The Silent Readers Part 34

At New Year time Hok-a, the Chinese boy, and Gold-needle, his sister, and their cousins always have plenty of fun. Their grandmother once told them a story of why there was always so much feasting then. She said:

"They tell us that the people of long ago had a saying that on the last day of the twelfth month a great flood would drown everyone. When the people of that time heard this, they were very sad, and thought, 'Now we are going to die, let us take the food we have and eat, and the clothes we have and dress up gaily'. So they took rice, and fried rice-cakes, and prepared strained rice and basins of vegetables, in order to take leave of their ancestors. (The 'ancestors' mean the spirits of their ancestors, who are supposed to live in wooden tablets kept on a table placed against the wall of the chief room.) When they had wors.h.i.+pped the ancestors, all the family sat together round the table to eat their rice and put a little stove underneath because it was winter, and they needed a fire to warm themselves. On that night they shut the door very close and put a prop against it. They did not dare to go to sleep, but watched anxiously for the flood to come.

"At daybreak they opened the door, and discovered that there was no flood. That was New Year's Day. They immediately ran out to visit their friends and relatives, and found that none of them had been drowned either; so they all congratulated one another, and drank tea and wine. From that time there have always been feasting and visiting and congratulations at New Year."

Hok-a and Gold-needle have been looking forward to the holiday for a long time. All the people in the house have been busy for days. The dust and dirt of the year has been swept from the house into the street. The men have been hurrying about collecting any money that was owing to them, for no bills must be left over till New Year.

Mother and aunts have been sitting by the door to catch the light to darn, and mend, and make, for everyone must have something fine to wear on New Year's day. Such a cooking goes on the day before! and such a frying of rice flour cakes you never saw. Pigs and ducks and chickens and even poor little fish have a bad time of it just then.

The great day arrives, and Hok-a and Gold-needle dress themselves in their new clothes. Hok-a has a blue coat, with a yellow silk waistcoat on the top of it, green silk anklets, and a green cap; while his little sister is gay in a pink coat and blue trousers trimmed with black, and wears some silver pins and cloth flowers in her s.h.i.+ning black hair.

By twelve o'clock all is ready. The men and boys, in long blue or green gowns, are gathered in the hall, and prostrate themselves three times begging the idols and the spirits of their ancestors to eat the food prepared for them. A basin of rice and another of vegetables, with a piece of meat, is carried to the bed-room for the Mother Bed Spirit to eat, as, if they don't feed her, she will revenge herself by tripping up the children. The Kitchen G.o.d, too, must have his share, and the fireplace is gaily decorated with flowers.

When they have finished wors.h.i.+pping, a lot of silver and paper money is burnt, that the spirits may buy good things in the other world, and have a nice time. Then all the family gather round for the feast of the year. Usually the men eat alone and the women afterwards, but on this day everyone has a place. Such fun they have, roasting c.o.c.kles and parching beans! Everyone must give a stir to the bean-pan. A little stove is carried to the table, and wine is warmed over it, for all to have a taste. A great supply of celery has been laid in, and the stalks must be boiled and swallowed whole, to give long life.

When the feast is finished, the grandfather hands a piece of money to each, so that they may have money the year through. Then a basin of rice and a bit of meat is given to the dog, a treat he gets only once a year. It is time to light up now. A bit of sugar-cane is stuck behind each door, and in each room food is placed for the spirits.

There is so much noise and merriment that, for a wonder, the rats don't dare to peep out; so they say that "the rats are marrying and giving in marriage". Twelve bamboo lamps are lighted in the hall, and afterwards carried out to burn. Everybody gathers round to watch which goes out first, as each lantern stands for a month, and the first that burns black means a month of rain. If it is the first month the children are sad, for that is holiday-time. And it usually is the first, as it is carried out before the others.

Our little friend Hok-a has been saving up for weeks, so as to buy plenty of squibs and fireworks to let off on this day, just as American boys used to do for the 4th of July. His father has bought hundreds of them, too, and so has everyone else in the place; the cracking of them is heard everywhere.

A great bonfire is kindled, and the children jump over it, singing:

"Jump busily, jump away--the fire burns bright!"

It is late before anyone gets to bed, for they think that the longer the children sit up, the longer the old people will live. Some dutiful boys and girls sit up all night long!

Next morning there is a great deal of visiting, and, I am sorry to say, a great deal of gambling. n.o.body works, and everybody is supposed to be in good humor.

--_From "A Peep at China", by Lena E. Johnston._

ADDING THE RIGHT WORDS

This drill is given to see how well you can follow printed directions, and how well you understand the way the words are grouped at the bottom of the page. There is something for you to write in each of the following paragraphs, and your ability to read and understand will be judged by how exactly you follow these directions.

1. Arrange your paper with your name on the first line to the right, and your grade below it on the second line.

2. Do not write anything on the third line, but on the next six lines in the margin, write the figures from 1 to 10.

3. The first group of words at the bottom of the page is a list of farm-products; you can easily name other words that might be added to this list, such as:

beans rye oats

Write two of these new words after figure 1 on your paper.

