THE SEA-SHELL.
I brought a shell back from the sea;
I keep it in my room with me,
And when the waves I wish to hear
I hold the sea-shell to my ear.
While poring over a receipt-book the other day, my attention was attracted by a receipt which ended something like this: "Then sit on the front of the stove, and stir constantly."
Imagine sitting on a stove without stirring constantly.
Make a coat in a day: from shearing the wool from a sheep's back to putting the finished garment on one's own back. Nonsense! it could not be done. This would probably be the reply to any one claiming such a thing, or, if not, at least one would receive a reply expressing a strong doubt of the possibility of doing so, notwithstanding the vast improvements in machinery within the past fifty years. The feat, however, was accomplished even as far back as 1811, by Mr. John Coveter, of Greenham Mills, near Newbury, England.
At five o'clock in the morning Mr. Coveter was presented with two Southdown Wedder sheep. At first the sheep were shorn, the wool spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed, and wove. After that the cloth was burred, milled, rowed, dyed, pressed, and late in the afternoon put in the hands of the tailors. By half past six the coat was finished, and Mr. Coveter presented it to one of the gentlemen of the town amid the thundering applause of five thousand spectators.