226 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jtine, 
IcupiKiGiiT 
HB FIRST LESSON .—From the Original PaintunG bt Merle.— 
Kiiowleclg-e gives pleasure, Tjut the way to get it is not 
always easy. The child in the picture “ don’t Avant to 
learn its letters hoys and girls usually like to Icnoiv, hut 
they do not often like to study. How many wish that 
learning could he done like hreathing, without work, and 
because one could not help it. But that Avould not he the 
hest way. study makes the mind strong, just as Avork 
Avith the hands gives a stouter grip. It is not an .easy 
thing for a little heginner to learn the alphahet; his mind 
has not heen trained to attend, to observe, and to remem¬ 
ber ; hut in a few years, by having daily fixed his thoughts 
upon some task, he will readily see through problems he 
can not now understand. Let those who can not learn 
quickly, and who find school duties hard, take courage by 
remembering that every resolute mastery of a lesson adds 
Algol to the brain-power, and helps make a mind th.at no 
diiiiculty can AA'iihstand. Those aa^Iio learn easiest, and 
carry aivay all the honors and prizes at school, are by no 
means ahvays the most successful in life; but the boy 
Avho schools himself to conquer laziness, and trains his 
mind to severe application, Avhether ho stands at the head 
or the foot of his class noAV, will by and by gain imver 
to be prepared to take the front rank in any calling. 
Take six checker-men, three of each color, (pennies or 
buttons will do), and place them thus: ^ 
® ® space left betAveen ^ ^ 
^ the two colors should equal the diam¬ 
eter of a checker. The puzzle is, by moving and jiunp- 
avedfor the American Agriculturist 'by J. L. Langrhlgc., 
ing, to put the Avhitc men Avhere the black men are. and 
rice versa. Commence bymoA'ing one of the men that 
are next the middle, toAvards the opposite color. Sup¬ 
pose you begin by moA’ing Black toAA'ards '}Vhite. Then 
jump White over Black, and so on. There Avill never be 
but 07ie open space, across Avhich to move, or into AA'hich 
to jump. It is not allowed to jump or move a man back- 
AA'ard—that is, each color must alAA'ays advance towards 
the opposite side. The men must be kept in line, and a 
mark made at the ends, to shoAV the limit beyond which 
the men must not go. The men of the same color, that 
is, all the Avhites, or blacks, are placed touching each 
other, although the engraving represents them as sepa¬ 
rated by a short space. To explain the puzzle, in 
giving an answer, the men may be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. 
