Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1908-5-21, Page 3Mrs Spider A«Fishing es TIIERJpl E was once an lmmenell Hinder Who lived and spun his Web 1n, 1110 country o1 South Amorlea. Ho was a very strong spider and a Very greedy one, so that be leaded well upon the poor Ineeete who wan- dered hito hie etnlrhes. But the terror' of this mighty pirate spread ter and near,. The first warn- ing the little gnats and files reCelved from ihelr mothers was not to go near the web of the bloodthlrety spider, As tlnle Went on, Mr, SP/der found the auppls-1 in hie larder were growing very small, All creatures of the earth and the air had learned to avold him successfully, One day Mr. Spider, now grown thin and gaunt, reasoned thus within him- self: "Since I can no longer make my living hero, why should, I not prey upon the Melee? They are said to be the most etupid of all. creatures. I am euro that a wise old fellow like my- self can easily outwit thein," - Without more ado, Mr, Spitler BUILT IIIS WEB IN 4 STREAM changed his abode. Between tho banks of a very narrow stream and underneath the surface of the water he built hls web. It was a clever trap --wide at the mouth and narrow- ing toward the other end, so that the unlucky flab who swam In was al- most certain to become enmeshed In the web. Ills web completed, Mr. Spider Swam silently, toward a little pool , where great numbers of little min- nows were playing. He came upon them suddenly, torrtfled them with Ms horrible appearance and drove them in a body toward his web. Mr, Spider feasted well that day on minnows and many a day thereafter. Indeed, his deaoondants ever since have kept to the writer, flnding Out living there le much more profitable end easler than on land. CHAPTER 1 A VISIT 'TO THE MUSEUM. T WAS very, very interesting, i Oh, y'ee, It must have been, or the twins would never have bothered about It at all, I contese that tho twins were very positive in their likes and dislikes, and moat school studies wore among their dislikes, Bearing this in mind, you will read- Ily see that this particular study must have been fascinating, Indeed, Teacher called the study "Geology," or some other hard name, but the twins didn't pay much attentionto that. What they wished to hear about was the marvelous animals that lived thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago. You see, when you dug (hewn into the earth you came to rook formed many, many years ago; when you dug further you came to other rock formed many years before, and so on until it would seem that you came to that formed the very first. But this wasn't all, for In the rock were the remains of bones or "fossils" of crea- tures that lived In those times—terri- ble creatures whose kinds have per- ished long since. Teacher read a great deal about the animals, and when the twins came home their minds were thinking so fast that one thought came right on top of another. "Wouldn't 11 be great if we could see strange monsters ever so much bigger than elephants," cried Ray- mond, his eyes shining with excite- ment. "IIENRTETTA. WAS SURPRISED TO SEE NOTNOW" OU surely remember how the crooked little old man Pahaw es- corted the little girl through Crooked Town, and thus taught her a lesson that was very much needed. Yes; to be sure you do, Now, there Was a friend of this little old, grizzled man, who looked much like Pahaw, Ilenriette was very much surprised to. to see Notnow, and she was still more surprised to see the things which the dwarf proceeded t0 show her. Notnow clasped her hand and in an "TIHE BRAWNY SMITH girl—indeed, a very close chum—who Was also In need of a lesson, and It was a friend of Pahaw Who taught her. "Oh, dear," exclaimed this little girl one bright; sunny afternoon "I do feel so drowsy. I don't feel at ell like doing my sewing, and I certainly don't wish to look over my 1ess0ns—not now." "Yes. miss, here 1 am," interrupted an Alovel Use for Carrot �1 P' YOU can find c. carrot large enough, I a cunning little hanging brisket for Dowers It will provide for you. Simply cut all the end of the carrot a short distance from the end. Hollow the oar - '01111 'ROC/ESS ILLUSTRATED rot; thoroughly dry the remaining 011011, and varnish !t, The loaves of the Vege- table; should be permitted to retrain On the bottom 01 the garret. A. bIt of vine, or wire tweeted With ;vino; wt11 '10000 as all clad