St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 by Various

V >> Various >> St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878

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James was in the country during the summer, and there he lay on the
soft grass, smelled the sweet flowers, and tried to remember their
forms and colors. He leaned against the strong tree trunks and
measured them with his arms, and the sweet, cool breezes from the
river came to refresh and strengthen him.

James has a chum, Charles McCormick, who is almost as badly off as
himself--perhaps you will think him worse off. He was born deaf and
dumb, and when three years old he fell on the railroad track and
the cars cut off both his arms! These two boys love each other
dearly. They go into the woods together to gather flowers. Charles
goes first because he has the eyes, and when he finds the flowers
he stoops down and touches them with the stump of his arm, while
James passes his hand down his friend's shoulder and picks them! So
they do together what neither could do alone, and both are as happy
as birds!--Your friend,

E.S. MILLER.

* * * * *

Hampstead, England.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I am eleven years old, and this is the first
time I have ever written to you, so I am going to tell you about my
dear little squirrel, "Bob." He is beautifully soft, and his back
and head are gray, but his legs and tail are red; he has four long
teeth, and he bites very much, if we vex him. He eats nuts and
fruit, and he is very fond of bread and milk. When we had him
first, he used to run up the curtains and bite them all into holes.
Every Sunday he would be brought downstairs while we were at
dinner, and papa would give him nuts; but he got so cross that papa
would not let him come down again. In the summer, we brought out
his cage into the garden; but one Sunday papa opened the cage door,
and out jumped Bob. He ran to the wall (which was all covered with
ivy), and began to climb it; but papa caught him by his hind-leg
and stopped him, and he gave papa such a bite on his hand. So I
would not let him go out again. Last summer, mamma took us all down
to Wales; but it was too far to take Bob, so we left him to my
governess, who took him home with her. But one unlucky day she let
him out in the conservatory, and did not shut the window; so he got
a chance and ran away out into the road, and he did not come back.
She offered a reward, and two days afterward he was found outside
the window of an empty house. Soon after that we all came home,
and I was very glad to see Bob again, naughty as he was. There is a
very funny thing which I ought to have told about first; it is that
my Bob was brought up by a cat, and not in the woods at all. I do
not think there is anything more to tell you about him.--I am your
little reader,

LAURA B. LEWIS.

* * * * *

HOW TO MAKE A FAIRY FOREST.

In the first place, you must live in the country, where you can
find that early spring flower, the blood-root or _sanguinaria_.
Wherever it grows it generally is seen in great
abundance--flowering in the Middle States about the first of April.
The roots are tuberous, resembling Madeira vines, and they do not
penetrate very deeply into the earth. Therefore, when the ground is
not frozen on its surface, these tubers can be quite easily
procured. In the latter part of March, after removing a layer of
dead leaves, or a light covering of leaf mold, the plants may be
found, and, at that time will have large brown or greenish brown
buds in great abundance, all very neatly wrapped up in conical
rolls. A basket should be carefully filled with these tubers,
without shaking all the earth from them, and some of the flakiest
and greenest pieces of moss that can be found adhering to the rocks
must also be put into the basket.

When you reach home, take a large dish or pan and dispose these
tubers upon it, first having sprinkled it ever so lightly with the
earth found in the bottom of the basket. Place the roots quite
close together, taking care to keep the large, pointed,
live-looking buds on the top, pack them closely; side by side,
until the dish is full, then lay your bits of moss daintily over
them, or between them when the beds are large, set them in the
sweet spring sunshine, in a south or east window, sprinkle them
daily with slightly tepid water, and on some fine morning you will
find a little bed of pure white flowers, that will tell you a tale
of the woods which will charm your young souls.

Sanguinaria treated in this way will generally so far anticipate
its natural time of flowering as to present you the smiling,
perfumed faces of its blossoms while the fields may yet be covered
with snow.

But this is not the end. After these snowy blossoms have performed
their mission of beauty, they will drop off upon the carpet of
moss, and, in a short time, will be succeeded by the leaves of the
plant, which are large and irregular, but very beautiful, and each
leaf is supported by a stem which comes directly from the ground,
giving the impression of a miniature tree. A large dish of these
little trees springing from the moss makes the Fairy Forest, and an
imaginative girl, or possibly boy, well steeped in fairy lore, may
imagine many wonderful things to happen herein.

If you have little friends; or relatives who live in the city and
cannot go into the woods to look for the sanguinaria, you can
easily pack a pasteboard box full of the roots and moss, and send
it to them by express, or, if it is not too heavy, by mail.

GRANDMOTHER GREY.

THE RIDDLE-BOX.

A COMMON ADAGE.

[Illustration.]

LITERARY ENIGMA.

