Page:Youth's Companion (July 19, 1860).pdf/4



“Just look, Lucilla, at these little blue flowers that are growing by the road-side,” said Anne, as the two girls were walking together, one morning.

Lucilla stopped to gather some, saying, as she did so:

“I wonder that we never before this, have gathered these. I have seen them before, but never noticed them particularly.”

“We didn’t use to look for flowers as we do now,” said Anne, “and just before us a little distance, I see a patch of them growing so thickly that the ground appears entirely blue. I have seen the girls at school with these flowers in their hands. They called it Innocence.”

“It looks innocent enough,” said the other.”. [sic]

By this time they had come to the slightly swelling bank which they found covered with myriads of the delicate little flower which they were considering. Just below, the ground was damp and springy, but there was a prostrate birch tree upon the hare dry boughs of which they sat down. They had gathered a good many of the flowers, and now tried to examine them. Lucilla tore one of them apart, and looking at it attentively, exclaimed:

“I see four little yellow stamens. They are so small, that I can hardly see them. The inside of the petals is yellow, too. This is what gives such a bright, lively look to the patch of ground where these grow plentifully. How wonderfully pretty it is,” proceeded she; “look, what a tiny calyx it has!”

“Let us,” said Anne, “carry some of these to Uncle Ambrose.”

The two girls found their instructor working in the garden, but he was always ready to answer their questions.

Taking one of the flowers in his hand, he applied to it his magnifying glass, and then handed both to Lucilla. The four threadlike stamens which she had seen, were now greatly enlarged, and in the centre, she saw a slender white pistil, with its two-parted summit, which she remembered was called a stigma. The little corolla of blue, daintily lined with yellow on its inner side, was also expanded, and, on the whole, the appearance of the flower was highly elegant.

“Do you remember,” said Uncle Ambrose to Lucilla, that in examining the Lilac, some“some [sic] time ago, you found that the petals were all in one piece?”

“O yes, uncle, I do remember that well; what a heap of Lilacs Albert gathered for us that day. It was a warm day, and how cool the Lilacs looked, half hidden by the smooth, green leaves. And now I see that this also is all of one piece.”

“And,” said Anne, “it resembles the Lilac too, in its shape.”

“It does so, in that particular,” said Uncle Ambrose, “though its family relations are very different. They are both, however, good specimens of those flowers which are called monopetalous. To this one great division of plants they both belong.”

“By monopetalous, I suppose,” said Lucilla, “that you mean with the petals all in one.”

“Yes, I mean one-petaled. Though you may often find them like this, deeply cleft, yet they are joined either wholly, or in part. Here you see there are at the outer edge, four divisions. Sometimes where it is not cleft at all, yon can still see the seams, or little ridges, where the parts appear to have grown together. So interesting a division of plants is this, that I will propose that you sometime gather all the flowers of this sort, that you can find, and we will consider them. You will soon realize that this being a general destinctiondistinction [sic], comprehends multitudes of families. We will not, however, follow this further, at present. We will reserve it till another time.”

The girls both expressed their wish to gather specimens of the one-petaled flowers, before they should meet again.

“Meantime,” said Uncle Ambrose, “let me tell you, that this flower, so simple and so common, strewed as it appears, so widely in field and pasture, and especially along the banks of brooks and in moist places, indeed we find it continually, is one whose family relations are numerous and widely-extended.”

“I always love,” said Anne, “to hear about the family relations of the plants. It is so pleasant to know that the flowers have sisters and cousins like ourselves.”

“This regularly shaped corolla,” said Uncle Ambrose, with“with [sic] the stamens inserted upon it, agreeing in number with its divisions, as you can see for yourselves, each being four, and its calyx being similarly divided, indicate that it is of the same family as the Coffee plant. The flowers of this latter are strangely like these you have gathered to-day, in their construction, howbeit, while the one is so common, the other you would no doubt regard as a curiosity. Apart from its rareness in this part of the world, it is very lovely, with its sweet swelling blossoms of white, and its sunny looking leaves of light green. Let me tell you,” said he, warming with the remembrance of other scenes and distant days, “if you should once find yourselves within the beautiful embowering shade of a grove of Coffee trees, you would by no means be in a hurry to leave it.”

