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. Rake Clean.
Quoth Ralph to his father, the farmer,
‘ Such hay there never was seen.
How shall we care for it, father?”
Said the father, “My son, rake clean,
Rake clean, rake clean;
We have need of it a l 1 , I woen.”
'‘But the ows have not space enough,
father,
. To hold such abundance between
The lloor and the comb of the building.”
Qu th the farmer, “My son, rake clean,
Rake clean, rake clean;
We can care for it all, 1 ween.”
Then the seasons flew by (and the harvost
Good service that winter had been),
And again in the field were the toilers;
And still said the farmer: “Rake clean.
Rake clean, rake clean;
We have need of it all, I ween.”
But the lad gazed distressfully round him;
“L?ss hay,” said he, “never was seen.
The cattle will surely be stinted.”
Quoth the farmer, “My son, rake clean,
Rake clean, rake clean;
We thall (iud there's sufficient, I ween.”
—George Pearse in Young People.
ALICE’S PACKAGE.
“Good morning!” said the new
station agent.
“Good morning!” said Alice.
They had parted at 11 o’clock last
night, having strolled home from the
concert together, and they had found
enough to talk about then. But here,
under the bantering gaze of the ex-sta
tion agent, who haunted the scene of
his former labors previous to his de
parture for Iowa they were tongue
tie i.
“Is there a package for me?" said
Alice, formally.
“1 11 see.” said Cary Loomis, explor
ing with alacrity.
But Mr. Stark dived into a corner be
fore him, bringing forth a large, square
bundle.
“This it?” said he. There was a
•twinkle in his eye. i 4 ‘Miss Alice Ly
'man.’ Paid, too. But, see here, now
—‘Pittsburg!’ Who’s sending you
presents from Pittsburg, Ally?” His
twinkle was luminous.
“It’s not a present,” Alice retorted.
But the ex-agent was not satisfied.
4 4 Pittsburg," he mused. “Seems to
me that surveyor fellow hailed from
Pittsburg, didn’t he, Aliy?”
“Shall I sign her.'? ’ said Alice to
Cary Loomis over the entry book.
“And boarding next door, too,”
said Mr. Stark, ( 4 w ~y< ye3—it’s natural
•—natural!”
“Oh, no, it isn’t heavy, thank you!
Why, lift it, Alice was saying to
Gary, with laughing frown for her
tormentor.
“Good-looking follow too,” said Mr.
Stark. “Wal, Ally, you’ve got my
• consent for one.”
“Thank you: i” Alice laughed, but
vcxedly.
8he had meant to say something to
Cary Loomis over and beyond the cou
vernation about the package—for had
not the pleasant young new statiou agent
teemed already quite attentive to her?
—but now she could not summon a
word or syllable. If Mr. Stark were
at the bottom of the sea!
“1 don’t know how Pittsburgh ’ill
suit you, Ally,” Mr. Stark persisted,
mercilessly. “They say it’s smoky.
But I s’pose smoke won’t interfere
Alice was gone, and Cary closed the
ledger with a bang.
“Were, you joking, Stark,” he de
manded, “or is that so?”
Stark eyed him. He had a strong
sense of humor, aud ho read the new
agent’s secret.
Without absolute statements, he con
winced his young successor that Alice
Lyman h id flirted outrageously with
the Pittsburgh surveyor; thut ho had
been most devoted; that they were un
doubtodly engaged, and that the big
package from Pittsburg was proof
of it.
Cary had grown a little pale during
the process, but so strong was Mr.
Stark’s humorous sense that he strolled
away finally with a widened grin.
Cary found his dinner saved warm for
him when he went up to his boarding
house somewhat late, and Mrs. Davis,
large and cheerful, waiting to serve it
to him.
But today neither his dinner nor Mrs.
Davis cheered him. He ate one and re
*{>onded to the other glumly.
“Well, now; maybe you ain't feeling
just smart. I’ve known change of air
and water to make folks real sick,” she
hazarded in concern.
“Oh, I’m all right,” said Cary, sar
donically smiling.
“Maybe you need livening up. You’ve
been to the sociables and concerts, to
.be sure; but may be something livelier
SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS.
—Well, there,” she broke off with
motherly interest, “there’s the music in
the park tonight; I guess you'll like to
hear that. You better step over to
night,” said his landlady inspiritingly.
He had no intention of going. He
decided, with a certain melancholy sat
isfaction, that he would spend the even
ing in his room, and without a light;
that would be the fitting situation for
him and his dejection. She would be
in the park, and perhaps the Pittsburg
surveyor would follow his package, and
be there with her.
All the same, for such is the power of
pretty eyes and red lips, eight o’clock
found him in the park. He would not
go near Alice Lyman. lie strolled about
gloomily. All the town appeared to
have assemble!. The band was, one
by one, mounting to the band stand.
