Richland beacon., 1881-07-23

My thoughts like prayers move solemnly:
oh, Lord" say, "the great, the wise,
The weak, the miserable are
AL children in Thine eyes.
ave take the name Of Thy dear Son
Daring, upon trembling lip;
The cup Thou givest lie, we lift.
And shrink, and taste, and sip,
"And try to say, For Jesus sake;
Dear Lord, the babe IL wisest when,
Fearless and clear, she pleads with Thee
For PHYS sake, amen
"Oh, truer than the sacred phrase
That time from Christian years has spun,
Is he who prays, nor questions II
Pity and Christ are one."
Elisessth Stuart Phelps. in Wsis Arate.
Ho,c Ralph Made the Daintiest Pair Of
Chores Erer Seen.
A reminder quietly spoken by Ralph's
father had set Ralph's wits to work.
Ralph's father had said: "You are Ii
to-day; it's high time you were thinking
of what to do in the world" The first
thing that Ralph did was to pick out a
shady spot on the creek bank and begin
to fish. As he held his rod aslant wait
ing for bite, many thoughts came to
him. Thought always made Ralph
melancholy. ~ don't see that I'm any
account, anyhow" said Ralph; whats
the use to do anything but fish? 1 might
try to be lawyer or school teacher or
farmer or a store keeper or a printer
or politician, but there are lots and
lots Of politicians, printers, store keep
ers, farmers, teachers and lawyers.
What's more, nobody's of any particular
account nowadays. If 1 were a calf 1
could be turned into veal and do some
good; or, if I were sun-perch, I'd have
sense enough to come along and bite
this hook, I guess"
In this unhappy mood Ralph sat in
the shade for an hour. "What want, {"
he said, after following with his eyes the
great fight Of fish-hawk over the sur
face Of far-away white cloud, "what 1
guess 1 want is to do something big.
something tremendous, something aw-;
no, not anything awful, but something
nearly awful. For instance, if I could
invent flying machine See how that
hawk fewl Think of It'll 1t was won.
derfulr'
just then humming dragonAy, long,
tapering and graceful, settled upon
Ralph's rod, that was still aslant The
flying machine left Ralph's head instant
~ and he watched the insect before him
with keen interest. The fly was more
like . pretty wild flower than thing of
life. His body was the color of q blue
bell, his eyes were like bits of amber
and his four wings seemed to be woven
from sunbeams.
"Tll catch the little beast" Ralph
whispered to himself. He gave his rod
a savage dip, as if to drown the dragon,
but the gay creature darted up and away
like cherry stone shot from the knuckle
Of the thumb.
This incident and other similar ones
that followed caused Ralph to think
whether or not he could put to use any
of the fine things Of the insect world.
He probably would have given over the
disagrseable task had not spider swung
himself boldly from a high limb to the
fishing rod. GIVE got something, any
how" said Frank, and, though he shiv-
cred at touching it, he held the spider
between his thumb and fore6nger and
examined it closely. He saw that the
spiders legs numbered eight, that 1t
had eight eyes and that there were two
arms, branching above the head, also.
Then he drew his knife. and. with asharp
blade, split open the spiders body.
This is what 1t makes its web from, :"
he reflected; sit looks like glue, and
that's what it H." Happening to have
his school microscope with him, Ralph
tested the fineness of some threads
drawn from the glue with the little
blade of his knife. Suddenly springing
10 his feet Ralph exclaimed: "Now I've
got it A new ideal Never thought Of
before Glorious I'll make silk from
spider webb"
Two OF three days passed, but the
spider idea didn't cool in the glowing
mind Of the young philosopher. He
worked himself up to pitch Of enthusi-
asm and then began to collect . colony
Of spiders. He selected an unused cor
ner Of the barn loft, plugged the holes,
stopped the crevioes and slipped in the
spiders through slit In tho door. Once
he came upon web in the weeds that
contained forty young spinners and
again he caught twenty eight in . morn
ing ramble. At the end Of q month
Ralph bad stocked his room with about
TOO oe the insects. and, what u strange,