The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-05-16

of him SO Familiarity was curious enough,
though to be sure it might have listened
TO some conversations between her faith
er and mother, and acquired its knowl-
edge in that way.
She said nothing, however, and the
tea-kettle went on composedly. "This
water dust which you see in the sky as
clouds, and here in the room as steam,
is quickly dissolved in hot and dry air,
and so vanishes sooner below than
above. For the farther you go up the
colder it becomes, and that's the reason
snow is found on mountain-tops. You
look perplexed, and don't understand
what / mean, and wish I'd use easier
words than dissolved and 'vanishes.'
Indeed, | tried to find others, but
couldn't. The only way left is to illus
trate the subject little more plainly.
You saw the white wreaths of steam,
curling up above me a few moments
since. Now, what has become of them
Where have they gone? Why, they
were gradually warmed by the air, and
changed into something you cannot see
"a watery vapor; and this vapor grows
lighter and lighter, and rises and rises,
until again chilled by cold winds, when
it forms clouds or falls on the earth as
rain.
Gust watch your breath on a cold
day." the tea-kettle continued, happily
unconscious of her reflections. "How
the steam rushes from your mouth!
The same causes produce that and the
clouds. All the air one breaths con-
tains the vapor I've described, and when
this comes from the lungs warm and
meets with sudden chill it forms
steam, or rather shrinks into countless
drops of water, SO tiny we cannot see
them separately. Snow has fallen in a
Russian ballroom, on opening the out
side doors and windows, and isn't it odd
to think that any amount of cold could
convert ones breath into that?"
"You don't mean that the peoples
breath actually made the snow?" asked
Daisy, excitedly.
Certainly do, replied the tea-ket-
tie "and for the matter of that your
own is sometimes changed into frost in
the winter, and mine too, and makes
beautiful picture on the windows.
That's what call fancy work, for it's
really outside of my domestic duties.
And so are sunsets and clouds and the
like. But you see that even kitchen
drudge may have Il taste for beauty,
and do something toward creating it. Ii
only the human ones would remember
that, and not make such dull and hope
less thing of life!"
The tea-kettle was not only versed in
science, but was evidently a moralist
too. And Daisy couldn't help wonder
4
as wise and learned. 1t is fact worthy
of notice that she treated them afteward
with more respect than formerly, and
didn't knock the skillet and saucepan
around so viciously when she had to
wash them, as sometimes happened.
Z" The sun and the ocean, however,
have more to do with rain and clouds
than T." the tea-kettle resumed. q
should think they had, for it's rather
doubtful whether any of the tea-kettle's
steam ever gets up to the sky. But one
mustn't despise little things, and all
work counts, and it's something at least
to show how clouds are made. And, as
l suggested before, tea-kettles, perhaps,
are like human beings, and we all know
how much credit they sometimes claim
for results they have but slightly as
sisted
60 The hottest part of the earth is
around the equator" the tea-kettle con-
tinued, "for the suns rays shoot
straight down there, and heat every
thing more than if they slanted as here
The waters on the oceans surface in the
torrid zone constantly rise as vapor, and
are replaced by colder stream from be-
low Strange as it may seem, this
vapor produces the snow and ice of the
polar regions. But it's not used up in
that way, for you've probably read what
torrents pour from the skies i'll tropical
regions, and can now guess where they
come from.
Daisy wondered if it would be polite
to run away from the tea-kettle F.; its
talk was certainly growing prosy, and
she felt hungry besides. She was de-
batting this matter in her own mind
when the kitchen door opened and her
mother walked in. Then, would you
believe it, the tea-kettle couldn't be in
duced to say another word, and Daisy
almost cried, it was so provoking. For,
when her mother heard what had hap
pened, she smiled mischievously, and
limited that perhaps Daisy had fallen
asleep by the window. But for my part
[ don't believe it what the tea-kettle
said was quite true, and not bit like a
dream, and if my little friends think it
tiresome, I've only to add that the tea
kettle was iron, and not tin, and OF
course bright sayings couldn't be ex-
pected from it.