The Silent Readers Part 11

1. How does a difference between warm and cold air make chimneys useful?

2. Why is a tall chimney better than a short one?

3. How large are the chimneys or stacks on the largest steams.h.i.+ps?

IS IT TRUE?

Arrange your paper as you are accustomed to do. Number the lines from one to ten. As you read each of the following statements, decide for yourself if it is true or false, and write the word _true_ or the word _false_ as the case may be, on the proper line of your paper.

1. Cloth is woven on looms.

2. Strawberries grow on trees.

3. The American Indians were always friendly to the early settlers.

4. Russia is a happy country.

5. The monks of the middle ages were the best educated men of their time.

6. The Pilgrims settled Virginia in 1620.

7. It is not important that a voter should be intelligent.

8. Warm clothing costs less than doctors' bills.

9. Education is cheaper than revolution.

10. Money earns money.

FRANKLIN WRITES FOR THE NEWSPAPER

Here is Benjamin Franklin's own account of his first attempt at writing. You see, he did not have a chance to learn to write, as you do, by practice in composition in school.

My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a newspaper. It was the second that appeared in America, and was called the "New England Courant". The only one before it was the "Boston News-Letter". I remember his being _dissuaded_ by some of his friends from the undertaking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper being, in their judgment, enough for America. At this time (1771) there are not less than five and twenty. He went on, however, with the undertaking; and after having worked in composing the types and printing off the sheets, I was employed to carry the papers through the streets to the customers.

He had some ingenious men among his friends, who amused themselves by writing little pieces for this paper, which gained it credit and made it more in demand; and these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing their conversations, and their accounts of the _approbation_ their papers were received with, I was excited to try my hand among them; but being still a boy, and suspecting that my brother would object to printing anything of mine in his paper if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to _disguise_ my hand; and, writing an _anonymous_ paper, I put it in at night under the door of the printing-house. It was found in the morning and communicated to his writing friends when they called in as usual. They read it, and commented on it in my hearing; and I had the _exquisite_ pleasure of finding it met with their approbation, and that in their different guesses at the author, none were named but men of some _character_ among us for learning and _ingenuity_. I suppose now that I was rather lucky in my judges and that perhaps they were not really so very good ones as I then _esteemed_ them.

Encouraged, however, by this, I wrote and conveyed in the same way to the press several more papers which were equally approved; and I kept my secret till my small fund of sense for such performances was pretty well exhausted, and then I _discovered_ it, when I began to be considered a little more by my brother's acquaintance, and in a manner that did not quite please him, as he thought, probably with reason, that it tended to make me too vain.

--_Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin._

QUESTIONS

1. What is there in this story that suggests that Franklin was a modest boy?

2. How does it seem to you, from this story, that young people in Franklin's day were looked upon by their elders?

3. Was he a good writer when he began? How do you know?

4. Can you tell the meaning of the words in italics, from their use in the story? Look them up in a dictionary and compare the meaning you find with your judgment from the way they were used.

YES OR NO?

1. I need six dozen 1-1/4" screws. They will cost me five cents a dozen. There are twelve dozen in a box, and a box will cost thirty-two cents. Would it pay me to get just what I need now?

2. All but three of the girls in our cla.s.s are members of the United States School Garden Army. Edith is not a member of the United States School Garden Army. Is it possible that Edith is a member of our cla.s.s?

HOW TO MAKE A SUN-DIAL

Did you ever think how hard it would be to get along without clocks?

At almost every city street corner we can look at a clock; every railway station, every post office, every schoolhouse, has at least one; and everybody's house contains one or more. And at that, boys and girls are sometimes late for school.

No, we certainly couldn't manage without these useful mechanisms; and yet, there was a time, not so many centuries ago, either, when they were a rare possession; and a time before that when they had not yet been invented. What did our far-off ancestors do?

Let us pretend that we are going for a walk in the beautiful garden of a country mansion. Here in the midst of a rose bed stands a low stone pillar, with an upright, triangular piece of metal attached to its top near the center, and some figures marked in a circle around the edge.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This is a sun-dial. The owner of the garden has it here for a pretty ornament; but in the old times, before the days of clocks, people told the time by means of sun-dials, judging the hour by the position of the shadow cast by the piece of metal upon the stone. If you would like, just for the fun of it, to have such a sun-clock in your own little garden, there is a very easy way to make one.

Choose a spot of ground that is perfectly flat, where the sun s.h.i.+nes all day long. Set up, or get your father or big brother to set up for you, a post four or five inches thick. Make it stand perfectly firm and straight. Now find a thin, flat piece of board--a box top or a s.h.i.+ngle will do--and nail it like a table top on to the top of the post. After these preparations have been made, you must wait for a clear, starry night when you can go out and find the North Star. The way to do this is by looking at the "Big Dipper", the group of stars that of course you know.

The two stars marked A and B are called the "Pointers"; and, looking in the direction of the arrow, the next star in line with them is the North Star. Take a straight, thin stick, and fasten it to the center of the top of the post, slanting it so that it will point directly at the North Star. That is all you can do until the next day.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

At twelve o'clock, if the sun is bright, you will find your slanting stick casting a shadow on the piece of board. Mark the line where it falls, and put the figure 12 upon it, to show that this line belongs to twelve o'clock. Do the same thing at one, two, and three o'clock, and so on through the afternoon. In the same way, the next day, you can mark the morning hours.

If you like, you can print on your sun-dial the motto that is often used for them: "Non horas sed serenas", which means "I mark none but sunny hours".

QUESTIONS