Part 4 — VARIETIES.
Reading edition
Foretelling the Weather.
One morning a countryman knocked at the door of the celebrated astronomer, Sir Frederick William Herschell, and requested the favour of a few words with him.
When Sir William entered the hall the countryman said—
“I ask pardon, Doctor, for disturbing you, but I am in a quandary, so I have made bold to call and ask your advice. You must know that my meadows are a great deal too long for cutting, but before I begin I should like to hear whether you think the weather will soon break up?”
“First look round,” said the astronomer, “and tell me what you see.”
“See,” said the countryman; “why hay that is not worth saving. What dunderhead owns it that lives so near you and cuts it without asking your advice?”
“I am the dunderhead,” said Sir William, “and had it cut the very day before the rain came on.”
Work for all.—No girl is born into this world whose work is not born with her; there is always work and tools to work withal for those who will.
Returning Good for Evil.
An old man of the name of Guyot lived and died in the city of Marseilles. He amassed a large fortune by the most laborious industry and the severest habits of abstinence and privation. What appeared his miserly ways made him anything but popular, and the populace pursued him with hootings and execration whenever he appeared.
In course of time he died, and when his will was opened the following words were found: “Having observed from my childhood that the poor of Marseilles are ill-supplied with water, which can only be procured at a great price, I have cheerfully laboured the whole of my life to procure for them this great blessing, and I direct that the whole of my property be laid out in building an aqueduct for their use.”
Let the Flowers Live.—“I like to see flowers growing,” writes Charlotte Brontë, “but when they are gathered they cease to please. I look upon them as rootless and perishable; their likeness then to life makes me sad. I never offer flowers to those I love; I never wish to receive them from hands dear to me.”
Railways were Novelties then.
When railway travelling was in its infancy an old Scotch woman was about to make her first railway journey. While waiting at the station she began to ask the passengers, one after the other, “Are you gaun to Perth?”
On receiving from each one an answer in the negative she exclaimed in amazement, “Guidness me! Will the railway folk send a train a’ the road to Perth juist wi’ a’ puir auld wife like me?”
The Secret of his Simple Style.
When Charles Dickens was editing Household Words, he one day wrote to a contributor asking him to call.
The contributor came with an uneasy feeling that he was going to get a scolding about something, but it turned out that his chief wished to compliment him.
“I am constantly struck,” said Dickens, “by your admirable simple style. How did you attain it?”
“Well, you see, Mr. Dickens,” said the contributor, “there are so many words I don’t understand, and so many words I can’t spell, that I have to use a very simple sort of language.”