Read Ebook: Harper's Young People October 10 1882 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

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Ebook has 251 lines and 23611 words, and 6 pages

"The trouble with your rig," said Charley, "is that you have a mast nearly fifteen feet high. Now, when Joe takes in his mainsail, he has only two feet of mast left standing."

"How do you like your own rig?" asked Harry.

"Oh, it is good enough. I'm not sure that it isn't better than either yours or Tom's; but it certainly isn't as handy as Joe's lateen."

"Now that you've settled that I've the best rig," said Joe, "you'd better admit that I've the best canoe, and then turn in for the night. After the work we've done to-day, and the fun we had last night, I'm sleepy."

"Do you call sitting still in a canoe hard work?" inquired Tom.

"Is falling down a well your idea of fun?" asked Harry.

"It's too soon," said Charley, "to decide who has the best canoe. We'll find that out by the time the cruise is over."

The island where the boys camped during their first night on the St. Lawrence was situated at the head of Lake St. Peter. This lake is simply an expansion of the St. Lawrence, and though it is thirty miles long, and about ten miles wide at its widest part, it is so shallow that steamboats can only pass through it by following an artificial channel dredged out by the government at a vast expense. Its shores are lined with a thick growth of reeds, which extend in many places fully a mile into the lake, and are absolutely impassable, except where streams flowing into the lake have kept channels open through the reeds.

On leaving the island in the morning the canoeists paddled down the lake, for there was not a breath of wind. The sun was intensely hot, and the heat reflected from the surface of the water and the varnished decks of the canoes assisted in making the boys feel as if they were roasting before a fire. Toward noon the heat became really intolerable, and the Commodore gave the order to paddle over to the north shore in search of shade.

It was disappointing to find instead of a shady shore an impenetrable barrier of reeds. After resting a little while in the canoes, the boys started to skirt the reeds, in hope of finding an opening; and the sun, apparently taking pity on them, went under a cloud, so that they paddled a mile or two in comparative comfort.

The friendly cloud was followed before long by a mass of thick black clouds coming up from the south. Soon the thunder was heard in the distance, and it dawned upon the tired boys that they were about to have a thunder-storm without any opportunity of obtaining shelter.

They paddled steadily on, looking in vain for a path through the reeds, and making up their minds to a good wetting. They found, however, that the rain did not come alone. With it came a fierce gust of wind, which quickly raised white-caps on the lake. Instead of dying out as soon as the rain fell, the wind blew harder and harder, and in the course of half an hour there was a heavy sea running.

"What had we better do?" asked Harry, who, although Commodore, had the good sense always to consult Charley in matters of seamanship.

"It's going to blow hard, and we can't sit here and paddle against it all day without getting exhausted."

"But how are we going to help ourselves?" continued Harry.

"Your canoe and mine," replied Charley, "can live out the gale well enough under sail. If we set our main-sails close-reefed, and keep the canoes close to the wind, we shall be all right. It's the two other canoes that I'm troubled about."

"My canoe suits me well enough," said Joe, "so long as she keeps on the top of the water, but she seems to have made up her mind to dive under it."

"Mine would be all right if I could stop paddling long enough to bail her out, but I can't," remarked Tom. "She's nearly half full of water now."

"We can't leave the other fellows," said Harry, "so what's the use of our talking about getting sail on our canoes?"

"It's just possible that Tom's canoe would live under sail," resumed Charley; "but it's certain that Joe's won't. What do you think about those reeds, Tom? Can you get your canoe into them?"

"Of course I can, and that's what we'd better all do," exclaimed Tom. "The reeds will break the force of the seas, and we can stay among them till the wind goes down."

"Suppose you try it," suggested Charley, "and let us see how far you can get into the reeds? I think they're going to help us out of a very bad scrape."

Tom did not dare to turn his canoe around, so he backed water, and went at the reeds stern first. They parted readily, and his canoe penetrated without much difficulty some half-dozen yards into the reeds, where the water was almost quiet. Unfortunately he shipped one heavy sea just as he entered the reeds, which filled his canoe so full that another such sea would certainly have sunk her, had she not been provided with the bladders bought at Chambly.

