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The Deathless Song.
A finger sang his little song
From all the world apart;
Be cared not for a listening throng.
But sang bcause liis heart
Was full of music as a bird’s
And oftentimes ran o’er
His lips in sweet and simple words
That none had heard before.
A weary traveller passed that way,
And heard the cheery strain.
It followed him through all the day,
And lingered in his b; ain.
And sometim s on his way he sang
The song that cheered 1 im so,
Till far and wide the echoes rang
Across the vales below.
And others, listening to the song,
Caught up its glad refrain,
And scattered, as they went along,
The blitheness of its strain.
<
And many learned the song of cheer,
And sang it for their own,
Till all the world grew glad to hear
The song before unknown.
Ah, little dreamed the man who sang
This little song that day,
That he was singing to the world
What proves a deathless lay.
His grave is green upon the hill;
He lived and died unknown,
But all the world is singing still
The song the ages own.
—Eben E. Rexford. in Youth's Companion.
The Mysterious Trunk.
BY IIELEN FORREST GRAVES.
The first night in the new house—
how ineffably dreary it was!
The day had dawned with blue sky
and winds full of treacherous balminess,
but long before noon it had clouded
over, and, with the dusk, a fine, needle
pricking sort of rain had set in, which,
without making much outward show,
had yet contrived to drench us girls
through and through, as we made our
way along the streets with the parrot’s
cage, the music box and the best duplex
lamp with the jeweled glass shade, the
three household treasures which for the
life of us w ? e dared not trust to the ten
der mercies of the truckman, in spite of
his manifold vows and declarations that
he had moved “the very best families in
New York, and some of ’em every May
day for tin years.”
L The reader must not for moment
a
think that we were rich people because
we chan ced to own these three treasures;
on the contrary, we were poor enough
to be blood relations to Job’s turkey of
poverty-stricken memory.
The parrot we had possessed—poor
Chico!—ever since we could remember.
He was a profane parrot and an ill
tempered parrot, and a parrot with a
T oracious appetite; but still he was our
Chico, and we never sought to break the
bopd 3 of slavery to his standard.
The music box had been given us by
an old aunt, who left all the rest of her
money to a Home for Indigent Widows;
and the lamp was all the rent we had
been able to collect from a defaulting
lodger who had occupied our best room
for a year and a half.
For w r e eked out our painfully-insuf
ficient income, Beulah and I, by letting
lodgings, and wo did not always have
luck in the business.
To speak paradoxically, the new house
was an old house, and not in the best of
repair. - The yard gate was off its
hinges; one window blind banged dis
tractingly against the north side when
ever the wind took a lurch in that di
rection, and as Beulah endeavored to
warm a can of cold tea above our flick
ering gas jet, wo could distinctly hear
the rain leaking through on the floor
above our heads with a “drop-drop’’
like the ticking of a clock.
As for me, 1 had cut my fingers try
ing to open a box of sardines, and was
dolorously endeavoring to stanch the
blood with a far from immaculate pock
et-handkerchief, when the last load
came.
The truckman and his assistant were
tired and cross, and a little the worse
for beer; tho old horse was played out;
the raiu drove harder and harder, and
the wind blew out tho shadeless gas in
the hall just as the little old assistant
dropped tho basket that contained the
best crockery with a crash. And we
were glad enough when at length the
last bundle of disorganized stovepipes
was flung into tho basement hall, and
the truckman vanished like an ugly
dream into the mist and darkness.
It was not until the next day that we
discovered the trunk.
There it stood up against the wall,
just exactly as if it belonged there—a
snug, square box, neatly covered with
canvas, and bearing innumerable hotel
labels, foreign and domestic, pasted on
it, while the one in itiul 4 ‘O’ ’ faced us at
cither end, in black paint.
SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS.
“Gracious mo 1” said Beulah. “What's
this?”
“Perhaps it belongs to one of the
lodgers,” said I.
“They don’t any of ’em begin with
4 C, ”’ reasoned Beulah. “I mean, their
names don’t.”
“It’s a mistake then,” said I. “Some
one will be sending for it directly.”
But day after day overlapped one an
other, and no one sent for the trunk.
“The truckman ought to know,” said
Beulah.
“We haven’t got the truckman’s
address,” said I.
“No, to-be-sure,” sighed Beulah.
“I wonder what is in it, anyway,”
said I. “Do you know Beulah? I
almost think that one of that bunch of
rusty keys we found in the basement
pantry would fit it.”
“We oughtn’t to think of such a
thing,” said Beulah, severely.
“Why not?” said I. “Suppose the
contents are perishable?”
“It would be equal to highway rob
bery,” remonstrated Beulah.
i t No, it wouldn’t,” said I. “And
the oid thing is so dreadfully in one’s
way! If we could only got it up into
the store-room before the new lodgers
come.”
