rr -s
COCONINO SUN.
A BIT OF CHEER.
Perchance you feel Ilk sighing.
just check tue sigh and smile;
And cheer some wayworn wanderer
O'er many a weary mil.
A kindly word, a loving smile.
Great blessings doth bestow;
The power havo they to charm away,
A heavy load of woe.
Alas! the many aching heart.
Along the circling years.
Though there be dearth of all things else
Is never dearth of tears.
Then put aside thy griefs, dear heart,
Nor grudge a smile to dole;
'Twill cheer thine own sad lot, and bless
As well thy' neighbor's soul.
For there was One whose spirit oft
Was wrapped, methlnks, In gloom.
Before Him rose dark Calvary's cross.
The. agony of the tomb.
And still lie ever strove to cheer
The wayworn pilgrim lone;
Jesus! Imptilul l'rlnce of Peace,
From Heaven's eternal throne)
'Tls not the costly gift bestowed
That cheers the aching heart,
It is the kindly sympathy,
It Is love's magic art.
And blessed shall thy memory be,
Though naught thou hast to give
Dut kindly words and loving smiles;
And lo! thy soul shall live.
Ingar Ingram, in Minneapolis Housekeeper.
mt
A KNOT IN THE SKEIN!!
By Mrs Chu C. MarbU
iMItlMltMHMMtHtllH
THEY made a pretty picture, did
grandmother and little Dot.
Grandmother sat in her low rocking
chair, with her glasses pushed back
aboie her forehead, and before, her
stood Dot holding outstretched a. bril
liant skein of wool upon hr chubby
little hands.
"Hurry up, drandma," said Dot, with
a slight frown, "you're so slow,"
Grandma took no heed, apparently,
but went on with the utmost precision.
Slowly the yarn reeled over thechubby
thumbs, slowly went on the winding
about grandma's ball.
Dot stood first upon one foot, then
the other, like a barn-yard fowl, and
gave at intervals a tremendous sigh as
evidence of her weariness.
"You's 'zasperatin'," she at last
broke ut; "really and truly, drandma,
you's old 'zas-peTatin' hisself."
"What?" cried the startled old lady,
who had been been intent upon her
winding or perhaps lost in a reverie of
other dajs; "what is that jou are say
ing, Dot7"
"I said you was a 'zasperatin' old
poke," replied Dot, firmly. "I is most
tirerl to deaf, and there j ou go on wind
in' jes' as if you was asleep."
"Well, I never," gasped the old lady,
I pretended to be intent upon the
work before me, yet could scarce re
frain from laughing aloudt
"Tired, eh?" queried grandma, with
a twinkle in her eye; "well, we will
soon be through, and jou can lie down
and rest."
"No, I'm going out to jump rope,"
incautiously said Dot, "with Willie and
Rose. They're jumping now, don't you
hear 'em, drandma?"
"Ah, you are going to rest your
weary limbs by jumping rope," re
plied grandma. "Well, so that you
won't be entirely used up, suppose you
sit on this chair," pulling one beside
Dot.
Dot sulkily complied, but as she did
so dropped her hands' in feigned, weari
ness. "See," cried grandma, "you are let
ting strands of the wool slip over your
fingers. Hold up your hands, dear,
and wc will soon be through," and on
.vent the old lady, placidly and. slowly
winding as1 before.
Dot for a space looked the picture of
youthful resignation, but soon her im
patience returned.
"Hurry up," she cried, vehemently,
"You're enough to 'zasperate the pa
tience of Job," and again I saw her
sljly drop a loop or two from her fin
gers, as she moved restlessly upon the
chair.
Grandma looked, at her reprovingly,
but hastened somewhat her move
ments. There was a pause presently
in the winding. The old lady brought
her spectacles' down from her fore
head, and peered at the skein of wool.
'There's a snarl," she said, "dear,
dear, how did. that come?"
"It's an awful hard knot," cheerfully
said Miss Dot, after grandma bad made
several attempts to disentangle the
snarl. "I deseyouhad better get it all
right, drandma, and we'll wind the ball
nother time."
"Oh, no, Dot, we'll get it all right
now," replied grandma, with a jerk.
Snap went the strand. Several min
utes were consumed in straightening
I the skein, and grandma carefully knot
ted the broken threads together before
resuming her winding.
1 The sounds of laughter and jump
ing outside the window came borne in
upon the stillness of the room. An
other petulant movement from Dot.
"I is so nervous, I can't hold still,"
she next exclaimed, impatiently tug
ging at the wool.
"Dear, dear, another knot," cried
grandma, peering over her spectacles
at Dot. "Why, at this rate, we will
never get through."
But at last it was done, and away
scampered Dot, every vestige of ill
humor banished from her pretty face.
Grandma's glance met mine.
