28 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[January, 
■between the molecules of pure water.”—" But uncle,” 
asked Wat, “what do you mean by molecules f ”—I might 
have reminded him that he knew all about bubbles, and 
ought to be able to answer himself, but having him in a 
teachable mood, I replied, “ all matter, iron, stone, wa¬ 
ter, air, everything that we know as matter is supposed 
to be made up of infinitely small parts called molecules.” 
—“Oyes,” said Wat, “our teacher told us that water 
was made of oxygen and hydrogen, and these are the 
molecules of water.”—“ Not at all, you are right in say¬ 
ing that w'ater is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, but 
these are not molecules, a molecule of water is itself 
composed of these two elements, just as much as a pail¬ 
ful, pint, or any other quantity 
of water. If it be separated 
into oxygen and hydrogen, 
it is no longer water. There is 
a very interesting thing about 
bubbles, that depends up¬ 
on the action of the molecules, 
and when we come to talk 
about that, we must also talk 
about the size of the mole¬ 
cules, so for the present we can 
only say that a molecule is the 
smallest particle of any sub¬ 
stance that we can conceive 
of. Ever so much smaller than 
any microscope can measure. 
—Still their size has been esti¬ 
mated, but we will get to that 
after awhile.”—Meantime the 
little girl had been making her 
suds, and a very odd mixture 
it looked, there were little 
white particles all through it, 
like minute bits of curd. Up¬ 
on inquiry, I found that she 
had used well-water, so I sent 
her to make another dish with 
rain-water, and that was all 
right. I asked the boys why 
the suds mad e with rain-water 
was clear, and that with well- 
water was curdy—but I found 
that they only knew that one 
was soft and the other hard wa¬ 
ter, and asked me to explain. 
“You see, boys, that before 
we get to making our bubbles, 
we have had to go into phy¬ 
sics, as people now call natur¬ 
al philosophy, and talk about 
molecules, and now to explain 
why one kind of water makes 
good suds, and the other does 
not, we must call upon chemis¬ 
try. To tell all about soap 
would take too much time, 
for, common as it is, it is 
a very interesting substance ; 
all that you need to know 
now, is that hard soap is a 
compound of fat and soda, or 
more properly speaking, a part 
of fat, oleic acid it is called, 
and soda. The chemist calls 
it oleate of soda, but we will 
call it soda-soap—wdiich read¬ 
ily dissolves in water. This 
oleic-acid, with lime instead of 
soda, makes a soap, but this 
would hardly be very useful, 
as it does not dissolve at all 
in water. Now the well-water 
all about here contains a great 
deal of lime, and when used 
with soap, the lime in the wa¬ 
ter takes the oleic-acid away 
from the soda, and makes some 
lime soap which floats about 
undissolved, as little white 
particles a3 you see it here.”—“ Yes,” said Arthur, 
“ that’s what makes my hands feel so sticky when I use 
well-water to wash in.”—“Exactly, and in some cases, 
as in our's, the water is not fit to use for washing. Well, 
here is the suds and three pipes—the boys need not blow, 
a3 it is not dignified for them, but the three girls may 
take the pipes, and as I am an old man, but not too old 
to enjoy the fun of making bubbles, and their wonderful 
beauty, I will beat you all three without any pipe at all.”— 
Of course there was great wonderment and guessing, 
which I put an end to by taking out a “ Soap-Bubble 
Toy,” and blowing some fine large bubbles. The pipes 
were at once laid aside, and all must sec and try this 
novel affair—and I had to explain it. The toy itself, is 
shown in the lower part of the engraving which is on 
the page before this, and the manner of using in 
the upper part. There is a cylinder in which there 
is a piece of soap, some w’ater is put in, the cap 
screwed tight, and the affair shaken until suffici¬ 
ent soap has dissolved to make suds. Then there is a 
little knob to touch, which opens a valve and lets down 
a drop of suds to the shallow bowl, and a tube through 
which to blow’. In using a pipe you dip it in the suds 
and take up a drop, which is spread over the bowl of the 
pipe; in this toy the drop is let down from the inside. 