4. There are nine other lists of words, and each list names not farm-products, but some other things. After figure 2 on your paper, write two other words that could properly be added to the second group of words.

5. In the same way, write two more words that could rightly belong to each of the other eight groups of words. When you finish wait quietly for the others.

1. corn, potatoes, wheat, peas.

2. chisel, plane, file, axe.

3. creek, ocean, gulf, sea.

4. fireman, librarian, teacher, physician.

5. overcoat, fur cap, overshoes, m.u.f.fler.

6. meat, horns, tallow, hair.

7. pencil, pen, blotter, stamps.

8. cup, saucer, plate, bowl.

9. door, window, stairs, chimney.

10. tennis, croquet, hockey, baseball.

THE GOOD CITIZEN--HOW HE USES MATCHES

There are two things you can do with every good and useful thing--use it and abuse it. Here you are going to read about the abuse of a very useful thing, indeed--a match. When things are a common, everyday part of the household, people are apt to treat them carelessly; and carelessness always means trouble. As you read, think whether anything in this article hits _you_.

This is a good selection to outline. Perhaps your teacher will have some of the best outlines put on the blackboard.

The match is one of the most valuable and one of the most dangerous articles made by man. It has been in use for less than one hundred years, but think of trying to get along without it!

Suppose, for example, that you were camping far from any houses, and discovered, when the time came to cook dinner, that you had lost your matches. What would you do? Would you rub sticks together like the Indian or make a "bow-drill" like the Eskimo? These were the methods used by mankind for thousands and thousands of years, but they mean desperately hard work, as you would soon realize. You would be fortunate if you could find a bit of flint from which to strike sparks with steel as your great-grandfather probably did. But even in that case you would appreciate matches as never before.

It was not until the year 1827 that an English druggist named John Walker made the first practical friction-matches, known as "Congreves". A folded piece of gla.s.s-paper went with every box, and in order to light the match one had to draw it in one hand quickly through the folds of the paper held tightly pressed together with the other. Another kind of match, the "Promethean", appeared a little later. It had at one end a thin gla.s.s globule, which it was necessary to press in producing fire.

Thus people went on experimenting, for everyone was interested and there was great demand. Gradually methods of making that were better and cheaper were discovered, until, to-day, matches are found in every home.

It is said that more matches are sold in the United States than in all the rest of the world. More than seven hundred million matches are used in the United States each day. You can hardly imagine such a figure. If a factory made just one match for every minute, night and day, it would take nearly fourteen hundred years for it to produce as many matches as this country uses in a single day. Or--to put it in another way--nearly five hundred thousand flames are struck every minute on an average. There is not one of these flames that would not develop into a destructive fire if it had a chance. Consequently, every match must be regarded, and must be treated, as a possible source of great damage.

Matches, to-day, are of two general cla.s.ses: Those which may be struck upon any rough surface, and the so-called "safety matches", made to be struck only upon the box. But there are good matches and bad matches in both cla.s.ses. In other words, while the safety match, as a rule, is safer than the kind first mentioned, a poorly made strike-on-the-box match may be more dangerous than a well-made strike-anywhere match.

Therefore, we ought to know something about what a match is, as well as how to use it.

Here is a match. What could appear more harmless? A tiny stick of wood, shorter than your finger, coated at one end with some substance that forms a little bulb, or head--who would believe that it can be either a blessing or a deadly peril, according to the way in which it is used?

The secret of fire-production lies in the head of the match. This contains certain chemicals which take fire easily when heated, and it also contains particles of ground flint in order to create heat by friction when the match is struck. If two objects are rubbed quickly together, the resulting friction brings heat, and all the more easily and quickly if one of the objects be rough. If you sandpaper a board, rubbing it hard, you will soon find both paper and board becoming warm. Thus friction from striking a match produces sufficient heat to cause the head to burst into flame.

Now, it must be remembered that even careful persons may meet with accidents through the use of bad matches. Sometimes, when struck, the blazing head will fly off, or the stick will break and fall; sometimes, too, the match will continue to glow after the flame has been blown out. These are signs that the match is poorly made; probably it is of some very cheap brand, for such things never happen with good matches. Carefulness, therefore, must begin at the time of buying. One should always notice the brand and always order by brand.

Whenever a brand is found to have any of these faults it should be avoided in future, no matter how low the price may be.

The best of the strike-anywhere matches are given a special treatment to keep the head from flying off when struck, and also to guard it from being set on fire accidentally. Great care is also taken in the preparation of the wood to safeguard against breaking. But as a cla.s.s, the safety matches are less dangerous.

Matches of all kinds are carefully tested in the great Underwriters'

Laboratories, which The National Board of Fire Underwriters maintains in Chicago, and those that are able to pa.s.s the test are labeled by the Laboratories. It is always a protection to find one of these labels on a box. The Laboratories have no interest in the sale of matches, and any manufacturer who will make goods of the right grade can secure the label.

Let us suppose that your house is provided with good matches, those having solid heads and tough sticks. There will be no danger if you are always careful when using them. But are you? Here are some questions for you to answer.

Do you ever throw away a match which is burning or even glowing? Never do this again. It has caused hundreds of deaths and has burned thousands of homes.