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tiuk we better all turn roun, and go
back home, for dere’s someting wrong
’bout dis outlandish country, anyhow.
Jess now, dar want nothing out yander
but de perara, and now dere’s a big
wood and a pond ’longside of it. It’s
amity curus ting to me ; and I’m af
feared we’re gwying to hab trouble.”
Uncle Seth said he had seen a great
many of these mirages, and old hunters
had told him that not unfrequently tra
vellers upon the great western plains,
when suffering with thirst, had been
turned from their route by images of
false lakes, which receded from them
as fast as they advanced ; and that as
they always made their appearance in
the direction of the most arid and deso
late regions, in some instances the ua
fortunate wayfarers had been known to
follow them so far as to have perished
miserably with hunger and thirst, before
they could regain the route from which
they had been lured by these phantom
lakes.
“ Es dat’s de way dey sarves a fel
ler,” said Cudjo, “I aint gwying arter
none of’em, es I’m dying for a drink,
till I see de ducks and geese swimmin’
on ’em, and de fish jumpin’ out of de
water. Es dey fools me arter dat, dey’s
welcome to do it.”
Mr. Pitt said he had a theory of his
own in regard to the formation of the
mirage. He believed that in some pe
culiar conditions of the atmosphere,
and at certain angles of incidence with
the objects represented, their images
would be thrown upon open plains,
perhaps hundreds of miles distant from
the localities where the objects really
existed. “ But, however this may be,”
continued Mr. Pitt, “ there is at least
no doubt in my mind, that the images
depicted are always exact representa
tions of objects that have an actual
existence at some place ; for if this
were not so,” he continued, in a sort of
dogmatical style in which he occasion
ally indulged, “how does it happen
that these images invariably assume the
exact appearance of natural objects,
such as trees, rivers, forests and lakes?
Beyond all doubt, the mirage is simply
the development in certain states of the
atmosphere, of some wholesale Daguer
rean process in the laboratory of Na
ture.”
“I ’spec you’s right, Mass Pitt,”
chimed in Cudjo, as confidently as if
he had thoroughly comprehended all.
that had been said; “I ’spec you’s right
’bout dat, and de debil is at de bottom
of it all, jess as you say. I tink we bet
ter go back home.”
*
Bad Thoughts.
Bad thoughts are worse enemies than
lions and tigers; for we keep out of
the way of wild beasts, but bad thoughts
win their way everywhere. The cup
that is full will hold no more; keep
your hearts full of good thoughts, that
bad thoughts may find no room to
enter.
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
Written for Burko’s Weekly.
Sir Isaac Newton.
IIIS great man was born in the
year 1G42, at Woolsthorpe,
Lincolnshire, England. He
was the most illustrious philosopher
and mathematician that ever lived. He
was a Christian as well as a philoso
pher. He always reproved those who
spoke irreverently of God or of serious
things. Sir Isaac possessed a mild dis
position. His leading characteristic of
mind was the love of mathematics.
When very young, his father died,
leaving Sir Isaac to the care of his mo
ther, who taught him with much care,
till he went from home to school at
Trinity College, Cambridge. He was
then eighteen years old. While there,
he devoted himself to mathematics, and
displayed great ability in the various
branches of that science.
At the age of twenty-two, he disco
vered the method of fluxions, which he
afterwards greatly improved. He also
made great improvements in telescopes,
by the grinding of optical glasses. He
also put forth an entirely new theory,
respecting the effect of light upon co
lors. He one day noticed an apple
falling to the ground; his inquiring
mind immediately began to find the
cause of its falling downward instead
of upward. The result was he disco
vered the principle of gravitation.
In 1687, he published a book, called
“Principia.” This work increased his
reputation as a scholar, and gained for
him the esteem of all scientific men.
The lucrative situation of Master of
the Mint was procured for him by Lord
Halifax.
When he was about eighty years old,
he was seized with a painful disease,
which, five years later, caused his
death.
It has been said, that, if all the
learned men of all ages could meet
together, they would choose Sir Isaac
Newton for their president.
Sir Isaac was of medium height; his
countenance was venerable and plea
sant. His death was universally mourn
ed. Bettie Cromwell,
Wetumpha, Ain.
►.«».. -
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
Battle of Hohenlinden.
N the southern part of Ger
mmany there is a dense forest
of pines, firs, wild ravines,
and tangled brushwood. In the midst
of this forest there is a little hamlet,
called Hohenlinden, the name of the
battle I propose to tell you about. It
was in this forest, on the night of the
third of December, 1800, that Moreau,
with sixty thousand French troops, met
the Archduke John, with seventy thou
sand Austrian troops.