“Let’s try,” said Beulah.
So between us we hoisted the trunk
up two fi ghts of stairs and put it away
in the angle of a chimney.
“It's awfully heavy,” said Beulah,
“and there’s something rattles inside
of it.”
4 ‘I’ve heard of dead bodies being cut
up and packed in trunks sometimes,”
said I, in a whisper.
“Letty, don’t talk nonsense,” said
Beulah, with a shudder.
We had had the trunk about a week
in our possession, when I went back to
the old house that ws had left, to get a
little bed-key which had somehow been
overlooked, on the top shelf of a corner
cupboard.
Mrs. Dawson, the old lady who had
moved in, was disconsolate.
“I’ve lost my boarder,” said she, “al
ready. ”
“Dear me!” said I, “that’s a pity!”
‘ ‘As nice a young doctor as ever you
set eye3 on,” said she, “as wanted the
front room for an office and the back
parlor for a bed-room. Was to pay
weekly in advance, with extra for at
tendance on the bell, and meals sent in
from a restaurant.”
“That would have been very nice,”
said I.
“And all because he couldn’t find his
bones!” said Mrs. Dawson.
“Couldn’t find his bones?” echoed I.
( l Surgical things and anatomies, you
know,” explained Mrs. Dawson. “lie
as good as intimated as I’d stole e’m.
Now what sort of use could I make of a
lot of bones all wired together? Is it
likely I’d steal ’em?’’
Mrs. Dawson was so solemn and plain
tive, and the idea was so supremely
ridiculous that I went off into a spas
modic fit of giggling.
I could not help it, standing there on
a chair, with half my head and shoulders
in the closet. I hope she didn’t hear
me!
However, I found my bed-key and
departed, and when I got home I told
the story of the young doctor and the
bones to Beu’.ah; and even grave Beulah
laughed.
“But I’m sorry that the poor old
lady has lost her boarder, ” said Beulah,
gently.
“So am I!” I cried, overwhelmed by
a sudden remorse; “and I wouldn’t have
laughed if I could have helped it,
Beulah. But I couldn’t help it 1”
Half an hour afterward I heard Beulah
calling me. But I did not answer, for
the very good reason that at that es
pecial moment I was a martyr to cu
riosity.
To speak truth, I was on my knees
before the mysterious trunk, trying to
fit one of tho equally mysterious bunch
of keys to it, and I had just, reached
that most aggravating stage when a key
had been got in, and absolutely de
clined cither to turn the lock or to come
out again.
So 1 kept very quiet, and presently
my sister got tired of calling, and I
could hear her go out and close tho door
behind her.
llow I worked at that stupendously
obstinate key l how I got a feather ant
lubricated it with machine oiil how I
pushed and pulled, and turned anc
twisted, and resolved over and over
again never more to meddle with what
was no business of mine!—until, all of
a sudden, without tho slightest n–icc,
the key gave a little spasmodic quiver in
the lock and tho lid flew up.
Over I fell, with a 6hriek like those ol
Bluebeard’s wife.
At the same moment the door behind
be opened, and in walked my sister
Beulah, old Mrs. Dawson, and a tali
fine-lookiog young man, with a silk
brown moustache and dark eyes, that,
in the one giancs I got of them, seemed
full of suppressed laughter.
I scrambled awkwardly to my feet and
backed into the nearest corner, heartily
wishing myself a mouse, a beetle, a
buffalo-moth, or any of those conveni
ently-constructed creatures that can dis
appear into the crack of a floor and hide
from human sight.
“Gracious me, Letty! what’s the mat
ter?” cried Beulah. “And how came the
trunk open?”
“This is the very trunk,” said the tall
young man. “Initialed ‘C’—for Car
son, you know.”
“And I hope no one’ll never accuse mo
of stealing human bones no more,” said
Mrs. Dawson, unfolding a prodigious
white, pocket handkerchief, as if pre
pared to burst into tears on the shortest
notice.
“It’s—it's full of bones!” I gasped.
“Certainly,” assented the young man.
“It would be decidedly awkward to
carry my office skeleton through the
stroets on the top of a load of furniture,
so I dis-articulated it and packed it into
this trunk. But how it came to be de
livered here I cannot imagine, unless it
was through the stupidity of the truck
men.”
Then I began to giggle anew.
“What would Mrs. Dorchester have
said, Beulah,” I whispered, “if she had
known that there was a skeleton over
her head for all this week? Or old Mrs.
Dussaude?”
The young doctor exchanged amused
glances with me; he laughed low. But
Mrs. Dawson stared steadily into her
pocket handkerchief, and Beulah looked
as grave as a tombstone. I knew I was
behaving very badly, but what could I
do?
“I’m sorry I opened the trunk,” said
“but I was so dreadfully, awfully cu
rious to know what was in it.”