1. MY 26 39 66 55 40 48 44 11 12 is a poet of ancient Greece.

2. My 25 24 33 8 42 is a poet of ancient Italy.

3. My 69 36 14 50 18 3 41 is a poet of England.

4. My 22 58 65 37 9 by 59 21 53 23 47 28 is a German poem.

5. My 47 62 64 38 is a historian of England.

6. My 30 46 54 48 15 32 is a popular American writer.

7. My 34 7 46 57 41 50 70 is a Scottish writer.

8. My 6 13 67 16 1 17 68 63 5 52 is an English poet.

9. My 47 24 2 23 10 68 63 43 4 is an American writer of fiction.

10. My 49 41 19 56 35 is an eminent geologist.

11. My 16 24 27 41 is a scientist of England.

12. My 45 61 60 67 37 13 31 is one of America's living writers.

13. My 61 7 20 29 is another American writer.

The whole is an extract of two lines (seventy letters) from a noted
English poem.

F.H.R.

TRANSPOSITIONS.

In each of the following sentences fill the blank or blanks in the
first part with words whose letters, when transposed, will suitably
fill the remaining blank or blanks.

1. ---- ---- ---- words with a man in a ----. 2. Did you see the
tiger ---- on me with his ---- eyes? 3. McDonald said: "---- ----
ragged ---- remind you of Scotland." 4. The knots may be ----
more easily than ----. 5. ---- ---- told me an ---- which amused
all in his tent. 6. I hung the ---- on the ---- round of the rack.
7. The witness is of small value if he can ---- ---- information
that is more ---- than this. 8. The ---- ---- as they look over
the precipices in their steep ----.

EASY REVERSALS.

1. Reverse a color, and give a poet. 2. Reverse a musical pipe, and
give an animal. 3. Reverse an entrance, and give a measure of surface.
4. Reverse an inclosure, and give a vehicle. 5. Reverse part of a ship,
and give an edible plant. 6. Reverse a noose, and give a small pond.
7. Reverse a kind of rail, and give a place of public sale. 8. Reverse
sentence passed, and give temper of mind. 9. Reverse a portion, and
give an igneous rock. 10. Reverse an apartment, and give an upland.

ISOLA.

DOUBLE DIAMOND.

The first and ninth words, together, make vegetables that grow in the
second upon the third in the fourth; the eighth, a girl, after
performing the fifth upon the first and ninth in the fourth, pulling
the second the while, did the sixth to get them into the house; here
the eighth soon had them upon the seventh, cooking for dinner.

Perpendicular, heavy; horizontal, picking.

G.L.C.

CURTAILMENTS AND BEHEADINGS.

To the name of a gifted man,
Affix a letter, if you can,
And find his avocation.

Curtail a piece of work he did,
You'll find a word that now is hid,--
A madman's occupation.

Behead another, you will find
Measures of a certain kind
Used by the English nation.

G.L.C.

EASY NUMERICAL ENIGMA.

The whole, composed of fourteen letters, names the hero of a well-known
book. The 1 7 3 4 8 is a singing-bird of America. The 9 10 2 6 12 is a
religious emblem. The 13 11 5 9 14 is an Oriental animal.

ISOLA.

PICTORIAL ANAGRAM PROVERB-PUZZLE.

[Illustration]

The answer is a proverb of five words. Each numeral beneath the
pictures represents a letter in the word of the proverb indicated by
that numeral,--4 showing that the letter it designates belongs to the
fourth word of the proverb, 3 to the third word, and so on.

Find a word that describes each picture and contains as many letters as
there are numerals beneath the picture itself. This is the first
process.

Then put down, some distance apart, the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, to
correspond with the words of the proverb. Group beneath figure 4 all
the letters designated by the numeral 4 in the numbering beneath the
pictures (since, as already stated, all the letters there designated by
the numeral 4 belong to the fourth word of the proverb). You will thus
have in a group all the letters that the fourth word contains, and you
then will have only to transpose those letters in order to form the
word itself. Follow the same process of grouping and transposition in
forming each of the remaining words of the proverb. Of course, the
transposition need not be begun until all the letters are set apart in
their proper groups.

J.B.

AN OLD MAXIM.

BEHEADED AND CURTAILED.

--IGH-- --are-- --pea--. --rea-- --ne-- --r-- --um--.

C.D.

EASY UNIONS.

1. Join ease and an ornament, by a vowel, and make recovering--thus:
rest-o-ring (restoring). 2. Join pleasant to the taste to a boy's
nickname, by a vowel, and make honeyed. 3. Join to bury to a bite of an
insect, by a vowel, and make what pleasant stories are.

C.D.

RHOMBOID PUZZLE.

ACROSS: 1. Portion of an ode. 2. A musical drama. 3. Soon. 4. Marked.
5. Flowers.