“Oh, Mr. Loomis!” somebody ex
claimed with a pretty laugh, ‘T had
almost run over to you!”
It was Alice—Alice with a loose knot
of young men and maidens, not yet
paired off, but well connected.
He joined them, of course; there was
no other way.
And a few minutes later, when they
had paired off, and the band had struck
up, he found himself on a bench beside
her—they two alone.
“Home, Sweet Home!” said Alice.
“Dear me, Mr. Loomis, couldn’t they
have found something a little newer?”
“It seems not,” sail Cary, unsmil
ingly.
“But how they flat!” cried Alice,
clasping her ears. “And that second
horn is a bar behind.”
She was in a gay mood. Her derisive
words were mirthful.
( ( And they’ve been practising alt the
spring. Well, I could do better with a
comb and some tissue paper. » >
A whiff from the syringa sho wore
was wafted to him.
Her face, in the dusky light, was
bright and yet soft.
She was thinking about her surveyor,
probably, and laughing iu her sleeve at
him. Well, let her.
Poor Cary felt suddenly weary of his
anger. He was in love with a pretty
girl who did not love him—that was
all. She could not be blamed—he
would not blame her. He could hate
the man she did care for, but be could
not bate her.
So, while the band labored unmu-i
cully od, he bent toward and talked to
her gently.
He told her of I he really fiuo open
air concerts ho had heard at Brighton
O
Beach. He described the odd, varying
scene—the mass of people who thronged
the walks; the long, crowded hotel
piazzas; the circular pavilion from
which the music poured forth; and
bounding it all, the great still water.
He found Alice looking up at him,
as he ended, with a keenness in her
eyes and a softer smile.
“I have never been anywhere,” she
said, almost in a whisper. “I don’t
know anything. I wonder, Mr. Loomis
—I've wondered more than once—that
you care to talk to mo! J-”
But she said more than she meant to.
He knew that her cheeks were hot and
her eyes confusedly lowered.
His heart throobed hard. lie got up
abruptly.
“That remarkable march they’re mur
do ring is driving everybody away,” he
remarked. “Shall we follow, Miss Ly
man?”
“I think so,” said Alice.
Her fingers pressed his offered arm.
A man, who had been listening in his
halted buggy, wheeled about as they
stepped into the road.
He was driving a colt, aud a frisky
one.
Was it the marvellously bad music
which made the horse jump as lie
turned?
Alice was on the point of asserting it,
but lie swerved so close that sho sprang
back with a scream.
Somehow the whirling buggy struck
her. It flew down tho road the next
instant, but Alice lay in a prone heap in
the dusty road.
Cary Loomis groaned as ho bent over
her.
“Alice!” he cried, “Alice, darling I
are you hurt?”
He raised her to her feet, his arms
about her.
“No, no I” she protested, “That
back wheel struck me as it flow around
—that’s all; it didn’t even bruise me.
Only I’m dusty enough,” she ended,
laughing.
“I am sosorry 1” he murmured. “You
sprung away from me so quickly that 1
could not save you. You must b»
hurt.”
“I haven’t a scratch,” she retorted.
“I—I think I will take your arm, Mr.
Loomis.”
In a bewildered wey he withdrew
and offered it. Then:
“I owe you an apology, Miss Lyman,”
he said, stiffly, as they went, “I—1
called you something. I was so star:led
that I called you - perhaps you did not
hear me?”
“Yes, I did,” she murmured, with
head averted.
“Well,” he burst forth, desperately,
“an apology, did Isay? Well, I apolo
gize, Miss Lyman. But I only said
what was in my heart—I only said what
I couldn’t help, Alisa Lyman. Try not
to blame me! You will have a light to
tell the man you are promised to, if you
choose, and he will have the right to
horsewhip mo—but I couldn’t help it!
Try to forget it!”
“I don’t understand you,” said Alice,
turning toward him at last and squarely.
t % What can you mean, Mr. Loomis? The
man I’m promised to? I’m promised to
nobody!”
But she was promised to somebody
soon and in short order.
“Stark,” said Cary—he was too happy
to be sharply discerning and he regarded
Mr. Stark with bland eyes—” Stark,
you were wrong, let mo inform you
about Miss Lyman and that surveyor
from Pittsburg who bearded next door
to her. She is not engaged to him.
She never was, Stark, and never will
be!”
“Sho, now!" Mr. Stark’s long
countenance beamed forth and almost
infantile blankness.
“Wal, I’m beat!”
“He was fifty or so, Stark, aud Alice
hardly exchanged a dozen words with
him.”
