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enough to hold his weight, and then walked ashore. The scientist decided that he was entitled to his liberty.—Harper's Weekly.

(1615)

Haydn and Mozart were great friends. When either had composed a masterpiece, the other was invited to the house of the composer to enjoy the first sweetness. The following story is from The Boy's World:

It chanced to be Haydn's turn, and Mozart came full of expectation. Contrary to custom, Haydn invited his guest to give his interpretation of the theme instead of playing it over himself. Much pleased at the compliment, Mozart played brilliantly, for the work was beautiful and his musician's soul was stirred. Suddenly he halted and looked across the piano at his friend.

"There's a mistake here," he said, "a passage written for three hands would be impossible for a soloist. Of course, those notes must come out.

"Oh!" said Haydn, quietly, "I can play it."

Mozart laughed. "My friend, you have not three hands."

"Perhaps not," answered Haydn, with a quiet smile. "Nevertheless, I contend that I can play the passage, otherwise I would not have written it."

"A challenge!" cried Mozart. "Prove your word."

He yielded his place at the piano.

His excitement rose as Haydn reached the disputed passage, when, to his amazement, the composer brought his nose to the keyboard, and the notes rang out clear and true.

(1616)

INGRATITUDE

On the plains and along the broad bottoms of the Missouri River are the colonies—often a community of many members, with villages of wide extent—of the American marmots, or prairie-dogs. Merry, cheery, chipper little fellows these gregarious villagers sit on the mound above or beside the open door that leads to their comfortable subterranean dwellings, and hold converse in short not unmusical barks, each greeting his neighbor and rejoicing in the sunshine. But into the sanctity of the home which he and his have constructed with much labor, the burrowing owl comes, uninvited, and becomes a tenant with a life lease, without so much as "by your leave"; and one of the most atrocious results of this swindling arrangement is that the dog (a strict vegetarian) finds that the owl, whose young shares the nest with the infant marmots, feeds upon them and rears its young upon the bodies of the children of its victimized landlord.—Mrs. , Popular Science News.

(1617)

INHERITED PECULIARITIES

No study is more fascinating than the study of the laws of heredity. When a baby is born almost the first question is, "Whom does he resemble?" For months and years friends peer into the child's face to discover, if possible, the family likeness. It has its mother's eyes or its father's mouth. If no marked resemblance can be found, the comment is, "How singular that this child is unlike every one in the family." Resemblance is strange, but the absence of it, is more strange. A physical feature appears and reappears for generations. A delicate ear, looking like a translucent shell, is exactly reproduced. In some instances a generation is skipt, and then the likeness comes out again. A faded portrait or a medallion two hundred years old is brought to light, and in it you see the young man who stands by your side looking at it. Appetite for strong drink is found to exist in a whole family. Many a son inherits from his father tastes which almost inevitably produce the habit of intemperance. One of the most fearful woes of drunkenness is that it is entailed, and may become more terrible in the son than it was in the father. Strong animal passions predominate in some families, so that the sins of the fathers are repeated in the sons and grandsons. The expressions "good blood," and "bad blood," bear testimony to these well-known laws. In view of these facts, the questions we ask are in substance the questions of the disciples, "Where does the responsibility rest? Is there any blame? Is there any release? What does the religion of Jesus Christ say to these undeniable facts? Can it do anything to change them?" Upon us, as we are, with our natural and inherited characteristics, Christ performs His saving work. And it is matter of common observation, as undeniable as the facts of which we have been thinking, that those who truly become the servants of Christ are changed in this very respect, that they obtain genuine control over their inherited faults.—, Andover Review.

(1618)

Inharmony—See.