, her face
this time more thoughtful, but not less happy.
'' I've thought it out, Auntie?yes, and worked
a t
11 out."
"And does it work well, my dearie?"
"Oh, so well! Though," with a grave shake
of the head. "I had to tackle it pretty hard to
make out what you could be meaning. Multiply
I O T B [ September 27, 1911
?multiply pleasures. That seemed easy at first.
Just to keep on the lookout for all the pleasures
I could possibly get hold of. That is what I
had planned for the whole vacation.
"Then I began to think it couldn't be that
or you wouldn't have said what you did So I
had to try in some other way. And I hit it.
More pleasure?multiply, multiply?but not all
for me. The only other way was to get more
folks, into it."
The small chatterer stooped to look inquiringly
at Aunt Rachel, but the latter only smiled and
nodded for her to go on.
* * T 1? n J 4-av? nnri+o 4-r\ orv/wrl n on/lv T was
L I mil l v~ 11 V'l'll ? IU opuuu AU1 VyUUUJ . X ?? HO
going to take my dolls out into the grove and
eat it there. And I had the new St. Nicholas and
was going to read it. If any of the girls were
with me they would expect some of the candy,
you see, and I couldn't have a nice quiet time
with the St. Nicholas."
"I see you had laid out a very nice afternoon
for yourself, dear."
"Yes. Well, as I went for the candy I met
the Crane girls. They had walked clear out our
way to try to find some wild flowers, and asked
me if I knew where they were. They live in a
flat, you know, and don't often get out so far.
I had gone up the hill for columbine and mandrakes
only yesterday, and T didn't feel much
like going again, but they looked so glad and so
anxious when I tried to tell them where they
were that l said I'd go, and we nad sucn a
jolly time. That was a real four times one,
wasn't it?"
"It really was."
""When we came back, Jane called me to the
kitchen and said, 'I see you have company, so
you will want some cookies." So with those and
the candy we had a regular little feast. Then
Delia Crane read one of the St. Nicholas stories.
That was keeping on with the four times you
see, and don't you think I might call it a little
hit of a multiplication?just say about two times
one?"
"Oh, yes, my dear little girl," and Aunt
Rachel put a tender arm about Myra; "for you
are cartainly learning the new fultiplicationtable!"?Sidney
Dayre, in Young Christian
Soldier
_______ r
THE HOMES OF WILD CREATURES.
There is a peculiar charm and interest in the
study of the homes of wild creatures. Their efforts
and the results in building these, even if
crude, appeal to our sympathies.
We have admired, and, to some extent, have
investigated the nests of the more familiar birds;
we have seen the squirrel make his home in some
dead tree or ^hollow limb; we have, perhaps,
studied the muskrat and his peculiar domeshaped
house. Pew people, however, have had
the opportunity of giving the .matter extended
study.
Among birds, the home of the bald eagle is
perhaps the most striking, possibly because of
the majesty of the bird itself. It appeals to the
imagination. Built of huge sticks loosely interwoven,
and situated on some lofty and inacessible
ledere. with thr> hnnno nt +v.? ---?
0 , Uw..va ux me mgic a VWUUH
scattered round about, it gives a proper setting
to the stern and savage character of its builder.
Here the eagle reigns supreme, and here year
after year he and his mate rear their young.
This is the aerie from which he can scan the
whole countryside and, like the robber barons of
old, levy toll on all who nass bis door
T":ir in the still, white North, where winter
reigns supreme, is the home of the polar hear.
"When the long arctic night approaches, the bear
retires to some sheltered spot, such as the cleft
of a rock or the foot of some precipitous bankIn
a very short time he is effectually concealed by