"The wool is for her own stockings,"
quietly said she, as if in answer to
something she read in my eyes, "and
I intend these knots shall teach her a
lesson which mere words would fall to
accomplish. Youthful experience, if
rightly impressed, may serve to guard
the future from sterner ones."
The old lady's favorite expression, "I
:know," played about her firmly
closed lips, but she gave no utterance
to them as with ball in hand she sat
gazing upon the pictures of the past
pictures whose lights and shadows
were reflected in her own dim eyes,
in the flitting smile upon brow or lip.
Well, if grandma had been slow in
winding the ball, it was more than she
was in lessening it again. How fast
her needles flew! Early in the morn
ing, late at night, went on the knitting.
Dot's eyes watched the progress of the
stockings, and her admiration was un
bounded oier their hue.
"Red stockies. and a red hood, and
red mitties! My, it 'pears Sunday
won't eer come!"
"Crimson," corrected grandma; "not
red." Hut it mattered little to Dot
what the color was named when she
drew the bright stockings upon her
chubby legs and over them again a
pair of shining new shoes.
"You will be proud of these stock
ings," sard grandma, on Saturday night,
as she rounded the toe with a bit of
white wool, "because you helped me to
wind the wool, jou know, Dot."
"Yes," assented the little one, with a
proud air, "wasn't I dood, grandma?"
"And you so tired, too," went on
grandma, ignoring her question.
"And so nervous' responded Dot.
"Yes, and you called me a 'zasperat
in' old poke,' " gravely answ ered grand
ma, "and snapped the thread on pur
pose to make me give over the wind
ing." Dot opened wide her eyes.
"How did jou know that?" she quel
led. "Now don't say a 'little bird' told
you, drandma, 'cause 1'se tired to deaf
hearin' that story."
"Never mind how I knew, Dot. The
fact remains that there were knots in
my fair ball of wool, and knots, you
know, can never be straightened out,
never)"
Dot looked at her grandma reflec
tively. i "Didn't you ever make knots in your
drandma's wool?" she asked, soberly.
"None but what I had to pay for," re
plied the old lady, suppressing a smile.
! "Knots are troublesome things, Dot, as
you maj' find out before you are many
days older."
Off to Sunday school hied Dot the
next morning, resplendent in new at
tire. Grandma smiled grimly when she
returned with a perceptible limp in her
' gait.
"Somefin' is hurtin' my heel," she in
formed us at dinner, reluctantly.
"Your new shoes. I suppose," sug
gested her mother, "you had best iake
them off and put on your old ones."
But Dot demurred, and like her eld
ers, sometimes, for vanity's take, en
dured the torture the remainder of the '
day. j
Grandma said never a word. Bed
time came, and w Ith a sigh of relief Dot
drew off her shoes.
"It's iii my stockle," said she, after
aue examination; "there' two dreat
Dig knots in the heel."
"Knots?" echoed grandma.
There was no sturjiditv about our
bright Dot, and she understood all the '
meaning conveyed in grandma's tone i
and look at once. I
"Knots of impatience. Dot," I could
not refrain from saying-, "for which
you have suffered all daj' long."
"And undutifulness," added grand
ma, "and covert untruthfulness."
Dot turned the color of her stock
ings. "You might have smooved 'em out,"
she said, carefully examining her blis
tered heel.
"Out of the wool, perhaps," answered
grandma, earnestly, "but not so easily
the knots when formed in the skein of
character. Dot."'
Several daj's after grandma beck
oned me to approach an open door.
Within could be heard the voices of
Dot, Willie and Rose. An altercation
was evidently in progress concerning
the destruction of a doll. In a rocking
chair sat Dot with a pair of grandma's
spectacles upon her nose. Graely she
peered over them at the flushed face of
Willie.
" .o broke dolly's head?" she ques
tioned. "Rose!" answered he, promptly.
"Dear, dear," exclaimed Dot, bending
forward, "such a snarl as you are det
tin' the skein into, Willie!"
"What skein?" asked he, sulkily.
"Did you or didn't you break dolly's
head?" she continued, without answer
ing his question.
"No, I didn't!" this very emphatic
ally. "'Nother knot in the skein," said
Dot, imitating grandma's tone and
manner to perfection, " 'nother dreaf
big knot, my child, 'cause 'cause I saw
you do it."
An impressive silence, broken only
by Willie's sniffles.
"Keep on tellin' stories, Willie,"
graely went on the little monitor,
"and you'll detail tangled up like like
a skein of wool when j'ou let j our hands
drop. Then comes knots, and knots can
never be smooved out, neer. Thej'll
get knitted into your hide, my child,
and div' jou a heap of torment. I
Know!" and pushing the spectacles
back upon her head, Dot sank into a
gentle reterie, so much like her grand
ma's that the smile died from our lips,
and the dear old lady, as we tip-toed
back to our room, said In trembling
tones: "Heaven bless the child!" N.
