Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-06-14
YOUTHS ooLuxs.

my part.
tiOnal knowledge than l set of scam
pering to rejOin my companions, but
my father called me back again. ''StOp,
Humphrey" said he, II have some-
thing else to say to you"
Back again went, wondering what
that knew all about the clock. quite
as well as my father did.
.Humphrey,n said he, 81 have taught
Won to know tine time of day; must
now teach you to find out the time OF
your life.n
All this was Dutch to me; so i wal
ted rather impatiently to hear now he
would explain it, for | wished sadly to
go to my marbles.
"The Bible" says he, describes the
wears of man to be threescOre and ten,
or fOurscOre years. If we divide the
fourscOre years of an old mans life in
to twelve parts, like the dial of the
clock; it will allow almost seven years
for every figure. When a boy Is seven
wears old, then, it is one o'clock of his
life, and this is the case with you, when
you arrive at fourteen years. 1t will be
two o'clock with you; and then at
twenty-One years it will be three
o'clock, should it please God thus to
spare your life. In this manner, you
NAV know the time of your life and
your looking at the clock may perhaps
remind You of it. My great -grandfa-
ther, according to this calculation, died
at twelve o'clock my grandfather at
eleven, and my father at ten- At what
hour You or l shall die, Humphrey, Is
only known to Him TO whom all things
are known.
Never since then have heard the in
auiry "What o'clock Is it !" without
being reminded of the words of my IA
ther.
know not what o'clock it may be
with you, but l know very well what
time it is with myself and that If
mean to do anything in this world
which hitherto ! have neglected, 1T is
high time to set about 1t. The words
of my father gave a solemnity to the
dali plate of clock which perhaps it
never would have possessed In my es-
TEEN, if these words had not been spo-
ken. "What o'clock is it with you !"
Nicknames.-While you are thinking
of these things, pray make up your
mind to drop the stupid nicknames that
girls seem to delight in. | say stupid
ones; but you are not to think, as some
good people do, that all nicknames are
senseiess. When we are familiar with
any one, it is an instinct to soften and
shorten their names, and nicknames
often express some popularity of
person, with a good deal of pith. Tru-
die is softer name than Gertrude,
Gertie is a shorter one and, somehow,
it is the nature among all the nations
in the world to turn friends name,
shorten it, and pet it, to make special
name of it for those who love him. Pet
names and nicknames are pleasant be-
cause they belong only to ones family
and intimates; but there are some
names SO harsh and uncOuth, without
any meaning or fun, that there is no
excuse for using them. | know girls
whose favOrite nickname for Gertrude
is "TOot,D or "Tute," as you like to
spell it. Besides making one think of
a sh-horn, it isn't in the least like the
name it is taken for, any more than
Caddie, or Cad, is like Caroline, or
Wede is like Louisa. for which I've had
the unhappiness of hearing 1t used.
The worst and the most stsickishly- silly of
all is Many fo- Mary in any but very
little girl who cannot speak plain. Are
names any sweeter for being spoken as
tOothless babies might humble them
in trying to talk Don't make dump
lings,Ou of your friends names or
gnaw them out of all shape. Boys have
their whims that are past endurance.
GeOrdie always sounds like a babyish
nickname for that manly name George.
To hear a boy called Dode, when his
real name ID Theodore, gives most peO-
pie disposition to think little of the
speaker and of the boy too. In the
country, / believe, it is the height of
manliness for boy who goes to dis
trict school to be called Hank, if his
name happens to be Henry. For what
reason cannot tell. unless because it
is the least like it of any name in the
spelling book. You must have the
least grain of sense in your foolishness
to make it fun, just as we have to put
a pinch of salt into ice-cream TO make
it taste right.-"Vide Arake."
A Horn -BoOk.-IIave you a school
book there under your arm, my boy 7
Well, there's tradition in my family
that little folks used to learn their letters
from horn book. A curious looking
thing it was, too, Ive heard. A frame
something like that of small slate,
with handle on one end, and where
the slate should be, piece of paper,
with letters and figures on it, all nicely
covered up from meddlesome little fin
gers, with a sheet of very thin hOrn,-
SO thin that the letters showed through.
No pictures,-nO nice little stories like
"The Cat can Rum" or those in your
old primer; no gayly colOred big let
tiers with "a was an Archer" to tempt
the very babies to learn. Nothing but
the alphabet, and figures. Sometimes
they contained verse of a pretty
hymn. or perhaps a copy of the Lords
Prayer. but this was not very common.
Yet the youngsters in those times did
learn to read, I've heard and they
went through some pretty hard books,
toO.-St. Nicholas.
POrerty's SuRshiRe.-The other day,
when white-faced, sickly looking
child was playing at the curbstone, its
mother appeared and called:
"COme into the house !"
"DO the police own the sunshine
Will they make you pay if sit herei"
queried the child.
Its mother left it there. Perhaps her
poverty was not so hard to bear, as she
remembered that Gods sunshine was
as free to the poor as the rich.
Crying Trees.-"Yes, sirs," said the
Deacon to the little boys, 1--WE seen
them often-crying trees: that is. trees
that shed tears. The tears are not
salt like yours, bnt they are very re-
spectacle tears, and the poor tree
weeps from morning till night, and
from night till morning. It's called
the miningo- tree. and you can find out
all about it if you look into your ency-
clOpedia. Nicholas.
A little Kentucky boy said to his
mother. theothe morning: "Ma, had
the beautifulest dream last night, you
ever saw. dreamt that wouldn't go
to school, aud that you went out into
the yard and cut great long switch,
but just as you was going to give me
an awful dressin' the world came to an
end! Didn't l get out of it easy
though 7"
A smart dnswer.-A minister in one
of his parochial visits met a cOwherd,
and asked him what o'clock 1t was.
about twelve. SIR" was the reply.
'Well,n quoth the minister, 81 thought
it had been mOre.n "It's never any