Oprlate.:1100- die. LAY CALMLY DOZING" , Instant they new right through the wall of the house, out over hie and valley, until t1105 mune into the brightest, sun- niest land shehad ever seen. "This," pettedly exclaimed Notnow, "10 the Land Of Tomorrow." Alighting in a convenient roadway, the two etraightway began their stroll through the country. Cheerful ice tee land undoubtedly was, Henrietta soon discovered that everything was in a de- plorably bad way—ei'en retiree than things'tn the careless village of °reeked Town. They passed a blacksmith shop, Out- side was a line or horses waiting to be shod, But the brawny smith lay calmly dosing 1n a comfortable armchair placed in front of its forge. "There's plenty of time; you know, he can do it just as well tomorrow," re- marked Notnow. Indeed, everybody throughout the land seemed to think that they might as well put off whate'er work there was to do until the morrow, -Fields were unplowed, fences down, and ell the farms In a bad state or unrepatir, in the towns, all the Industries were fide. No One seethed to be working, although, so Nothow said, everybody was going to work "tomer- ., "Rut when tomorrow comes will you tell Ina the same thing?" asked Hort- .. rletta, rather crossly, 'Ola, 1 sUpposa 80," car01os01y replied Notnow; "that's the best thing shout tomorrow. It never comes and that's win. all wo people of the Land of To- morrow And delightful, Idleness IS de- lightful, you know," T don't think eo," beget) Henrietta, rather emphatically, bet then she re- membered that heretofore SIZE was wont to think so, and she hllhg her head. Now that elle observed idleness In other ineeple, she realized how die- teeteful it s'ae. l Henrietta refused NOtnow'a hlvll:atlan to dwellin the Land of Tomorrow no-� siring him that she no longer cared for, It or els 011eteMs. And she wished to be taken bottle me soot as posslble. So they gniakly -returned 10 their. starting point. •• Dalt an h0iir iater the had finished boat the sewing arid her leesons, But the greatest lessen of all that elle loath - ea With the lnwlstiOns of 'putting thing/ Off till 1 1001110WrEr *.`P "TETE AIR AROUND nay eagerly nodded, but after a moment's thought; added soberly: "But wouldn't It be horrible 11 one of them should chase us? It'd be bad enough If en elephant wee after you, but to have one of those—" and Ray shuddered, Ray and Raymond together made up their minds to visit the natural history museum. As a matter ot,raot, they did almost everything together, as twins 511001111, so it was not strange that their thoughts should be very nearly the same. They remembered at the same Instant that teacher had told them the museum contained the remains of some of these monsters; they decided at the same instant to see what those Animals looked like. The twins were somewhat disap- pointed at first when they explored the museum. They found a number of interesting things, it Is true, and the big skeleton of the whaleand skeletons of other animals were worth looking at, but they saw the remains of none of the monsters teacher had readto them about. Already the sun had begun to wane, when R05, investigating en out- of-the-way corner, called sharpiy to her brother: "Oh, Raymond, conte here; I've found one of them!" Side by side, they examined the Im- print in atone of a gigantic bird who had possessed teeth. Painfully they spelled out the Inscription, "Pterodac- tyl." "I believe any bird with a name like that would have a very °roes temper," laughed Ray. We'll call him 'Dacky' for short," the other twin merrily responded. Meanwhile the janitor of the museum had, been plodding through the rooms and corridors, locking one door atter another. He ;passed through the room where the twins were, but Ray and Raymond were hidden behind a huge case, and he walked by without per- ceiving them. Nor did the boy and girl, now thoroughly interested In their dis- covery, bear the retreating footsteps. Alreadythey had found other fossils, and accordingly were In an ecstasy of delight. It's 50 dark I can hardly, reach this THEM WAS, PILLED WITIl GIBBERING MONSTERS" name," said Raymond, bending over an inscription. Then, looking toward the window, he exclaimed: "Hove you any Idea what time 11 Is? I think we'd better be going, Ray; don't y011?" Indeed, 11 was high time the two were departing, for the sun Web about, to set. They made their way to the door. Ray- mond