“Believe me, Miss Barry,” said the
young doctor, “I shall not prosecute
you.’’
4 ‘It was very wrong of Letty,,” said
solemn Beulah.
“I’m always doing something wrong,”
said I, disconsolately.
“But it was so very thoughtful of
you,” said the doctor to Beulah, “to
remember that this trunk might possibly
belong to me. It sets all the little com
plications at rest at once.”
“And you won’t give up Mrs. Daw
son’s rooms now?” said Beulah—kind
Beulah, who was always thinking of
other people.
“Most assuredly not,” said Doctor
Carson.
But after they had gone away, I went
up to my room and cried.
The idea of being caught—-I, a grown
up young woman—opening trunks with
a bunch of false keys on the sly!
Aud I could not be comforted until
Doctor Carson laughed me out of my
scruples and mortification.
He came often to the house to call
afterward. He said he owed so much
to Beulah!
I suppose tho skeleton was valuable,
but he needn’t have made so much fuss
about it, I thought. *
And one day when I was feeling very
cross and miserable, Beulah came to me.
“Letty.” said she, “guess what Doc
tor Carson asked me to-day. ”
“It would require no fortune-teller
to guess,” said I. i 4 He asked you to
marry him, and he has made a wise,
wise choice!”
And I hugged and kissed her tenderly.
“What nonsense!” said Beulah—“and
I five years older than ho at the very
least. No. dear little Letty; he asked
me if I thought you would be willing to
endure the trials and privations of a
young doctor’s wife. ”
“And did you say yes?” I cried,
coloring like a rose.
“No’’ said Beulah. “I left that for
you to say yourself.”
A Success! 1 Struggle,
“Charlie stayed pretty late last night,
didn’t he Lil?” asked Sister Kate the
next morning.
“Yes,” said Lil, sleepily, “wo were
trying the pigs in clover puzzle till
nearly eleven o’clock.”
“And did you get the pigs in the
pen, Lil?” asked Kate eagerly.
“No, we didn t; but I got my finger
in this solitaire diamond ring.”— Somer -
i Me Journal,
• INDIA RUBBER TREE.
Incisions Are Made to Obtain
the Valuable Milk.
Propagating the Plant for Dec
orative Purposes.
The India Rubber tree is the Ficus
elastic^ of botanist*, and, although tol
erably w«ll known as a greenhouse,
window or decorative plant at the prin
cipal rubber stores, It has not so very
early a history, having been introduced
in Europe in 1815. It is a native of the
East Indies. The plant belongs to the
fig family, all of which exude, when
wounded, a milky juice, with, of
course, a fig for fruit, this ono being
about the size oi a cherry, and not edi
ble. There are not less than 80 known
species distribute over a large part of
the tropical world.
The India rubber tree, in its native
fields, attains the size of our sycamore,
growing chiefly among decomposed
rocks and vegetable matter over the de
clivities of mountains. It grows very
rapidly when young, reaching, it is said,
to the height of twenty-four feet in four
years and with a trunk a foot in diame
ter. The well-known India-rubber is
the product of this tree as found in
India, but in South America there are
several trees from which it is obtained,
but the chief American tree is the Jutro
pha elastica. The name, India-rubber,
came from the discovery that tho article
was useful to remove marks of the ordi
nary lead-pencil, and is mentioned by
Dr. Priestly in his work on perspective
printed in 1770, as having just been
brought to his notice. The Indians of
America gave the name c–huchu to the
hardened juice, and from this our word
caoutchouc is derived.
The milk from which the rubber is
made is extracted by making incisions
through the bark to the wood, at the
distance of a foot from each other, all
round the tree, and even up to the top.
After ono course of tapping, the tree re
quires to rest a fortnight, when the
process may be repeated, When the
liquid is exposed to the air, it becomes
a firm aud elastic substance, fifty ounces
of pure, milky juice yielding about fif
teen of clean washed gum. This gum
used to be known by the Indian name
of caou'chouc, a veritable jaw r -breaker
to the English tongue, and yet, in our
boyhood days, when this now plentiful
rubber was being introduced into sundry
uses, that was its common name.
For the manifold uses to which it is
now put, it is vulcanized. This was the
discovery of Goodyear, that at the time
made his name famous. It is also mixed
with another product from an Indian
tree, gutta percha, introduced into the
arts by Dr. Montgomery in 1843. This
gum is the exact opposite of rubber in
being non-elastic. The young plant has
large, glossy leaves, thick, oval and
pointed. It is quite an attractive
plant, particularly rts a specimen
window plant without others
near it. It stands the dry at
mosphere of a room well, and tho leaves
are readily rid of all dust by simply
spraying. Gardeners propagate their
stock from cuttings, which grow readily
enough from a single eye aud leaf, each
bud thus forming a new plant. Young
plants are not much used for propagat
ing from, but an old plant is generally
selected and induced to throw out as
many shoots as possible. In the olden
times propagation was effected by layer
ing or winding around moss, or insert
ing a shoot through a flower-pot made
for the purpose, in which the roots
formed, and aftenvard severing from
the parent tree. —Prairie Farmer.
