California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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Ten Little Country Boys. 



Ten Httl" couutry boys 



Uuderiieath a vine, 

 A dariiiiif^-ueedlfi frigntc-neil one 



And then there were but nine. 



Nine little country boys 



SmngiuK on a gate. 

 One turned a suuiniersault 



And then there were but eight. 



Eight little country boys 

 i^earniiig about heaven, 

 One fell fast asleep 

 And then there were but seven. 



Seven little country boys 



Full of monkey tricks, 

 One rolled down the bill 



And then there were but six. 



Six little country boys 



Going to rob a hive, 

 A bumblebee stung one 



Ani then there were but five. 



Five little country boys 



Asking for simif more, 

 One burst his little self 



And then th^re were but four. 



Four little country boys 



Climbing up a tree, 

 The farmer came and whipped one 



And then there were but three. 



Three little country boys 



Gaily dressed in blue, 

 One tumbled overboard 



And then there were but two. 



Two little country boys 



Both named John, 

 One knocked the other down 



And then there was but one. 



One little country boy 



Diving for a penny, 

 A little fish swallowed him 



And then there wasn't any. 



—[St. Nicholas. 



Sxpectations. 



Every little grape, dear, that clings unto a vine. 

 Expects some day to ripen its little fruit so' fine; 

 Every little girl, I think, expects in time to be 

 Exactly like her own mamma— as grand, as sweet, 



as free: 

 Every little boy. who has a pocket of his own, 

 Expects to be the biggest man the world has ever 



known; 

 Every little piggy-wig th.at makes its little wail. 

 Expects to be a great big pig, with a very curly 



tail; 

 Every little lambkin, too, that frisks upon the 



preen. 

 Expects to be the finest sheep that ever yet was 



seen: 

 Every little baby colt expects to be a horse: 

 Every little pup expects to be a dog, of course. 

 Every little kitten pet, so tender and so nice. 

 Expects to be a grown-up cat and live on rats 



and mice: 

 Every little flufl'y chick, in downy yellow drest, 

 Expects some day to crow and strut or cackle at 



its best: 

 Every little baby bird that peeps from out its 



nest 

 Expects some day to cross the sky from glowing 



East to West;— 

 Now every hope I've mentioned here will bring 



its sure event, 

 Piovided nothing happens, dear, to hinder or 



prevent. 



—[St, Nicholas. 



"NELL VAN'S" TALKS TO THE 

 CHtLDREN. 



ABOUT THE DSE OF SUGAK. 



LL of you little folks are fond of 

 (,1 sugar, I dare s.aj-, and many a hard 

 cry has been quieted by a lump of 

 nice, crisp white sug;xr. It is so 

 comforting, when one feels out of 

 sorts, to have a sweet morsel to roll un- 

 der one's tongue. A drop of essence of 

 lemon on a lump of sugar tastes almost 

 like lemon candy, ■n-hile the essence of 

 vanilla, dropped on sngiir, is like' ice 

 cream, only not as cold. Some people 

 think sugar is not good for children, and 

 •"■e all agree that too much sugar takes 

 away the appetite for other food and 

 causes a craving for sour things. Now, 

 ■we cannot live on sugar and be -n-ell. 



I ouce heard an anecdote of a colony of 

 people who had eaten up till their stores 

 of flour and other things, and were re- 

 duced to nothing but sugar. They lived 

 upon it for quite a while, and when helj] 

 came to them they ■n'ere found greatly 

 reduced in strength, and their comjjlex- 

 ions were singularly transparent; which 

 shows us that sugirr does not contain suf- 

 ficient nutriment to support life. Ex- 

 treme indulgence in the appetite for any 

 one thing is intemperance, as temperance 

 is, or rightly should be, defiued — the 

 moderate use of iinything which is inju- 

 rious it indulged in to excess. 



Eating tuo much sugar causes an acid 

 to form m the stomach by fermentation, 

 which sends forth fumes through the 

 throat and mouth that affect the teeth, 

 caxising their early decay. Children don't 

 like to have the toothache, I know, and a 

 disordered stomach is sure to affect the 

 teeth. Food gets lodged between the 

 teeth while eating, and if not picked out 

 ■vvith a broom splinter, or brushed out 

 of the mouth with cold wfter, the walls 

 of the teeth, which are of fine enamel, 

 become softened and decay, letting in 

 the air to the nerve and causing intense 

 pain. Therefore, children with decayed 

 teeth comphrin when sugar or acid is 

 taken into the mouth. Keep your teeth 

 clean and your stomachs he:dthy if you 

 would avoid suffering. 



But there is another use for sugar 

 which I would like every child to know. 

