FLATBOAT.
Be good, dear child, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
MY BRAINLESS ACQUAINTANCE.
III.—A STRANGE HISTORY.
BY Paranete.
I WAS born, as you might say," began the pin, "in two different places, which I suppose you must think is very queer, but I assure you it is true. You see I am composed of two different kinds of metal, and one kind came from the State of Minnesota, in this country, and the other from the country of Wales, in the British Isles. The first kind is copper, and the second is zinc. Also, if you ask your mother what I am made of, she will say brass. I will tell you about my early history. My first part was born deep down in the earth, in Minnesota. One day the stone I was in heard a great pounding, and soon it was brought to light. It was piled into a car, with many other stones of its kind, and was taken a long way off where the car dumped it into a hole; then great hammers came down and crushed it, with others, into little bits of pieces. Then it was taken out, burned, put in a lot of liquids about which I do not know, till it came out a beautiful shining sheet of copper; that's all I know of my first part.