“I think,” said Anne, “that you have seen many plants that never grow here.”

“There is not only the Coffee, whose berry is so extensively used at the breakfast-table, but the Peruvian Bark, known all over the world as a medicine, which belongs to the same family.”

“But you have not yet told us,” said Anne, “the family name.”

“No, to be sure; it is called the. One member of the family furnishes from its root, a valuable article used in coloring red, which is called by the family name, Madder. I have spoken to you of foreign plants, but need not have gone so far away. You will find in the blossoms of the Partridge berry, a good illustration of this family. Its little white flowers, often tinged with pink, are easily found in their season; their fragrance reveals their hiding-place oft-times. The bright red berries of this plant are conspicuous even in the winter.”

“Yes,” replied Anne, “I have gathered them sometimes when the ground was covered with snow.”

“Much more might be said,” said Uncle Ambrose, “concerning this family, but it is now time for us to separate. You have learned at least that your little friend Innocence, or as it is often called, Blue Houstonin, has many relatives.”

Poisonous snakes often attack rats, hoping to get a good meal from them, but they generally find the rats ready to fight, and though the bite of the snake is sure to cause death, the bite of the rat generally leads to the same result. We suspect our readers wouldn’t like to live where such scenes as the following are of frequent occurrence:

The long winters and short summers of Russia, do not permit the cultivation of tender flowers or fruits in the open air, but the Emperor has a series of magnificent hot-houses, which remind one of a tropical climate. Bayard Taylor describes them:

[The following beautiful lines, by the author of that exquisite poem “Over the River,” (Miss N. A. W. Priest), first appeared in the Springfield Republican:]

A boy, who went to a school, by the advice and assistance of his teacher, had his face washed. When he came home, his neighbors looked at him with astonishment. They said, “that looks like Tom Rogers, and yet it can’t be, for he’s so clean.”" Presently his mother looked at him; finding his face so clean, she fancied her face dirty, and washed it. The father soon came home, and seeing his wife so clean, thought his face dirty, and soon followed their example. Father, mother and son all being clean, the mother began to think the room looked dirty, and down she went on her knees, and scrubbed that clean. There was a female lodger in the house, who, seeing such a change in her neighbors, thought her face and room very dirty, and she speedily betook to the cleansing operation likewise. And very soon the whole house was, as it were, transformed and made tidy and comfortable, simply by the cleaning of one ragged school-boy.

Can’t there be a reformation of this kind among some of our news-boys? Would they not set the example and thus carry cleanliness to the classic shades of Pigville? Water is plenty in the city, and might be applied. We should think from appearances that the example was rather followed of the old Scotch proverb, “the clartier, the cosier”—(the dirtier, the more comfortable.)

Recently, a young man employed upon one of the railroads leading out the city, went into a gambling saloon on Brattle street, and engaged in a game of “props” with a miscellaneous company there assembled. He soon lost all his money, some $24, a portion of which was a twenty dollar bill. As that bill was about to be pocketed by the winner, the young man seized it, and ran from the place with a speed about equal to shat of his favorite engine, and was followed by the crowd of gamblers, who were joined in the street by half a hundred loafers and boys, and one or two policemen, all shouting—“Stop thief! Stop him!” The fugitive was likely to outstrip his pursuers, when a policeman headed him off, and stopped him in the Sudbury street Market. The person from whom the money had been snatched, soon came up, and the young man was so frightened that he at once gave him the bill. When the police learned the particulars of the case, their sympathies were with the prisoner, and they looked after the gambler to make him restore the money, but could not find him. The young man was discharged, no person appearing to make complaint against him. Perhaps this dear lesson will prove a benefit to him.

On Sunday week, a young girl, daughter of Hugh King, of Piedmont, Va., was crossing a temporary foot-way across the mouth of George’s Creek, just as it connects with the North Branch, she fell off the log and was drowned. The Piedmont Independent says:

She was in company with several ladies and gentlemen, but the water was high and the currents of the two streams so swift that rescue seemed impossible. The whole day was spent in laborious and fruitless search after the body, but it could not be found. She was an amiable and beautiful girl, about fifteen years of age. Her mother had gone to the city of Baltimore on a visit, and had left her daughter in charge of the household affairs. She was on her way to church, when the melancholy and distressing accident occurred.

