The Name "Indian Summer."
Henry Osborn asks why Indian summer is so called. I have always heard that it is the time of the year when the Indians laid in their provisions for winter. During the summer they only hunted for pleasure. Cold weather came before they realized it. Just at this state of affairs the Indian summer came in and gave the Indian one more chance to provide for winter.
Harry Richardson.
This reason is a new one to some, we think. Can anybody else give a reason popularly said to be the origin of the name? And will some one write out the scientific cause for the hazy atmosphere of this season? Is the cause well known?
Advice to Boys of Fifteen.
"Mercer" asks the probable expense of two boys of fifteen going round the world on a bicycle; whether it is prudent to go; and if any publisher or publishers would perhaps accept and pay for an account of the journey a sufficient sum to reimburse the boys for their necessary outlay.
The expense of such a trip would not be less than $4 per day for each boy for the entire time absent from home. It might be less than this in the far East, but in other parts of the world it would be more. If this estimate errs, it does so in being too small. Is it prudent? We should say, with perhaps not as much emphasis as would the parents of the boys in question, no. There are many dangers, but if there were not, what substantial thing is to be gained? Prudence in a boy of fifteen demands that he shall be in training, save during the few summer months, which are not long enough for a world bicycle tour, for the future. There may be publishers who would pay a big price for such a manuscript, but they are not advertising that they will do so.