LINCOLN AND HIS TIMES
Reading edition
Recollections of
President Lincoln and His Administration
By Lucius E. Chittenden. With Portrait. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50; Half Calf, $4.75.
Abraham Lincoln
By Charles Carleton Coffin. Profusely Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.
A History of the Rebellion in Four Volumes by
CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN:
DRUM-BEAT OF THE NATION
MARCHING TO VICTORY
REDEEMING THE REPUBLIC
FREEDOM TRIUMPHANT
Profusely Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $3.00 each.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York
AN OBLIGING TRAVELLER.
There has been a great deal of complaint both in London and New York of the way in which a certain class of shopkeepers try to force their wares upon passers-by. One man, a traveller, has managed to get the better of one of these shopmen, a clothing-dealer, who had a way of almost dragging people into his place. One day shortly after his arrival in London the traveller stopped for a moment to examine a coat hanging in front of a clothing establishment, when the shopman rushed out and asked, "Wouldn't you try on some coats?"
"I don't know but I would," responded the traveller, consulting his watch. "I've got some time to spare. Yes." And he went in and began to work. No matter how often he found his fit, he called for more coats, and after he had tried on thirty he looked at his watch again, resumed his own garment, and walked off, saying:
"I won't charge anything for what I've done. I believe in a man who'll oblige another when he can do it. If I'm ever this way again, and you've got any coats to try on, I'll do all I can to help you!"
What the shopkeeper said we are not told, but it is not hard to imagine what he thought.
The other evening Toddletums called his papa to tell him that he couldn't get to sleep for the mosquitoes.
"Never mind, Toddle; just put your head under the clothes, where they can't get at you."
Toddletums did so, but in a little while he peered from under the clothing. A firefly happening along at the moment set him yelling:
"It's no use, papa. I hid under the clothes, and now they've gone off and got lanterns to find me with."
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.
"Ef George had been a girl, and had dressed in female clo'es, Would he have been the mother of her country, do you s'pose?"
THE BULL-FROG DANCE.
It is lovely when the moonlight is a-shining on the bog, To watch the lively antics of the agile-legged frog; When the moonfay boys are playing on their long and limpid flutes, It sends a thrill of pleasure down our spinals to our boots. On a mushroom seat, With the grasses at our feet, And the lightning-bugs a-flashing here and there beneath the trees, 'Tis a very pretty sight, In the pale moonlight, With an undertone of humming and a-thrumming of the bees. You can talk about the pleasure that you mortals find on earth, You can crack your funny jokelets, we don't envy you your mirth; For you've never had the laughter That we moonfay boys get after We have watched for forty minutes three long-legged bull-frogs dance!
A WONDERFUL SEA-TALE.
A lad was found begging in Plymouth, England, some years ago, who told a most wonderful tale of woe. According to his statement, given with a straight face and an apparently clear conscience, he had been a cabin-boy upon an American steamship. For some misbehavior, as a temporary punishment he was headed up in an empty water-cask, and left to reflect upon his wickedness, with only the bunghole of the cask to breathe through. On the following night a terrible storm came up, and the vessel went down with all on board, excepting himself, the cask having rolled over into the sea at the first lurch of the sinking ship. Fortunately for its unhappy occupant, the cask floated with the bunghole free from the water, and in the course of a day or so was cast upon the coast, where the lad, after making numerous vain attempts to release himself, settled back to die. Some cows, however, he said, came strolling along the beach, and one of them, while switching its tail about, accidentally let the end of it into the bunghole of the cask. The boy immediately seized upon it; the cow, electrified, jumped, stood still, and jumped again, and then rushed bellowing down the beach, the boy hanging on like grim death, and the cask, consequently, bumping the hind legs of the frightened bovine as she fled. Finally, as the boy had hoped, the hoops of the cask were loosened, and striking upon a rock, the whole thing was shattered, and the boy, letting go of the cow's tail, found himself free once more. After wandering about for several days he hailed a vessel, and was carried to Plymouth, where his wonderful experience first became common talk.
A LITTLE TOMMYTHOUGHT.
The coal-man on the wagon sits, And shivers in the storm. I don't see why that load of coal Won't keep the driver warm.
HEREDITY.
Freddy. "I think papa takes more after my little baby brother than he does after me."
Mamma. "Why, Freddy?"
Freddy. "Because all his hair is at the back and sides of his head, and it won't come to the front."
THE FINEST KIND.
"I tell you, mamma," said little Herbert, when his mother gave him a chocolate éclair for the first time the other day, "this is the finest kind of a banana I ever tasted!"