THE WEST SHORE.
141
A VEGETABLE TRAMP.
Probably very few of ihe boys and girls of the Pacific coast states have
ever heard of the tumble weed. Still fewer have ever seen it. It is a native
of the prairie states of the middle wesr, and if it grows in any locality west of
the Rocky mountains, I have never chanced to meet it. Yes, mttt it for it
is to the vegetable kingdom what the human tramp is to the animal kingdom
when once it has forsaken its birthplace it is an inveterate wanderer. On
the broad prairies of Kansas and Nebraska 1 have met hundreds of its species,
and in my childhood I liked nothing better in the way of sport than a windy
day and a race with the tumble weeds. Both the wind and the tumble weeds
are plentiful in Kansas and from the middle of August to the fall of the first
snow there was never any dearth of my favorite sport.
There are several species of the plant in North and South America.
That which is commonest and grows largest in Kansas and adjoining states
comes up quite early in the spring, a little, wiry bunch of green, nestling in
the prairie grass, and grows so rapidly that by the first of July it has attained
its full growth, and the ripening process begins. The full grown plants vary
in size form three to nine feet in circumference. They are composed of
thousands of little, tough, wiry branches, so systematically formed and dis
posed that the weed is almost a perfect sphere. The frail stalk by which it
is attached to its roots is so short that the plant has the appearance of a huge,
transparent ball, resting upon the ground, and rare indeed is the boy or girl
who can resist the temptation to loosen its slender moorings and start it roll
ing. However, when the hot sun of July and August has ripened and light
ened it, it waits for no human hand to set it free. Like the youth or maiden,
grown impatient of home restraints, it yields to the pursuasive kiss of the
wind, and, snapping asunder the ties that have held it so long in safety, allows
itself to drift out into the wide world, at the will of any vagrant breeie. Oh,
how joyously it bounds away across the plain, scorning pursuit as long as the
fickle wind is constant, and leaping lightly over many an obstacle. But, like
the human wanderer, its career is not long, and its end is not a happy one.
Sooner or later there comes a day when it finds itself piled up in a crush with
scores of its fellows, against some stubborn fence or hay rick, and its faithless
friend, the wind, sails on and leaves it. It is powerless to extricate itself, and
languishes there until the heavens take pity on it and drop down a mantle of
snow to cover and conceal its misery. When the snow melts in the spring
sunshine, all that is left of the unfortunate vegetable tramp is his blackened
skeleton crushed flat to the earth to rise no more. Like his counterpart, his
pranks are not always harmless. In the full flush of his early freedom he de
lights in frightening horses, and is the cause of frequent runaways. In fact,
there is something uncanny about a weed that comes to meet you, or races
before you on the plain. Your first meeting with him is apt to be marked
with a queer little half-superstitious thrill, and you are not' surprised to learn
that one variety of him is known, in some localities, by the suggestive name
of " witch weed."
How would you like to live in Iceland? Summer there is very, very
short ; but when it is summer, 0, how the sun shines and how long the days
are ! Kor Jen days in July the sun circles around and around the sky, never
sinking below the horiion. But Ihe winter more than makes up for this. It
lasts through more than half the year, and the nights are very long. One
night in December lasts for twenty days, During these 480 hours old Sol
never peeps his head above Ihe horiion. I believe that if I had a buy boy,
who was never ready to get up in the morning, I would take him to Iceland
to spend the winter, with the agreement that he should stay in bed ever)' night
till the sun rose. Fancy him crying to get up long before night was half
gone. I think I would have him at a disadvantage, and could make my own
terms with him as to his future rising hour. What would you, WfcsT SHOKK
boys, say to snow from nine to eleven feet deep all winter? Fine opportunity
that for making snow forts and having snow fights, if it were not so desper
ately cold. But where mercury freeies in the thermometer even young blood
will get chilled and small noses be niped. The tedious winters and long
nights have their compensation, for these wise Icelanders improve them well
by study and reading. Scarcely a person can he found who is not able to
read and write. It is only a few years since Iceland celebrated the one thou
sandth anniversary of the foundation of its government. This was called the
millennial. It is a nation long established and highly civilized. Long before
America was discovered there were Icelandic poets and authors of renown.
But it is prophesied by wise and thoughtful men that it may not exist as a
nation much longer, for if emigration to other lands continues during the next
century as it has during the past this marvelous island of lava beds, volcanoes
and geysers w ill become depopulated.
1 know a little girl two years old whom I will call Grace. She is a beau
tiful child, with dark eyes and gold curls, and she is always clad in white.
But she is rather self-willed ; and the instant she finishes her dinner, she puts
up her little raspberry-red hands and lustily announces, " 1'se foo ! " which
is equivalent to a demand to be set upon the floor. In the home of which
she is the light and sunshine, " 1'se foo" has become a household phrase.
But one day Grace was very bad, and her mother said, " Grace I shall have
to whip you," Scarcely had the punishment begun, however anil, by the
way, it was the merest pretense of a whipping when Grace burst into tears,
and lifting her lovely brown eyes and quivering, red lips, cried out piteously:
" Oh, mamma, I'se foo ! I'se foo I " " Well, I'm not," responded her moth
er, grimly i but nevertheless, the punishment was abruptly concluded.
Take all the sleep you need, growing boys and girls, and you need a
great deal ; but don't cheat the breakfast hour for it, That is the time when
all the family should be together, and your prompt and cheerful appearance
there argues well for your good conduct through the day. If you find your
self too sleepy in the morning, start your night's sleep earlier. Increase its
length at that end until you have all the sleep you can use. England's wise
king, Alfred the great, divided the twenty-four hours of the day into three
equal parts eight fop work, eight for recreation (including meals) and eight
for sleep. No one since his day has been wise enough to devise any better
plan. Plenty of sleep will help you to grow healthy and ruddy and sweet
tempered, and then every one will be glad to live in the house with you,
No. ai. A WHEEL,
The wheel has twelve sHikes, each smke containing four letters including
the hub, which is the initial letter of each word. The letters at Ihe end of
the spokes, when connected by a line, form the perimeter of the wheel and
make a phrase describing the rim of the wheel.
Spoke 1 A genus of trees.
Spoke 2 To leave out.
SMike 3 A prefix denoting all. ,
Spoke 4 A Hebrew measure.
Spoke 5 An imaginary monster.
Spoke 6 Having unpleasant odor.
Spoke 7 Name of a king spken of in Longfellow's " Tales of a
Wayside Inn."
Spoke 8 Soft mud,
SK)ke 9 A precious slone.
Spoke 10 I'ttered by the mouth.
Spoke 1 1 A mixture, a medley. '
Spoke U An earthenware vase without a handle.
East Portland, Oregon. C, II, M.
No. jj. DIAGONALS.
1 Exposures to injury,
2 Notched on the edge,
3 An Italian four-wheeled carriage,
4 A level sce.
5 Military bodies,
6 A limiting element,
7 A follower.
Diagonals A cily ami village of Michigan.
Sehome, Wash. V. A. N. GUARD.