MODEL SERIES. IX.-HIDE, BIRDIE, HIDE. 1. When the clock has struck one, and the school hours are o'er, And, roaming the fields far and wide, The village boys shout and play freely once more, 2. You gather your little ones under your wing, 3. You'll hear their loud breathing, and rough hands will feel, Then fly away sad and alone; And when to your linden tree trembling you steal, 4. They will mourn in their cage, and without you will die. Then your wings quickly hide, birdie, hide, In your nest in the leaves of the tree thick and high, When the school-boys' shouts ring far and wide. 5. But when the sweet notes of a song greet your ear, 6. She dances and sings, and bounds gaily along, Then, as if in a dream, stops, and hushes her song; 7. Her hair on her shoulders floats waving and free, One golden curl clings to the branch of the tree 8. With finger on lip she will listen to you, For never a nestful of eggs will she view, 9. Then, birdie, be fearless if near you she comes, And warble your prettiest lay, And watch till she scatters your dinner of crumbs 10. Hush one o'clock strikes from the village church tower; Be careful, and hide, birdie, hide Your wings in your nest in the linden-tree bower, X.-EVAPORATION. 1. Mother. You have seen drops of water dancing on a hot stove, have you not? 2. Mary. Often. What makes them do that? Why does it not make steam, as it does when the stove is just warm? 3. Mother. The great heat of the iron suddenly surrounds the water-drop with a jacket of steam, which keeps the water off the iron, and prevents the heat from reaching the water rapidly. A thin layer of steain will even keep the hand from being burned when plunged into molten lead. 4. Mary. That does not seem possible. 5. Mother. But it certainly is possible. I have seen it done; indeed, I have done it myself. 6. Mary. What! really put your hand into melted metal? 7. Mother. Into melted type-metal, hot enough to set a stick on fire. If the hand is moist, the great heat converts a portion of the moisture into steam, which shuts out the heat completely, so that the melted metal feels soft and cool, like quicksilver. 8. Mary. I should not think it would feel cool. 9. Mother. It is the rapid evaporation of the moisture which produces that feeling. 10. John. What is that? 11. Mother. Rapid evaporation means that the water dries away fast, like this. [And she put a drop of water on a knife blade, and held it over the lamp till the water vanished.] 12. John. O, yes, I see! 13. Mother. It takes heat to make any thing evaporate, and if the heat comes from our bodies it makes us feel cold. 14. Mary. That is why one feels colder when wet, I suppose. 15. Mother. Precisely. I can show you with this chloroform a still more striking effect of the same kind. Let me take your hand, Mary. 16. Mary. It will not hurt, will it? 17. Mother. No. I will pour a little on the back of your hand, and then cover it with my handkerchief. How does it feel? 18. Mary. It burns. 19. Mother. How does it feel now, when I take the handkerchief off? 20. Mary. Very cold; cold as ice. Why is it so cold? 21. Mother. Because the chloroform evaporates so fast. 22. John. Let me try it—O, it bites like frost! 23. Mother. If you will get me some water, John, and if you, Mary, will get me some cotton batting, I will show you something still more wonderful. 24. [Mrs. Lewis was not kept long waiting. She poured the water into a little glass bottle, corked it up tight, and stuck a wire into the cork. Then she put another cork on the other end of the wire.] 25. John. What is that for? 26. Mother. A handle, so that you will not burn your fingers. I will now wrap the cotton batting round the vial. 27. John. What is that for? 28. Mother. To hold this chloroform, which I will now pour upon the batting. 29. John. Why do you do that? 30. Look sharp and you will see. bottle over the fire now. 31. John. Will it explode? 32. Mother. No danger of that. You may hold the 33. [John holds the bottle over the fire, while Mrs. Lewis stands by and moistens the batting with chloroform now and then. After awhile something goes click in the stove, which frightens him, and he draws back suddenly.] 34. John. I thought it was going to explode, sure. 35. Mother. I think our water is cooked now. may put the vial on the table. You 36. Mary. The vial is cracked from top to bottom. 37. John. That is what I heard. 38. Mary. Why does not the water spill? 39. John. It is dried up. 40. Mother. What do you call that? [And Mrs. Lewis chipped off the glass, and rolled something, clear and hard, across the table.] 41. Mary. Why, I declare! It is ice! 42. John. Ice? [turning it over with his fingers cauWhere did it come from? tiously]. So it is. 43. Mother. Out of the bottle. You saw me take it out. 44. John. I know; but how did it get there? 45. Mother. It froze there. It was water when it went in. 46. Mary. Froze inside a hot stove! That is wonderful. 47. John. What made it freeze there? 48. Mother. Evaporation. 49. John. I should like to see it done again. [And John sucked the roll of ice as though it was a stick of candy.] ADAM STWIN. XI. THE NOBLEST COURAGE IS THE 1. I was sitting by a window in the second story of one of the large boarding-houses at Saratoga Springs, thinking of absent friends, when I heard shouts of children from the piazza beneath me. "O, yes, that's capital! so we will! Come on, now! There's William Hale! Come on, William, we are going to have a ride on the Circular Railway. Come with us." "Yes, if my mother is willing. I will run and ask her," replied William. 66 2. "O! O! so you must run and ask ! ma your Great baby, run along to your ma! Arn't you ashamed? I didn't ask my mother." "Nor I," "Nor I," added half-a-dozen voices. "Be a man, William," cried the first voice; come along with us, if you do not want to be called a coward as long as you live; don't you see we are all waiting?" |