The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-08-22
JUVENILE COLUMN.
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learned her lessons well all the week, her aunt
always had some pleasant surprise planned for
n sto-y but If it was warm, sunshiny day,
they had a little picnic in the woods, or they
took d drive in the old farru wagon, or Amt
Julia invited few little friends TO meet Elma
at her house, or they did anyof the thousand
and one little things that Elma's little heart
hanlsered after. And Elma always ended her
holiday by staying, to tea, and eating turn-
over with her initials cut in the upper ernst.
One bleak Saturday, when the wind whistled
in the trees, and roared around the corners OF
the house, and the sharp, stinging cold crept
in at every crack, freezing the milk in the
pantry, and nipping everybody's fingers and
toes, Aunt Jnliasdrew her chair in front of the
warm, coal fire, and began her story.
ga great many years ago there was no North
America, nor South America, nor Europe, nor
Asia, nor Africa; but the world was all
Oceanica." e3srl
.sHow many years, Aunt Julia ," asked Elma.
''Well, we win say two or three millions, SO
as to be sure to keep within bonds"
old" said .Elma, delighted ut a chance to ar
her knowledge. s.aI .aa
'Never mind, little wiseacre. Don't you be
trying TO overthrow all these pretty theories
of wise men, with Your small store of facts,
| especially when they happen to BIO faise. There
| is nothing SO charming as theory, my dear.
obstinaGely impregnabfe. You can't bring your
engines Of war to bear upon it, but must
surrender at once. But q theory is an airy
| nothing that you can twist and turn ana
squeeze to suit the occasion. You can swell it
out or you can shrink it up. You can make 1T
| large enough to cover mountain, or small
| enough to slip into n pint bottle, just as you
happen to need. Now my story is going to be
| all Theory, with q fact tucked in now and then
by way of illustration"
! Elma laughed in pleased amused way, as
| she always did when her aunt talked to her in
| long words.
Aunt Julia began again:
| millions of years ago, the world was
all islands, thickly scattered through the ocean
1t was one great archipelago. The islands
were low and damp. The air was warm and
moist The summer sea kissed the low-iyinS
islands. The summer shone through the
l,nisty air, and unborn plants away down in the
wet, dank soil, laughed with JOY and leaped
smiled greenly to the loving sunshine and
mist. Ferns skDE up"
.fOh yes. l've seen ferns. They uncurl
when they open,D said Elma, glad to come to
ANYTHING she had ever heard of before.
"Yes, we call them ferns when we find them
in a dollhouse, and brakes when we come
across them in the woods. All the islands were
covered with ferns-not short herbs, like those
you have seen, but tall trees, fifty or sixty feet
high. They stood thick that they formed
dense forests Every foot of ground was
covered with some green thing"
ga little, slimpsy brake make tree!" said
Elma, doubtingly. do Ypubelieve it, aunty.'
yes, Elma; people have found fern tree:
, turned to stone, away down in the rocks where
) they went to sleep ages upon ages ago And
, besides, some of their near kin are growing ii
. Java at this very minute-tree ferns, rivaiint
, the palms in height and beauty, What make
, you sigh SO :" asked Amt julia as Eima drew
a q long breath
- "Nothing, only 1t is SO queer. WISH Acoui
L "You might marry a sea captain, and sal
round the world"
: Elma laughed. -
j .iHere is a fern leaf--a froRd it is called
: said Aunt Julia, taking up black stone frol
y the table.
II had seen everything that ever was in yot
g bureau drawer. Pve seen breaks that locke
= almost exactly like that. 1t looks just as II
It were picture somebody had scraped OIL it, iii
o the willow trees on the old stones in the gray
q ward. Doesn't it 7"
lie ''Yes but it isn't. 1t is what is called
IN fossil. The leaf was buried in the mud, aud
S. the mud turned to stone, the leaf left til
er impression; or perhaps the leaf turned to ston
s. too. 1t sometimes did"
lie "And coal was made of such leaves MS tha'
er said EEma, meditatively.
cy sit was made from the great fern trees
rs which sueh leaves grew. Such fossils ma
OF been found as far north as Melvilie's Islam
Up in the Frigid Zone, in the tropics, and ne
he the Southern Pole, ferns grew luxuriantly !
n and snow were strangers everywhere. SunshI
nd and warmth were constant visitors. L
NJ climate of the whole earth was tropical"
re- '.But in tue winter it showed, of course"
yo "Of course it didn't, pickaninny. So the W
.er men say, 1t was warm all the year round. i
sat trees were not woody, like our oaks and pin
he and they did not take firm hold of the sc
en- SO that fierce wind easily uprooted them,
&C. stormy sea tore them from their slight footho
Ie- In one way and another, most of them reach
nv the ocean. At first they f1oated, but gradua
nd the air that filed all their crevices bubb
,at ont, and water crept in to supply its pla
be Then the tree grew heavy, and could no lon
nd float. So it sunk down, down, down, till
as reached the bed of the ocean. But 1t was
IAN left to lie alone. Hundreds thousands
trees ffoated out and sfnk in the same spot, &
n there they lay together, with their roots clasl
-. DC and their branches entwinea.- Finally ca
~ and sand and rocks were siftod down III
Nv, them, forming a thick covering above TIN
no 5 And the heat from the centre of the ca
ns. warmed them, aud the layer of earth and 81
as as pressed them, till they were changed TO COS
ms ms dear, dingy, old conl-that cooks our food,
1e5 hheats our houses and lights our streets,
Z9 e1 smells our iron, and drives our engines"
' nae' "But how does it get out of the ocea
''o' asked practical Elma.
her became dry land"
By $50 smutty and shiny, aud SO black!
Tres think you were ever tree! neverE
Q in Elma giving the coal hod n good shake"
for "Yes, darling, ages upon ages before
lish was made, God, in His almighty, all-se'
any love, knew what he would need, and year a
and year, century after century, the whole W
IL ia1 coal fnF hig uSPO-I