Gifts are often valued, not according to their real worth, or the intention of the giver, but according to the scarcity of the article. A queer story is told of a present once made to an Emperor of Germany:

On Monday afternoon, during the terrible tornado which visited so large a section of country, a number of trees were blown across the rack of the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. About the time the night train was due, an old farmer near the line of the road discovered a large tree directly across the track at a point where an accident must prove very destructive. He immediately collected wood and started bonfires in the road upon both sides of the fallen tree, and lighting torch, he proceeded in the direction of the approaching train. His two sturdy sons were first called, however, who set to work with their axes, and by the time the train arrived at the point of danger, the track had been nearly cleared, and with but few minutes delay, was enabled to proceed on its way. Such acts of disinterested good-will towards a railroad company and a load of human freight is worthy of record. We regret that we have not the names of the old farmer and his sons, to whose prompt labors so much is due from the company and the passengers.—Cincinnati Enquirer, May 26.

Tell, my grandchildren, said the late Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, writing home from India, that an elephant here had a disease in his eyes. For three days he had been completely blind. His owner, an engineer officer, asked my dear Dr. Webb, if he could do anything to relieve the poor animal. The doctor said he would try nitrate of silver, which was a remedy commonly applied to similar diseases in the human eye. The huge animal was ordered to lie down, and at first, on the application of the remedy, raised a most extraordinary roar at the acute pain which it occasioned. The effect, however, was wonderful. The eye was, in a manner, restored, and the animal could partially see. The next day, when he was brought, and heard the doctor’s voice, he laid down of himself, placed his enormous head on one side, curled up his trunk, drew in his breath just like a man about to endure an operation, gave a sigh of relief when it was over, and then, by trunk and gestures, evidently wished to express his gratitude. What sagacity! What a lesson to us of patience!

Labor is always honorable, and in these days of effeminacy and self-indulgence, those families who dispense with the service of foreign help, are worthy of double honor. But girls are often very foolish, and are ashamed of what they have reason to be proud of. We hope none of our readers would be quite as foolish as the young lady in Oswego:

A metallic coffin, containing the body of a young lady who had been buried more than four years, was lately opened in Memphis, Tennessee. The body was in an excellent state of preservation; the hair, particularly, was very life-like, and, what was more astonishing, a full-blown camellia japonica, which some affectionate hand had twined in the tresses of the girl, was remarkably fresh-looking, the leaves retaining their soft greenish hue to perfection.

It has been established by the courts, that the first stroke of the clock is the record of the hour. The mere labor of the remaining enumeration runs into the succeeding hour. The point was first brought up in Blackstone’s time in a great will case, where two persons had apparently died at the same time.

Have you ever seen a drunken man trying to make believe that he is sober? How ridiculous the spectacle! And yet more ridiculous still, is the attempt of an ignorant ill-bred person to appear very wise and refined in society.

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices and duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart, and secure comfort.

Remember what a world of gossip would be prevented if it was only remembered that a person who tells you of the faults of others, intends to tell others of your faults.

That plenty should produce either covetousness or prodigality is a perversion of providence: and yet the generality of men are the worse for their riches.

He who follows his recreation instead of his business, will, in a little time, have no business to follow.

Of all the earthly music, that which reaches the farthest into heaven is the beating of a loving heart. 

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November 1.

Pastor of the M. R. Church, Lawrence, Mass.
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Pastor of Main St. Methodist E. Church, Great Falls, N. H.
 * I have used your Hair Regenerator, and have received great benefit from it. I deem the article worthy of high commendation, and cheerfully recommend it to all who want to restore gray hair to its original color, or to any who are troubled with dandruff, or a disagreeable itching of the head, or humors, or to those whose hair is falling from the head. To those who use any article for the hair, use, by all means, Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator.