The Bible Printed in 300 Tongues.
The British and Foreign Bible So
ciety reports that the sacred Scriptures
were last year translated into six fresh
languages. The number of tongues in
which this society now publishes the
Bible3 is thu3 increased to 300. Fifty
years ago it was published in 150
tongues. The society distributed four
million two hundred and six thousand
volumes during the year. —Public Opin
ion.
Willing to Please.
New Boardor (gazing suspiciously on
a leathery piaco of beefsteak)—“My
teeth are very poor, Mrs. Slimdiet, and
if you have anything a little more ten
der than this-”
Mrs. Slimdiet—“Certainly, certainly.
Jane! This gentlenian does not eat
steak. Always bring him liver.”
The Tsak-Trse.
Teak-wood is th* moat important «f
the forest products of Siam. It is uwd
in immense quantities throughout the
East for house-building, and is largely
exported to China and Europe for ship
building purposes. It is said to be un
surpassed for resisting the ravages of the
white ants and the effects of the weather.
It grows in the northern part of Siam
and Burmah at a height of 1200 feet and
more above the sea, and reaches its
greatest perfection in about a hundred
and twenty years; but a good-sized tree
that can be cut down when quality of
wood is not an object, can be grown in
ten or fifteen years. The teak district
is from 100 to 150 miles wide. The
forests are in charge of the governors of
the provinces in which they are situated.
They are generally leased for a term of
ten years, and the lessee is obliged to
fell and remove the greatest number of
logs possible, paying a definite royalty
to the governor. The trees are gstdlod,
and are left standing for two years to al
low the sap to run out and the wood to
become perfectly dry. The cutting
down takes place in the dry season, and
the logs are left until sufficient rain has
fallen to allow of their being dragged
to the river with the help of elephants.
After the logs are made up into rafts,
they are delivered to the raftsmen to
convey to Bangkok; when all is ready,
the evil spirits of the river must ba
propitiated, the cost of which is paid by
the owner of the timber. This custom
remains in force, despite the efforts of
the foreign and educated classes to stop
it, and should any one ignore it he
would be unable to procure raftsmen.
The Hypnotic State.
The state is induced by any sudden
and unusual strain—staring at a bright
button held close to the eyes, strongly
rubbing the space between the eyebrows,
and so on; it all depends upon the sus
ceptibility of the subject, who can be
trained to pass into the hypnotic state
by almost any manipulation. After the
subject has been often hypnotized the
expectation of the condition is sufficient
to realize it; a mere command, or even
the impression that a command has been
given (when really nothing has been
done) will at times be sufficient. Any
body can hypnotize a good subject, and
the personality of the operator is simply
effective in the first inductions of the
state; this means nothing more than
that a determined, impressive manner,
aided by a powerful physique and pres
tige, is naturally more apt to influence
a susceptible temperament than a feeble,
hesitating manner lacking such evi
dences of will power. A sudden stimu
lus, such as a blow or a shout, reawak
ens the sleeper. The proportion of per
sons susceptible to hypnotization is very
variously estimated by different observ
ers, and depends upon the nationality,
class, temperament, and so on of the in
dividuals observed. It is probably a
fair statement that about ten to tw T enty
per cent, make acceptable subjects.
Woodmen say that three-fourths of
the moss on trees grows on the northern
s do, that the heaviest bows on spruce
trees are always on the south side, and
that the topmost twig of every hemlock
tips naturally to the east.
Green Food for Ponltry.
A valuable idea to those who try
poultry on a small scale, say3 Mrs.
Charles, in Home and Farm , and in a
small yard is this:—A good supply cf
green food is, all know, essential to the
production of a good supply of eggs,
but those who have suitable places gen
erally feel that they cannot raise any
thing while they have chickens, In
this case I want to suggest that a most
delightful supply of green food may
be raised for the hens by putting a gal
lon or so of oats into’ a shallow box,
sprinkle a light covering of sand over
tho top and keep it in a shaded situa
tion. In two or three days the oats will
be up, and in a week’s time will be
high enough to feed. The box will be
found a perfect mass of roots and the
chickens will greedily devour the whole
ma c s. By starting two or three of these
boxes at once one can easily keep them
going so as to supply the hens with one
or two green feeds per week. The oats
used will prove much more valuable this
way than if fed dry all the time.
Including Most of the Boarders.
Clerk—Can’t I sell you a pillow
sham?
Mr. Ilmigryman—No; I live in a
boarding house, where tho pillows and
everything else are shams.