turned the knob briskly. The door failed to open. 13e pulled and tugged time and again; still 1t did not yield. ;With a worried look on his face, he has- tened to the door at the other end of the room. His effort met the same re- sult. "We're locked In!" gasped the twins, staring blankly at each other. CHAPTER II THE PRIEST OF SAKI1ARA E CHOPS from their shouts died away; but no answering response came, and the thins, In despair, perched upon the edge of a huge slab of stone. This slab contained a fossil, so that before Ray sat down, she whispered an apol- 055 res the llberty she was taking. "Even if he is a fossil," thought she, "It isn't very polite to sit on him." The fetislc of twilight crept into the mum, (Retorting the objects about them into weird, funtostical shapes. Ray nes- tled close to her brother, both finding courage and comfort In nearness. Twi- light merged into night. Now the rays from the moon gave a ghostly radiance to the room and alt contained therein. Then, with a meldeness that was star- tling, all was pitched to darkness. Not a foot before then into the sooty black- ness could the boy or girl see. Vague 11ne001000s began to steal into their hearts. Raymond threw his arm around leis sister protestingly; and she thrust her little hand Into his rough palm. All at once Ray started with fear. Did you hear that noise in the next room?" she whispered. "No," replied Raymond. "And the door's locked, anyway," he consoled, But Bay's voice again shook, as she said: "That's where the mummies are kept, you know." The eyes of both were fastened upon the door, so they observed together a pale, bluish light that crept upon the door. TI11s light grew brighter, until the entire door glowed, and the room was 310 longer dark. Then, while they still locked, a shape from the next room passed right through the door. And there, in the pale ligl,t, with awathings partly removed, stood a mummy! Ray and Raymond sat stupefied as the terrifying figure turned its head In their direction. Raising its arms in a wooden, unnatural notion, the mummy waved a blazing wand. Immediately, drawn by some mysterious, powerful force, the twins ruse and advanced toward R. There they stood fascinated, gazing into the face of the mummy, when the with- ered /the opened and the welds came, In deep, hollow tones: "Know ye that I am the Most High Priest of the Temple of Sakkara. By virtue of my all-powerful magic, protec- tor am I of those who rest in this place, "Why come ye Here to disturb our sleep, 0 children of a race who, not content with pillaging Italy temples and sacred tombs, have even brought hither the bones of man and beast, for rude. eyes to gaze upon? 0 ye aceure'ed, an- swer me!" 'Then, as the boy and girl stood in trembling silence, the dread voice con- tinued: "But ye shall see theme dead benes In a way ye had not hoped. Ye shall be- hold what power have the gods 1n whom ye do hot believe—Isle and Osiris; Ptah, Sekhet and Bast, who have lent to me their magic," Again the mummy waved his wand. In the twinkling of an eye the Or about them was thronged witlii skeleton mon- sters, 011 glhbering In awful chorus: to Most high Priest, holder of un- limited power, send us back whence we canto. we do beseech thee." "That I shall do," -solemnly answered the mummy, "and with thee shall go these neeursed intruder's," From amid his awathings the mummy produced a tiny cornucopia filled with magic powder. Ile torched it with the tip of hes wand. Slowly it burned, with a delightful, pungent Odor, while clouds of greenish vapor wafted everywhere about the room. Then the twins felt themselves going AN F0R day's, the small vessel .had been followed by a whale, an immense fellow, who might easily have worked ill to the frail 5111p, AC times it would seem that he threatened to attack, but then he ap- parently Weald change his mind and withdraw to a distance. The captain was greatly perturbed. "I never saw a Whale not this way before," said he: "I ern sure the butte wants something," From title you evil see that the cap- tain Was very superstitious and be- lieved in Many signsand omens. And he became more and more Impr0aaed by the whale's conduct. At last he deolared: 'Vila trust be the very whale that awnstowed ,lionalt—or, at least, a rela- tion. I'm positive that 110 Wishes to be fed with something. Well, I'm go- ing to give him a steal.' That same afternoon the captain ordered a big box hauled up from the •cor5o In the hold and presented to the whale. Now, it so happened that as the box Was cast into the San 11 boy among the passengers was leaning far over the rail to w'atcll the box strike the 500. Indeed, so far over did he lean that when the boat, gave a sudden larch he went Into the sea. along with the box;- nor was his fail observed by tate people on the ship. Strange as It may seen, the whale Was overjoyed when lie saw the box thrown overboard. Rapidly 1)0 swam toward 1t and closed hls huge jaws Upon it; 111Lt net only upon the box, DYER ellaWlf for the boy entered the jaw's es well! 