Show ss Merry face mistress Merry face dances down the way W th a fairy s airy grace all the day the little songs she sings sweet the note of gladness ringi lo 10 e looks from her eyes gentle jubilant every sunbeam seems to slant her way from the skies ische world a dismal place hedged about by woe little mistress Merry face does not find it so P ery day that follows richt brings new joys she has the right lo 10 possess or see when she laughs all things appear glad to know that she Is near blessing with her glee sadness may not linger where her sweet song is heard hatred hurries off with care laughter spurred grateful joyful jub lant all the sunbeams seem to slant downward but to let little mistress Merry face keep the world the fairest place god has made as yet S kiser the sketcher the apparatus Is so simple that any boy of average ingenuity can make it take half inch strips ot any con wood and make a frame six inches in width by eight inches in length and bore holes in the frame all around the four sides one inch apart string the holes with very fine wire or with linen thread so as to make a network of meshes one inch square to one side of the frame lengthwise fasten a small piece of wood having a slot about half an inch wide and deep next the frame make a strip halt an inch square to slide in the slot and let it be about thirty inches long on one end of the strip at right angles fasten a piece of tin halt an inch wide and two and a halt inches long with a hole about the size of a pinhead in the upper end it Is better to paint the tin black so as to protect the eye now make a simple tripod by ing three legs to a circular piece of the sketcher wood through which bore a hole to allow the frame to move up and down by means of a rod to which it Is attached A wedge or a setscrew may be used to hold the rod in place to use the apparatus first lay off the paper on which you intend to make your sketch in squares corre ep with the meshes in the frame making the lines quite faint adjust the tripod so as to bring the frame at the height of your eye look through the peephole in the tin strip to get the proper view of the scene to be sketched moving the frame back and forth as may be desired by means of the sliding rod you will now find that the scene Is divided into forty eight squares the division being clearly marked by the meshes in the frame begin at the upper left hand corner of your paper and outline in each square what you see in the corresponding square of the frame when the whole scene has been outlined thus shade the picture as best you can and in this practice will soon give you skill after using this device you will be able to sketch without it duck on a rock many of you boys probably know ama jolly game but we will describe it tor those who do not choose a large rough stone tor your rock each player must have a stone about the right size to hold conveniently next draw a line about ten yards from the rock beyond this line Is home all the players must now pink for duck as they say that Is each one throws his stone as close to the rock as he can the one who makes the worst miss must be it and must put his stone on the rock to serve as a target or duch for the others to throw at and try to knock off the rock it must stand close by and it anyone succeeds in knocking his duck off he must try to pick it up and put it back on the rock and then one of the players before that player has succeeded in escaping to the other side of the home line it that player is touched he becomes it in turn unless he Is so sv ift a runner ahat he can manage to run and place his stone on the rock and touch the former it before that person has had time to catch up his luck and escape across the home line suppose however all the players have failed to knock off the duck aiom the rock then they lose all to their stones all of which becomes the property of it who may require each former owner to pay tor his stone with a forfeit one tor instance may be told to jump home that Is grasp the stone between his feet and hop home with it another may kick his stone home that Is work it up on one foot by means ot the other and then kick it across the home line or he may heel it that is kick it home with ft backward kick the first one who fails to perform nis forfeit stunt must become the next it the bear that talked A bear trainer was his ant mal through certain tricks when a quiet looking man pushed Ms way to thet aront 0 the crowd can your bear talka he salu in ly better ask him said the man roars of laughter from the crowd ask hima thank you I 1 will where did you come from old gen from the swiss alps seemingly said the bear looking stupidly at his questioner the crowd started back the stranger continued how long have you been with your mastera 1 long enough to have had enough 0 him isn t he good to you no he s not what are you going to do thena eat him up when the time comes the trainer turned pale and rushed into the crowd who retreated hurried ly when the consternation had sub sided every one looked for the ques lioner but that ventriloquist had dis appeared and his face was wreathed in smiles the story of a pet gander A gentleman noted for his fondness for pets lived on a farm in kentucky one morning a rustling in an inverted barrel just outside the stable door at his