THE PITH ’OF MANY BOOKS. 
A square mile contains 640 acres. 
Telescopes were invented in 1590. 
A barrel of rice weighs 600 pounds. 
A barrel of flour weighs 196 pounds. 
A barrel of pork weighs 200 pounds. 
A firkin of butter weighs 56 pounds. 
A span is ten and seven-eighth inches. 
A hand (horse measure) is four inches. 
Watches were first constructed in 1476. 
The average human life is thirty-one years. 
Modern needles first came into use in 1545. 
Space has a temperature of 200 degrees below zero. 
The first newspaper advertisement appeared in 1652. 
Robert Bonner refused $100,000 for the trotter Maud S. 
Until 1776 cotton spinning was performed by the hand-spinning wheel. 
Measure 209 feet on each side and you will have a square acre 
within an inch. 
The first steam engine on this continent was brought from England 
in 1753 - 
The first knives were used in England, and the first wheeled carriage 
in France in 1559. 
THE GRAMMAR IN RHYME. 
Of course the whole science of grammar cannot be comprised in 
twenty lines of verse, says the Standard American Encyclopedia, but the 
ten couplets which are here given have started many learners upon the 
difficult road which leads to the mastery of language: 
Three little words you often see, • 
Are articles, a, an and the. 
A noun’s the name of anything, 
As school or garden, hoop or swing. 
Adjectives tell the kind of noun, 
As great, small, pretty, white or brown. 
Instead of nouns the pronouns stand, 
Her head, his face, your arm, my hand. 
Verbs tell of something to be done— 
To read, count, laugh, sing, jump or run. 
How things are done the adverbs tell, 
As slowly, quickly; ill or well. 
Conjunctions join the words together, 
As man and woman, wind or weather. 
The preposition stands before 
A noun, as in or through the door. 
The interjection shows surprise, 
As 0 / how pretty! ah! how wise. 
The whole are called nine parts of speech, 
Which reading, writing, speaking, teach. 
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