'With such force did the box go In that It went right through the bone strainer. You know that, although most whales have a very largemouth, they can swallow no objects that are "111MERGED P11011 TIMWIIALP" of any :dee at all, because the bone strainer at the rear of tine mouth will not permit anything of largo size to pasta. But, now that his strainer was broken, this whale was different. The boy and the box went right ectek— Way beck Inside the whale. No sooner had the whale mese this meal than he left the ship In peace and swam away. Meanwhile, the boy whom the beast had swallowed 1vas quite comfortable, ete munched some calve and fruit he had in his pocket. Then, for Want of something better to do, lie attacked the ill of the great box and tried to open R. TRnally be was able to matte an opening large enough to ascertain that the box con- tained shoos. Tired from his exertions, the boy - fell asleep. When he awoke he found some one cutting through his cell, A moment later and he was free upon a beach, You see, the poor w'halo had so missed the use of his strainer that he had dashed himself 10 death against the rocks and was then washed ashore, Atter Wren had cut open the whale the bay emerged upon a bench filled with people, You can imagine their astonishment when they beheld this now Jonah, The lad, however, was a F'e'y enterprising sort of fellow. Dragging his box of shoes .from the whale, he pttt them up for ante, Peo- ple struggled to rumbas° these souvenirs, and, although exorbitant prices Were charged, II10 boy sold all his waren In 811001 order. Being an honeet lad, he turned this money over to the owner of the shoes when he reached home, but the Mee - ottani: was so. pleased with the bay's ability that he presented hien with 1110 entire amount of the sales, de- ducting the mere coat of Ills Malang the shoes, 8 ail$. Oman (i,tvnward, downward—ever downward. v ails of the room Lad fallen away, and be their descent they were pansing masses of seed rock, labeled on huge placards: (larternary Era, Tertiary Sra, and then Secondary Era. Of course, this was to :how the times when the reek was formed, just as teacher had told them. A bump l—and romn, mummy, skele- tons, all disappeared. T11etwins rubbed their eyes and found 'themselves in broad daylight, seated in s. marsh, while In the distance great trees and tropical plants reared themselves to enormous heights. Wonderingly they gazed, until further obaervotion was Interrupted by a mirth- ful chuckle behind them. Whom should they see but their old friend, "Dacky"1 Ile was now garbed In his own flesh, Instead of heleg .a mere skeleton, and would have appeared borrible, indeed, to the boy and girl lead he not grinned In such a friendly fashion. "We meet again," murmured Dacky, with a stili wider grin. He added: "I believe you are strangers here, and, as I've already grown fond of you—oh, Yes, very, very fond of you—I'u1 going to be your guide." Upon Dacky's invitation, they climbed on his broad back; the great wings flapped, and, with another churitle, the immense, toothed bird soared Into the ate. Y t ..s:) Prince ohann's Pony TINY ns to this handsome ponhandsomeseems many sizes too large for Ms little master, Prince Johann - Leopold, who la the son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The pony Is a gift from King Ed- ward. He Is already fond of little Prince Johann and takes the very best care of him. The Ca .!five Brunie I e t y 7 ISII I had an Aladdln'e lamp 1V/\Y/ 07 a eagle rl; 5," muttered Roddy, discontentedly. Rut I heard himsay this 80 many times that I didn't notice Lho remark, Roddy was always wishing for what be didn't have. TO give kiln something else to think about, I suggested that we take baseball gloves end