attention and curiosity led him to lift the barrel out rushed a large white gander hissing flapping his wings and utter ing a succession of discordant squawks it turned out that some neighbor had put him there for a joke at the expense of the lover of pets after a few days of wildness ma jor as his new master called him fettled down with the evident anten alon of making the best of his corn pani onless surroundings he soon learned to take corn from his master s hand and followed him to the fields walking majestically up and down the rows of tobacco so that by night his wings were covered with the black gum from the leaves for a roosting place he chose the fern bed under his master s window heralding the dawn of each morning with a note that never failed to rouse his indulgent friend A sad fate awaited major one morning while his master was look ing after the horses major ventured too near the heels of a vicious thor ough bred that gave him such a vio lent kick that he was killed a fish story when the last foot of the cable to alaska was laid many months ago there was much satisfaction express ed over the fact that communication with alaska was up to date but last fall that same precious cable stopped working entirely between valdez and seattie nobody could account tor the stoppage and a crew had to be sent out to fish up the cable and see what was the matter it was a whale a dead one caught by the jaws in the cable and held down until be drown ed that is probably the very biggest fish story of the century but it hap pens to be absolutely true the wren s funny nest the mother wren with her saucy tall tilted at a saucy angle loved to come around the lattices and porches of the house to make her home A gray haired gentleman sitting quietly reading on his front porch one morning watched her with a mixture ot amusement and affection till she flitted out of his view presently hedelt the flutter of wings around his head and then a pair of small feet rested there it was the wren A most vigorous pulling and tug ging at his hair betrayed the purpose of the enterprising little bird when she had secured what she could carry of the soft white hair she flew away returning now and then tor another supply after the leaves had fallen and all was brown and bare the nest was found with its lining of white hair swinging among the branches of some dead hop vines on the porch to make a magnet knife lay the blade of a pocket knife or table knife flat on the back of an ardi 1 itchen stove shovel then press the round knob of the poker or the fire tongs tightly down on it and rub the knife blade nard being careful to rub in only one direction from the handle of the knife to the point turn the blade frequently so that both sides will be rubbed equally well after doing this steadily for a little more than a minute the knife blade will have become magnetic and will lift a needle or steel pen with ease why strawberry 7 why Is a strawberry called a straw berrye it Is not a berry so the hot anisis tell us and it has not any particular connection with straw it Is true that some gardeners place straw under the ripening berries to protect them from the ground but this fruit must have had its name before this way of gardening it waa found out probably the old name of the strawberry was stray berry and a very good name too as it well describes the roving habits of strawberry run ners traveling clergymen used sometimes to be called strawberry preachers t shadow that ha life here Is a way tor a bright boy to I 1 make lots of tun tor the family or a company of friends hang a good sized looking glass on the wall in one corner of the room and having lowered the gas let some one hold a candle in such a way that the light from it will be reflected from the looking glass onto the ad joining wall this reflected light will be a parallelogram ln form and if you now step in front of the candle but not in front of the glass the shadow of your head will appear in the center of the parallelogram of light but your shadow while it has the proper outline of your head will be merely a dark spot without any sign the shadow rolls its eyes of life what you have to do is to give it eyes nose and mouth and this you do avith very little trouble having made the experiment just described to see that you understand exactly how the candle should be held to get your shadow in the right place get a sheet of thick paper and cut in it two eyes a nose and a mouth all of a grotesque appearance and then paste the paper on the looking glass so that the features will be in the cen ter now take your position as before and if the candle be properly held the light from the eyes nose and mouth will be reflected on your shad ow exactly as if those features belonged to your head with an effect that Is both startling and amusing but ou can make an even better effect than that it you will prepare two heets of paper with eyes nose and mouth in them the sheets to be exact duplicates of each other fix one of these to the glass and the other exactly over it but the latter must be fastened at only one place at the top so that it may be swung gently from side to side now get some one to sway this upper paper to and fro just a little way and that will make the eyes in the shadow snap and the mouth move as it it really had life |