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Page 9
"Oh, how glad I am!" said Juno.
"What in the world has been the matter?" asked the elephant. "You've
been kicking and growling in your sleep at a great rate. I've been
watching you this long time."
"Such dreadful dreams!" said Juno. "Lion-puppies are all very well, but
when it comes to hippopotamus, and giraffes, and elephant----"
"What _are_ you talking about?" said the elephant. "I guess you'd
better go to your supper; I heard the keeper call you long ago."
So Juno went to her supper very glad to find she had only dreamed her
troubles; but she made up her mind that if the old hippopotamus
_should_ die, she would run away that very night.
WISHES
BY MARY N. PRESCOTT.
I wish that the grasses would learn to sprout,
That the lilac and rose-bush would both leaf out;
That the crocus would put on her gay green frill,
And robins begin to whistle and trill!
I wish that the wind-flower would grope its way
Out of the darkness into the day;
That the rain would fall and the sun would shine,
And the rainbow hang in the sky for a sign.
I wish that the silent brooks would shout,
And the apple-blossoms begin to pout;
And if I wish long enough, no doubt
The fairy Spring will bring it about!
HOW MATCHES ARE MADE.
BY F.H.C.
[Illustration]
A match is a small thing. We seldom pause to think, after it has
performed its mission, and we have carelessly thrown it away, that it
has a history of its own, and that, like some more pretentious things,
its journey from the forest to the match-safe is full of changes. This
little bit of white pine lying before me came from far north, in the
Hudson Bay Territory, or perhaps from the great silent forests about
Lake Superior, and has been rushed and jammed and tossed in its long
course through rivers, over cataracts and rapids, and across the great
lakes.
We read that near the middle of the seventeenth century it was
discovered that phosphorus would ignite a splint of wood dipped in
sulphur; but this means of obtaining fire was not in common use until
nearly a hundred and fifty years later.
This, then, appears to have been the beginning of match-making. Not
that kind which some old gossips are said to indulge in, for that must
have had its origin much farther back, but the business of making those
little "strike-fires," found in every country store, in their familiar
boxes, with red and blue and yellow labels.
The matches of fifty years ago were very clumsy affairs compared with
the "parlor" and "safety" matches of to-day, but they were great
improvements upon the first in use. Those small sticks, dipped in
melted sulphur, and sold in a tin box with a small bottle of oxide of
phosphorus, were regarded by our forefathers as signs of "ten-leagued
progress." Later, a compound made of chlorate of potash and sulphur was
used on the splints. This ignited upon being dipped in sulphuric acid.
In 1829 an English chemist discovered that matches on which had been
placed chlorate of potash could be ignited by friction. Afterward, at
the suggestion of Professor Faraday, saltpeter was substituted for the
chlorate, and then the era of friction matches, or matches lighted by
rubbing, was fairly begun.
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