DOWN: 1. In a cave. 2. A river. 3. To unclose. 4. The second dignitary
of a diocese. 5. A mistake. 6. High. 7. An affirmative. 8. A prefix.
9. In a shop.

CYRIL DEANE.

DOUBLE CROSS-WORD ACROSTIC.

THE WHOLE.

Brothers are we, alike in form and mien,
Sometimes apart, but oft together seen.
One labors on, and toils beneath his load;
The other idly follows on the road.
One parts the sleeping infant's rosy lips;
The other veils the sun in dark eclipse.
One rises on the breath of morn, with scent
Of leaf and flower in fragrant incense blent;
The other's wavering aspiration dies
And falls where still the murky shadow lies.
At hospitable boards my first attends,
And greets well pleased the social group of friends;
But if my second his grim face shall show,
How dire the maledictions sent below!
Yet there are those who deem his presence blest,
A fitting joy to crown the social feast,
And make for him a quiet, calm retreat,
Where friends with friends in loving concourse meet.

CROSS-WORDS.

1. Two brothers ever keeping side by side,
The closer they are pressed the more do they divide

2. Brothers again unite their ponderous strength,
Toiling all day throughout its tedious length.

3. I never met my sister; while she flies
I can but follow, calling out replies.

4. A casket fair, whose closely covered lid
A mother's hope, a nation's promise, hid.

5. A plant once used to drive sharp pain away,
Not valued greatly in this later day,
Except by those who fly when they are ill
To test the virtues of a patent pill.

S.A.B.

EASY DIAMOND PUZZLE.

In fruit, but not in flower; a period of time, a fresh-water fish; a
sea-bird; in strength, but not in power.

ISOLA.

MALTESE-CROSS PUZZLE.

* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * E * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *

The middle letter, E, is given in the diagram. The centrals form two
words, and are read from top to bottom and from side to side, including
the middle letter. The words that form the limbs of the cross are read
from the outside toward the center, those forming the top and bottom
limbs being read horizontally, and those that form the arms, downward.

CENTRAL PERPENDICULAR: Perfume.
CENTRAL HORIZONTAL: Strained.
TOP LIMB: 1. New. 2. A boy's name. 3. A consonant.
BOTTOM LIMB: 1. Plain. 2. A deed. 3. A consonant.
LEFT ARM: 1. Existence. 2. A tavern. 3. A consonant.
RIGHT ARM: 1. Unready. 2. A tree. 3. A consonant.

A.C. CRETT.

POETICAL REBUS.

The answer is a couplet in Sir Walter Scott's poem "Marmion."

[Illustration]

NUMERICAL ENIGMA.

The whole, eleven letters, is a songster. The 1 2 3 4 is adjacent.
The 5 6 7 is a metal. The 8 9 10 11 is a current of air.

ISOLA.

DOUBLE ACROSTIC.

1. What wood is sometimes called. 2. A character in "Hamlet."
3. Customary. 4. An underling of Satan's. 5. A common shrub. 6. A boy's
name meaning "manly." 7. An animal. 8. A place of security. 9. A body
of water. 10. A large bird of the vulture family. 11. The home of the
gods in Greek mythology. 12. A preposition. 13. A spelled number.

The initials name a female author, and the finals a male author.

S.M.P.

WORD SYNCOPATIONS.

1. Take a bird from a saint's name, and leave something ladies wear.
2. Take the present from understanding, and leave a chief. 3. Take part
of a fish from explained, and leave a will. 4. Take a forfeit from
cultivated, and leave a color. 5. Take an insect from needed, and leave
joined. 6. Take a vessel from to supply, and leave to angle.

CYRIL DEANE.

CHARADE.

My first may be made of my last,
And carries mechanical force.
My last both lives and dyes for man,
May often be seen as a horse,
And serves him by day and by night
In ways very widely apart.
My whole is the name, well renowned,
Of a chief in the potter's art.

L.W.H.

ABBREVIATIONS.

1. Syncopate and curtail a greenish mineral, and leave a Turkish
officer. 2. Syncopate and curtail a royal ornament, and leave a
domestic animal. 3. Syncopate and curtail a fabled spirit, and leave a
coniferous tree. 4. Syncopate and curtail a small fruit, and leave an
opening. 5. Syncopate and curtail a motive power, and leave a body of
water. 6. Syncopate and curtail colorless, and leave a humorous man.
7. Syncopate and curtail stops, and leave a head-covering. 8. Syncopate
and curtail a sweet substance, and leave an agricultural implement.
9. Syncopate and curtail a carpenter's tool, and leave an insect.
10. Syncopate and curtail coins, and leave an inclosure.

I.

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN FEBRUARY NUMBER.

EASY DOUBLE CROSS-WORD ACROSTIC.--Initials, Birch; finals, Maple;
horizontals, BeaM, IdA, RomP, CorraL, HousE.

