Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader Part 9

LESSON XXIX

THE SUN

How far away from us is the sun? Are we to answer just as we think, or just as we know? On a fine summer day, when we can see him clearly, it looks as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his throne in the sky, yet we know--because the astronomers tell us so--that he is more than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our earth.

Ninety-one millions of miles! It is not easy even to imagine this distance; but let us fancy ourselves in an express-train going sixty miles an hour without making a single stop. At that flying rate we could travel from the earth to the sun in one hundred and seventy-one years,--that is, if we had a road to run on and time to spare for the journey.

Arriving at the palace of the sun, we might then have some idea of his size. A learned Greek who lived more than two thousand years ago thought the sun about as large as the Peloponnesus; if he had lived in our country, he might have said, "About as large as Ma.s.sachusetts."

As large as their peninsula! The other Greeks laughed at him for believing that the s.h.i.+ning ball was so vast. How astonished they would have been--yes, and the wise man too--if they had been told that the brilliant lord of the day was more than a million times as large as the whole world!

LESSON x.x.x

IVORY

How many articles are made of ivory! Here is a polished knife-handle, and there a strangely-carved paper-cutter. In the same shop may be found alb.u.ms and prayer-books with ivory covers; and, not far away, penholders, curious toys, and parasol-handles, all made of the glossy white material.

Where ivory is abundant, chairs of state, and even thrones are made of it; and in Russia, in the palaces of the great, floors inlaid with ivory help to beautify the grand apartments. One African sultan has a whole fence of elephants' tusks around his royal residence; the residence itself is straw-roofed and barbarous enough, both in design and in structure. Yet imagine that ivory fence!

The elephants slain in Africa and India in the course of a year could not furnish half the ivory used in the great markets of the world during that time. Vienna, Paris, London and St. Petersburg keep the elephant-hunters busy, yet it is impossible for them to satisfy all the demands made upon them, and the ivory-diggers must be called upon to add to the supply.

Every spring, when the ice begins to thaw, new mines or deposits of fossil ivory--a perfect treasure of mammoths' tusks--are discovered in the marsh-lands of Eastern Siberia. There are no mammoths now--unless we call elephants by that name; yet their remains have been found upon both continents. In the year 1799, the perfect skeleton of one of these animals was found in an ice-bank near the mouth of a Siberian river. As the vast ice-field thawed, the remains of the huge animal came to light.

The traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the Arctic coasts of Asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand pounds of fossil ivory to the west along the great caravan road. So great is the demand, however, that this quant.i.ty, added to that sent by the elephant-hunters, is not large enough to make ivory cheap in trade or in manufacture.

SELECTION XII

WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE

Woodman, spare that tree!

Touch not a single bough!

In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now.

'Twas my forefather's hand That placed it near his cot: There, woodman, let it stand; Thy ax shall harm it not.

That old familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Are spread o'er land and sea,-- And wouldst thou hew it down?

Woodman, forbear thy stroke!

Cut not its earthbound ties!

Oh, spare that aged oak, Now towering to the skies!

When but an idle boy I sought its grateful shade; In all their gus.h.i.+ng joy, Here, too, my sisters played.

My mother kissed me here, My father pressed my hand: Forgive this foolish tear, But let that old oak stand.

My heart-strings round thee cling, Close as thy bark, old friend; Here shall the wild bird sing, And still thy branches bend.

Old tree, the storm still brave!

And, woodman, leave the spot!

While I've a hand to save, Thy ax shall harm it not.

_George P. Morris_.

LESSON x.x.xI

FLOWERS

He who cannot appreciate floral beauty is to be pitied, like any other man who is born imperfect. It is a misfortune not unlike blindness.

But men who reject flowers as effeminate and unworthy of manhood reveal a positive coa.r.s.eness.

Many persons lose all enjoyment of many flowers by indulging false a.s.sociations. There are some who think that no weed can be of interest as a flower. But all flowers are weeds where they grow wild and in abundance; and somewhere our rarest flowers are somebody's commonest.

And generally there is a disposition to undervalue common flowers.

There are few that will trouble themselves to examine minutely a blossom that they have often seen and neglected; and yet if they would question such flowers and commune with them, they would often be surprised to find extreme beauty where it had long been overlooked.

It is not impertinent to offer flowers to a stranger. The poorest child can proffer them to the richest. A hundred persons turned into a meadow full of flowers would be drawn together in a transient brotherhood.

It is affecting to see how serviceable flowers often are to the necessities of the poor. If they bring their little floral gift to you, it cannot but touch your heart to think that their grateful affection longed to express itself as much as yours.

You have books, or gems, or services that you can render as you will.

The poor can give but little and can do but little. Were it not for flowers, they would be shut out from those exquisite pleasures which spring from such gifts. I never take one from a child, or from the poor, without thanking G.o.d, in their behalf, for flowers.

LESSON x.x.xII

THE MOSQUITO

Mosquitoes are found in many parts of the world where there are pools of water. They swarm along the rivers of the sunny south and by the lakes of the far north. The life of one of these troublesome little fellows is well worth some attention.

Did you ever hear about the little boats that they build? They lay their eggs on the water, in which the sun's warmth hatches them out.

The insect leaves the water a full-fledged mosquito ready to annoy man and beast with its sting.

The eyes of this insect are remarkable. They are so large that they cover the larger part of the head. Its feelers are very delicate, and look as if they were made of the finest feathers. Its wings are very pretty, and with them it makes a humming noise.

The organ, which the female mosquito alone employs on her victims, is called a trunk, or proboscis. This trunk is a tube, inside of which is a bundle of stings with very sharp points. When she settles on your face or hands, she pierces the skin, extracts some blood, and at the same time injects a little poison; this produces the feeling which proves so annoying.