Pastor of Elm St. Methodist Church, Manchester, N. H.
 * I deem “Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator” the standard article of all hair preparations. I have, in many instances, known it to restore the hair where it had fallen off, remove dandruff, restore the hair to its original color, cure entirely the most painful headaches—and in some instances most serious humors. Personally, I have seen a sharer in several of these benefits, and frankly say, the article long wanted and looked for by the people, I believe will be found in Mrs. H. E. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator and Dressing.

, N. H., Sept. 26.
 * For some years past my hair had been turning gray. By the use of your Hair Regenerator the scalp is cleansed and freed from dandruff, and the hair is restored to its original color, and rendered soft and glossy, and where it was very thin, a new and beautiful growth is produced.

I feel confident that it operates, not as a dye, but to restore the roots to their natural healthy state. Must cheerfully do I recommend it to all are need. The expense is nothing compared with the benefit received.

To whom it may concern:

This certifies that I have been an eye witness of the wonderful effects of Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator upon several of my friends’ heads; some, it reinstated the hair to its original color—others it gave a the new growth of hair, and in my case having been very bald for fifteen years, but now I had quite an increase of hair, and I am satisfied if I had attended to it as I should have done, my head would have been nearly or quite covered. I have used but one bottle.

You have liberty to use this as you please, with the addition that it is almost a sure cure for the headache.

Of the Saratoga Water Cure.

, N. Y., Aug. 15.


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Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Dressing is put up in large bottles, and retails for 37 cts. per bottle, and for dressing the hair of any person, young or old, there is not its equal in the world. It will make the hair everything you want it should be, and moreover, it has a perfume that is infinitely superior to any of the fashionable extracts, either foreign or American, which alone should entitle it to a place on every lady’s toilet table.

Be careful and obtain Mrs. H. E. Wilson’s Hair Dressing, as as [sic] the name will be shown in every bottle, and you can obtain it is almost every store in the United stains or Canada.

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23—1y

This well known Remedy has been used very extensively and with great success for the cure of

Liver Complaint, Dropsy, Neuralgia and Nervous Affections. Loss of Appetite, Headache, Langour and Depression of Spirits, Carbuncles and Boils, Pales, Scurvy, Affections of the Skin, Consumptive Tendencies, Bronchitis, Diseases Peculiar as Females, and all Complaints Accompanied by General Debility, and requiring a Tonic and Alternative Medicine.

On the efficacy of the Peruvian Syrup and the benefits the have derived from its use:

Rev. JOHN PIERPONT, Medford, Mass.—Its efficacy in Salt Rheum and other Cutaneous Diseases

Rev. WARREN BURTON. Boston, Mass.—Its efficacy in Headaches, Loss of Appetite, Oppressive, Neuralgia, Nervous Affections, and General Debility: Its Value to Clergymen.

Rev. SYLVANUS COBB, Boston, Mass.—its Use and Efficacy in family: Restoration of strength after Typhoid Fever.

Rev. THOMAS WHITTEMORE, Boston, Mass.—Its Use and Value in Paralysis, Dyspepsia, and Dropsy of the Chest; and adds: “It gives me new vigor, buoyancy of spirits, Elasticity of Muscle.”

Rev. EPHRIAM NUTE,, Lawrence, Kansas Territory.—Its Efficacy in Dyspepsia, Debility, prostration, and Adaptation to Western Climatic Diseases.

Rev. HENRY UPHAM, Boston, Mass.—Its Efficacy in Dyspepsia and Afflictions of the Liver.

Rev. S. H. RIDDEL, Boston, Mass.—Its Value in cases of Bronchitis, Indigestion, Turgid Liver, Neuralgia, and Nervous Debility.

Rev. P. C. BRADLEY, Greenfield, Mass.—Its genuineness as a Medical Agent, and Efficacy in Dyspepsia, Neuralgia, and Plurisy.

Rev. J. W. OLMSTEAD, Boston, Mass.—General Recommendation, and confidence in its Genuineness as a Medicine, its Efficacy in Dyspepsia and Nervous Debility.

N. B. Pamphlets containing Letters from the above named Gentleman and others, and giving full indication of the Syrup, can be had on application to the Agents, or to

No. 78 Sudbury Street, Sold by Druggists generally throughout the United States. 1—1y

FOR sale, at a low price, at this Office, Bound Volumes of the Companion from 1848.