“Now pshaw!” said Mr. Stark, with
a wide gaze of incredulity.
i 4 No, sir, not a dozen words! And
that package—he was going to Pitts
burg, you know, and he heard her tell
ing the lady he boarded with that she
wanted a lot of worsteds, and some she
couldn’t get here, and he offered to get
them for her when he got home. And
he did. That’s what that package was,
Stark.”
“Wal," said Mr. Stark, stroking
his stubbly chin, “how I got it into my
noddle I dunno—don’t for the life of
me! I haiu’t been so took back, I
dunno when!”
But he coughed queerlv as he walked
away.
Mr. Stark’s sense of humor was ab
normally developed-- Saturday Night.
Antics of a Lemur.
No beast that I ever saw was more
loud of play than the little Malagasy,
not even a lively kitten. From the
moment his door was opened till he wa3
shut in for the night he often gave his
mind to a constant succession of pranks,
lie scraped the beads off our dress
trimmings with his comb-like teeth, and
he slapped or pulled books or work out
of our hands, and especially liked to
frolic in one’s lap. lying on his hack
kicking with all fours, pretending to
bite, and turning somersaults or indulg
ing in the most peculiar leaps, In the
latter he flung out his arms, dropped his
head on one side in a bewitching way,
turned half around in the air, and came
down in the spot he started from, the
whole performance so sudden, apparent
ly so involuntary, and his face so grave
all the time, it seemed as if a spring had
gone off inside, with which his will had
nothing to do.
A favorite plaything with the lemur
was a window-shade. lie began by
jumping up to the fringe, seizing it and
swinging back ami forth. One day he
learned by accident that he could “set
it off,” and then his extreme pleasure
was to snatch at it with so much force
as to start tho spring, when he instantly
let go and made one bound to the other
side of the room, or to the mantel,
where he sat, looking the picture of in
nocence, while the released shade sprang
to the top and went over and over the
rod. We could never prevent his carry
ing out this little programme, and we
drew down one shade only to have him
slyly set off another the next instant._
Popular Science Monthly.
Ho Had None.
“I never speak to my inferiors,” said
Reginald de Brokaugh, haughtily.
“No,” replied Smith, “I don’t be
lieve you ever do. Did you ever meet
any ?”
AN IRON MINE.
What Was Seen Hundreds oi
Feet Underground.
A Fearful Explosion Which
Caused No Excitement.
A correspondent of the Waterbury
(Conn.) American, describing a visit to
an iron mine, says: Under the lead of
an experienced miner we first went
down into an open mine. The opera
tion of going down required the agility
of a mountain sheep, but by turning,
twisting and stretching we were at last
down among the miners. High above
our heads loomed the sides of the mine.
The ore does not lie in a 3olid mass, but
in pockets, around which are great
quantities of ochre. This ocliro is of
all colors, and the sides of the mine are
gay with their bright hues, When the
ochre is fine enough it can be -worked
up into paints, as it is done just over
the line in New York stale. A steep
inclined railway admits of a car’s de
scendmgdown to where the miners work,
a series of tracks running in all direc
tions for the detached ore. A fatiguing
pull upward brought us on the normal
level of the ground again and to the
head of the main incline, where en
trance is made into the underground
workings. This incline is 750 feet long,
ar.d ac its lower end the depth is 220 feet
from surface of ground. This incline
enters the ground at an angle of 23 de
grees and about half way down changes
the angle to 16 degrees. The effect of
looking down to where this angle
changes is singular, for the 16 degree
pitch seems to go upward and not down.
The top and sides are very heavily tim
bered and divided into two parts; one
part is used for hoisting up the ore and
the other for walking up and down.
After going down for a short distance
tallow candles were produced and by
their feeble light we jumped, walked
on slippery planks and splashed along
through the water which runs into the
mine from all directions. At the bot
tom of the incline is a large pump
which lifts the water up out of the mine
and forces it a long way over to a
reservoir, where it is further used to
make the ore marketable. Two reserve
pumps near the large pump are in readi
ness in case of emergency.
From this point we followed out a
drift to its end, where a gang of miners
were at work drilling for blasting and
carrying away the ore already looseael.
While here a blast was set off in a drift
thirty feet above our heads, and to m e
the effect was startling. The crash, the
report and the shaking of the ground
wss terrifying; however, seeing that no
one stopped work or seemed to pay any
attention to it, I concluded I was safe.
Near where three miners were at work
was a beautiful clear cool spring of
water, from which wo refreshed our
selves.
