[to be continued.]
MR. MARTIN'S GAME.
BY JIMMY BROWN.
What if he is a great deal older than I am! that doesn't giv him any right to rumple my hair, does it? I'm willing to respect old age, of course, but I want my hair respected too.
But rumpling hair isn't enough for Mr. Martin; he must call me "Bub," and "Sonny." I might stand "Sonny," but I won't stand being called "Bub" by any living man—not if I can help it. I've told him three or four times, "My name isn't 'Bub,' Mr. Martin. My name's Jim, or Jimmy," but he would just grin in an exhausperating kind of way, and keep on calling me "Bub."
My sister Sue doesn't like him any better than I do. He comes to see her about twice a week, and I've heard her say, "Goodness me, there's that tiresome old bachelor again." But she treats him just as polite as she does anybody; and when he brings her candy, she says, "Oh, Mr. Martin, you are too good." There's a great deal of make-believe about girls, I think.
Now that I've mentioned candy, I will say that he might pass it around, but he never thinks of such a thing. Mr. Travers, who is the best of all Sue's beaux, always brings candy with him, and gives me a lot. Then he generally gives me a quarter to go to the post-office for him, because he forgot to go, and expects something very important. It takes an hour to go to the post-office and back, but I'd do anything for such a nice man.
One night—it was Mr. Travers's regular night—Mr. Martin came, and wasn't Sue mad! She knew Mr. Travers would come in about half an hour, and she always made it a rule to keep her young men separate.
She sent down word that she was busy, and would be down stairs after a while. Would Mr. Martin please sit down and wait. So he sat down on the front piazza and waited.
I was sitting on the grass, practicing mumble-te-peg a little, and by-and-by Mr. Martin says, "Well, Bub, what are you doing?"
"Playing a game," says I. "Want to learn it?"
"Well, I don't care if I do," says he. So he came out, and sat in the grass, and I showed him how to play.
Just then Mr. Travers arrived, and Sue came down, and was awfully glad to see both her friends. "But what in the world are you doing," she says to Mr. Martin. When she heard that he was learning the game, she said, "How interesting, do play one game."
Mr. Martin finally said he would. So we played a game, and I let him beat me very easy. He laughed fit to kill himself when I drew the peg, and said it was the best game he ever played.
"Is there any game you play any better than this, Sonny?" said he, in his most irragravating style.
"Let's have another game," said I. "Only you must promise to draw the peg fair, if I beat you."
"All right," said he. "I'll draw the peg if you beat me, Bub."
Oh, he felt so sure he was a first-class player! I don't like a conceited man, no matter if he is only a boy.
You can just imagine how quick I beat him. Why, I went right through to "both ears" without stopping, and the first time I threw the knife over my head it stuck in the ground.
I cut a beautiful peg out of hard wood—one of those sharp, slender pegs that will go through anything but a stone. I drove it in clear out of sight, and Mr. Martin, says he, "Why, Sonny, nobody couldn't possibly draw that peg."
"I've drawn worse pegs than that," said I. "You've got to clear away the earth with your chin and front teeth, and then you can draw it."
"That is nonsense," says Mr. Martin, growing red in the face.
"This is a fair and square game," says I, "and you gave your word to draw the peg if I beat you."
"I do hope Mr. Martin will play fair," said Sue. "It would be too bad to cheat a little boy."
So Mr. Martin laid down and tried it, but he didn't like it one bit. "See here, Jimmy," said he, "I'll give you half a dollar, and we'll consider the peg drawn."
"That is bribery and corruption," said I. "Mr. Martin, I can't be bribed, and didn't think you'd try to hire me to let you break your promise."
When he saw I wouldn't let up on him, he laid down again and went to work.
It was the best fun I ever knew. I just rolled on the ground and laughed till I cried. Sue and Mr. Travers didn't roll, but they laughed till Sue got up and ran into the house, where I could hear her screaming on the front-parlor sofa, and mother crying out, "My darling child, where does it hurt you, won't you have the doctor, Jane do bring the camphor."
Mr. Martin gnawed away at the earth, and used swear-words to himself, and was perfectly raging. After a while he got the peg, and then he got up with his face about the color of a flower-pot, and put on his hat, and went out of the front gate rubbing his face with his handkerchief, and never so much as saying good-night. He didn't come near the house again for two weeks.
Mr. Travers gave me a half-dollar to go to the post-office to make up for the one I had refused, and told me that I had displayed roaming virtue, though I don't know exactly what he meant.
