The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-05-16
FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.
The Talking Tea-KettIe.

Daisy was looking out of the window
at the gold, and purple, and crimson
clouds piled up in the west, and never
minded the tea-kettle boiling over on the
stove, until hoarse, wheezy voice, that
seemed to como from its spout, said
81 might puff myself away, for all
you care, and shall, pretty soon, if you
don't set me of. This is hot work, /
can tell you. and rather useless, too,
though to be sure, it helps make those
clouds you're looking at.
Daisy wasn't as much astonished at
this speech as you and / would have
been, for she was great reader of fairy
tales and knew all about the ways of
these "little folk" and had no doubt
there was one in the tea-kettle mt that
very moment. So she turned around
quickly and looked at it with some Curl
osity; but no tiny figure burst open its
lid, and she saw nothing except the white
wreaths rising from its spout. She
waited, wondering whether she had
heard the voice or not, when sud-
denly it again broke the silence, and this
time she was sure it came from the very
tea-kettle itself.
Clancy work is well enough, but one
mustn't neglect the useful, and if this
water all boils away there won't be
enough left for tea. p"
Daisy stepped up timidly and took
hold of the handle, and the tea-kettle
had the satisfaction of being placed on
the hearth.
"Perhaps you don't knowwhat / mean
by fancy work." it went ON, without so
much as thanking Daisy.
I'd just like to stop here and ask
grown people question, for I'm sure
the tea-kettle caught that habit from
them. Why is it that children's favors
are not worth acknowledging as well as
anyone else's? Who notices an act of
impoliteness quicker than they, or is
more injured by it
"What / call fancy work isn't useless
by any means, the tea-kettle continued,
"though perhaps led you to think so
by the way / spoke of it. To tell the
truth, 1 was so agitated as hardly to
know what / said You noticed how /
dubbed, and couldn't have expected CO.
herent talk from tea-kettle under such
circumstances.
Daisy made no reply, and, indeed, a
great deal of this was beyond her com
prehension. She began to wonder,
though, what the tea-kettle meant by
fancy work, and so listened intently to
what followed.
"You went out in the garden picking
roses this morning, and never thought
of me when you marveled at their love
illness, or imagined 1 had anything to do
with it. But L did, and of course you re
curious to know how. Just stop min
ute, and think what becomes of my
steam and perhaps you can guess. BY
the way, though, what you call steam
isn't steam at all, but sort of mist
formed by minute drops ofwater. Steam
itself you cannot see; it's the vapor OF
water and just as invisible as the air one
breathes, in which there is always more
or less of it. What people mean by
steam in general conversation is really
condensed steam but after all it would
be rather inconvenient to say so, and
for my part I'm willing they should leave
off the adjective. Perhaps 'twould be as
well to consider that there are two kinds
of steam, one visible and the other in
visible, and that people usually NEAR
the former when speaking of it, Ther
even if philosophers should object anC
say you have no right TO call water steam
you could refer them to the fact of i'm
memorial custom, and that's goot
answer III law.
/ don't wonder Daisy's idea of steam
was rather confused after this explana
ton. In the first place the tea-kettl,
said steam wasn't steam, and then tina
it was, and really one couldn tell whicl
to believe. But Daisy was interested
to know what all this had to do with he
roses, and said so in voice that shool
with awe and timidity, for she was all tn,
more impressed by what had been said
from the fact that she didn't exactly un
derstand it. One often gets a reputa
ton for wisdom by talking in name
unintelligible to his hearers.
ooh all I'll come to the roses b,
and by" said the tea-kettle, "but it
necessary first that you have a clear ide
of what steam is, and how it is formed.
Daisy sighed a little, and feared sh,
never should. But just then the fir
shone out brightly and lit up the tea
kettle, and for that reason or some othe
it grew more luminous.
"When water is heated it expand
and rises i'll vapor, but this vapor canno
be seen until chilled by the cold al
around it. 1t then shrinks into myriad
of fine liquid particles, and these part
cles become visible as clouds. For
you've ever climbed mountain, yo,
know that cloud is nothing but mist
and looks very different near at ham
: and far off. Perhaps you've been RICH
in the midst of one, and if so I'm sur
, you found it rather damp. Clouds an
, fogs and what people call steam all be
long to one family, and are produced i
| the same way. So if you'll watch m
, boiling you'll understand that I'm some
thing of an artist, and could make yer
; pretty pictures up in the sky with tn
3 sun and wind to color and toss ther
about.
e Daisy smiled little, and thought c
4 the beautiful sunset she had just seei
: 1t was funny idea, but perhaps tn
S tea-kettle was right, and really whe
: one comes to look in the matter ther
: was quite resemblance between steal
i and clouds. She remembered watchin
s the white puffs from locomotive, an
= the fantastic shapes into which the
e were blown by the wind. Didn't tha
| ax,,1o;,, I-,y Il. L.