26 



The West American Scientist. 



to the water's edge and watched the 

 gray ocean break in lines of pale, 

 quivering light, and then reach its 

 long white fingers of foam nearly to 

 her leet. The child shuddered, the 

 night seemed unholy, and yet amid 

 the roar of the waves and the com- 

 mplaining of the winds, she seemed 

 to hear a faint, sweet melody, that 

 like the harmony of the chimes of far 

 away bells and fairy voices, drowsily 

 and low, soothed her and stilled her 

 restless wondering until the tired 

 child sank to rest on the cool, 

 damp sand, and lying awake seemed 

 to sleep and dream. The strains 

 of heavenly music wavered in the air 

 and grew stronger as the tide came in 

 Asleep and dreaming she seemed to 

 be awake and to see the gleaming" 

 arms and waving hair of the sport- 

 ing mermaids, as they rode in to the 

 shore on their cold gray horses. 

 Again and again they reached the 

 sands with sweet, wild songs upon 

 their lips, again and again the 

 great horses galloped back amid 

 the peals ot ghostly laughter. Oh, 

 the treacherous, cruel Ocean? His 

 waters crept nearer and nearer to 

 little Jeanette while she slept and 

 dreamed of the merry sea maids. 



Wilder and more fierce grew the 

 singing, in their mad sport the wave- 

 horses tore along the beach, nearer 

 and nearer came the riders to Jean- 

 ette. Then the sport begins to grow 

 less wild, and sad, sad, strains oi 

 music waver in the misty light; 'tis 

 the turning of the tide, a mermaid 

 floating on the retreating billows, 

 singing, sees her, with a tender look 

 in her soft, dark eyes, she has caught 

 the little Jeanette in her cool, clinging 

 arms, and singing borne her away. 

 Fainter and fainter grew the sad, 

 low strains of melodious music, fainter 

 and fainter the sounds of silvery, 

 silvery laughter, for the little Jean- 

 ette was floating down, down to the 

 sea-cool halls in the silent ocean. 

 Oh the sea, the greedy sea! with its 

 soft foam finges caressing her tiny » 

 torm, her long, fair hair, and lifting I 

 her helpless hands from the sands, ! 

 he draws her to him, the little Jean- 



ette, draws her to his mighty bosom. 

 Her long, soft hair, rises and falls on 

 the billows, with a halo of misty 

 radiance around her pale, still face, 

 she sinks slowly, slowly — she has 

 listened to the mermaids' songs. 



% % if. if if 'k if 



In the early morning, when young 

 Paul stops at the gran' dame's door 

 to call cheerily " A pleasant morning 

 to the little Jeanette," he sees the 

 old lady sitting by the open window. 

 The rising sea-breeze stealing in stirs 

 the snowy hair on her forehead and 

 lifts the white kerchief on her breast. 

 She does not move, for grannie is 

 dead .The wondering neighbors with 

 reverent voices say " She was old, 

 her soul went out with the ebbing of 

 the tide," and they search every- 

 where for the little Jeanette and find 

 naught but tiny foot-prints in the 

 sand at the edge of the water that 

 with guilty foam fingers strives to 

 hide them, and they say '* She was a 

 strange chi4d, the ocean has claimed 

 his own." 



Eulalie Powers Woods. 



EDITORIAL. 



Learn to commit your thoughts 

 and observations to writing. Things 

 that you have thought out and writ- 

 ten down are not likely to be forgot- 

 ten ; and then M. Renan has said, 

 '• To write well is to think well." 

 Certainly what is well written must 

 be well thought or composed. It is 

 not everyone "whose tongue is like 

 the pen of a ready writer." Learn 

 to write. ',' The good writer is a com- 

 plete mind, gifted with judgment, 

 passion, imagination, and at the same 

 time well trained. Good training of 

 the mind is the only school of good 

 style. Wanting that you have merely 

 rhetoric and bad taste." 



There are 108 cotton mills in India 

 whose 22,000 looms employ an army 

 of over 90, 000. operatives. 



Princess Beatrice is writing a book 

 on lace, to be illustrated by herself. 