 When any of you catch cold in the head, 

 and have your nose stopped up so that 

 you can scarcely breathe except through 

 your mouth, do you go straightway for a 

 teaspoon of fine, pulverized white sugar, 

 and snutt" as much as you can, or take a 

 pinch of it between your little thumb 

 and finger and press it up into the nos- 

 trils; then lie down or hold the heitd 

 back so that it can penetrate through the 

 stoppage. Presently the passage will be 

 thawed out, and after using your hand- 

 kerchief your nose will be relieved of its 

 disagreeable condition. What little boy 

 or girl likes to go to table when the nose 

 is so stopped up that it is impossible to 

 eat comfortably, to s;iy nothing of tho 

 peculiar way of pronouncing words 

 which commence with the letter m. For 

 instance, mamma says, "John, what is 

 the matter with you this morning'?" and 

 he replies, "nothidg is the b;itter with 

 be, ba'am." She replies, "I should say 

 there was, when you pronounce your 

 words so badly. You talk about 'batter,' 

 and 'be,' and 'ba';tm.' Why do you not 

 talk so that you can be understood? It 

 reminds me of the young man who went 

 to serenade his lady-love, and had such 

 a bad cold in his head from being out in 

 the night air, that he sang thiit pretty 

 song like this: 



" ' Cub, oh, cub with be, 

 The hood is beabidg,' etc." 



Now, it I had been John's mother, I 

 should have given him a spoonful of 

 sugar snufl', and sent him in the other 

 room to clear out his heitd to relieve him. 

 I know a mamma that used to put sugar 

 snufl up b;iby's nose when it had the 

 snutHes, and you don't know how soon 

 the little thing could breathe freely. Yes, 

 children, sugar is a most excellent thing 

 to have in the house, and if it were not 

 good for anything else, it would be in- 

 dispensable in every family for snuff. 

 Don't forget this; but try it the first 

 time you get a cold, and see it what I 

 tell you is true. 



GRANDMA'S TALKS— EASY LES- 

 SONS FROM NATURE— NO. 2. 



Well, children, here we are again, a 

 little earlier this month than last. Grand, 

 ma will talk to yoti this time about Na- 

 ture, or the things which surround us ou 



the earth. Johnny tells me that he 

 Iciirned, from last month's talk, that 

 everything was either solid or fluid. 

 Lucy (who is quite a little girl) explains 

 the difl'erence between the two in this 

 way: " Solid things we can take hold of 

 and pile up, but fluids run all over, un- 

 less we keep them in bottles or such 

 things." Is that a good explanation, do 

 you think'? Johnny laughs at it, and 

 says that dogs, cats and chickens would 

 run all over if we tried to pile them up, 

 and asks Lucy if they are flviids. Grand- 

 pa tells Johuny that pcrh;ips it is the 

 fluid in them that makes them run so 

 fast. But Lucy thinks our seriotis talk 

 oiight not to be interrupted by fun, and 

 Johnny knows she is not talking about 

 live creatures, but only thinr/f:. 



Did you ever think that there is not 

 a place on the Ciirth where there is noth- 

 itnjP Here is a box which I open, and 

 Johnny and Lucy both call it empty; 

 but it is quite full of something — wh.-^t 

 is it? What do we breathe? Jchnny did 

 not know that the air is anything, but 

 yet he knew if it was taken away from 

 him, only for a few minutes, he would 

 die. Do you see or feel the air? When 

 I move this fan Lucy says she feels it, 

 and I am sure we can all see it by look- 

 ing up to the clear sky. Children, will 

 you look at it and see what a beautiful 

 color it is? Is the air a solid or a fluid? 

 Can you pile it up or t;xke hold of it, or 

 does it " run all over" as Lucy says a 

 fluid does? Johnny thinks the air does 

 run all over, because it seems to be 

 everywhere, and he can't push it away. 

 Then it must be a fluid which we are liv- 

 ing in, just as the fishes do in water. 

 Lucy laughs at that idea, but isn't it 

 true? Hark! hear the whistle of the lo- 

 comotive as the cars go whizzing by to- 

 Wiirds San Jose. What is it makes such 

 a noise? You say, Johnny, that it is 

 made by steam instead of wind: now, 

 what is steam? Lucy saj-s it is some- 

 thing that is made by water boiling; she 

 has seen it come from the spout of the 

 tea-kettle, and if we let it boil long 

 enough, there will be no water left in the 

 kettle. If that is true, then water takes 

 two difterent fluid forms — liquid and air, 

 or steam, which disappears in the air. 

 Did any of you ever see solid water? 

 Lucy thinks Grandma is making tun 

 now, but Johnny remembers that he saw 

 ice in town and snow on thij mountains. 