Joe and Tom were now perfectly safe, though miserably wet; but as the rain had ceased, there was nothing to prevent them from getting dry clothes out of their water-proof bags, and putting them on as soon as they could bail the water out of their canoes. Harry and Charley, seeing their comrades in safety, made haste to get up sail, and to stand out into the lake, partly because they did not want to run the risk of being swamped when entering the reeds, and partly because they wanted the excitement of sailing in a gale of wind.

When the masts were stepped, the sails hoisted, and the sheets trimmed, the two canoes, sailing close to the wind, began to creep away from the reeds. They behaved wonderfully well. The boys had to watch them closely, and to lean out to windward from time to time to hold them right side up. The rudders were occasionally thrown out of the water, but the boys took the precaution to steer with their paddles. The excitement of sailing was so great that Charley and Harry forgot all about the time, and sailed on for hours. Suddenly they discovered that it was three o'clock, that they had had no lunch, and that the two canoeists who had sought refuge in the reeds had absolutely nothing to eat with them. Filled with pity, they resolved to return to them without a moment's delay. It was then that it occurred to them that in order to sail back they must turn their canoes around, bringing them while so doing in the trough of the sea. Could they possibly do this without being swamped? The question was a serious one, for they were fully four miles from the shore, and the wind and sea were as high as ever.

THE STEAMBOAT.--ROBERT FULTON.

Robert Fulton, the inventor of steamboats, was born on a farm in Pennsylvania. His parents were Irish Protestants--a strong, laborious race. Robert was a delicate, handsome boy, with a fine forehead and brilliant eyes. Almost as a child he became a mechanic, inventing machines and lingering around workshops. He was thought dull at school, and made slow progress in the usual studies. But he was always inventing.

One day, when Robert was about nine years old, he came late to school, and when his teacher reproved him, produced a new lead-pencil which he had been making while playing truant. The boys were all anxious to have one of Fulton's pencils--they were better than any they had seen. In his school days he made rockets to celebrate the Fourth of July, and in 1778, in the midst of the war, set them off in his native town. About this time he made an air-gun and a boat moved by wheels. He had a strong taste for drawing. His mother, who was now a widow and poor, wanted his help.

Fulton was only seventeen, but he went up to Philadelphia, made money, became acquainted with Dr. Franklin, and when he was twenty-one came back to his mother with his earnings, and bought her a farm. Here she lived happily for some years, watching and enjoying the rising prosperity of her son. The deed by which Fulton at twenty-one gave the farm to his mother is still preserved.

Fulton, a fair, delicate, thoughtful young man, had gone to England, to France, had become acquainted with many eminent inventors, and had already planned a steamboat. He was the first to make one successful. He came back to New York, and, aided by his friend Livingston, in 1806 began to build his boat. It was only a small vessel, rudely built; in it he placed an engine made by James Watt, the English inventor; the paddle-wheels he planned himself, and the imperfect machinery. It seems now a very easy thing to build a steamboat, but it was then thought impossible. Men called the boat Fulton's Folly. Hardly any one supposed that a new era in navigation was about to begin, and that Fulton's machine would at last cover the world with its discoveries. At last the boat was finished.

The fair, pale, delicate inventor did not live long to enjoy his success. His lungs were always weak. He was always at work. His patents were infringed, and his invention only involved him in endless lawsuits. At last he caught cold crossing the Hudson on a chill February day, and died 1815, a good son, an inventor who has been useful to every one. He has founded nations, and opened the distant seas to trade.

THE MAGIC SACK.

BY HENRY HATTON, MAGICIAN AND VENTRILOQUIST.

Yes, boys, real Simon-pure "magic." Just such tricks as you have seen the "magician" do; just such tricks as some of you may have seen your humble servant do. Many of these you can do yourselves--when you know how; others require more practice than you ought to give to such nonsense, and others again are too expensive. But there are some that any boy--or girl, for that matter--can do with little rehearsing and at slight expense. The magic sack trick, which I had the honor of introducing to America in 1873, is as clever as it is simple.

