Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

A Lady in Ohio writes:

"My little boy Walter, eight years old, found out, unassisted, the enigma No. 7 in the April number of 'Our Young Folks.' He was so delighted with his success, that he begged me to send his solution to you, as he could not write sufficiently well to do it himself. He has read 'The Tempest,' a portion of 'Oliver Twist,' and the greater part of the Bible, so that he could solve it readily.

"He was so young to have found out an enigma of that kind, that I thought I must gratify him. 'Our Young Folks' is eagerly watched for every month, and it is a source of great pride to him that he is a subscriber (he is one of a club). We have aften remarked that the gratification he feels in the reception of any one number of the magazine amply repaid us for the price of the subscription.

"I certainly think it is the best magazine for the young that I have ever seen."

Sylva. No.

A. C. Z. Do not be too critical before you have learned to spell. Finis is not "French for Ends," but Latin for end.

Scribus. You sent no answer to your Latin enigma, and therefore lost your trouble. You write handsomely."

A Subscriber. If you have, as you say, had editorial experience, do you not remember that anonymous communications have small weight? The article to which you refer speaks of the past; can you point out any deviation in it from the recognized facts of history? You say justly, "Truth is eternal, sacred, and safe"; if, then, these pages but newly record old and true chronicles, where is the error?

H. W. T. Always direct letters which are meant for the Editors to them, and not to the Publishers.

W. S. 7. The probable cause of your receiving no answer is that you directed your letter wrongly. Read "A Business Letter" in our last volume, and you will see that communications ought not to go to any Editor personally. The rebus you name was printed from the copy supplied by the person whose initials were appended to it. We often have a dozen similar designs for a common proverb; if we use any, we either take the first that was received, or else the best of the number.

From H. G. A. of Cambridge, Mass., we have the following ingenious result of mathematical talent and application, which he calls

A MAGIC SQUARE OF SQUARES.

1 27 14 57 80 67 29 52 42 75 71 58 47 43 33 19 18 5 38 34 51 10 9 23 66 62 76 25 15 2 81 68 55 53 40 30 72 59 73 44 31 48 16 6 20 35 49 39 7 24 11 63 77 64 13 3 26 69 56 79 41 28 54 60 74 70 32 46 45 4 21 17

50 37 36 22 12 8 78 65 61 "The above square," writes our friend, "contains the numbers from 1 to 81 inclusive, and has the following properties:

"1. The sum of any row of nine numbers, vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, is 369.

"2. The sum of any nine numbers forming a square, wherever taken, is 369.

"3. If the four corner numbers (1, 42, 50, 61), the middle numbers of the four outside rows (80, 72, 20, 12), and the central number (31) be added together, their sum will be 369.

66

4. The sum of the nine numbers similarly situated in any square formed by twenty-five or forty-nine numbers is 369.

"One or more vertical rows may be transferred from the left to the right, or from the right to the

M. F. sends other answers to Arithmetical Puz- left, or one or more horizontal rows from the top zle No. 2, as follows:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

89

7

[blocks in formation]

to the bottom, or from the bottom to the top, and the properties of the square be unchanged."

How many of our readers can reproduce this remarkable table for themselves on slate or paper, first studying it well, and then laying it aside while they puzzle over the problem?

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

OMEWHERE in a garden of this earth, which the dear Lord has planted with many flowers of gladness, grew a fresh, bright little daisy.

The first this little daisy knew, she found herself growing in green pastures and beside the still waters where the Heavenly Shepherd was leading his sheep. And very beautiful did life look to her, as her bright little eyes, with their crimson lashes, opened and looked down into the deep crystal waters of the brook below, where the sunshine made every hour more sparkles, more rings of light, and more brilliant glances and changes of color, than all the jewellers in the world could imitate. She knew intimately all the yellowbirds, and meadow-larks, and bobolinks, and blackbirds, that sang, piped, whistled, or chattered among the bushes and trees in the pasture, and she was a prime favorite with them all. The fish that darted to and fro in the waters seemed like so many living gems, and their silent motions, as they glided hither and thither, were full of beauty, and told as plainly of happiness as if they could speak. Multitudes of beautiful flowers grew up in the water, or on the moist edges of the brook. There were green fresh arrow-heads, which in their time gave forth their white blossoms with a little gold ball in the centre of each, and there were the pickerel-weed, with its thick, sharp green leaf, and its sturdy spike of blue

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by TICKNOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

[blocks in formation]

blossoms, and the tall meadow-grass, with its graceful green tassels hanging down and making wavy reflections in the water; and there was the silverweed, whose leaves as they dipped in the brook seemed to be of molten silver, and whose tall heads of fringy white blossoms sent forth a grateful perfume in the air; and there, too, were the pink and white azalias, full of sweetness and beauty, and close along in the green mosses of the banks grew blue and white violets, and blood-root, with its silvery stars of blossom, and the purple hepatica, with its quaint hairy leaves, and the slender wind-flower on its thread-like stem, and the crowfoot, with its dark bronze leaf and its half-shut