SQUARE-WORD.--Ruler, Unite, Lithe, Ethel, Reels.

NUMERICAL PUZZLE.--Vivid.

HIDDEN ACROSTIC.--Minnehaha.

EASY DECAPITATIONS.--1. Foil, oil. 2. Spear, pear. 3. Feel, eel.
4. Sledge, ledge. 5. Stag, tag. 6. Mace, ace. 7. Goats, oats.
8. Draw, raw. 9. Galley, alley.

TRANSPOSITIONS.--1. Subtle, bustle. 2. Shah, hash. 3. Shearer, hearers.
4. Sharper, harpers. 5. Resorted, restored. 6. Negus, genus.

CHARADE.--Manhattan (Man-hat-tan).

GEOGRAPHICAL PUZZLE.--Queen Charlotte (1) went to Cork (2) to attend a
ball. She there met Three Sisters (3), named as follows; Alexandria
(4), Augusta (5), and Adelaide (6), in whom she was much interested.
Her dress was Cashmere (7), and though elegantly trimmed with Brussels
(8), it was, unfortunately, Toulon and Toulouse [too long and too
loose] (9). As she felt chilly [Chili] (10), she wore around her
shoulders a Paisley (11) shawl. Her jewelry was exclusively a Diamond
(12). Her shoes were of Morocco (13), and her handkerchief was perfumed
with Cologne (14). Being a Superior (15) dancer, she had distinguished
partners, whose names were Washington (16), Columbus (17), Madison
(18), Montgomery (19), Jackson (20), and Raleigh (21). Having boldly
said that she was hungry [Hungary] (22), she was escorted by La Fayette
(23) to a Table (24), where she freely partook of Salmon (25), some
Sandwich[es] (26), Orange (27), Champagne (28), and some Madeira (29).
After passing a Pleasant (30) evening, she bade Farewell (31) to her
hostess and was escorted home by Prince Edward (32).

NUMERICAL ENIGMA.--Chinamen (chin-amen).

ILLUSTRATED PUZZLE.--1. Hare (hair). 2. Beholder (bee-holder, the
hive). 3. Ear. 4. Clause (claws). 5. Wings. 6. Comb (honeycomb on the
ground). 7. Branch. 8. Leaves. 9 and 10. B I (bee-eye). 11. Tongue.
12. Pause (paws).

CURTAILMENTS.--1. Teasel, tease, teas. 2. Planet, plane, plan.
3. Marsh, Mars, mar, ma. 4. Panel, pane, pan, pa.

COMPLETE DIAGONAL.--Diagonals from left to right downward:
1. L. 2. Ed. 3. Sir. 4. Aver, 5. Eager. 6. Dale. 7. Law. 8. Po.
9. L. Horizontals: E A S E L
D A V I D
L A G E R
P A L E R
L O W E R

EASY NUMERICAL ENIGMA.--Helen's Babies.

SQUARE-WORD.--Czar, Zero, Arms, Rose.

ANAGRAM DOUBLE-DIAMOND AND CONCEALED DOUBLE-SQUARE.

Double Diamond: S
A T E
S P A R E
E R A
E

Concealed Square: A T E
P A R
E R A

PICTORIAL PROVERB PUZZLE.--"Let Hercules himself do what he may, The
cat will mew, the dog will have his day."

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES in the January number were received, before January
18, from Jas. J. Ormsbee, Fred M. Pease, Morris H. Turk, Susie
Hermance, M.W. Collet, Eddie Vultee, A.B.C., "M'sieur B.M.", Alice and
Mamie Taylor, Constance Grandpierre and Sadie Duffield, Winnie
Brookline, Charlie and Carrie Moyses, O.A.D., Baron P. Smith, F.U.,
Mary B. Smith, Milly E. Adams and Perry Adams, W.H.C, Anita O. Ball,
"Bessie and her Cousin," Georgie Law, K.L. McD., Mary Wharton
Wadsworth, Nessie E. Stevens, Inez Okey, Nellie Baker, E. Farnham Todd,
Daisy Breaux, Lillie B. Dear, Mary C. Warren, Georgietta N. Congdon,
"King Wompster," Nellie Emerson; 255 Indiana street, Chicago; Bessie
Cary, Henry D. Todd, Jr., Finda Lippen, Jennie Beach, Mary Todd, Anna
E. Mathewson, Nellie Kellogg, Lucy E. Johnson, Charles Behrens, Clara
H. Hollis, Nellie Dennis, E.S.P., Bessie and Houghton Gilman, May C.
Woodruff, George Herbert White, H. Howell, Lizzie B. Clark; Bessie T.B.
Benedict, of Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England; B.M., and Jennie Wilson.

"Oriole" answered all the puzzles in the January number.

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