A long, tiresome pull finally brought
us up out of the low temperature and
wetness of the mine lo the top of the
incline and into the building where is
the hoisting machinery. This machinery
consists of two mammoth drums aud an
80-horse-power engine. The engineer
stands over these two drums, having be
fore him the throttle valve of the engine
and two sets of wheels, one throwing in
a clutch, the other putting on a brake,
one set being for each drum, A bell
tinkles, a clutch at the throttle val#e, a
whirling of one wheel, still another
twist on the other, and the great drum
revolves slowly and winds its steel rope
tightly around it. On a dial plate a
pointer commences to slowly move
around, its course denoting exactly how
far up either incline the car has reached,
and by this pointer the engineer regu
lates its ascent or descent.
Adjoining the hoisting house is a
Small reservoir filled with water from
the large pump at the foot of the main
incline. When cars reach top of ia
dines they are run over to the crusher,
where all large pieces are crushed in its
capacious jaws, the finer particles being
shoved along toward the washers. A
swiftly .running current of water has
pushed into it tho ore and dirt as
hoisted out of the mine—tho dirt is of
course washed from the ore by this
operation—and then the ore passes
through the separators, one below the
other (three in all), until it is thorough
ly washed, cleaned aud in a marketable
condition. Full seventy five per cent
of all that is hoisted up from the mine
is washed away by the action of the
separators. The revolving mo ti OQ of
these machines and the free use
water accomplishes all this of
with scarce
ly any attention. The 0re fa thus
dumped in carta, weighed and carted
to the cars for shipment.
How Herring Are Caught.
Many methods of capturing herrir
including the smaller herrin
dines, dian have still been followed. The old hi*
way, practic 3 d by many smaU
fishermen, is to “torch” for them at
night. A boat with an iron “dragon”
or fire holder forward, or a bed of clay
on is which a fire can be built in the bow'
used. A fire is made out of some
ceedingly ex
combustible wood that makes
a bright glare. The instincts of the fish
lead them to rise to the surface when
the light appsars. In the day, attracted
by the light, the herring moV e toward
the sun. At night they rise to the
light of the fires and a man with ahand
net in the bow of the boat dip 3 them
from the wafer. The Indians, it jj
thought, discovered this habit of her
ring by seeing them r se to the surfaca
and swim to the beach when camp fi res
had been lighted on the shores.
Herring are caught in vast numbers
by means of brush weirs. These vreirs
are constructed at the end of a point of
land or in a channel in regions where
tides rise high. O Poles are sunk in the
water and the spaces between them
woven with brush like a thick beige.
The weir when constructed forms a
pond, into which the fish, following the
sun or feeding near the surface, are
drifted by the current at high tide.
When the tide goes down the weirs,
which at high water are almost out of
sight, are left almost dry and myriads
of fish are taken from them.
Animal Life in the Gulf Stream.
The surface-waters in the Gulf Stream
teem with minute life of all kinds.
There the young of larger animals exist,
microscopic in size; and adult animals
which never grow large enough to be
plainly visible to the naked eye occur ia
immense quantities. By dragging a fine
silk net bciiiud the vessel, these minute
foims are easily taken, and when placed
in glass dishes millions uncounted are
seen swimming backward and forward.
When looked at through microscope
we see young jelly- fishes, the young of
barnacles, crabs and shrimps, besides
the adult microscopic species, which are
very abundant. The toothless whale
finds in these his only food. Rushing
through the water, with mouth wide
open, by means of his whalebone strain
ers the minute forms are separated from
the water. Swallowing those obtained
alter a short period of straining, he re
peats the operation. The abundance of
this kind of life can bo judged from
the fact that nearly all kinds of whales
exist exclusively upon these animals,
most of them so small that they are not
noticed on the surface.
England’s Great College.
It is difficult to give a just conception
of what Oxford is. Suppose all the
colleges in Virginia with Harvard, JTale,
Princeton, Williams, aud the other
leading colleges in the United States
were taken up and set down in the dis
trict which lies west of Shockos creek
and south of Leigh street; suppose their
architecture should be magnified ten
times and beautified a hundred times
into the likeness of hoary old cathedrals
and cloisters; suppose they should have
sweet gardens and extensive grounds
behind them, as lovely as the greenest
portions of the Capitol Square, washed
by a clear and tranquil stream; that
they possessed the Congressional library
and the best parts of the Smithsonian
Institution; then suppose that the
National literary associations of 600
years and the historical associations of
1000 could he cocentratcd aud should
hallow them, and you may get a faint
conception of what Oxford is; a true
conception you can never get until you
see her where she has lain for 1000
years, “spreading her gardens to the
moonlight.” —Richmond Times.
Carriers’ Examination Nearly Ended
There were 79 applicants for the po
sition of letter carriers before the Postal
Civil Service Examining Board today
out of the 100 who had been notified to
appear. The examination of applicants
for this position will close tomorrow.
On Thursday that for junior clerks will
be begun.
Among the new colors are pal*
duck's-foot, blue de Rhone and ama
ranth red.