The true northerner., 1875-10-08

which fall upon their tops. Some OF
this snow slowly melts and runs down
the mountain n-sides bat much remains,
and so the mountains grow higher, year
by year, as each seasons snow falls upon
that left there the year before.
THE MEANING or "HURRAH.
Who can tell the meaning of "hur-
rah?" Jack used il Just now little
thoughtlessly, considering its true sense.
The pretty schoolma am says il originated
among the Eastern nations, where it was
used as a war-cry, from the belief that all
who died in battle went to heaven.
"To Paradise" (h,Trag y men shout
ed to one another, by way of encourage
ment, in the thickest of the fight /; and,
so, in time, came our word "hurrah :"
which means almost anything you choose,
so that it be of good cheer.
THE sPIRE OF ST. NICHOLAS.
Have you heard the news, my pets /?
The birds are full of it, and they wish
me to tell it to the army of bird-defend-
ers, with their compliments. The spire
of Strasburg is no longer the highest in
Europe What is, then? Why, the
spire of st. Nicholas, to be sure-the
great church of ST. Nicholas, lately com
pleted at Hamburg Strasburg sends it's
beautiful steeple 466 feet into the air,
but st. Nicholas tops this by six feet-a
clear reach of 472 feet, my beloved-the
highest spire in Christendom.
WHO CAN COUNT THE STARS.
Did you ever try to count the stars
used to try to do so myself, but some
how always fell asleep before 1 could
get through, and when woke up / could
not tell where L left off. I'm told,
though, that it has been done, and that
there are only about eight thousand visi-
ble to the naked eye. Don't they make
n great showfor a number no larger than
thati But the Raven tells me that his
master, the Astronomer, says that those
we can see with our eyes alone are but
very trihe compared with the number
He says, for instance, that there are
eighteen millions of stars in the Milky
Way. Now it's of no use 1 can't even
think of such a number as that. NV
head isn't big enough to hold them.
RATS IN TREE.
Macon, Ga.--Dear ./ack.. want to
tell you of something rather curious:
Some years since, occupied a summer
residence in Georgia, surrounded by
mimosa trees OF fine, feathery foliage,
with pods rather shorter than those of
the sweet locust. These pods were filled
with hard, shiny brown seed, often used
by the children for making baskets,
bracelets and necklaces. For several
days / noticed, after dark, great rust
ling i'll the tree near my window, as if
the birds on its boughs were peculiarly
restless. did not, however, pay them
much attention, till one evening, sitting
by the window in the twilight, leaning
on the sill and enjoying the cool air, L
gradually became conscious that the
birds were very odd. They seemed to
have no wings, and their tails were long
and stringy, whisking from side to side,
as they ran back and forward with great
agility along the crooked limbs. After
gazing with increasing wonder for some
/ called the children. The
they arrived, the birds disap-
peared; but standing quiet as mice,
we soon saw first one, then an
other small head, with it's black,
sharp eyes, peer from under the caves
of the house, then spring quickly to the
nearest branch; and we now discovered
that our birds were not birds ut all.
They were not even flying squirrels, but
large brown rats, that lived and fourished
in our roof, and came ont to regale them
selves upon the seed of the mimosa, and
gambol among its boughs. We saw one
greedy rat, in his eagerness to secure q
very tempting pod, slip from the branch
with squeak of fright, instantly fol-
lowed by squeak of pain from another,
as, in his frantic efforts to catch hold of
something, he caught his neighbor's
hanging tail in his mouth. This second
rat, in his desperate effort to get away,
the hanging rat near enough to
grasp limb and release the suffering
tail. During this struggle, the whole
colony stood still, looking on, and squeak
ing in sympathy. The pulling and
of pods to get the seed, and
the dropping of empty shells on the
ground, sounded like the soft pattering
of rain.
The children and / amused ourselves
till supper time throwing brooms,
brushes and shoes into the trees, to see
on the instant the busy crowd disappear
like magic, but with none of the futter
and twitteriug of birds. They would be
gone without sound. These tree rats
were source of interest the whole sum-
mer, and we spent many pleasant hours
trying to distinguish them apart, giving
names to some and counting the baby
rats added occasionally to the crowd
81 N-bnIOo fn,. <srfnko,.