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Kind Words.
ffipE should be very ungrateful if we did
1 not acknowledge our obligations to
/ many kind friends throughout the
South, for the interest they have
CyUy taken in the success of our little Week
dy" 3 ly. We have received assurances of
appreciation and sympathy from every
Southern State, and our subscription list is rapid
ly swelling up into the thousands. Nothing else
could possibly afford us so much gratification as
to know that our efforts to please the little folks
of the South —to supply them with a pure and
healthy literature, free from sectarianism and po
litics —are successful; and we promise that these
efforts shall be unceasing, as long as the good
Lord gives us the ability to cater to their intellect
ual wants.
A kind lady, who has taken great interest in
our paper, sends us an order for the Weekly , to
be sent to some little folks in Maryland, and re
quests us to print the following letter. We do so
with great pleasure :
Wacahoota, Fla., Aug. 10, 1867.
To the Children of Col. E. J. P. ,
Milestone , St. Mary’s Cos., Maryland.
My Dear Little Cousins :
I have never had the pleasure of seeing you,
and yet I love you very dearly, and wish to con
tribute in some way to your happiness, and I do
not know of a better way to do this than to send
you our Southern “ Weekly for Boys and Girls,”
of which we are justly so proud, and which has
already, during its short life, become a universal
favorite with the young people. I know you will
be pleased with it, and perhaps you may occa
sionally interchange thoughts through its pages
with your little friends at the South; and may,
perhaps, send to the kind Editor —who is trying
so hard, and succeeding so well in his efforts to
afford pleasure to the dear young folks of our op
pressed and afflicted country —quite a list of sub
scribers.
With many wishes for your happiness, accept,
dear young friends, this token of affectionate re
gard from You Know Who.
A Curious Calculation.
LOCUST can be heard at the distance
(upl/ of one-sixteenth of a mile, while its weight
wVA,is only about one-eighth of an ounce. It
is not unfair to presume that an or
dinary-sized man would outweigh sixteen
tfl thousand of them. Now, says an ex-
change, supposing that a common man
weighs as much as sixteen thousand of our lo
custs, and that the note of a locust can be heard
one-sixteenth of a mile, a man of common dimen
sions, pretty sound in wind and limb, ought to be
able to make himself heard at the distance of one
thousand six hundred miles ; and when he sneez
ed “his house ought to tail about his ears!
Supposing a flea to weigh one grain, which is
more than its actual weight, and to jump one and
a half yards, a common-sized man, of one hun
dred and fifty pounds, with jumping powers in
proportion, could jump twelve thousand eight
hundred miles, or about the distance from New
York to Cochin, China.
•—
A Sunday school teacher, deploring the
lack of attendants upon his ministrations, appeal
ed to the few present: “What can I do,’ said he,
“to get the boys and girls here?” “I know, ’
said one of the urchins. “ What is it?” “ Give
’em all five cents a piece.”
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
RABBITS AND HARES.
is a picture of a
group of rabbits. If
you will look at them
closely you will see that
' they are very different
from what we, in this
country
Ct&stj call rab
bits. In
deed, our rabbit
is what in Eng;-
land is called a
hare, but it is
almost universal
ly known by the
former name all
over the United
States.
There is avast
difference be-
tween rabbits and hares, not only in their
appearance, but in their habits. The hare
is a solitary animal, rarely seen with its
mate, while rabbits are gregarious and
live in pairs. Rabbits burrow in the
ground, in nests lined with dried grass
and down from their own bodies, while
the hare lives on the surface of the earth,
in nests constructed without care, and
destitute of any sort of lining. The young
of the hare, at birth, have their eyes and
ears perfect, their legs in a condition for
running, and their bodies covered with
fur ; while young rabbits, at birth, have
their eyes and ears closed, are unable to
walk, and have no fur upon their bodies.
Rabbits are frequently tamed, and a
species known as the white rabbit is quite
common in this country. The hare is
seldom ever tamed. The poet, Cowper,
however, succeeded in taming three, two
of which lived to the age of nine or ten
years.
The European hare is about twice the
size of the American hare, and for that
reason they are commonly and errone
ously called rabbits. There are several
varieties of hares in the United States,
and as the fur of all of them differs much
%
in summer from its appearance in winter,
the exact number of species is not yet
ascertained. The one common with us
is known as the American Hare. It is
found along the Atlantic slope from Maine
to Florida. The Northern Hare is found
in other portions of the Northern States,
in Canada, and as far north as the Hud
son’s Bay territory.
What is a Library ?
While recently engaged in arranginga
large library, a friend came in to lighten
our labors by pleasant conversation.
“What is the most common idea of a
library?” said he.
“A workshop, perhaps, in which are
all manner of tools.”
“ What is your idea ?”
“ A dictionary, in which we can turn
to any given subject, and find the infor
mation we desire.”
arrange his valuable library.
“ ‘Hamilton,’ said he, ‘you bear a great
name, a very great name ; but it is still
more honorable to bear the name of
Christ. Hamilton, do you know what a
library is ?”
‘“No, sir.’
“ ‘Well, sir, it is an army. Ho you see
those books? They jpe my soldiers. I
am the centurion. I call them down, and
make them fight for me, my boy. Now you
know what a library is, which is more
than most folks do. Don’t you forget it.”
A Cheerful View of Things.
“ How dismal you look !” said a bucket
to his companion, as they were going to
the well.
“Ah!” replied the other, “I was re
flecting on the uselessness of our being
filled; for let us go away ever so full, we
always come back empty.”
“Dear me! how strange to look at it
in that way !” said the bucket. “ Now I
enjoy the thought, that however empty
we come, we always go away full. Only
look at it in that light, and you’ll be as
cheerful as I am.”
—.—
here, Charlie,” said a sister,
“ supposing you had twenty suga* plums,
and you wanted to divide them in four
parts. You give five to baby and five to
Carrie; now what would you do with the
other ten ?
“ Suck ’em.” said Charlie.
“Johnny,” said a little three year
old sister to an elder brother of six—
“ Johnny, why can’t we see the sun go
back where it rises?”
“Why, sis, you little goosey, because
it would be ashamed to be seen going
down east.”
69
“ V ery fair,
both these defi
nitions ; but I
think I know of
one much better.
When about six
teen years of age,
living as* a neigh
bor of Dr. Mason,
and also a mem
ber of his congre
gation, I was en
gaged in helping
him to move and