[graphic]

flower, looking like the outside of a pink sea-shell. In fact, there is scarcely any saying how many beautiful blooming things grew and flourished in that green pasture where dear little Daisy was so happy as first to open her bright eyes. They did not all blossom at once, but had their graceful changes; but there was always a pleasant flutter of expectation among them,- either a sending forth of leaves, or a making of buds, or a bursting out into blossoms; and when the blossoms passed away, there was a thoughtful, careful maturing of seeds, all packed away so snugly in their little coffers and caskets of seed

pods, which were of every quaint and dainty shape that ever could be fancied for a lady's jewel-box. Overhead there grew a wide-spreading apple-tree, which in the month of June became a gigantic bouquet, holding up to the sun a million silvery opening flowers, and a million pink-tipped buds; and the little winds would come to play in its branches, and take the pink shells of the blossoms for their tiny air-boats, in which they would go floating round among the flowers, or sail on voyages of discovery down the stream; and when the time of its blossom was gone, the bountiful tree from year to year had matured fruits of golden ripeness which cheered the hearts of men. Little Daisy's life was only one varied delight from day to day. She had a hundred playmates among the light-winged winds, that came to her every hour to tell her what was going on all over the green pasture, and to bring her sweet perfumed messages from the violets and anemones of even the more distant regions.

There was not a ring of sunlight that danced in the golden network at the bottom of the brook that did not bring a thrill of gladness to her heart; not a tiny fish glided in his crystal paths, or played and frolicked under the water-lily shadows, that was not a well-known friend of hers, and whose pleasures she did not share. At night she held conferences with the dewdrops that stepped about among the flowers in their bright pearl slippers, and washed their leaves and faces before they went to rest. Nice little nurses and dressing-maids these dews! and they kept tender guard all night over the flowers, watching and blinking wakefully to see that all was safe; but when the sun arose, each of them spread a pair of little rainbow wings, and was gone.

[ocr errors]

To be sure, there were some reverses in her lot. Sometimes a great surly, ill-looking cloud would appear in the sky, like a cross schoolmaster, and sweep up all the sunbeams, and call in a gruff voice to the little winds, her playfellows, to come away from their nonsense; and then he would send a great strong wind down on them, all with a frightful noise, and roar, and sweep all the little flowers flat to the earth; and there would be a great rush and pattering of rain-drops, and bellowing of thunders, and sharp forked lightnings would quiver through the air as if the green pastures certainly were to be torn to pieces; but in about half an hour it would be all over, the sunbeams would all dance out from their hiding-places, just as good as if nothing had happened, and the little winds would come laughing back, and each little flower would lift itself up, and the winds would help them to shake off the wet and plume themselves as jauntily as if nothing had gone amiss. Daisy had the greatest pride and joy in her own pink blossoms, of which there seemed to be an inexhaustible store; for, as fast as one dropped its leaves, another was ready to open its eyes, and there were buds of every size, waiting still to come on, even down to little green cushions of buds that lay hidden away in the middle of the leaves down close to the root. "How favored I am!" said Daisy ; "I never stop blossoming. The anemones and the liverwort and the blood-root have their time, but then they stop and have only leaves, while I go on blooming perpetually; how nice it is to be made as I am!"

"you

"But you must remember," said a great rough Burdock to her, must remember that your winter must come at last, when all this fine blossoming will have to be done with."

"What do you mean?" said Daisy, in a tone of pride, eying her rough neighbor with a glance of disgust. "You are a rough, ugly old thing, and that's why you are cross. Pretty people like me can afford to be goodnatured."

"Ah, well,” said Dame Burdock, "you 'll see. It's a pretty thing if a young chit just out from seed this year should be impertinent to me, who have seen twenty winters, - yes, and been through them well, too!"

"Tell me, Bobolink," said Daisy, "is there any truth in what this horrid Burdock has been saying? What does she mean by winter?"

"I don't know, not I," said Bobolink, as he turned a dozen somersets in the air, and then perched himself airily on a thistle-head, singing,

"I don't know, and I don't care;

It's mighty pleasant to fly up there,

And it's mighty pleasant to light down here,

And all I know is chip, chip, cheer."

"Say, Humming-bird, do you know anything about winter?” "Winter? I never saw one," said Humming-bird;

we have wings, and

follow Summer round the world, and where she is, there go we." "Meadow-Lark, Meadow-Lark, have you ever heard of winter?" said

Daisy.

Meadow-Lark was sure he never remembered one. "What is winter?" he said, looking confused.

"Butterfly, Butterfly," said Daisy, "come, tell me, will there be winter, and what is winter?"

But the Butterfly laughed, and danced up and down, and said, "What is Daisy talking about? I never heard of winter? Winter? ha! ha! What is it?"

"Then it's only one of Burdock's spiteful sayings," said Daisy. "Just because she is n't pretty, she wants to spoil my pleasure, too. Say, dear lovely tree that shades me so sweetly, is there such a thing as winter ? "

And the tree said, with a sigh through its leaves, "Yes, daughter, there will be winter; but fear not, for the Good Shepherd makes both summer and winter, and each is good in its time. Enjoy thy summer and fear not."

The months rolled by. The violets had long ago stopped blooming, their leaves were turning yellow, but they had beautiful green seed-caskets, full of rows of little pearls, which next year should come up in blue violets. The dog-toothed violet and the eye-bright had gone under ground, so that no more was seen of them, and Daisy wondered whither they could be gone. But she had new acquaintances far more brilliant, and she forgot the others. The brook-side seemed all on fire with golden-rod, and the bright yellow was relieved by the rich purple tints of the asters, while the blue fringed gentian held up its cups, that seemed as if they might have been cut out of the sky, — and still Daisy had abundance of leaves and blossoms, and felt strong

« PoprzedniaDalej »