a 1n111 and goy out In the yard for a "catch." NOW, we kept what we called our "sporting goods" in a great chest,' which wo had discovered a lung time ago in the garret. Mother was only too glad to have us 'l0ak0 use 00 it, Inas- much 10 she round baseballs and tops and shieuy sticks scattered throughout the house. Brother Roddy flung back the 11d of the chest. but, Instead of selecting the gloves, he stared into the chest, his eyes big with astonishment. I looked 1n, too, and 16'poae I must have looked just as surprised. Per there, on the bot- tom of the box, wee a tiny elf. The manikin winked solemnly at us and then went on examining the base- ball he held in his hands. What do you use this for?" he piped, After a long scrutiny or the ball. Roddy and I explained as clearly as we could the roes of baseball. All this seemed to interest the elf greatly. "HANGED THE LID SIIUT" "T do oellev0," said he, "that I could show you boys how to pitch all torts of magic curves and shoots." Turning suddenly upon him, Roddy demanded: "Then you underatand magic?" Hardly did the elf nod his head than Roddy seized the ed of the cheat and banged It shut, crying to Met "Come! help me fasten 1t, We mustn't. let this little chap get away. We Can make hint do magic for vs," While I thought It a shame to 1m prleon such a friendly little elf, I thought Roddy knew more about magic than I, so I helped him lock the chest. Roddy- was Jubilant. He could talk of nothing but what the elf should do per us. "We shall keep him locked up until tomorrow, By that time, no doubt, he'll be willing to do whatever we ask.' Next morning we arose bright and early, As we made our way to the chest, Roddy whispered excitedly: "First of alt, I'm going to make him learn my lessons for today." Cuu1100515 we unlocked the box. Then we opened the ltd Just a crack. T couldn't see anything at all, so 1 told Roddy weal have to open it wider. This we did, carefully. and found, to our amazement, that the rlt had disappe0r+ct. And, furthermore, hn place of our former basrba.11s and bats and gloves there were now they beet -bolls and gloves—everything had. been changed to such a small size that you had to look twice before you cold see it. Roddy picked up a wee note to the bottom of the chest, This is what he read: Deer Reddy: 'I really wanted to be of service to you and 50110 brother. But I labor only for my friends. It you w111 look at your baseball goods, !however, you will see that! I've done some Magic for you, I am going now—the same way by which I came. You don't suppose that an elf who ran do !magic for others can't 40 a little for liFunsol1, do you? "WHILLY1f INS." There wasn't anything to do but whistle—and Ruddy and I did that dismally. I didn't care so very, very much, but Roddy has never erased 10 regret the abuse of his one erect op- portunity. *lawny of !a•' .',#'"t ofig rbllee MANI' of the Utile wooden animate every boy or girl at sem0 ]hne Peasess05 dome from far away. Great numbers are made In Germany. In Nuremberg, at the edge of the Black 1 orest, thousands and thousmlds of these toys are made each year. Nol. only 00010 fnmi15, but every vll- lago In the tOymniting district has its own particular toy to manU :there°. The whole faintly works et this Industry, turning out numbers of some one hind -Of animal, 'If another family should adopt the menefeetere of the same style of Anhwei there is bouncy t0 be a dispute. Tho 140e inhabitants of Selnton have for theta' stmelaity 1,Ood011 animals In pens end Noah'S arks. Perhaps you may be Intere0tea to know twat how a toy et tb15 lclnd Is Made. 111rst. IL large Circle Of white wood is cut and grooved to form it 0 outlines of the 110ree or dog or elephant, as the caae may be. 11.-n from tb S. Wheel Is sliced 1,011105,,,, est ns a loan of Mime is sliced. The entreat is new produced in the rough. But by care- fully smoothing and linlahlng, and then by paluting, year am11na1 Is soon corn,. Meted. ,It may tenthly b0 even that these toy'inakern bee0m0 exceedingly ekliful, Inasmuch as each mattes no more than one kind of entrant. At regular intervals agents visit she. different families And buy their maul-. factures. Prost groat sldpping dentes 11103, finally reach US, 11oweVer stupid your wooden doiltey or 1115gY cony room you cohort but ad- mit that he hes' w'Ott a great a'par Of the world --probably nabel1 111.e 111011 you bare eoeg.