The clock upon the tower of Munich
had scarcely tolled the hour of mid
night, when both armies were in mo
tion, each trying to surprise the other.
A dark cloud covered the heavens, and
soon lent its aid in making the scene
more terrific. A wintry wind was howl
ing mournfully in the tree tops, and
everything was in the greatest confu
sion. Then ensued a scene of blood
shed, slaughter and confusion, that
imagination itself could scarcely com
pass. The combatants often fired at
the flash of each other’s guns, and
sometimes companies would become
intermingled, and fight hand to hand.
So intense was the darkness, that sword
crossed sword, and bayonet crossed
bayonet, and sometimes friends would
slay each other. As the two armies
retreated and advanced, thousands of
dead and dying were left on the hill
sides, there to drag out the remnant of
their lives, with no friend to care for
or help them.
The battle was kept up till daylight,
when it was renewed with redoubled
fury. The French were victorious at
every point. The Austrians fled in the
greatest confusion, and left thousands
of their dead on the field of battle.
Thus closed one of the most memor
able battles that ever darkened the
pages of history.
What a scene of terror and horror
must the field of battle have presented,
when the armies left! It is enough to
make us shudder to think of such a
scene. A Subscriber.
►.<&>.
The Clock of Life.
■pjm
FATHER having taught his
W son how to tell the hour by
the clock, said to him :
“There is another clock—the clock
of life; I mean the beating of your
pulse ; for it may often remind you of
the value of time, and the necessity of
turning it to good account. Time is
worth more than the finest gold.”
“ My pulse is the clock of my life —
It shows how minutes are flying;
It marks the departure of time,
And it tells me how fast I am dying.”
He who lives a day without doing
good, loses a day ; and he who makes
another happy, is sure to be all the
happier for it himself.
Place your finger on your pulse, as it
beats; remember every beat makes one
less in your life.
You may think it will be a long time
before it will stop beating; but it may
stop very suddenly. If God did not keep
it wound up, the clock would stop at
any moment. Very little disturbance
of the running works of the clock would
stop it. So a cold or a fever, or a fall,
or a blow, or ten thousand incidents
that might happen, would stop the
beating of your heart and pulse. We
ought to observe daily, and try to im
prove the time while it passes. We
will soon be in eternity, where they
will no longer reckon by hours and mi
nutes, or the beating of our pulses.
How long has your clock been run
ning? You count it by years and
months, but it runs its rounds by mi
nutes, and even seconds. Each tick
tells of a change, and announces to you
that so much more of life is gone, and
that you are so much nearer eternity.
We note the hours of the clock daily
to make our arrangements for its du
ties. Men of business would be punc
tual. They would not, for any consi
deration, be too late to meet an engage
ment with a banker or a merchant.
But, alas! they keep no engagement
with God, their Maker and Judge. God
has the hour fixed when they are to
meet him, and when it comes he will
not wait one moment for any engage
ment they may have. He has long be
fore and oftentimes called upon them
to measure their days, to get ready for
their account. At the tick of the clock,
the summons will be, “ Give an account
of thy stewardship.” What have you
done with what the Lord has entrusted
to you ?
Bishop Ken wisely sets forth in one
of his hymns the spirit which leads us
to improvement of life.
“ Awake my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run ;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Thy precious time misspent, redeem;
Each present day thy last esteem ;
Improve thy talent with due care,
For the great day thyself prepare.
Direct, control, suggest this day
All I design, or do, or say,
That all my powers, with all their might,
In thy sole glory may unite.”
North-western Presbyterian,
.<2>.
Sagacity of a Horse.
mp ~
E copy the following good story
f f rom an Ohio paper :
An old family horse that had
has been running at will through the
streets and commons, lost one of his
shoes, when, with the intelligence of a
human being, he walked up to the
blacksmith shop where he had been
shod for the last twenty years, and to
the best of his ability asked the smith
to shoe him, by raising his foot and
stamping the ground. The smith being
busy, drove him away several times
during the day, and thought nothing of
it. The following morning on going to
the shop ho found the old horse at the
door; again he drove him off, but the
horse came back, and entering the shop,
walked to the anvil, and there raised his
foot, thus attracting the particular no
tice of the smith, who examined the foot,
and finding it worn off to the quick,
kindly picked up an old horse-shoe, and
fitting it to his foot, nailed it on ; when
the grateful animal, frisking his tail by
way of thanks, trotted off contentedly.
139