He looked over this story, and corrected the spelling for me, and told me to send it to the Young People. Only it is to be a secret that he helped me. I'd do almost anything for him, and I'm going to ask Sue to marry him just to please me.
A CHAT ABOUT PHILATELY.
BY J. J. CASEY.
Philately? What is that?
Many years ago, beyond the longest recollection of the oldest of the young people, a school-teacher in Paris (so one story goes) advised her pupils to get specimens of different postage stamps, in order the better to study their geography. There was a general searching among old letters to secure these little bits of bright-colored papers. Parents and friends were asked to save the stamps from their letters; strangers at the post-office were pounced upon, the moment they received their letters, for the stamps; and from this little beginning sprang stamp-collecting.
At first it was limited to boys and girls; but the older people, seeing the interest excited over these little pictures, and led on by their endeavors to please their young acquaintances, began themselves taking an interest in the things. From a pleasure it gradually became a study, and a most fascinating one; and soon there were no more enthusiastic collectors than the people advanced in years, wealth, position, and social, literary, and scientific attainments. And to-day many great people turn with pleasure from the cares of their life to the pages of their stamp albums, to look over the numerous evidences of the growth of the postal system, or to help some young friend in the filling up of a modest little blank-book.
In spite of the ridicule which has been heaped upon the collector of stamps, the interest in stamp-collecting is as great to-day as it was a dozen years ago, and from Prince Edward Island to Australia will be found stamp "merchants," as they delight to call themselves, stamp papers, and stamp agencies, to supply the continually increasing demands of young and old collectors. Societies exist in several countries, at the meetings of which most learned papers are read to show the why and the wherefore of this or that stamp, and even the government at Montevideo has authorized a stamp society, lately established there, to use a private postal card.
Fig. 1.
This pursuit of stamp collecting is called Philately, from two Greek words, which have been translated "the love of stamps," and those who engage in the pleasure or the pursuit are pleased to call themselves Philatelists.
This little "chat" shall be closed by a reference to the illustrations of some curious or interesting stamps, and a notice of stamps that have been issued during the past few months.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 1 is one of the series of United States stamps for postage on large packages of newspapers and periodicals, and represents a value of forty-eight dollars. There is a higher value of sixty dollars. These stamps are perfect gems, and are among the most beautiful in the world.
Fig. 2 represents one of the stamps in use to-day in Japan. It is only necessary to compare a specimen of this issue with the first stamps used in Japan to see how rapidly the Japanese acquire every modern improvement.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 is one of the current Guatemala stamps, printed in Paris, which found their way to collectors before they were delivered to the government. The thick black line on either side is a bird's tail—the quezal, or national bird, one of the most beautiful on this continent.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Figs. 4 and 5 represent stamps used in two of the native states of India. The native stamps of India, ugly as many of them are, are among the most interesting found in the collector's album, and quite difficult to obtain.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6 is one from the South African Republic, or the Transvaal, lately seized by England.
Some of the newest issues are:
Antigua.—A new value, 4d., blue; and a postal card, 1½d., red-brown on buff.
Cape of Good Hope.—The 4d., blue, surcharged in red above, "Three Pence."
Dominica.—New values of ½d., yellow; 2½d., brown; 4d., blue; and a postal card of 1½d., red-brown.
Danish West Indies.—A new value, 50c., same type as current series, in mauve.
Gold Coast.—Stamps of ½d., golden yellow, and 2d., green; and card of 1½d., red-brown.
Great Britain.—The 2½d. stamp is printed in blue, and the 2s. changes from blue to red-brown.
Montserrat.—New stamps of 2½d., red-brown, and 4d., blue; and postal card of 1½d., red-brown.
Nevis.—New stamps of 2½d., red-brown, and 4d., blue; and postal card of 1½d., red-brown.
Peru.—A new series of stamps is in preparation, but for the present the authorities surcharge the current stamp with the words, "Union Postale Universelle" and "Plata," in an oval. The 1c. changes its color to green, the 2c. to carmine, and the 20c. is suppressed.
Roumelia.—This province of Turkey begins its stamp history with a postal card of the value of 10 paras, as expressed on the face, but in reality of 15 paras, at which it is sold.
BUTTERFLIES AND BEES.
Butterflies are merry things,
Gayly painted are their wings,
And they never carry stings.
Bees are grave and busy things,
Gold their jackets, brown their wings,
And they always carry stings.
Yet—isn't it extremely funny?—
Bees, not butterflies, make honey.
GATHERING THE WATER-CRESSES.