After they had all tried the toy I proposed to show them 
something that could not be done with a pipe. After a 
bubble was blown, about as large as an egg, I touched 
the knob and blew another to which the first one re- 
LEARNING TO SEW. 
mained attached, then another, with the two bang¬ 
ing to it, and so on until a chain of six or eight was 
made. “ What a nice toy. Who first made it, and how 
came he to think of it ? ”—“Like many other inventions, 
this came of a chance remark; my friend, Mr. S. B. Bliss, 
was travelling in California, a year or two ago, and at a 
house where ho was staying, some children were amus¬ 
ing themselves with bubbles, but at the same time mak¬ 
ing a muss, with their clothing. ‘0 dear!’ said the 
mother, ‘ I do- wish there was some way for children to 
blow bnbbles and not soil their clothes.’ This set Mr. 
Bliss to thinking, and he soon had the toy ready, to the 
great comfort of this and other mothers.”—But the edi¬ 
tor will not allow me to give all my soap-bubble talk at 
once, and I must keep the rest for another month. 
Thjs Doctor. 
liCarniug' to Sew. 
When a little girl sees mother or seme other expert 
sewer at work, she thinks “ Don’t I wish I could sew 
like that! It would be fun to sew then.”—How easy it 
seems, as mother sits and talks, and hardly appears to look 
at all at her sewing, but the needle flies in and out, and 
the little stitches all alike and even, appear side by side, 
almost as if they sewed themselves. Yctmother, andotlier 
rapid sewers, all began very slowly at first, they made 
long and short stitches, some near together, and others 
far apart, and many a time have they felt ready to cry, 
when told by their mothers that the work is not satisfac¬ 
tory, and must be picked ou 
and done over again. The lit¬ 
tle girl in the picture, is taking 
one of her early sewing lessons, 
and no doubt she thinks it is 
very slow indeed, and that she 
shall never be able to sew like 
the good grandmother who 
is teaching her. The little 
girl can now run and romp 
with the rest of them, and she 
does not remember how she 
learned to walk, step by step, 
before she could' run at all— 
and when she becomes handy 
with the needle, she will for¬ 
get how troublesome it was to 
learn to make the first stitch¬ 
es, how the needle would go 
where it was not wanted, how 
the seams would get puck¬ 
ered, the thread knotted, the 
fingers pricked, and all the 
troubles that attend the begin¬ 
ner. The French have a very 
pretty saying, which translated 
is: “Little by little the bird 
builds its nest”—and it is a 
good saying to remember when 
lessons in sewing, or anything 
else appear tedious, recol¬ 
lect that it is “little by lit¬ 
tle ” that everything useful is 
learned. The great players, 
like Rubenstein and others, 
who make the piano sing such 
wonderful music, once sat be¬ 
fore the keys and counted one 
—two — three — four — and no 
doubt thought it all very stu¬ 
pid. Lately it has somehow 
happened that we have had 
more pictures for boys than for 
girls, and this one was selected 
as especially a girl’s picture. 
But we are not quite sure that 
it does not appeal as much to 
the boys as to the girls, for we 
think that all boys should be 
taught to sew. “I should just 
like to see myself at it,” your 
brother will say. “Boys sew, 
indeed! guess the Agricul¬ 
turist has got a new wrinkle, 
no, not any sewing for me, I 
thank you,”—just listen a min¬ 
ute young man, we do not 
mean that you should be set 
at making up the sheets and 
pillow-cases of the family, but 
that you should know how 
to thread a needle and to use 
it. You think it very man¬ 
ly to be able to cover a ball 
nicely, and it would be none 
the less manly, if in case of 
need you could sew up a rip, 
replace a button, or if need 
be put on a patch. The one 
who writes this, has had a varied experience, he has at 
times been where he had to depend upon himself for all 
those things, that at home others look out for, and many 
a time has lie had cause, when far from home and all 
civilization, to bo thankful to the good mother who 
taught him, when a little child, to use a needle. It is 
true that sewing machines save much sewing, but they 
do not make it the less necessary that girls should learn 
to sew, for there is much sewing that is not and probably 
never will be done by a machine. In putting on a patch 
for instance, the machine is rarely of use, yet patching 
and darning are among the most useful of all kindswf 
sewing. Do not be discouraged if you make slow 
progress in your sewing, each day it will slowly, hut 
surely come easier, and at length the needle will fly, and 
the work be beautifully done almost without effort. 