Y. Observer.
Senator Wanted to VUlt the Cook.
Representative Jones, of Virginia,
tells this storj- on his father: "Direct
ly after the war Jones senior was sent
to the state senate. An old slave who.
had belonged to him was also elected
to the senate. The two drew adjoining
seats. Senator Jones was er- cour
teous, and in addressing his former
slave always called him senator. The
old negro stood it for some time and
finally said: 'Massa William, I don't
like dis senator business. Kain't I come
down to yo' house and islt that cook
of yourn? I suhtinly would like per
mission to visit jo' kitchen.' There
quest was granted, and while Senator
Jones was in hislibrarj the other sen
ator was down in the kitchen visiting
the cook." Troy Times.
Moat Elastic Substance.
Rubber, spun glass, steel and ivory
are the most elastic substances.
FALCON ISLAND REAPPEARS.
Dlreetolre Rtenlna- Cloak.
An evening cloak which is a perfect
work of art and a combination of the
Louis XVI, and directoire periods is
of black embroidered monsseline de
sole lined with cloth of gold. The em
broidery on the mousseline de soie is
of jet and silver flowers. At the back
there is a hood of mousseline de soie,
caught up in the center with a gold
butterfly. At the neck, sleeves and
front edges of the cloak are ruchings
'of mousseline de soie, tinted gold color
to match the lining of cloth of gold.
Washington Star.
The Llttl Island In tha Paelfla Which
Disappeared Comes Attain
Into View.
Falcon island, which early last year
was reported to have completely dis
appeared beneath the waves of the
Pacific, is again showing its flat sur
face above the water. The life his
tory of this speck of land has been
unusual and interesting. A cable dis
patch from Europe printed in April
last year said that after a brief life
of 14 years Falcon island had ceased
to exist. It was thought that no
trace of it would ever be seen again.
But Mr. Vossion, the consul general
of France in the Tonga group, an
nounces that Commandant Ravenhill,
of the cruiser Porpoise, has" returned
to those islands from a cruise in the
Pacific with the news of the re
emergence of Falcon Island. He says
that the highest part of the island is
now about 1C feet above sea level.
The island was formed by a great
volcanic eruption at the bottom of the
sea in 1885. It took the waves and
storms of the ocean 14 years entirely
to obliterate it. Mr. J. J. Lister, who
visited the island a 6hort time before
it disappeared, said that it was rap
idly being torn to pieces by the action
of the waves. Unless a. fresh volcanic
outburst occurred he thought it
would soon disappear. His predic
tion came true, and a steamer that
islted the place about the beginning
of last year reported that not a trace
of it was 'to be found above the water
level. . '
The island was built up in the
neighborhood of the Tonga group
about 35 miles from the Island of
Tofoes. A submarine volcano had,
reared from the bottom of the ocean
a mie-htj- mass of ejecta, and on this
foundation rested the outpourings
which rose above the water. The
island confuted of two distinct parte.
One of them was a hill of u?ntle slope
and wider base, whose heiuht win
1534 feet. On one side the hill ended
abruptly in a cliff, whose base was
washed by the sea at hitrh water. T.e
other part of thp fIind was a flat, ex
tending awav from the base of the
hill in a northerlv direction and onlj
ten to twelve feet above the hisrh tide
level. The whole hit of land was jusr
a bare, brown heap of ashes around
which the great rollers broke and
swept up the black shores jn sheets
of foam. The island was entirely des
titute of any vpsr"tntion saie for a
half dozen seeding plants that had
found lodgment there.
It will not be strange if the island
is torn to pieces nnd again disappears
from view within a very few j-ears.
Its reappearance now is doubtless due
to another volcanic eruption. Vol
canic islands seldom endure many
years unless they are so large or so
well protected acminst the sea that
there is time for them to become cov
ered with dense masses of vegetation
before ocean storms have an oppor
tunity to tear them to pieces.
Some of the finest sugar mills in
the world, costing $1,000,000 each, are
found In Hawaii, and there are plant
ers in the islands who produce $800
worth of sugar and $500 worth of rice
to the acre.
Dissatisfied with the result of the
United States census, Raleigh, N. C,
took one of its own, and found only
31 more people than the number re
ported by the official enumerators.
A number of orders for printing
presses have been sent to the United
States from Mexico recentlj Apropos
of this fact, the first printing press
of the American continent was set up
in Mexico City.
While the established belt adapted
to the cultivation of the prune ex
tends from the state of Washington
to Arizona, bj' far the larger per
centage of the product Is j-ielded by
California.
Of the 6,753 Finns who came to this
country last year onlj- 17 were sent
back; only 62 were unable to read and
write, and only 14 were said to be
likely to become public charges.
-A.
j5n-iM!asaAjii.