 These are both solid, yet turn to water 

 when held in the h;ind. So, then, water 

 is sometimes solid, sometimes liquid and 

 sometimes air. Next time you sh.all try 

 and tell me what causes water to change 

 its form, for certainly you all know. 



HOW CEORCIE'S TEN CENT DOLL 



WAS CHANCED INTO A PAIR 



OF SLIPPERS. 



BT HELENA. 



Georgia is a little girl who lives in 

 San Jose. Last year, during Fair time, 

 there was a tent all decked out with 

 bright colors, where flying horses for 

 children to ride revolved round and 

 round, stopping when the riders wished 

 to dismount for others to take their places 

 for a ride. As Georgie and her mamma 

 were passing by, the little girl begged 

 to stop and take a ride on the pretty 

 wooden horses with side-saddles on. 



Her mamma gave her ten cents and 

 said: "Now, my dear, which would yoti 

 rather have — a ride on one of those fly- 

 ing horses, or a ten cent doll which will 

 amuse you for hours and days?" 



The child thought for a moment and 

 then said: "Oh, JIamma, I believe I'd 

 rather have a ten cents doll." 



"Very well," said her mamma; so 



they passed on to a toy store, and there 

 bought, with the ten cents, a pretty doll. 

 Day after dity Georgie found much joy 

 in her "ten cents doll," as she called it; 

 ami ;is the little girls in the neighbor- 

 hood made dresses and aprons for it, she 

 played go to the dressmaker's and then 

 out calling, as grown folks do. 



After a time Georgie went to San Fran- 

 cisco for a visit to her aunt and cousins. 

 Of course the "ten cents doll" went 

 along in Georgie's trunk. Ouce when 

 she had gone to Oakland to spend the 

 day lier little baby cousin found the doll, 

 which had been left at home, and played 

 with it till both feet and one arm came 

 off. When sh(! came back and found 

 what baby had done, her aunt grve her 

 another ten cents to buy a new doll, be- 

 cause baby had broken hers. 



"Thank you. Aunty dear," said the 

 happy child; then turning to the baby 

 she said, " now the broken dolly's yours 

 and this ten cents is mine." So, going 

 down town with her other cousin, she 

 asked her to keep the ten cents for her 

 till she wanted it. 



Something new happened every day, so 

 the doll w:ts forgotten; and the day she 

 sf;irted off ou tho steamer with Cousin 

 Ben the doll had never been bought and 

 her cousin had spent the ten cents, so 

 she gave Georgie a bright quarter instead. 

 Georgie accepted with many thanks, and 

 entrusted to Cousin Ben's care. They 

 were going to Santa Cruz, where her 

 mamma had gone for a visit, and the 

 bright quarter was spent for oranges to 

 eat on the trip. 



"Now, Georgie," said good Cousin 

 Ben, "which would you rather have — a 

 quarter or thirty cents?" 



"Oh, I'd rather have thirty cents, of 

 course," said she; which quite surprised 

 the young man to find so young a child 

 knowing the value of money. When 

 they reached Santa Cruz and he found 

 he had not the exact change, he threw 

 out upon the table a half dollar and said : 



" Here, Georgie, is your money; that's 

 near enough, I think." 



"Oh, it's more, Cousin Ben; you told 

 me thirty cents and here's fifty — twenty 

 cents too much. Am I to have it? Oh, 

 goody! Thank you, sir. See, Mamma, 

 what" my ten cents doU has grown into!" 

 Then begging her mamma to keep it 

 till she wanted to spend it, the money 

 was slipped into ilixmma's purse. 



One day when Georgie had nothing to 

 do, she asked for her money to go and 

 buy something. Her mother took from 

 her purse the half dollar and a quarter, 

 sayiug, "see, now, Georgie, how your 

 ten cents has grown since it came into 

 my possession! Now let's see what you 

 can buy with it." 



Delighted beyond expression, the child 

 danced off down town alone to spend it. 

 Candy or fruit she would not buy be- 

 cause they wouldn't last, and even dolls 

 got broken; so, in passing a shoe .store, 

 she saw a lovely pair of slippers in the 

 window. She stepped in and inquired 

 the price. They were a dollar, the man 

 said: but when be saw the disappointed 

 look of the child as she turned the money 

 over iu her hand and started to go, he 

 said, good-naturedly, "Well, Miss, you 

 may take them ale ng for 75 cents, this 

 time." 



Thanking him kindly, she hastened to 

 lay the parcel in JIamma's lap, saying: 

 " See the pretty new slippers I have 

 bought with my own money." 



Everybody laughed when the story 

 was told over, and .all agreed that Geor- 

 gie was a most fortunate child to be able 

 to have a ten cent doU changed into a 

 pair of slippers. 



