Made these sweet flowers for you and me.”
Varieties.
How to sleep in Snow.—The manner in which Captain Ross’ crew preserved themselves, near the north pole, after the shipwreck of their vessel, was by digging a trench in the snow when night came on. This trench was covered with canvass and then with snow. The trench was made large enough to contain seven people; and there were three trenches, with one officer and six men in each. At evening, the shipwrecked mariners got into bags, made of double blanketing, which they tied round their necks, and thus prevented their feet from slipping into the snow while asleep; they then crept into the trenches and lay close together. The cold was generally sixty-four degrees below the freezing-point of Fahrenheit; but in January, 1831, the mercury was ninety-two degrees and a half below the freezing-point.
The Fighting Business.—“What are you thinking of, my man?” said Lord Hill, as he approached a soldier, who was leaning in a gloomy mood upon his firelock, while around him lay mangled thousands of French and English; for it was a few hours after the battle of Salamanca had been won by the British. The soldier started, and, after saluting his general, answered, “I was thinking, my lord, how many widows and orphans I have this day made for one shilling.” He had fired six hundred bullets that day, and his pay was a shilling a day.
Anecdote of Franklin.—While Franklin was ambassador to the English court, a lady, who was about being presented to the king, noticed his exceedingly plain appearance, and inquired who he was. “That, madam,” answered the gentleman upon whose arm she was leaning, “is Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the ambassador from North America.” “The North American ambassador so meanly dressed!” exclaimed the lady. “Hush, madam, for Heaven’s sake!” whispered the gentleman; “he is the man that bottles up thunder and lightning!” I suppose my readers all know that Dr. Franklin was the inventor of lightning-rods, by which the lightning is drawn off from buildings, and thus rendered harmless. It was this that gave rise to the humorous reply of the aforesaid gentleman.
Ingenious Excuse of a Schoolboy.—A country schoolmaster once having the misfortune to have his schoolhouse burnt down, was obliged to remove to a new one, where he reprimanded one of his boys, who mis-spelled a number of words, by telling him that he did not spell as well as when he was in the old schoolhouse. “Well, thome how or other,” said the urchin with a scowl, “I can’t ethackly get the hang of thith ere thkoolhouth.”