A muslin sack large enough to contain a boy of fourteen is handed out for examination, and after the audience are satisfied that the seams are not only secure and perfect, but that its only opening is at the mouth, the performer's assistant gets inside. The sack is gathered over his head, and the mouth tied fast with a silk handkerchief, and then with a tape, the knots of the latter being not only sealed in any way that seems best to the audience, but the ends, which are left long, given to some one to hold.

A screen is now placed between the audience and the boy in the sack, the ends of the tape passing either over the top of the screen or through holes in its side.

It would seem impossible for the person thus securely enveloped to get out of the sack without cutting or untying the tape and handkerchief; and yet, O mystery of mysteries! in a few seconds the screen is thrown open, and the late occupant of the sack walks out, while the sack is found still tied up, the knots not tampered with, and the seals unbroken.

When about to exhibit the trick, the performer comes forward, holding a silk handkerchief in one hand, and sack No. 1 in the other. The assistant, who is to be tied up, has the duplicate, or sack No. 2, concealed about him, say, inside his vest, or in some such suitable place.

When the screen is placed in position--for home exhibition a clothes-horse with a sheet over it makes an excellent substitute for a screen--the assistant gently pulls on the mouth of No. 1, which is readily drawn out from under the handkerchief, and steps out, leaving the tape and handkerchief still closely wound around No. 2. It takes but a second to fold up No. 1, conceal it, and then to walk out from behind the screen to receive the applause of the audience.

This brief, but I trust clear, description can give but little idea of the effect produced by this really surprising trick. I first saw it exhibited by a performer calling himself Le Duc, at Stockholm, Sweden, some twenty-five years ago, and at that time, though I knew considerable about magic, I was completely mystified.

"THEIR GIRL."

A STORY IN THREE CHAPTERS.

BY JAMES OTIS,

Business, so far as Johnny and Jimmy were concerned, was almost entirely neglected for two weeks after Katy was carried to the hospital. If they sold any papers, it was only sufficient to pay Mother Brown for their board, and nearly all their time was spent in remaining where they could look at the gloomy walls of the building in which Katy yet remained.

Some of their friends in the newspaper business had attempted to make sport of them for spending so much of their time simply looking at the walls of a hospital; but the light in Johnny's eyes had warned them to stop, and Jimmy had said, quietly, "We stay round here 'cause it would make Katy feel good if she knew it."

Fully repaid for the long hours of watching by the knowledge that their being there would please their friend if she could know it, the two remained day after day, and far into each night, until the time came when they were actually startled by the news that in another week, if nothing happened to her, Katy would leave the hospital.

This good news came to them so suddenly that they were almost as stupefied as they had been when the accident happened; but when they did fully realize all the happiness contained in that announcement, they gave vent to their joy in such extravagant antics that the old porter, who chanced to see them, declared it to be his solemn belief that they were "a couple of ijuts."

"Now what'll we do to show Katy how glad we are?" asked Johnny, when, breathless from the severe exercise, they seated themselves on the curb-stone to talk the matter over. "We've got to do somethin', you know, an' what shall it be?"

Jimmy rubbed his chin vigorously, as if to call forth his most brilliant ideas, and after an unusually long pause, replied, "I'll tell you jest what we'll do: we'll scurry 'round an' get money enough to buy her one of the stunnin'est dresses we can find, an' we'll carry it up to her the day before she comes out."

It certainly seemed as if that idea was an inspiration, and Johnny was so anxious to carry it into execution that he urged his friend along, on the way down town to purchase a stock of papers, at the most furious rate of speed.

They were not just certain how much money would be required to carry out their plan, but when they had gotten together a fund of two dollars and sixty cents, they were certain they could purchase almost any dress that was displayed in the shop windows, and have enough left not only to buy bracelets, but anything else in the jewelry line that they might chance to fancy.

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